I do not understand why we need to have guns so prevalent in our society. I know about the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. I know about the Bill of Rights and when and why it was adopted.
I am not talking about whether it is legal or illegal, whether it is right or wrong, whether it is an AK-47 an AR-15, a bazooka or a .22-caliber rifle or a pistol. It just does not make sense to me.
From the beginning of their introduction, the primary purpose of a firearm is to rip through flesh and bone and kill a living creature. And please, do not give me that garbage about guns are used for target practice, skeet shooting, recreation or hunting an animal. The primary purpose is to kill.
And I am sure some of you, if you have chosen to keep reading up to this point, are thinking, “I am going to reiterate to Frank the age-old argument that guns do not kill people — people kill people.” To which I say: Please.
I buy that argument about as much as I buy the fact that food does not keep people alive — people keep people alive. Of course, people need to eat food, but the fact of the matter is food sustains us. It is a given that a person needs to ingest it.
The same way that, yes, a person needs to shoot a gun. The gun is meant to kill human beings and animals. Guns kill people — just ask my former neighbor, whose son is dead because a loaded gun dropped on the floor in their house.
So I keep asking myself in a civilized society: Does there need to be such a proliferation of firearms? Should firearms be allowed or available in our society? What would the world look like if there were no guns?
Sure there would be something else used in their place, maybe even with more power. I am not naive, I qualified as a sharpshooter with an M-16 rifle and handguns in the military, but would we not be better off without so many guns?
Would as many of our children and citizens be dying in our streets? Would perpetrators be coming into our homes at an alarming rate? Would the bad guys overtake the good guys?
I do not think so.
Frank Coffaro
Whitestone
