{"id":1558,"date":"2018-02-22T09:31:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gilcanrun.com\/?p=1558"},"modified":"2018-02-22T09:31:36","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:31:36","slug":"inexcusable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gilcanrun.com\/?p=1558","title":{"rendered":"Inexcusable"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is, completely inexcusable. It’s been over 2 months since I’ve updated anyone. That’s depression and anxiety for you, plus being sick twice. I haven’t been running really, not since the new year, maybe 10 miles the whole month of January, I’ve done a bit more in February. I’ve decided I just have to keep moving until I can get my hands on some shoes that work for me. It’s hard sticking to principles. My ankle still hurts, I’m still refusing to buy brands which support fascists. I’ve been reading up on Hoka, given they are likely my next shoe. The Deckers company seems pretty serious about eliminating human, animal and environmental abuses from their supply chain, so I feel pretty good about that.
\nSo I’ve been doing 5 miles a day when I can since Sunday. I put on a lot of weight in the past few months, so it’s been slow going. An extra 25 lbs (12 kg) makes it much more difficult. I’ve been making entries in my food diary again, keep track the best I can. I’ve also almost completely eliminated alcohol and have just finished the last of my Fanta. Saturday night I finish my chocolate and then it’s just fruits for dessert. Until I get myself where I need to be and healthy again. I’ve had a couple times in the past few years where I’ve put on a little weight and then had to take it off again, but not this bad. But I’m not too upset about it, because today was my 4th 5 mile run in 5 days and it was my fastest<\/a>. Once I get the weight off, I’ll start focusing on other things.
\nGun control “debate” is on again. Looks like the kids might win this one, finally. We hope. But who knows. People are trying to parse words, post-modernist semantic argument bullshit. I had someone try to ask me my definition of “semi-automatic” so I just ripped it from the dictionary, because I don’t have time for that mess, when I say semi-automatic, I know what I mean, and any sensible person knows what I mean, there’s no reason to “define” it so if I get one word out of place, they can claim I don’t know what I’m talking about. Like when I use the word gun instead of “firearm”. For me to use the correct term all the time, when you obviously know what I’m talking about would mean I’d have to give a shit about guns beyond the fact that 30,000 people a year are dying in the United States alone because they are so ubiquitous.
\nLook, I get it, it’s you’re “freedom”, but you can be just as free with a revolver, shotgun, or bolt-action rifle. But that’s the thing, again freedom. You’re still free to won whatever you want. Your idea of what “freedom” is, is the problem here. I’ve said this a million times, freedom doesn’t come from a government, an army, a nation, other people, freedom comes from inside of you. I can act freely anywhere in the world. I may have to face consequences for my free actions. That is the way of the world. The consequences can change in different parts of the world based off someone’s arbitrary rules. But I’m free to act in concert with my conscience, my morality, my ethics, all the time. I understand the slippy slope here, of “well then people can do whatever they want and some people want to do horrible things.” Yep, and they do, and if they get caught, they face the consequences. That’s the way it goes, sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. You need to find those people and try and figure out how to get them to change their mind about what is moral, ethical, what will give them a clean conscience. But that’s all.
\nSo let me be clear about what I mean. I am free, I can do what I want, when I want and I don’t care what the government I live under states about it. If I wanted to go to Tehran, stand in the middle of the city, drop my pants and wipe my ass with a picture of Ayatollah\u00a0Ali Khamenei I am 100% free to do that. I can travel to Tehran, I can get a picture of the Ayatollah, I can drop my pants, I can wipe my ass. I am free to do these things. Now, will the government of Iran throw me in jail? Probably. They might kill me, I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. If that’s something I really wanted to do, I’m 100% free to do it. Do I think that’s worth doing? Do I think it needs to be done? No, I think the Ayatollah is an idiot, but I don’t really care that much. I wouldn’t do something like that. But it illustrates my point. If you’re not willing to face the consequences for something, it doesn’t mean you’re not free to do it. It means you either think it’s not worth it, or you’re scared. Simple as that.
\nSo when you say you don’t want to be limited in only being able to buy certain types of guns, what you’re really saying is you either don’t think it’s worth the consequences (which you don’t even know what they are) to own one without government approval, or you’re scared of the possible consequences (once again, you don’t know what those would be) for owning one. Either way, no one is limiting your freedom. They’re simply making you choose between what you ostensibly want to do, and consequences for doing it. The fact is, right now the consequence of you being able to buy firearms without so much as background check in most places in the United States is 30,000+ deaths per year. 13,000 murders. More than drunken driving accidents. The consequence of there being almost 1 privately owned firearm for every man, woman, and child in the Unites States is 3.2 deaths per every 100,000 citizens. What the people who want to seriously limit the way in which you purchase a weapon, possibly the types of weapons you can buy, and that you need to pass certain criteria of fitness to own said weapons is that they no longer wish to face the consequences, and that the onus should be on those who wish to express this freedom to face consequences.
\nYou are still free, you can freely buy any gun you want. Go ahead, but be prepared, if you slip, if something happens and you get caught, you’d have to face consequences. You know, instead of someone-you-don’t-even-know’s kids, or concert-goers, or movie-goers, or church-goers, or just some guy walking down the street, or some guy who got pulled over for a busted tail-light, or you know, some kid playing with mom and dad’s Glock unattended. Whatever. You’d have to face consequences, instead of them. That’s what this is at this point. You need to accept that unfettered access, and in so many places it really is, simply does not work. Any argument against localized gun control is only an argument for nation-wide regulations. Because you can drive to a state where it’s easy, or a city where it’s easy. Go to a gun show, and express your freedom, and then express your violence all over your area of choice. So something needs to be done nationally, and then if you really want a semi-automatic (I really think that’s a sensible and logical cut-off), then you can find a way to get one and get around the system and then hope you never get caught with it. Because you don’t need it for any reason.
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