A Few Words on Gun Control


A journal post by Rowan Blair Colver


We hear of it a lot; tragic, avoidable and traumatic death and injury because of guns and the people that fire them. It happens all too often. I make my position very clear on the matter of guns. Guns are deadly tools of violence which are a shameful invention and one which I wish would just disappear. I know this won't happen. They exist, the cat is out of the bag with guns. We cannot afford to aim for a world where all guns are a thing of the past, it is impossible to control the entire world and everyone in it. There are those who will turn to these powerful tools of harm in order to improve their strength, persuasion ability and confidence. Putting a weapon with only one purpose, to provide the exaggerated power to kill or cause significant damage, into the hands of anyone must have a very good reason.


In Britain, our gun control laws are strict. It is very hard to acquire the firepower to do significant harm with guns. If guns are used in crime, the facilities are there to find the culprit and the penalties in place are severe. Using guns in daily life in the UK is a very risky business and with a general consensus to avoid them, those who do use them often find themselves shunned into the underworld. In this part of society, where the criminals do their business, violence is more prevalent. However, one must be involved in it in order to be exposed to it to any major degree. If a person wishes to remain outside of criminal circles, it is very easy to do so. On the contrary, in order to become a trusted and openly criminal member of the underground world, one must undertake great personal risks in order to do so, cutting it fine – it's very hard to become part of that world. The closer you get to it, the more exposed you will become to violence. Compared to a society where guns are in every day usage, this makes the harm done by these weapons appear very low indeed.


In a country like America, where the gun culture has prevailed long enough to still be around today, it is not simply a matter of putting down the gun. We all know that the everyday American often feels that they rely on their gun to feel safe in their own home. Because of the high likelihood a criminal will be armed in the States, this may be an accurate truth. Let's be honest, we all need to feel safe in our homes and if good doors, locks and so on are not enough, then as a last resort, when faced with an armed criminal a gun may be advisable. Saying that, a life is far more valuable that any material goods, a TV, laptop, stereo etc. are all replaceable. A life, a human being cannot be replaced, each one is unique. Killing a person in order to save something which has no free will, no memories and no potential to grow is crazy and in my opinion, morally wrong. If it is your life, or the life of one of your children that is being threatened, then force would be reasonable, for me. Having seen the statistics and the continual wave of gun crimes that occur each day in the States, I feel that gun reform has to occur. A slow stranglehold on the ability of unbalanced people to acquire, carry and use weapons has to start. We know that a culture such as the American one cannot be asked to change overnight, like any strong and self assured personality, a change to meet current difficulties, taking responsibility for the issues of the day, must take time.


A gun is a powerful tool, much in the way that a car is one. Although a car has another primary purpose, other than killing, it is still capable of doing so. Everyone has the right to own and drive a car, if they so choose, but they first must comply with the regulated test. Once passed and proven, only then may they go out and legitimately purchase a car. Then, it must be insured, checked regularly and the fuel is taxed. This keeps all cars in the system and allows the drivers to each be held responsible for their driving. Why not do this with guns? It would mean that they would only end up in the hands of those who could afford them and can demonstrate proper use. It means that anyone found to be misusing their gun can have their license removed or suspended. Tax the ammunition, make it expensive to use one. Just like a car, it's still possible to drive but because of the price of fuel we tend to limit it to necessity and because of the license rules in place all drivers can be expected to be of a suitable standard and proficiency. It makes sense, to me. Some American people feel that a gun law is going against the second amendment of their constitution. To me, this seems a little absurd as when we are defending ourselves from an oppressor, we do not need written permission from anyone. It turns out that self defence laws work well enough for when we are forced to cause harm in order to protect ourselves. A written permission slip handed over to the bad guy like a school child to a teacher isn't going to matter, just do what you can to get rid of them like an adult.


Open carrying of guns for me is the one thing that is the route to the ease of gun crime. If it is not legal to carry a loaded weapon around with you then it will be much harder to take a loaded gun to somewhere and use it. I know that women often feel the need for a pistol in their bag and so on, and I accept this and would suggest that weapons designed for short range one on one protection are a class of their own but the same regulations need to be applied. To allow a person to carry a weapon around with them, I suggest a strict test, and registered weapons, some form of legal process which grants people the freedom to carry their weapon once they have demonstrated that they are prepared to use it responsibly. For weapons that are more powerful than a small pistol, automatics and long range weapons, the necessity for these deadly machines of killing is beyond me outside of a warzone. Maybe you want to be prepared and just incase the armys decend on you, feel that you can handle yourself. That's a very paranoid place to be in, mentally. Trust your neighbours, trust your friends, your country, a little bit more. Don't be the bad guy.


