Nothing I Can Say.

I started to write a post about gun control, but erased it.
  
I mean, what's the point? Positions are so entrenched that no blog, even one as supremely influential as this one, will change a single mind. Everyone seems to have already decided, so therefore nothing will change. All that happens is that we move a little further apart, so that any points we can agree on are lost behind our respective walls.
  
For the record, I don't own a gun now, but I have in the past (and very well could in the future). My abilities with a firearm are surpassed by my bike-handling skills, which is to say they suck. Thanks to horrible eyesight and general impatience, I am a terrible shot. Well, not terrible, since I qualified for years on the M-16, but bad enough that let's just say that a slot never opened for me on the US Biathlon Team. It's just as well, because dedicated target plinking never really floated my boat. Neither did hunting, although I did find I enjoyed the camping part. That's OK, because I never really took to mountain biking or fat biking or any number of other activities. Not my thing, but I can respect those that enjoy them responsibly, treat them with the respect they deserve as deadly weapons, and maintain them properly. I wish our society held motor vehicle operators to the same standard.
  
However, as the motor vehicle-related death rates indicate, we're a nation of self-interested fucktards. No amount of legislation or public education is going to change that.
  
Guns aren't the problem. Given the choice, a gun would just sit quietly in the corner and eventually rust into nothing, without killing anyone. People are the problem. People with an axe to grind that believe the only way to give their life meaning is to kill a lot of people so everyone will pay attention. They could use a commercial aircraft, an ordinary pressure cooker, a motor vehicle... or a gun. These people will find a way to get their 15 minutes, because they're screwed up or marginalized enough to believe that it's the only way their life will have any meaning. It's sad on several levels.
  
I honestly believe this can all be solved by a really good bike ride. Thoughts of mass-murder don't float all that well on an endorphin rush.
  
We need common sense people control. Not through laws or group-think policies, but through activities that teach our common responsibility to our fellow man. Everyone just needs to ride in a fast-moving peloton a few times to understand this. Sketchy behavior is noticed and called out. People watch out for each other, while simultaneously working towards their own goals. It's a unique melding of self-interest channeled towards the common good.
  
If everyone follows a few basic rules, everyone stays upright and has a good time.

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