Happiness is a warm gun.

It is a little ironic that the title of one Beatles' tune is "Happiness is a warm gun" when one of the Beatles died because of a crazy man with a gun.  Obviously, we need to make sure that crazy people do not get or have guns. But how do we do that when one of our fundamental rights would be impinged?

Unlike many pro gun people, I am willing to listen to arguments that might affect my right to keep and bear arms.  I am not afraid of my neighbors, nor do I think that I need a gun for self defense. I do not have any intention of walking into stores with my guns on display, as this would be a shout for attention and not have anything about my right to keep and bear arms. But I do worry now and then that there is a slow erosion of our right to keep and bear arms as a check and balance against the power of an over reaching government.

Using guns as a tool of revolution is an important right.  Yet, it's not a right that our founding fathers felt would be exercised often.  They felt that the inefficient structure of our government, with multiple sovereigns would provide a check and balance against tyranny. 
Sadly, there was one big problem.  America chose "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" above "Peace, Order, and Good Government".  

The American myth would have us believe in the rugged individual, someone who needs no help from his friends.  The myth is embodied in the idea of the American Cowboy, someone who rides alone on the range, and only comes into town when delivering cattle to the railroad's stockyards.  If you look at the same Cowboy from Japanese eyes, they see a group forming to take care of a task, and focus on the function of the group and not the individual.  The truth lies somewhere in the middle of these positions.

I used the phrase "Peace, Order, and Good Government" in an earlier paragraph.  And this is what a lot of people think when they think of Canada.  They are just as prosperous as America, and yet, few people fear extreme poverty.  They have avoided warehousing their poor, and they treat their poor more humanely than we do.  No Canadian fears going broke because of medical bills, nor do Canadians worry about a Military Industrial complex starving the civilian economy of the funds needed for government to serve the people.

Canadians do not have a bill of rights that has the same force as those in the United States' Constitution. They have gradually traded freedom for security - but have done so, knowing what they have traded for. Two hundred and forty years ago, Americans would call them kin. But that was before the war of 1812. Now, we call them kindred folk - a very big difference, one that acknowledges the different evolution paths of our nations.

Am I advocating that we sacrifice our right to own guns for safety?  Definitely not!  But I feel that we should look at our neighbor to the North and learn from the things they are doing right - and then try to do them better.  One thing I can say, we'd never see bombastic windbags like Trump, Cruz, Santorum and others running the country.  Instead, we'd see a more middle of the road (albeit a little too far to the left for most Americans' tastes) leadership that focuses on the needs of the 95% instead of the 5%.