so my son can't play gun tag? i totally reject this proposition.

you say just because you have signs up doesn't mean criminals aren't going to rape you, but you forgot to mention that whether you have signs up or not you may or may not be raped by existing or potential criminals.

the 'reality' is that there is a problem in a society that must be addressed that is greater than that of how we can defend ourselves against each other. the fact that we have to defend ourselves at all is somewhat more pressing to me than how we do it, but that may be because the idea of shooting somebody, regardless of whether they're about to rape me in front of my non-9mm-wielding 1.5 year old son, just doesn't appeal to me.

reality, if you look further than at your target through your sights, is that if people own guns and use them to defend themselves, people will die. the little old lady might defend her checkbook against some contextually ignored criminal with psychological inconsistencies and an inability to properly adhere to moral standards impressed upon him by society, but either way we're still only left with an old lady, a criminal, an old lady and an injured criminal, an injured old lady and a criminal with a checkbook, or an uninjured old lady, uninjured criminal, and injured innocent bystander.

basically by endorsing lethal weaponry as a means of self-defense without proposing solutions to an ill society full of criminal producing parents is stating:

there are bad people, and the best way to solve the problem of bad people is to oppress them with the knowledge that they will be killed or grievously injured should they act the way they were raised to act. if that knowledge isn't enough to frighten them into adhering to societal moral standards until they've built up enough resentment to actually kill somebody who embodies what they hate about society, we will simply shoot them when they try to steal stuff.

i believe very strongly that it is unfair to label people as 'bad,' and that the 'criminals' term is inherently flawed due to the idea that a criminal is only a criminal if his actions are criminalized. at one point beer drinkers were criminals.

there was a better solution to alcohol prohibition than 'we need more guns,' and there is certainly a better solution to self-defense than weapons. am i stating that we should outlaw guns? no, but in my fantastic perfect world view of how things should operate i see a society that doesn't rely on lethal force to impose morality. perhaps the true romantic here isn't the one who sees how knowledge pertaining to human psychology can be used to alter society on a fundamental level, but the person who thinks guns for self-defense offer some morally consistent solution to a genuine problem humanity faces.

forget mace, we need xanax cloud sprays and tranquilizer dart guns.