That was so well said and made so much sense that it made me rethink and change my opinion on the whole gay marriage thing. It's extremely hard to get my head around supporting gay marriage which I personally find disgusting but it's easier for me now. And if it wasn't guns the liberals were against, it'd just be some other personal freedom they'd be fighting to take away. Thank you Blaine.
We aren't supporting gay marriage and gay rights, we are supporting equality. How does that line go? We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal...
We need to be constantly evaluating why something bothers us to make sure that our view is not based in prejudice and bigotry which compromises our perceptions of equality.
Rightly, we as a nation abolished slavery. The anti-gay marriage law that was passed in California was exactly equivalent to one that would again make slavery legal because it singled out a specific group and limited their equality. That is the exact opposite of what we as a country believe in.
On a personal level, my distaste for the overwhelming inclusion of the gay lifestyle in many TV shows has affected my viewing habits greatly. If I never see another homosexual love scene on TV I'll be just fine with it. But, I also have the choice to turn the channel or use the DVR to satisfy whatever criteria meets my personal needs.
Gun control is a giant issue that isn't going away soon. It produces conflict in all of us and at times gives us pause to wonder if perhaps there isn't a better way? Then we figure out fairly soon that an emotion based response to the issue is precisely what we are fighting and come to our senses.
Myself, I am greatly saddened any time some psycho whack job takes out a bunch of folks and the instrument of evil happens to be a firearm and each time I deal with the internal struggle of wishing it hadn't happened and thinking perhaps this would be a better world with no guns. No one deserves to leave this planet in that manner and if no one deserves that, what can I do to help stop it from happening?
The immediate obvious answer is education and teaching. That will never work because the average anti gun supporter has an inherent fear similar to those about snakes, spiders, and creepy crawly things. You can not easily teach someone that is deathly afraid of snakes to no longer fear them. That is the level of fear we are up against and there are few words and almost no actions that will change that.
What I do know won't stop it is giving up my right to bear arms. After that, I have few answers.
