I have noticed that some people, mainly who don’t own guns, equate gun ownership with violence. Nothing could be further from the truth:
I, like many other gun owners, own guns for a variety of reasons. Absent from that list of reasons is advocacy or love of violence. Instead, I am a peaceable person who has a great respect for human life, and for the law. It is precisely because I abhor violence that I own guns suitable for self defense. Although I would never wish to be in a situation where I had to point a gun at another human, I wold not hesitate to do so to defend the lives of my family. In short, I believe in leading a peaceful life, but being able to protect the peace by force if that becomes the only option, as is the case during a home invasion.
Perhaps a couple analogies will help further illustrate the point that gun ownership is not an endorsement of violence:
- Car Ownership: Criminals use cars in a high percentage of their crimes. Cars are getaway vehicles. They are an essential part of drive-by shootings. They are used for kidnapping, prostitution, and to run down innocent people. Still more people are negligent or reckless when driving, causing 50,000 car related deaths in the USA each year. Yet owning a car is not an endorsement of any of these criminal acts, despite the fact that five times as many people die in car accidents as die from shootings each year.
- Knife Ownership: Criminals commit crimes with knives every day. These range from armed robbery, to rape, to murder. Yet owning a knife is not seen as an endorsement of these terrible crimes.
Just like guns, cars and knives have legitimate and illegitimate uses. The ownership of a gun should not be seen as an advocacy of violence, but as simply the ownership of a perfectly lawful and legitimate tool. Rather than condemning the inanimate object, we as a society should focus on the actions of criminals.