At one point in the movie “Die Hard 2: Die Harder”, the bad guys stage a false battle against each other, using blue tape to mark cartridges with blanks, and red tape to mark cartridges with live rounds. This is the one and only time in human history where gun enthusiasts have wanted red tape anywhere near their guns. Generally speaking, gun control opponents want it to be easier to obtain a gun than just about anything else you can imagine trying to obtain. This is part of their absolute mentality: any slightest attempt to make it harder to obtain a gun is trampling on the Second Amendment, and suddenly nobody will have guns anywhere in the country except criminals and the Government (many of these folks equate those two groups of course).
Despite having access to the most exotic fractal equations in the known universe, the Machine is unable to compute exactly why guns have attained this lofty status in so many minds. Think about all the other things that are such a ginormous process to obtain. For example, if you want to drive a car, you need to have a license. In order to get a license, you need to demonstrate that you understand all the rules of the road, both with a written test and actually driving a car with someone who can say whether you are ready or not. If you commit even a few violations once you’ve got your license, it can be taken away. If you combine driving with drinking, it can be taken away very quickly. Where is the public outcry over the rules surrounding being able to drive?
If the average citizen needs to have access to classified information, generally because their job requires it, there is a many-month-long process involving a background investigation, fingerprints, and often a polygraph. Once that access is granted, even a single violation of the associated policy can lead to revocation. Yet there isn’t an entire political party clamoring for that process to be streamlined or removed altogether.
If you want to play music in a public setting, you will often need to file paperwork with the city. If you want faster processing through the airports through Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check, you need to go through a process. If you want to start your own business, you need to jump through a fair number of hoops. If you want to ride a motorcycle, you need to get training and certification above and beyond a normal license. If you want to become an aesthetician, you need to get trained and certified to perform certain services. If you want to eat at a really nice restaurant, you may have to reserve weeks in advance. Costco won’t let you in if you don’t have a card. You can’t win Trivial Pursuit until you roll the exact right number on the dice. I could go on and on and…
Can somebody please explain why, of all things under whatever heavens may exist, the need to fire a gun is the one thing we can’t wait a single additional second to do?
Here’s what happens when somebody can just walk into the store and buy a gun: somebody with a grudge or a mental issue or just having a really bad day can bring their new toy to the grocery store and gun me down just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That will severely hamper my own ability to buy a gun, therefore trampling on my Second Amendment rights. We have come full circle: the only way to ensure that each of us has the maximum probability of being able to obtain a gun is to put some red tape in the way.
