I have written for Odyssey for the better part of the last year and a half. During that time, I have covered everything from entertainment to college life... to political commentary. The latter of which I have been trying to avoid lately given the volatile nature of our current political climate. However, I believe that the events in Las Vegas and the response to those events warrant me throwing my two cents into the discussion. After all, Odyssey is a platform which was created to facilitate the flow of free thought from the millennial demographic.
Sunday, October 1st Stephen Paddock opened fire on a concert crowd from the window of his hotel suite. In his wake, he killed 58 people and wounding nearly 500 others before taking his own life. An investigation is still in progress to identify what motivated Paddock to commit this horrible atrocity which is now the deadliest shooting in U.S history.
It didn’t take long after the incident for the call to action on gun control to begin, despite the pleas by some on the right and left that there be at least some grace period for the victims’ families to mourn before dragging the incident through the political procedure. Unfortunately, that has not happened. The controversial issue has already turned ugly with media personalities such as Jimmy Kimmel verbally attacking pro-gun activists during his late night show, as well as former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton flat-out accusing gun owners of being complicit in Stephen Paddock’s actions.
Okay, let’s make one thing clear right now, the actions that Stephen Paddock took were his own, and an investigation is being conducted to determine if he had legitimate partners, but to equate laws abiding gun owners with a murderer is an irresponsible use of platform, its dangerous rhetoric, factually incorrect, and quite frankly it’s a bully tactic. What’s worse about all of this is that no legitimate platform has even been presented by the anti-gun community which seems to be content with simply banging the drums of activism to no audience. If there was an actual proposition being made then we could at least look at that and have a structured debate but instead, we are defaulting to insults and springboarding off the gravestones of the Las Vegas victims. I won’t take part in that.
I am a gun owner, I own a pistol which I am licensed and trained to carry for self-defense. I own a hunting rifle, and up and until recently I owned an AR-15 sporting rifle. I am an avid supporter of the second amendment just like I am a supporter of all the amendments and let me be very clear on the point that I am not an accomplice to the evil human being that was Stephen Paddock.
Now let me further ruffle some feathers and do what no one on the other side of this issue seems to want to do. Present an actual platform for gun control. I have been firing weapons my entire life and am in several communities of gun owners who have done the same. Few if any of us have ever found a practical use for a bump stock which was the weapon modification that allowed Paddock to fire at a rate of 400-800 rounds per minute. There genuinely is no practical use for this modification and for that reason I would support any legislation that would ban its sale in the United States. That is at the least a proposition for sensible gun control, additionally, I don’t know very many people who run fifty round magazines in their kit so I don’t see why those magazines need to be available for sale either. If someone disagrees with me on these control measures then that’s a discussion we can have but first, the proposition must be presented!
