Soap Box

Gun control is one of the most divisive subjects in America, a �cause celeb�, a political football, a challenge to the Second Amendment and a thumb perpetually being stuck in the eye of law abiding citizens by President Obama.

Counter to the careless claims coming from those furthest to the left, responsible gun owners in America don't use their firearms for offensive purposes, keep them out of the reach of children and want to see the guns taken out of the hands of those who do, just as fervently as the shrillest voices coming from the opposition.

The problems concerning gun control do not stem from either side of the issue wanting to protect the guilty, and all sides want to disarm them, its the means and methods that we use going about doing this, the misunderstanding and intransigence of some on both sides and the public's instinctual distrust of government that creates the conundrum.

No gun owner, who values their constitutionally guaranteed rights would trust Barack Obama as far as they could throw a hippopotamus when it comes to gun control and it's easy to understand why.

Obama has lied about health care, changed his stance on same sex marriage, has proven himself to be totally untrustworthy and no gun owner will ever trust them in his care. 

It's not that most American gun owners would not be willing to submit to somewhat more stringent requirements, it's just that they know that it would never stop, give government a toothpick sized opening and the first thing you know it's the size of railroad crosstie and growing exponentially larger just like everything else their bureaucratic, control loving hands touch.

It's the "give an inch-take a mile" adage.

I believe, and I think that the majority of the gun owners also feel, that Barack Obama wants nothing less than totally disarming this nation and will go to any lengths available and take every opportunity presented to him to do so, United Nations treaties and dirty political tricks notwithstanding.

If he and his ilk were serious about doing something about gun violence they should put aside their politically correct facade, find a pair of big boy pants and do something about the street violence in America's major cities that are responsible for ten times more gun deaths than the random acts 

The gang members who rule the inner cities certainly do not get their guns from legal sources and no law abiding gun owner would disagree with drying up those sources, unscrupulous legal gun dealers and illegal gun runners.

And surely Mr. Obama is not naive enough to believe that the thugs doing the killing and the street corner gun dealers will be effected by whatever and how many new laws are passed.

That is going to take some hands on, nitty gritty, street level police work, and the politicians in charge of most of the troubled big cities don't even back up their police forces in the tight spots they get into now, much less back up the rules of engagement it would take to clean up these urban battle zones.

So even if Obama is successful in taking away the guns of law abiding people, it's will not affect the thugs and gangs in any way except to give them freer reign over the helpless people the terrorize.

Every nation that has ever been taken over by an over reaching, oppressive government has first been disarmed.

There is a basic misunderstanding of the constitution, whether it be wittingly or unwittingly I can't say, but the firearms codicils in the second amendment are not exclusively about target shooting, hunting or even protection. It was written to allow citizens to have a means to defend themselves against a rogue government.

Obama points at other western nations who have disarmed their citizenry and how much less gun violence there is in them. He doesn't cite the exponential rise in knife killings or the fact that the most stringent gun laws on the planet can�t keep state of the art heavy weaponry out of the hands of terrorists, leaving the people of those nations at their mercy without any means of protecting themselves and their families.

I'm sure that in Sunday school class and liberal college gatherings the term "gun free zone" makes a lot of sense in Pollyanna sort of way.

But when some nut job walks into a crowd of innocent people and starts blazing away the thought of a hand full of legally armed citizens being able to return fire makes a lot of sense.

America's gun owners may as well face the fact that in these waning days of the Obama administration he is going to play every card in the deck, including the jokers, to take away America's guns.

Lets all hope it's another one of his failures.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels