I hate guns. All guns. Carried by anyone. Cops, trained citizens, soldiers, immature jerks who feel powerful with a pistol on their hip. Anyone. My reasons are simple: if a gun isn’t present, no one get’s shot. I don’t care about the second amendment; it was written in a different time, for a different group of people. Hunters? Let ‘em use a bow.
When I’m king of the United States, no more guns.
Guns are in the news this week. Assault rifles. Half the population says ban them, the other half screams about their second amendment rights. “It’s a gun,” they say, “I have a constitutional right to bear arms.” Never mind that the rest of us have the right to live our lives unafraid. Seems like a standoff to me.
Enter Dmitriy Andreychenko. Remember that name? He’s the brain-dead kid who walked into a Missouri Walmart wearing body armor and carrying an assault rifle. Unsurprisingly, he created a panic. Shoppers abandoned their carts and hightailed it out of the store. If I was there, I would have done the same thing. But no one needed to fear. Dmitriy wasn’t going to shoot anyone, he simply “wanted to know if Walmart honored the 2nd Amendment.” Dmitriy was exercising his right to bear arms.
He was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat.
Here’s the deal. Missouri has a law that allows citizens to carry their weapons out in the open, in public, including into stores. Their laws don’t specify what types of guns can be carried. He didn’t point the gun at anyone, he made no verbal threats. In fact he grabbed a shopping cart and started walking through the store like any other shopper. Dmitriy didn’t break the law. He was truly celebrating the second amendment and Missouri’s lax gun laws. So why was he arrested? Why did people freak out? Why was this legal action considered a terroristic threat?
Because it’s a fucking assault rifle, that’s why! It’s a weapon made to be used on a battlefield. To mow down as many of the enemy as possible in as short a time period as possible. It has no place in a peaceful society. The people in Walmart made that clear by fleeing. The police made that clear by arresting him. If the innate assumption is that a person carrying an assault rifle is about to commit mass murder, why in God’s name are these things legal?
I have no doubt that many of those shoppers and responding police officers are pro second amendment. I’m sure people exactly like them are the ones answering poll after poll insisting that assault rifles are simply guns protected by our constitution. So why are they saying that Dmitriy can’t carry one into Walmart like, say, a holstered revolver?
There’s a change in the air. With the Democratic primary in full swing, the timing is perfect for debate. Even Trump, a man always willing to push back on any demand made by “the liberal elitists,” is thinking about toughening gun laws. Uniformly, as a nation, we’re sick of notifications on our phones offering body counts, using terminology like “shooter” and “shelter in place” and “AK-47.” These shootings won’t stop, and with each one, the resolve of the Republican party will erode a little more. Support for the NRA will falter. We’ll hear more outcry, and one day we’ll hit a tipping point when finally, assault rifles will be pulled from the street.
Back to me being King again… The law I envision is to make it illegal to transfer ownership of an assault rifle. Inherited weapons must be turned over to the federal government for a fair price based on the value of the gun when purchased. No one’s gun is ever taken away, and in fifty or sixty years, our society will be virtually assault rifle free. Sadly, I’m too old to see this play out, but my kids and their kids will live in a safer world.
The Other Stuff 
Your argument nails the reason we need an assault weapons ban and other gun control legislation. No one, not even 2nd amendment supporters, sees them as innocent because it’s clear what they exist for.
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Agree 110%.
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I still can’t believe the tipping point wasn’t Sandy Hook.
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I think Sandy Hook was so egregious it was seen as an anomaly. Three shootings in a week is hard to call a coincidence. Clearly, we have a growing problem.
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How many more people have to die? It’s stupidity at its worse. I mean look at us in Australia. We are doing fine after the massacre where our gun laws changed.
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Australia should be our model. I think it’s the only country fully respected in terms of temperament of the society and the macho-ness of the male population (I don’t mean that as an insult).
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They did encounter a lot of resistance before the law was passed.
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Go, King Jeff, Go! You know I support your cause. You’re right – I am so tired of hearing the 2nd amendment crap when my basic right to feel safe and secure is being taken away. The Missouri incident really is an eye opener for this debate. I saw someone list of all the people injured or killed THIS YEAR alone – and it was so nauseating. I started Googling some of the dates and towns to check and they were all true. Some gunman got pissed and took it out on a group of others. And the ones where 6-10 people are injured don’t even make the big news anymore since we are so used to it. Need some change
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This is such a huge public heath issue. It’s criminal that nothing has been done since 1994. Although it was since undone, so doubly criminal.
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Jeff, when you run for king, you have my vote. If weapons make everyone safer (as the gun nuts claim), then why wouldn’t it be legal for everyone to carry grenades? Rockets? Heck, even small nukes? Following that logic, then everyone would be REALLY safe. I am glad I got out of teaching before teachers carrying weapons in the classroom was allowed. That’s just insane!
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Teachers with guns is a tragedy waiting to happen. I know that when I was in high school, I aggravated my teachers enough to get shot. Now pretty much the whole democratic field has come out in favor of an assault weapon ban. Couldn’t be more pleased.