The main reason for using guns for crooks and for the good people is fear. Fear of guns. Everyone has to calm down, if you fear a gun you will feel more desire to own one. If you own one then others will fear it and feel more desire to own a better one, and so the cycle continues. Somewhere we have to stop and place our trust one someone. And I'm looking at those police officers now, those men and women who wear the uniform of the people. When I say calm down I am talking to you especially. Don't be the mirror to the society you're trying to serve and protect. Be braver than that.


Rowan Blair Colver

On Modern Day Christianity


By Rowan Blair Colver


If I may go back to my roots, for the time being, I wish to speak about Christianity. Like never before has the modern day church been so open and willing to include all who wish to learn from the biblical scriptures. They're great books, endowed with wisdom so deep that we could study them for our entire lives and still stumble upon new wisdom within their pages, new perspectives on God's truth that for Christian people, believe can be felt in the work. They're not the entirety of the teachings, but a selection of texts which were felt by theologians at the time to be the best representation of the entirety of their library, which had a decent flow and quality that could be ascribed to the same work. The Holy Bible as we know it of today is the result of this long ago work and now we have the luxury of many various adaptations, translations and histories at our fingertips with the ever increasing reach of the internet. We can also find books that were omitted, books that have been written about the bible and books written about God by Christians but have no relationship to the bible outside of their own context. The wealth of spiritual writings available to us all is growing by the day.

Like never before have we as people been at liberty to express our religious faith in our own ways. The churches, their clergy and their congregations are now freer to perceive the teachings for themselves. No more do the priests and bishops stand as middlemen between God and the general public, but as experts in the field, men and women who have given a large portion of their lives to study the known aspects of their religious faith and how to incorporate their truths into their own work, finding common ground. As a teacher who stands equal to their students, the clergy of today are ever more reaching out as brothers and sisters not mothers and fathers.
For some, if they are so lost, they may need a strong figure to anchor them and the church can provide this too. If someone is so in the dark and afraid that they will cling to anything, it is better to be in a good Christian community. If a person is in a position to understand and accept the bible word for word as a literal text, then perhaps it is better that they do at first. It is a safer place to be than many others. If a person wishes to see through the story and visit the infinite halls of wisdom that lay beyond the words, then the keys are easy for them to find. Translate the stories in the texts into meaningful transcriptions of your own life, and see how it feels. Decide if God's actions and your own are on the same wavelength, compare your attitude to that of Jesus, or that of one of the saints. The many gateways to the mystical side of the biblical scriptures are open for us all.

The days of the dominating church are fading fast, and congregations worldwide are opening their hearts to liberty and freedom of expression, the dogmas of the past are being swept aside and a new era of faith and communion of spirit is already growing fast. The time is always now and with a loss of the material desire for power and wealth like the days of the past, Christianity in the twenty-first century is a spiritual and positive movement towards gratitude for life and extending the olive branch to all who are afraid. If they wish to, let them grab hold and find a direction in the fair and humble world of Jesus Christ. I was raised on these teachings and turned out ok.



Rowan Blair Colver


Find more to read about modern Christianity here

Home Secretary Theresa May says coercive control "can be tantamount to torture".

"Domestic abuse is a hideous crime that shatters the lives of victims, trapping them in cycles of abuse that too often end in tragic and untimely deaths," she said.

"In many cases, dominance over the victim develops and escalates over the years until the perpetrator has complete control.

"The government is committed to protecting the victims of this terrible crime and it is clear that this new offence has the potential to save lives."


BBC Newsbeat 18th December 2014.

That's really interesting that you agree, Theresa. Seeing as your colleagues in the DWP including Mr Duncan Smith have been using these tactics for many years now. The number of suicides related to DWP coercion as you know are reaching the thousands of names.
How can it be that in the home this activity is illegal, but in government, it is legitimate? Surely, by using sanctions, benefits cuts and abusive language such as "Scrounger, Shirker and Work Shy" to blanket everyone who isn't paying income tax, this constitutes abuse and coercion. Of course we all want a decent life, a future, but for some it just isn't doable. The reasons are many, either low self esteem, mental health or physical health are the main causes for lack of income. I am sure you already know this. When dealing with this issue, using abuse and tactics such as starvation, eviction and name calling on public TV, newspapers and on the radio, is only serving to promote further suffering. A suffering that you, Theresa, have likened to "Tantamount to torture".
How can you justify this behaviour? Surely your colleagues at the DWP ought to be looking at 5 years each on their use of intimidation alone? Not considering the massive number of subsequent deaths.


