Guns and Freedom

In the U.S., there is a guarantee of the “Right to bear arms” meaning that people are free to own handguns, rifles, etc. Supposedly this means that they are able to, and will, fight back against anyone who tries to take their freedoms. This argument goes all the way back to the founding of the country, when they declared that they were no longer subject to another nation’s rule. To ensure their independence they allowed that persons would have redress and ability to counteract any tyranny imposed on them. The government would be composed of citizens who could speak out against the governing body instead of being ruled by it, would have access to legal counsel if accused of a crime instead of being held without cause, and would have arms to defend against the attack of outside forces. The firearm became protection against not just robbers or bears, but a symbol of security from domination and taking a stand against oppression. The problem with symbols is that their time passes and sometimes people don’t realize it. How much use is a gun against a corporation who comes into your community and destroys it not by killing or burning, but by taking away the economic underpinnings? A corporation that you and your neighbors support, by the way, when you buy the goods made by that entity or its subsidiary! What good will rifles do against the decision of management to ‘downsize’ your division? Would you march into the corporate offices and demand that you have your job back or you’ll kill them all? Today’s problems are not the same as those we faced as a people 150, or even 50, years ago. Today a person’s best and greatest weapon is the mind (which it always has been, even though it may not be recognized as such). If our brains are empty, we can’t know our enemy; if we are ignorant to the facts, we cannot make effective decisions. Worst of all, feeling helpless, or dependent upon someone else, we may point our weapons at the wrong target. This naïveté can only lead to abuse, the situation is ripe for a new kind of control to be put in place. As long as this new form of tyranny doesn’t place any limit on our owning firearms, it will be accepted by those who consider guns sacred. I am not suggesting here that we do away with them, just that we recognize their uses and limitations. Not every problem can or should be answered with gunfire.

Get Out of Your Own Way

People make life harder than it has to be. This is aside from all the difficulties that we inherently face such as social and economic background, intelligence, and geographic locale. Outside all the things we have no control over, not recognizing those things that one does to sabotage ones’ self in things large and small is a separate problem. Of course the first step in solving a problem is recognizing that it exists, so we need to know that we are doing this. For myself, I know that a couple of my biggest problems are procrastinating and lack of planning. Spontaneity is great, but some events do need to be organized prior to their actual occurrence. Having said that, even I know that it isn’t all there is to it; now I have to learn how to overcome these things, which I have done all my life and seem natural to me. How difficult is it for people that choose to not recognize those habits that get in their way? Some people are martyrs, others controlling, some perfectionists, and on and on. These habits, all the little behaviours that we learned along the way to deal with things in our life, some work and others do not. Too many have accepted what has developed, what has been pushed on them. A lot of people are trying to make excuses, to leave themselves blameless for the harm they do to themselves and others. We need to recognize that none of us is perfect and we can all realize what we are doing wrong and change it to our betterment and the improvement of the world around us. We need to do that for ourselves and those we care about; understand that your life can be so much better because of this. If you aren’t examining yourself and what you do, then you are just being manipulated, either by your “self” (all that makes you a unique individual-most of which you acquired from others) and anyone that knows you. Do we really have anything better to be doing with our lives than living them? It isn’t easy to find these things out and change them, to take away the seemingly automatic ‘triggers’ that determine how you react in a situation. Of course not, but after all, what worth doing is easy?