Once again I was brought down by some very nasty germs and they kept me from you, my lovies.
Welcome back to the Spellroom.
I had wonderful plans for columns, but today they've been side-railed while I voice my political opinion and back it up with historical fact. I hope you will stay with me and read this post, but if you choose not to, I will understand and hope you will be back for the next post which will return us to less controversial subjects.
Today's topic is Gun Propaganda.
This is not about gun control! This is about the use of propaganda and outright lies to scare the community into letting the gun and ammunition companies continue to run wholesale muck through our lives.
If you are active on Facebook, then you have seen all the memes (posters) such as "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
While it is true, people who really want to kill someone can use any object to do so, it is not as easy as picking up a hunk of metal with a bore hole in it, pulling on a little piece of metal, and pointing the hunk of metal at the object you wish to annihilate with a burning piece of lead. Lead that rips apart muscles, tissues, blood vessels, and shatters bones.
If you have to use your hands on your victim, you have to get up close and personal, maybe even have to look them in the eyes as you strangle them, put a pillow over their face, or hold them under the water until there are no more air bubbles. You have a chance to change your mind before you have completed a heinous act.
It also gives you the disadvantage that the victim may be able to fight back and might even be able to take you. So if you are thinking murderous thoughts, it might be best to put your actions into a book rather than into practice.
A knife, hammer, or ax is very messy, you will end up with blood gushing all over you, and makes it harder for you to proclaim your innocence when the authorities arrive. (Most murders committed by knife, hammer, or ax are acts of extreme passion. People don't usually die after one strike of a knife or hammer. You have to repeatedly plunge that weapon into your victim. It is not a task for those who faint at the sight of blood and are afraid of gore.)
If you drop a knife, hammer, or ax on the floor, you might wipe out someone's toe or foot, but you won't obliterate their life. If you drop a gun on the floor it can discharge a bullet which could kill your wife, child, friend, or yourself. Accidents do happen and there are many careless people out there that have access to guns.
So no matter what the memes say, Guns do kill people!
We often hear that all women should carry guns. Then there would be no rapists. Rapists do not walk up to you on the street and boldly announce, "Hi. I'm here to rape you." They don't give you time to reach for a gun or pepper spray. They sneak up on you from behind or they creep through a window and surprise you in your shower or your bed. A rapist could grab your gun before you had a chance to get it, remove the safety, and try to get a target on him. Suddenly you have to fear for more than your virtue. Your rapist now has a weapon that could massively destroy you and anyone else around you.
Today I saw the worst of the worst in gun propaganda.
Individual gun ownership would not have stopped the Holocaust. One or two Jews with guns would not have been able to fight off Hitler's armies that were dispatched into the ghettos to find the Jews. And those armies were supported by the people of Germany.
There were a lot of contributing factors to Hitler's rise to power. Germany was going through a time of extreme inflation and overwhelming poverty due to war reparations forced on them by the Americans, English, French, and Russians. Hitler was able to use the lack of money for the common people to raise up hate and suspicion for anyone who didn't fit the norm of society. The Jews were known to have "wealth". They were the money lenders. (Even though most of the Jews were middle class people struggling to make a living, just like everyone else. Hitler was able to use rumor, innuendo, and suspicion to turn neighbor against neighbor.) Jews were different. They had a special language, they prayed differently, they had a different God! They had your money! Hitler used ancient prejudices and superstition against the Jews, the Gypsies, and the Gays and transferred blame onto them.
By getting the Germans to blame their misfortune on the Jews, the Gypsies, the Gays, the people who were different, it kept the people from blaming the government for their woes. They were told the government was working on solving the problem by getting rid of the source.
Guns in the hands of everyone may have saved some people from the gas chambers, but it is more likely that the guns would have led to a civil war as seen in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Somalia. Neighbor against neighbor.
I am not advocating for or against gun control. I am merely warning you against the lies found in propaganda. Do not buy into the memes, and understand that they are being produced by a very lucrative industry, that sells to both the victims and the criminals.
Make your decision based on intellect, not on emotions raised by lies.
