YOU DON'T NEED THAT

A few years back when the SUV craze was really getting going, certain groups criticized people for driving them. They were using too much gasoline and they were polluting the world. After all, they asked, who needs a four-wheel drive vehicle that carries seven people? These people aren’t going off road or climbing mountains in the snow or trudging through the mud. They, by driving these gas hogs, are just being unfair to all the rest of us. The most difficult driving they might experience is high curbs at the Macy’s parking lot.

The similarity between this criticism and the oft offered opinion that people don’t need assault weapons is striking. Who needs a gun that will hold thirty rounds of ammunition? To go deer hunting with an assault weapon is akin to sharpening a pencil with a chainsaw. The groups who hold these views also seem to be the same people who feel their opinion should take precedence over your opinion. Never mind that owning a semi-automatic rifle is completely legal as is owning a multi round magazine for ammunition. No, that doesn’t seem to matter to them, only their opinion.

Well what if I said that in my opinion a person should never own a home with four or five bedrooms and two or three or more bathrooms. What if I said a person should never own a car that goes over seventy miles per hour? After all, that is the speed limit in most of the country. Why do you need a lot with over an acre of space? Don’t you realize that there are people who have little or no yard space? Why would you have a closet full of shoes or clothes hanging there? You cannot possibly wear but one set at a time. Some people have homes in both the north and in the south. Can you be two places at once?

It is pretty clear to me that people have what they have because that is what they want. No couple checked with me to see if I approved of the fact that they wanted a three thousand square foot home for just the two of them. My opinion wasn’t sought for people who wanted to buy a fast car. People don’t ask my opinion because it is none of my business what they have. People also don’t ask me to comment on their desire to own an AR15 assault rifle with a thirty round magazine. Why? Because it is none of my business.

I do not own an “assault weapon” as defined by the media. Personally I believe any weapon is capable of assault depending on the intentions of the possessor of that weapon. Timothy McVeigh did his mayhem without a gun of any kind let alone an assault weapon and of course one can still buy fertilizer and rent trucks. I don’t own an assault weapon because it is my choice not to own one. As a free citizen of this great country, to own one or not to own one is my choice and I don’t personally care what anybody else thinks about my decision. I am a gun owner and again that is my choice. What you do is your business.

The problem is clear. Too many people feel their opinions should trump everyone else’s. Some even want to trump the Bill of Rights. You and I are free people. We decide what is best for us. Unless of course you have a wife and when you look longingly at a glazed donut she says, “You don’t need that.” Believe it and leave the donut alone.

Ron Scarbro January 30, 2013