I get it. Some people are scared of guns. Not anyone I know, but some people. I have been around guns my entire life. My father has had a shotgun, loaded, leaned against a corner in my parent’s bedroom for as long as I can remember.

Gasp! With children in the house?

Yes, with children in the house.

Children who were taught at a very early age that guns were not toys, Children who were taught at a very early age to do what they were told, and we were told not to touch the guns without permission. Ever. Children who were taught at a very early age how to shoot, and how to do it properly. Children who were taught, by a patient and caring father, to have a healthy respect for guns, but to not be afraid of them.

But, I understand that not everyone was as lucky as we were. I understand that not everyone feels comfortable with a loaded .40 caliber pistol on the bedside table. I get it. To each his own. If you don’t want to own a gun, don’t own one. See? Wasn’t I nice? Why can’t you scaredy cat ninnies who want to outlaw all guns be nice to me?

Sigh. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. It isn’t your fault that you live in an area that has strict gun laws and you can’t own one. What’s that you say? That’s not the reason? Okay, well, it isn’t your fault your parents were tree-hugging hippies making love, not war and sticking flowers in the end of rifle barrels. What? That’s not the reason either? Okay, I give. What is the reason that you refuse to exercise your right to protect yourself and your family?

Guns kill people.

Hold it right there. Just hold it. Right. There.

People kill people. It wouldn’t matter if there wasn’t a gun available in the universe; if they wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Are you going to outlaw every single sharp object in the world? Every knife? Every ax? Lizzie Borden didn’t have any trouble. No one else will either. Don’t you get it? It isn’t the guns who kill people. Take a look at this graphic from the FBI on weapons used in murders from 2008 to 2012.

According to their stats, there were 8,755 murders committed from 2008 to 2012 by people using knives or other cutting instruments. There were also 2,795 murders committed by people wielding clubs, or hammers, or baseball bats. And my personal favorite, those personal weapons, hands, fists, feet and the like were used to murder 3,890 people.

I can hear you now. But there have been 36,163 people murdered by guns. Well, again, they weren’t murdered by guns. They were murdered by someone using a gun. It could have been a rifle, a shotgun, a handgun or an antique muzzle loader. But the problem still IS NOT THE GUNS. The problem is people’s value of human life, but that’s for another blog post.

My point for bringing these stats to your attention was not to hurt my case. It was to prove that if there were no guns, people would still find a way to kill one another. But let’s look at another statistic shall we? Below is a listing of all firearms manufactured, imported and sold in the U.S. in the same years as the FBI stats on murders.

Do you see what I see? From 2008 to 2012, there were almost 48,000,000 firearms manufactured, imported and sold in the U.S. Yet, only 36,000 of those weapons were used to murder someone. Do you know what that means? That means you have less than one one-thousandths of one percent of being murdered by a firearm. That means that one out of 750,000 firearms were used in murders. And that’s only counting the firearms sold in the U.S. during that one five year period. it is estimated that there are 270-310 million firearms in the hands of U.S. civilians. So, out of all those millions of guns, only 36,000 murders were committed in a five year period. I can’t do the math on that one. The percentage is so astronomically small that the Windows calculator can’t display it as a number. And I’m not a mathematician. But you get the idea.

Now, before you yell at me for saying there were “only 36,000 murders” and lives matter, hang on. Yes, I know, any murder is senseless and completely horrible. And people who call for more gun control because of 36,000 murders using firearms believe they have a leg to stand on. But, did you know that in that same five year period there were 170,566 deaths from car accidents? So why don’t cars kill people? Why aren’t you yelling at the top of your lungs to ban all vehicles? Ah, I see. You aren’t afraid of your car.

Now, just imagine for one second, how many murders there would have been if there weren’t firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens, who would only use a weapon on another person as a last resort to protect themselves? How many? What stops a bad man with a gun? A good man with one.

And while we are talking, let’s talk about the intent behind the 2nd Amendment. That government you keep calling on? The one you keep screaming at to outlaw this and outlaw that? The Founding Fathers put the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights to protect you FROM THEM. 

Oh, sure. People claim they need their guns to hunt to feed their families. They claim they need their guns to protect themselves, their families and their belongings from intruders. But that is only the icing on the Founders’ cake. The cake itself was baked for the sole purpose of protecting you from a tyrannical government. Period. End of story.

So, while you whine to said government to protect you from anything and everything because you are unable or too afraid to do it yourself, you leave my guns alone.