RJ Oberle
4/15/2013
ENG 106
Guns and the Freedom to Protect Ourselves
The gun issue has been well and alive for some time now. There is the left side, which feels as though guns should be banned. And then there is the right side, which leans more towards keeping guns active in our society. Now, when I talk about this subject, I do not place myself in either of these two sides. My opinion is solely based on my morals and values, not because I place myself in one party or the other. With that being said, I feel as though guns should remain active, but with added legislation, making them harder to get for people that intend to use them for the wrong reasons.
As anybody can tell, our media is mostly liberal. So when an incident occurs in which a gun is used to kill one or several people, the media is all over it. I don’t even watch the news anymore because they are so biased to what they show. Most of the stories that are shown are shootings or other incidents in which a gun was used in the wrong way. The viewers do not hear about the crimes stopped because would-be victims had guns and either scared the shooter away or stopped them in their tracks. Let us take a look at a crime that could have been stopped. Suzanna Hupp and her parents were having lunch at a local diner in Killeen, Texas when a shooter came in and killed 23 people, including her parents. Suzanna had a handgun, but because of Texas law, at the time, did not permit her to carry it with her. Suzanna could have stopped the shooter if she had her handgun on her (Stossel). I feel that if the news showed more positive
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things that result because of guns, more people would not feel as threatened by them. In my eyes guns are tools, and if they aren’t used right, then someone can get hurt. But do not blame the tool for killing someone because the gun does not pull the trigger; the person using it does.
The way I look at it, if someone wants to commit a crime or hurt people bad enough,...