Recent Shootings and Gun Rights

Coming from a viewpoint of being terrified of guns but also acknowledging that they exist I may seem to talk out of both sides of my mouth.

Someone once told me the first step to being a slave is that they take your weapons away. Our country was founded on the premise that populace knows what is best for themselves. If the police and military get to have 30-round clips then so should every mentally sound citizen have that same availability. I am not advocating sedition but history shows that in some extreme (and not too rare) situations the people must rise up against the powers that be (in history they are called despots, tyrants, etc.) - there is a balance of power at stake with 2nd amendment rights.

The Arizona shooting has more to do with the neglect of our society to the mentally ill. Numerous people were concerned with his state of mind - yet did not know how to proceed. The question of whether this shooter acted alone still remains to be answered. He would have been an easy target for outside manipulation.

Solutions to issues like this should restrict the freedom of the few and not the many. If gun rights legislation is our most effective response to this and other shootings by deranged assailants (and I'm not sure it is), then do it with the least possible impact on our individual rights. Due process should always be the path to restriction of rights.