Opinion | Michael E. Diamond: Want to know the truth about civilian gun culture? Ask a veteran.

“Michael E. Diamond served as a military intelligence officer in the United States Army Reserve for seven years.”

We should definitely listen to him. He knows everything.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel My simplistic response would be that everyday Americans have more rights and responsibilities than they can be responsible for!

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel the one thing that he misses is that there is a huge difference between a civilian born with rights under the Constitution and a Service Member who volunteered to protect those rights, even while sacrificing some of them during their service time. In a perfect world, there would be no need for guns. People would get along, hatred would not exist, governments would not fight among themselves and foreign governments, war would not exist, and so nobody would need or desire a firearm. That is not reality it is fantasy. When you boil all of our technology away, humans are animals. We have the same base desires as every other animal: survival and procreation. We like to believe that we have evolved beyond this, but we have not. We still have a desire to make our situation better to improve our status. Instead of the best hunter being the top of the pack, it is now the best earner, but the principle is the same. Even our technology serves to as a tool to elevate our status. So until the animal need to survive and procreate can be taken out of the equation you will always have alpha and beta people. The alphas have the power, the betas are controlled by the alphas. When a beta person wants to be an alpha, law of nature, they have to take it. Some do this productively by learning a new trade or improving their education so they can earn more elevating their status economically. Some do it by turning to crime taking what they want to elevate their status. Some turn to violence to elevate their stature. We have societal constructs that we use to overcome those animal instincts. Faith, laws, even governments are designed to put people on an equal footing. Yet they fail to achieve this. So instead of suggesting that we abandon the freedoms upon which this nation is founded in the name of safety, perhaps coming up with a solution for people feeding their base animal instincts would be a better route.