Today the Illinois Senate is debating whether to pass a ban on assault rifles and many other assault weapons. It’s early in the day and no one is exactly sure how the vote will turn out.

While they’re at it, I believe they should consider banning all frying pans, particularly any made of cast iron. Anyone who has seen the movie Tangled can tell you the frying pan is a force to be reckoned with, so much that entire armies could be provided the pan for its multipurpose uses as weapon and tasty kitchen tool. Viola!

I don’t mean to be flippant – well, maybe I do to try to inject some humor into an admittedly touchy subject – but the push to ban firearms drives me bonkers.

Guns are a tool, capable of many uses, and only made into weapons by people who only desire to cause harm (anything can be made to be a weapon):

• keeping a family from starvation. Did anyone see Hunger Games?
• protection from wildlife. I realize this isn’t as compelling for the city dwellers, but I live in an area where mountain lions still roam. As a child we had bobcats eating our livestock!
• protecting a home you bought and cared for from invasion. Have you seen this video on Australia and how home invasion crime has gone up from zero to 20+% since the gun ban?
• killing. All of us are sickened by the attacks against innocents in recent times. There is no doubt that sick, sick people seeking fame and destruction are loose in this world.
• saving innocent lives. The same week as Sandy Hook, an armed man in an Oregon Mall is believed to have stopped a shooting spree by standing up to the shooter with his own weapon. Israeli school children are guarded day in and day out by teachers carrying assault rifles. Guns can offer good to humanity.

The argument can be made against specific types of guns and people I respect so very much are making them. People are hurting, people are appalled, and rightfully so.

But let’s follow this desire to ban guns out a little bit.

America is currently a well-armed nation. I saw statistics that the number of hunting licenses issued in the state of Wisconsin outnumber the largest armies in the world. There are also very few gun-related injuries for all of these hunters because they have been trained to know and respect these tools. The knowledge that there’s likely going to be a resistance on American soil, is a valid reason enemy invasions have not occurred.

Speaking of international action, the United States has already supplied half of the world with assault weapons. Are we really going to keep our own citizens from being able to compete? Does anyone remember the Iran Contra affair? Guns don’t last as briefly as memories – watching any of our reality gun shows tells us there are still functioning pieces around from 100+ years ago!

The 2nd Amendment is in the Constitution for a purpose. Take a look back at history and realize an unarmed populace is one with no ability to enforce democracy. It is a people completely at the whim of whomever has enough money to buy votes, buy their own weapons, and push their own agenda. Our Founding Fathers, who were much closer to war than we are (with our wars fought on foreign soil for generations) believed passionately in the need for this security. Why not listen?

Thomas Jefferson, a dude pretty well regarded by history, said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” He meant this not only in regard to foreign powers, but also to in response to American despots. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  I’d prefer no one have absolute power so there is always a voice for the unliked, extreme, and outrageous.

The extreme, and outrageous are typically where utter genius comes from in the fields of human development. People tried to kill Galileo for saying the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe.

For what it’s worth, I believe guns can be used to enact pure evil. I am sickened and have lost sleep over the loss of lives just like anyone else. I am angry and I think these people who used guns to kill innocents deserve eternal consequences for their actions.

Yet my response isn’t a knee jerk reaction to make someone else take care of it; to make a law taking the tools used to do wrong all away.

I hope you’ll consider a different action as well.

Start in your home. Teach your children to value life. Remove violent video games from your household, remove violent video games from your own gaming time. Don’t practice to kill people in pretend – you’re preparing the pathway to devalue humanity in real life.

Start in your community. Several towns and cities have started the Character Counts curriculum in their streets. I love it! You see signs that define “character,” “compassion,” “sharing” and even if you roll your eyes, the ideas stick a little. Some people embrace them. It’s worth talking about.

Get involved in your state. Look around at the areas that are meth capitals, where poor is not only a condition but an attitude. Find out how to help. If there aren’t already resources in place via churches or community outreach, start them. Get involved.

Behave well. When you’re in the store and you see someone being a dork, don’t give them the stink eye. Don’t be the anonymous community member who gives someone else a reason to hold a grudge or feel the world is against them. Be part of a solution.

Illinois is making a decision today that may or may not change state law. You have a decision today to literally change your community. If enough people get involved, if enough people set the bar higher on how we treat one another, if you and your friends and your community start the roll… what will happen?

Can you see the vision?

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