Guns, and gun control

Before everyone starts calling me another whining liberal, let me explain that I grew up around firearms. Although raised by a single mom, we lived very close to my Aunt and Uncle (my mothers brother, who was both an ex Marine and a former Detroit police officer).

My uncle used to take me out to open air ranges where I learned to shoot, starting with a Remington Nylon .22 Caliber rifle, and, when I would visit my cousins farm in Ohio, I learned trap and skeet with a 20 gauge shotgun. As I got older (in my teens), I moved up to a 16, and then a 12 gauge, and would go with my uncle to his gun clubs. I eventually owned my very own Marlin 30-30 rifle with scope, and a Remington 12 gauge pump action shotgun. I learned gun safety, and responsibility from day one. I learned to care for firearms, and to respect the power that I was enabled with, when one was in my hands. These things were more than emphasized. They were law! I either got it right and took it seriously, or there would be no more shooting outings with my uncle. It was much like when I was taking flying lessons out at Van Nuys Airport. You do the ground school. You learn what makes the aircraft work, before somebody puts a yoke, throttle, and a trim wheel in your hands and says “fly the plane”. You learn about the rudder, and the torque that necessitates the use of it during level flight. You learn about instrumentation, and flying by it. You do it first in a sim, then you go up and wear a hood. You can not take a plain up, unless you pilfer one, and fly it around, without proper training and credentials.

I have shot a few handguns over the years as well, including a vintage German Lugar, a Walther PPK, A Colt 45., and a Browning 9mm. All were in my uncle’s gun collection. We were not hunters though, and I’m glad that my uncle did not hunt, due to my life long love for animals. Our thing was target shooting, and believe me, one can have a blast (terrible pun, I know), at a rifle or pistol range, or at a trap or skeet club, and we did these things often! This avuncular influence was very important to a kid growing up without a dad in the house, and I looked up to, and respected my uncle very much.

I don’t own any firearms today. I guess I outgrew it, and traded the gun for the camera, which I can safely and happily point at a living creature, and then capture a memory for life! I do however, believe in the right to bear arms. What I am opposed to is the flood of illegal weapons on the streets, and in the wrong hands, and there has to be a way of controlling this. Tougher gun laws, if properly enforced, will not interfere with the rights of ligitimate sportsman, collectors, and even hunters, who although I see no need to kill an animal in this day and age (it’s not a necessity as it once was for food), still have the right to do so under the law (weather or not they should have this right is another debate, but off topic here).

My point is about keeping guns out of the wrong hands, and this cannot be accomplished without some sort of enforceable controls.

Each and every owner of an automatic pistol, or rifle should have to be certified, and registered. Those with federal firearms permits (these allow one to legaly deal in, and sell firearms) should be audited regularly, and be held accountable as to who they have sold a weapon to at a gun show, or anywhere else (what are we afraid of? That someone like China is going to walk in, invade our country, look at the registrar of gun owners, then come to our doors and take them all away? Please! This was a valid argument maybe, during the days of the American revolution, but not today).

I have a drivers license. No matter where I travel in north America, if I were pulled over for a traffic violation, within seconds of running my name, DL number, and state of issue, the cop would know if there were outstanding warrants, and if I was a convicted felon or not. He would know if I had a parking ticket in Alaska, if I were stopped in Key Biscayne, and a cop in Amsterdam would know if I owed a fine in England! Our “freedom” is already gone. It has been a dinosaur for years.

I’m not saying that I want to avoid paying parking tickets. I pay them when I get them. I’m not saying that I want to change my identity. I don’t. I’m very happy being me. I am however, pointing out that for someone who wants to drive a car, start a business, buy property, invest in a business, or in the public markets, or otherwise live a law abiding life in this, or most countries today, one must give up there freedom, and become a taxable number.

If we can enforce the tax code as efficiently as we do, and keep track of one who owes a parking ticket in Alaska, we can certainly keep track of the sale of firearms in this, and other countries, and believe me, by doing so we are not infringing upon any freedoms that we have not already lost, long, long ago.

Comments

[Andy Swan]

I find the argument offensive... that just because the federal government has successfully used methods of restricting our freedoms in some areas, that those same methods SHOULD be used to infringe on freedoms specifically laid out in the BILL OF RIGHTS.

The ENTIRE POINT of the 2nd amendment was to allow citizens to FIGHT BACK AGAINST the government, and therefore give the government pause when deciding to restrict freedoms.

To say that the government should have exact knowledge of the number and types of weapons held by citizens completely defeats this purpose....although it does seem to complement the concept of providing enemy nations/groups with TIMELINES of attack/withdrawl in the instance of war....amazing.

The government has no business knowing what guns I have, what car I drive or how much money I make. Thanks to "surrender now" types like Majority "leader" Harry, personal freedoms are a laughable thing of the past--surrendered to the idiotic concept of a nanny-state that can cure the problems of humanity by restricting human freedoms.

[Andy Swan]

The way to maximize safety and personal freedom at the same time is not by putting the fed government in charge of feeble attempts to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.

It is by encouraging the RIGHT people to own, carry and safely use firearms. The RIGHT people are 90% of the population, and instead of making guns the enemy, we should be educating people on the ways in which gun ownership IMPROVES societal safety and ENCOURAGING people to carry them.

Personally, I feel MUCH safer at a gun show or NRA convention than I do in any silly "gun free zone" where I'm fully aware that my fellow law-abiding citizens have no chance of defending me from those that follow no laws.

[Andy Swan]

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