Gun retailers across the US have reported a surge in sales in the wake of Barack Obama’s re-election, prompted by fears that the president will use his second term to tighten up gun controls. During his campaign, Obama suggested he might re-introduce the Clinton administration’s ten-year restriction on the sale of semi-automatic weapons, which expired in 2004. In fact, he’d struggle to get any such ban past Republicans in Congress, but gun owners apparently remain fearful of new limits on their right to bear arms, enshrined in the second amendment to the US constitution. In October, background checks for weapons buyers increased by 18%. After Obama’s win, retailers reported that AK-47s were flying off shelves, and shares in publicly listed firearms makers such as Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co. also rose sharply.
Why would you want an AK47 except to shoot at a bunch of harmless kids in the nearby school, or overturn the Constitution?
Epicureans are not pacifists; they believe in defending their countries and in the concept of a just war ( if such a war exists). But with 27,000 gun deaths a year this is a matter of common sense and decency. Anything other than shotguns for legitimate hunting should be banned. Period. Weapons used by national armies have no place in private homes. One can only assume that some people are planning a coup? Or maybe they are psychologically disturbed in some way? Or at the very least are paranoid? Whatever other conclusions can you reach? So powerful is the gun lobby that no one is even daring to challenge these immoral sales.
Epicureans are content in their gardens and avoid people with machine guns and violence on their minds.