(Time of original posting: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 9:58am)
There are two sides to any issue. I know quite a few gun owners who have an immense respect and appreciation for gun safety. They take every precaution, they most certainly do not treat their guns as "toys," and go to great lengths to educate themselves on the subject. There are probably quite a few gun owners on a hair trigger who see their guns as their last and only resort in any given conflict or situation, but I do believe that the majority of gun owners are respectable citizens just like anybody else. A lot of gun owners probably hear about these school shootings and, between bouts of grief for the horrible tragedy, probably feel an intense hatred towards the shooter, as the shooter inevitably paints all gun owners as trigger-happy malcontents who are an inch away from blowing the head off the nearest innocent bystander. You could be the safest, most precautionary gun owner in the world, follow all the rules, and do everything right, and all it takes is one trigger happy lunatic for the people around you to see you as an unstable, gun-toting maniac.
I can honestly appreciate that.
That said, it is easier to get a gun license in this country than it is to get a driver's license. It is easier to buy a gun than it is to buy a pet. You can walk into a Wal-Mart and pick up parts and ammo for any number of weapons, from concealable handguns to high caliber rifles. Many gun owners are not generally fans of regulation, but in case it wasn't abundantly clear, we regulate just about everything in this country. We regulate alcohol, we regulate prescription drugs, we regulate tobacco, we regulate vehicles, we regulate movies, TV shows and video games by age group, and yes, we regulate guns.
Anything that is potentially harmful, anything that you wouldn't want a child to pick up and play with, anything that could hurt or kill someone if handled incorrectly, is and should be regulated. It's not tyrannical to try to keep these things out of the hands of someone who doesn't know how to or has no intention to handle it correctly. I'm not saying gun owners are unintelligent - quite the opposite, many of my friends and family own guns, and they are very smart about the way that they handle them. We're not asking that gun owners give up their right to bear arms, we're just asking that they be smart about it. We know that you know how to handle your weapon. We're just asking that you go through the right channels to make sure that it's the intelligent gun owner like you who gets the gun, and not the psychopath who decides to shoot up a school.
There are two sides to any issue. I know quite a few gun owners who have an immense respect and appreciation for gun safety. They take every precaution, they most certainly do not treat their guns as "toys," and go to great lengths to educate themselves on the subject. There are probably quite a few gun owners on a hair trigger who see their guns as their last and only resort in any given conflict or situation, but I do believe that the majority of gun owners are respectable citizens just like anybody else. A lot of gun owners probably hear about these school shootings and, between bouts of grief for the horrible tragedy, probably feel an intense hatred towards the shooter, as the shooter inevitably paints all gun owners as trigger-happy malcontents who are an inch away from blowing the head off the nearest innocent bystander. You could be the safest, most precautionary gun owner in the world, follow all the rules, and do everything right, and all it takes is one trigger happy lunatic for the people around you to see you as an unstable, gun-toting maniac.
I can honestly appreciate that.
That said, it is easier to get a gun license in this country than it is to get a driver's license. It is easier to buy a gun than it is to buy a pet. You can walk into a Wal-Mart and pick up parts and ammo for any number of weapons, from concealable handguns to high caliber rifles. Many gun owners are not generally fans of regulation, but in case it wasn't abundantly clear, we regulate just about everything in this country. We regulate alcohol, we regulate prescription drugs, we regulate tobacco, we regulate vehicles, we regulate movies, TV shows and video games by age group, and yes, we regulate guns.
Anything that is potentially harmful, anything that you wouldn't want a child to pick up and play with, anything that could hurt or kill someone if handled incorrectly, is and should be regulated. It's not tyrannical to try to keep these things out of the hands of someone who doesn't know how to or has no intention to handle it correctly. I'm not saying gun owners are unintelligent - quite the opposite, many of my friends and family own guns, and they are very smart about the way that they handle them. We're not asking that gun owners give up their right to bear arms, we're just asking that they be smart about it. We know that you know how to handle your weapon. We're just asking that you go through the right channels to make sure that it's the intelligent gun owner like you who gets the gun, and not the psychopath who decides to shoot up a school.
