Just another American exercising his Divinely-guaranteed 2nd Amendment rights

That didn’t take long. The Georgia GOP rushed into law an ‘open carry’ provision in April allowing people to tote around guns in bars and churches (apparently these are felt to be complementary institutions in Georgia) and schools (these are apparently felt to be full of expendable if short people in Georgia). Then the national GOP and Fox Cable News (the “Josef Goebbels Commemorative Propaganda Division of the American Right Wing”) backed Cliven Bundy in his “sovereign citizen” claims that he doesn’t have to pay Federal grazing fees. So on Saturday a sovereign citizen and former Transportation Department employee (who made his money from the Federal government he hates) showed up outside a Georgia courthouse armed to the teeth with automatic weapons and other munitions and with the clear intent of taking hostages inside the courthouse. He was open carrying, you see, and standing up against big government.

Today’s news comes to us from the “Law of Unintended Consequences” department, where the fun never really ends. With legislators in red states rushing to allow lethal firepower here, there, and everywhere, little consideration seems to have been expended on the possible consequences of people legally arming themselves to the teeth in public.

Kinda gives a whole new meaning to “dressed to kill,” doesn’t it?

With ‘Mericans increasingly allowed to carry as much firepower as they deem appropriate…well, what could POSSIBLY go wrong, eh? Besides, how are good, God-fearing Americans supposed to stop criminals and killers? Then again, what happens when those same criminals and killers have the same access to all manner of lethal firepower that good, God-fearing patriots are allowed? America’s being turned into a free-fire zone, and the body count will only increase.

The reality that gun nuts seem too willing to ignore is that more guns doesn’t ipso facto translate to more safety. An armed populace is just one overreaction or poorly aimed shot away from tragedy. You may think that openly carrying means you’re protecting yourself and your loved ones (and expressing your inalienable rights as an ‘Merican). The truth is that you’re putting them at significant risk. Study after study has shown that people are far more likely to be killed by their own gun when trying to defend themselves at home than they are to be killed or injured by an intruder. Bullets go where they’re fired; they’re incapable of distinguishing “good guys” from “bad guys.” Guns aren’t some sort of “holy hand grenade” (gratuitous Monty Python reference) that magically protect the owner and those around him (or her) from harm.

We’re likely not too far away from the time when an open carry zealot armed with an AR-15 in a Target store uses that weapon to kill shoppers unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then what?

How many more will have to die because gun nuts and the NRA refuse to budge, arguing that the 2nd Amendment is sacrosanct, immutable, and inviolable? How many more families will be destroyed because Americans have the unquestioned God-given right to carry whatever lethal firepower they choose? Haven’t we had enough of blood and tears…or are our 2nd Amendment rights more important than even the lives of innocent Americans?

Or are the deaths of innocents (as long as they’re someone else’s loved ones) just the price of freedumb freedom??