My local paper is anti-gun

Increasingly more opinion in the Reflector has been about guns and the “unsettling” fascination many have with them. I suggest that the fascination isn’t really about guns, it’s about tools and the way in which tools allow us to control our environment. Our ability to manufacture and use tools is one of a few characteristics that separate us from lower species. We understand their significance in a manner similar to the way we appreciate the meaning of a smile or frown without ever having had to have been taught. Weapons, over the course of human events, have been a particularly important class of tool. They have been both blessing and curse, but they are as necessary today as they ever were – perhaps even more. As long as evil exists we’ll need weapons: they’re tools that allow us to resist evil. Humans innately recognize the value and empowerment that weapons bring, thus the fascination. Weapons are in one sense different than other tools in that they require upmost responsibility and good judgment on the part of those using them. A nation that allows its citizens to be armed is a nation that must trust the citizenry. Perhaps this is where those who are made nervous by the armed among them are having a problem. They realize that they are in a position where they must trust their fellow citizen. I suggest that, rather than encouraging the disarmament of your fellow citizens, that you should take responsibility for your own defense and join them. The key to avoiding another mass murder (such as the one that occurred at nearby Virginia Tech) is to eliminate areas wherein weapons are not permitted. “Gun-free zones” artificially create concentrations of defenseless potential victims – which, as we’ve seen too often, is a playground for evil.