Rowan Blair Colver

On the Nature of Desire


by

Rowan Blair Colver





On the surface, our wants and needs are represented by physical things, with purpose. We seek them for the purpose they give. Behind this physical symbol, the material stuff that gives our desires something to manifest into, is a spiritual desire that we want or need from within. This could be security, the feeling of being safe or, it could be love, the feeling of being cherished and cared about by another person or, the feeling of caring for someone other than ourselves.We attempt to find many routes to our spiritual desires, and for me I find that they can be sectioned almost perfectly into these two catagories. Security and Love are the two basic spiritual needs that we as humans attempt to fulfill.





This is a material world of life, and the things that surround us and that we associate with these feelings are made of material and are further represented mentally to mean things to others on universal levels of understanding. For example, money is understood by all and its values and rules of use are maintained. We use money to find security, as we can use it to provide material things for ourselves. All of our basic needs for survival can be met with the use of money in the society that we live in. It is perfectly reasonable to require it to gain a feeling of security. There are other ways of maintaining our life that do not require money but in its existence and in the limiations to life without it, it generally makes sense to use it. Once we have money we can then use it to buy the things we need to survive, if we any left we can choose to buy things that make our lives more comfortable, also. The levels of security that money can buy go into higher levels still, when we find that we can insure our possessions and even ourselves in exchange for money, which guarantees it back if antything should happen.





We are not asexual and independent beings, we as people do much better for ourselves when we have people around us. It makes good sense to be at peace with those people as the way they interact with us in the moment gives us our choice of possible paths. The people we meet and interact with are the key-holders to our future as we are the key-holders to theirs. Each individual has a life that, if it touches yours, will influence you in some way, large or small, and completely alter everything you do and think from that point onwards. We are moved in our lives everyday at subtle levels by what we see, hear and feel. The more positive the experience is, the more positive our outcomes will generally be. For anyone who has lived with feelings of guilt, they can especially understand how deep this wisdom can reach.





Finding ways to satisfy our requirements for security and comfort from love and acceptance can be done with material routes. It is possible to work hard, gain rewards and attract people with all the benefits of being who you are. Afterall, once you satisfy your own needs and are able to be yourself with more freedom, the right people will find their way to you. On the other hand, it may not be right for an indiviudal to take this route. Some people are not mentally or physically able to enter employment and be suitable for any role in particular. There are those of us who find the methodology of the daily work-pay environment difficult to maintain.





Then, there are some of us who are able to maintain a secure life and find their way in a work environment but still feel unfulfilled with themselves, they still feel these spiritual needs are left unmet. For these people the way to finding the satisfaction of security and acceptance is to look within. Discovering at which points your integrity fails and your emotions begin to control thinking rather than the other way around, is where we can find the answers to these wants. By studying ourselves, we can find our faults, like in a slab of bedrock deep underground. Our moral truth is for us alone and it isn't our place to dictate it to others, but our places of weakness, where we no longer have a clear path to mental peace, can be fortified with knowledge of self and a deep understanding of the causes and affects of these factors.




For those of us who struggle to find our place and role in our community and wider society, finding the satisfaction of these spiritual desires can be hard and full of moments of utter darkenss. Then for those of us who have all of our basic needs met but still continue to feel starved of any form of inner satisfaction, the struggle has to be turned to within. When we struggle with the truth about who we are, we are faced with a deep level of personal suffering if we attempt to avoid it. Any change to ourselves must be taken slowly and with complete understanding and acceptance of the self we are today, in this moment. The thoughts which associate self with the material version of these desires, be it money, jewels, pretty things, clothes or something more organic such as food, sex or a haircut, can be changed. The way we feel is something which changes, once we discover which thoughts we are able to change in this moment and open new paths for finding those spiritual answers. Where is my security, who is secure because of me, where is love and who do I love? Are questions we ask ourselves everyday and if we cannot find the material answers we think we need, we can adjust our expectations on this material world accordingly to allow new symbols for these desires, these core inner wants, to be fulfilled naturally.





Rowan Blair Colver