National Rifle Association. stop the Blood Bath!

The National Center of Injury Prevention and Control reported between 2001 and 2004, there were 119,520 firearm deaths in the United States. During that same period there were 252,076 nonfatal injuries due to guns. This is the equivalent to having the nation of Guam wiped off the face of the earth in a four-year period or nearly everyone in Iceland getting shot in four years. If this were the case, there would be investigations of all sorts. The United Nations would have scores of supports group landing their experts on these two island countries to determine the source of this carnage. We in America calmly accept these numbers as a fact of our way of life. Guns and Americans go hand-in-hand just kids used to play "cowboys and Indians."

What is this fascination that we have in this device? What control do guns and firearms play on the American psyche? The crux of it, the magic word, is control. Firearms played a key role in the settling of the Wild West. They were used to protect, hunt, and provide general security in an age, at a time when we needed it. Today, such is not the case, we don't live off the land, and there are no large herds of wild animals outside our tents waiting to devour us. There are no hostile natives threatening our very existence. So what gives?

Guns give the owner the power of control, in some circles prestige, the very embodiment of life over death. Even an empty gun still offers some semblance of the image. The era in which they were essential is long gone, disappeared nearly one hundred years earlier. We have a well-armed militia called the National Guard, we don't have to look far; there is one in every state of the Union. These Weekend Warriors are ready to serve and protect. We don't need a quasi unit made up of thrill seekers, malcontents or hotheads. We need an organization that believes in gun education, training and control, not the right to gun possession no matter what the mental condition of the gun owner. If the National Rifle Association cannot provide these guarantees, we should look for another.

K.