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Mr. King thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt post. Your emotional response is grounded in granite. The Second Amendment was not written for hunters. It was written to protect your right to speak your mind along with a whole host of other rights. I subjectively feel the way you do, and would agree objectively with you if I didn’t have a family to protect in a chaotic world. I also observe the news regarding what’s happening in Hong Kong, and Venezuela. England has more knifings than we have shootings. I am retired military. I have seen a nation or two where the people were forbidden to have guns. They use children wearing bomb’s, real machine guns, knives, vehicles, and poison gases in subways and train stations. Evil will always find a way. Did we have this big of a problem before God was removed from classrooms, and entertainment was first person video shooter games?
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I think if we ever get to the point where I need to protect myself or anyone else from a fragmented government, I’m not going to last very long. If we lived in a lawless, anarchistic society, I’d agree that we need those weapons to create a sense of order. As it stands now, IMO those weapons create more lawlessness than help. While I imply that I don’t want soldiers and police to be armed, I still recognize that this is a necessity in the country we live in. I know things can change relatively fast, but still I can’t envision a USA where an armed resistance is our only way to maintain freedom. Regarding God and video games, who knows. I’m a godless person and I don’t want to shoot anyone up… but then, I don’t play video games. I hugely appreciate the way you communicated some dissent without aggression. So unusual on the internet these days. Peace, Jeff
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Profound piece, King Jeff. You’ve captured the audacity of the situation perfectly. I’m with you. Assault rifles, and guns in general, have got to go.
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Thank you. I needed a chance to rant. There are so many aspects and incidents from the past two weeks that appall me, it’s almost impossible to count them. But one that really aggravated me is that that Missouri kid got a terrorism charge. Clearly, what he did SHOULD have been against the law, but it wasn’t. And while “you should have known better” plays well in the principal’s office, it has no place in law enforcement.
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Kudos for this post but moreover, what a great conversation you’ve got going here in the comments. I have to admit that even I, strongly anti-guns though I am, read your line “if a gun isn’t present, no one gets shot” and immediately afterwards thought, hmm, but all those awful things that people did to each other before guns were invented…
so I loved that @jammatti so kindly expressed a similar thought-train in such a heartfelt way, and that you responded equally graciously. Peace and mindfulness in action. That is the way forward.
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I’d be OK with banning cars too. 😉
When I posted this, I expected some flames. But WordPressers are a more thoughtful class of people than you find on most of the internet.
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I think we need to keep the cars. 😉
WordPress is my current favourite social media platform.
Though I’ve seen rampant comment wars even on WP, occasion. Usually when trolls appear and then get either fed or argued with. It takes two to tango, as they say.
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Hmm it looks like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any tips for newbie blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.|
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Absolutely incorrect, though you’ll garner many supporters. What is needed is a return to sanity and understanding in this country. While our parents and grandparents were growing up, guns were all around and people were not mowed down. But terrible things happen even in the best of situations. With life comes risk. I used to play tree tag even though I fell out once, another kid broke his arm, and so forth. We drive cars even though there are those who lose it, who are criminal and mow people down. There are sick and derranged people working in hospitals, and only when someone discovers that they’ve made one mistake too many, killing innocents because they’re derranged. The thing is to bring understanding back and not over-reaction. All too many are growing up in a hysterical environment.
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I was going to respond with some well thought out points, but I can tell by what you wrote your an intelligent guy (tree tag notwithstanding); your opinion won’t be swayed by me any more than my opinion will be swayed by you. Instead, I want to focus on my laughable assertion that things are changing and gun control is coming. I don’t think you need to worry about new legislation altering our gun laws. It will never happen. We’ll have the next shooting and the next and people will get all up in arms and vilify assault rifles and then Donald Trump will insult someone and we’ll all forget. Peace.
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Actually, I’m quite open to thoughtful discussions, and I have learned from those of different viewpoints, though I will always support our second amendment rights, understanding history, the purpose of protection, and the rights of a people to own and prepare.
With those against guns, I have taken them on practice sites, showing them all the aspects, and explaining to those wanting to understand better. What they discover is how safety is my first object, training important, but that all have the right to defend themselves. So, by training, they can own and keep those around them safer.
Now, regards these unfortunate situations you allude to, I dearly wish we could stop them. But not at the cost of taking all rights away. That’s not the answer. If the politicians and groups truly want answers, then we need to take a look carefully. How are we treating people? Does constant and intense negativity in the news affect? Are our young people growing up with a clear understanding of history, fathers teaching their children about hunting and gun safety? When the topic of guns come up, are we open for open discussions, or is fear being used to stop any discussions. How does the news react? What would happen if guns were a normal part of growing up, responsibility encouraged, and people carried without fear of the thought police? Would the normal understanding, as it was when I was growing up and there were no talks about getting rid of guns or terrible things happening as they do today (though far less than the reporting would lead you to think), for we understood respect and safety, so there was little fear response, cause less problems? Remember, we could all work to create laws against cars, bats, knives, tree climbing, and all hole up in our homes. But that’s not the answer. Nor is taking away our second amendment rights.
I know, the talk will return to the next tragedy. We want to stop the tragedy. Taking our rights away will not stop tragedies. If you truly wish to stop these terrible things, then looking at real causes will help. That requires more discussions, but taking out the removal of our rights.
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