Dear Gun Carriers

[Dog Gone at Penigma]

48. oh booo hoooo

No one suggested you lack humanity.

But there is no defense for stupidity, when it is possible to have better education. It is primarily the red states which are dragging us down in terms of global competition for educated populations, which includes work force / economic competition.

We do not become more competitive OR successful as a nation with people in poor health either. You don't have a good defense for red states being less healthy, less educated, more unemployed, and more armed, and incidentally - more often incarcerated. The reality is, the more guns in a state, the more gun violence, accident and injury there is; it does NOT make people more safe.

There is no safety in people being armed who think poorly, or who believe bizarre and factually inaccurate things either.

The greatest number of people who are ignorant in history, and science, and who fall for the most ludicrous conspiracy theories are from the south. The greatest number of people who have hostility and suspicion toward others - particularly those in demographics that include gays, blacks and latinos, women who demand equality, or people who practice religions other than Christianity - are more likely than not to act violently toward their fellow Americans in those categories.

You can be defensive all you like, but it doesn't change the numbers. And it doesn't change that politically, because of emotional thinking, you are more easily manipulated and do really poorly on anything requiring FACTS, not belief.

I like the south, I've spent a lot of time traveling in the south; but red states do a lot of things very poorly that could be done better. Having a gun doesn't make up for that, and I would argue those aren't the best people to be using or having the option to use lethal force.

Further, any society that in effect advocates for vigilante justice, where instead of law enforcement, people take the law into their own hands, is going backwards towards barbarism and brutishness and away from being civilized, which is NOT what the founding fathers had in mind, nor is it something we should embrace.

As to self defense, I suggest you review the history of the concept, and not just in the U.S., but in English common law that was the premise for it.