When it comes to Right Speech, I often defer to the “Thumper philosophy,” meaning—if I can’t say something nice, I will remain silent. However, silence is a form of acceptance, and I can’t be silent on this anymore.

As most of you know, I am a former Marine. I have sniper training and have been combat hardened. I’ve also been through the Police Academy and several of their firearms training programs, not to mention dozens of martial arts and civilian firearms training programs.

Here’s what you probably don’t know—I hate guns. It’s far too easy to kill someone with one, and they are prone to accidents.

Last week there was another shooting on a school campus. Which shooting I’m referring to doesn’t really matter, because by now, we are so numb to the horror, we barely notice it anymore. We also know everything that’s going to happen—there will be candle light vigils, photos of young students crying, the President will make a speech about things needing to change, the NRA will shriek that “someone’s coming to take your guns,” gun sales will go up, the NRA will profit from the massacre—and that’s about it. At least until the next shooting, when the process starts all over again.

I know this, and you know this. How do we know? Because at the time of this writing, we’ve done this exactly 142 times since the Sandy Hook shooting—and yet, I can still get a Glock easier than I can find the new Chuck Taylor 2 shoes.

For such a “Christian nation”—we certainly are strapped. If we’re such a Christian nation, why did the Pope have to drive around in a bullet proof bubble the whole time he was visiting?

One of the most frightening things I’ve ever done was getting my Concealed Weapons Permit. It was horrifying just how easy the process was. There were two women in my class who had never fired a weapon before, yet they walked out with a permit four hours later. When it came time for me to renew my permit, it cost me more to get a new photo taken for the permit, than the permit renewal fee itself.

I have a history of violence, and I am heavily medicated for rage issues. I am the absolute last person who should have a permit—yet I do.

This is wrong.

Many people use the Second Amendment as their hall pass to have guns. They claim that you can’t change the Constitution of the United States. Yes you can—it’s called an amendment—there’re 27 of them that exist already. Most of these people have no idea what the Second Amendment means. “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of the State…”

Let’s stop right there, for a second. America has the most well regulated military on the planet. I would guess that we have more weapons than the rest of the world combined. Also, when the above text was written, the American people were the militia. This is not the case anymore. If you’re not in the military, you do not need these weapons. Don’t hide behind those who are brave enough to serve and claim entitlement based upon their sacrifice.

However, if we truly cannot change the Second Amendment, then what can we do to still solve this problem?

We could do away with high capacity magazines and make it illegal to have more than one magazine per weapon. We could make bullets ridiculously expensive to civilians, or at the very least, stop selling them armor-piercing and hydro-shock rounds.

We could pass a law that states—if you’re going to carry a weapon, you have to be shot by that weapon, so you know how it feels. (While this might sound crazy, this is how it works for Tasers and even Mace, so why not firearms?)

We could make it illegal to stockpile ammunition. We could place a cap on the number of guns a person can have. We could make holsters illegal and require that if people are going to carry a gun, they have to carry it in their visible hands at all times. We could place a GPS chip inside gun handles that would alert the police department if the gun is fired anywhere except a gun range.

These are just a few ideas that came off the top of my head. I would like to point out though, that none of these ideas violate anyone’s Second Amendment rights.

They’re not called “protection rifles”—they’re called “assault rifles.”

You cannot show loving kindness or compassion to someone while pointing a gun at them.

The NRA does not allow people to carry guns at their events.  This should tell you everything you need to know about gun violence and the hypocrisy of those profiting from their sales.

May all beings be free from suffering, and may all beings never know the horror of being shot or shooting another human being.

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Relephant: 

Break the Numbness & Get Loud: a Response to the LATEST Shooting.

Own or looking to Buy a Gun for Safety? Watch this First. {Video}

Gun Control: Congress versus The People.

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Author: Darren Lamb

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: Flickr/Kenneth Lu