Guns kill a lot of people in the USA each day. If person (a) can’t get or (b) is delayed in getting a gun, lives are saved. A lawyer on radio today demeaned the deterrent effect of criminal penalties for gun offenses. His avocation is to sell gun violence. Time is irrelevant. Guns rule.1/6

Guns have ruled our public schools for 20 years. Hundreds of millions of guns in the USA have not made us more “free.” So the sales pitch of such merchants of death is we need more guns to be able to defend ourselves. Guns are not cost-effective in self-defense. Burglars love guns. 2/6

Burglars generally don’t like people at home. If they know you have handguns, they’ll wait. If you’re not there (a) you can’t use the gun in self-defense and (b) it’s an easily fenced incentive to burglars. A lighting system with a timer and an alarm system are better investments. 3/6

Also, an alarm can’t kill a family member in a domestic quarrel, go off accidentally, or be used as a mechanism for suicide. That’s why so many more people here die from guns than in most other countries. Our leaders could afford people having more freedom. There was no threat. 4/6

We overthrew democratically elected governments to grab natural resources in Vietnam, Chile, Iran, Nicaragua. Free speech was clamped when it became a threat. (E.g., WWI, Vietnam.) Now gun people try to whip others into a frenzy. Guns create more problems than they solve. 5/6

If you oppose gun violence, don’t buy a gun. I’m Mark Small: pro-choice, pro environment, pro-civil rts & anti-gun GOP nominee for IN House Distr 86. I approve of this blog. Hell, I wrote it. 6/6