First thing off my mind is something serious. Ulaca asked me how I felt about gun control over a week ago and I have had a lot of time to think about the question. The honest answer is that I don't know.
If you have been following me for a little while you will know that I come from a family that hunts. SB comes from a family that hunts. If you asked me about hunting I would be able to give a more confident answer. I have no problem with my hunting of deer. They are over-populous thanks to urbanization, limited vegetation and their ability to reproduce quickly and easily. I don't need to rely on deer meat. Even though probably every generation of the fifteen generations of my family that has lived in the United States has probably shot their food, I don't consider it to be a cultural tradition although it is a family tradition and did come in handy during lean times. As a hunter, I am an advocate of the safety courses and other stipulations that are part of a hunting license in my state. Hunters are regulated strictly. We can only hunt during certain seasons, in certain areas, and only with limits and licenses. The game warden, also known as the conservation officer or wildlife officer, is a seriously scary dude. If you misuse your hunting license you will be in a lot of trouble, possibly arrested, and a ban on hunting will not be shortened due to overcrowding like many prison sentences are for other sorts of criminals. So yes, I am an advocate of hunting as it can be carefully regulated and controlled.
I cannot use the same reasoning for possession of personal protection arms. I should reveal that I was also a handgun owner when I lived in Texas, but not when I moved to New York because I lived in a home with roommates. If people like me ruled the world there would be no problem with handguns, but then I imagine that I wouldn't need a handgun if people like me ruled the world because we would all be busy raising our chickens and playing rugby.
Unfortunately, people like my imaginary perfect self do not populate the world. Bad people, and even worse- dumb people exist. Being a handgun owner is a responsibility that a lot of us don't even think about. You would be an idiot to own a gun and not be able to protect yourself. I practiced at a range probably once per month. I cleaned the gun after every shooting session and then gave it a really good cleaning twice per year. I was always checking and rechecking where I had it hidden, and I always had to move it to a closet and lock it in a hidden safe when I had visitors. If I hadn't lived in the middle of the country in Southwest Texas and had not been given the gun by a family member I would not have owned it.
Like babies, I wish we could strictly license gun owners but there are some issues with those requirements. My country is rooted on concepts of freedom and free will. We allow almost anyone to reproduce as it is his/her natural right and only remove that right after a person has proved themselves to be undeserving or incapable. We feel similarly about guns. We try to teach responsibility and social order but we believe that all citizens have a right to own guns.
And this is where I am torn. I think that I may agree in principle but not in practice. Our capacity to do great harm with our firearms gives me pause. I would agree to regulate because of that but what about my rights as a US citizen? Is legalizing a clip that will allow you to fire thirty rounds part of my constitutional right or is it just irresponsible? What responsible gun owner needs to use thirty shots to defend himself/herself?
I also saw a lot of danger with a former boyfriend's handgun ownership. I won't get into the whole story but will share that he legally carried a concealed weapon and we never had an incident but I was always worried because he had gotten it after a coworker tried to fight with him and I thought that he was carrying it for all the wrong reasons (bravado). I think he should have learned not to be such an ass that people wanted to punch him rather than arming himself to feel in control, but luckily knowing that he carried a weapon caused me to work very hard to diffuse anything that might have become a situation.
Whenever I hear Johnny Cash's Don't Take Your Guns to Town, I think about my year of living nervously and wonder if we need other options.
What do you think? Does anyone out there have another opinion?
If you have been following me for a little while you will know that I come from a family that hunts. SB comes from a family that hunts. If you asked me about hunting I would be able to give a more confident answer. I have no problem with my hunting of deer. They are over-populous thanks to urbanization, limited vegetation and their ability to reproduce quickly and easily. I don't need to rely on deer meat. Even though probably every generation of the fifteen generations of my family that has lived in the United States has probably shot their food, I don't consider it to be a cultural tradition although it is a family tradition and did come in handy during lean times. As a hunter, I am an advocate of the safety courses and other stipulations that are part of a hunting license in my state. Hunters are regulated strictly. We can only hunt during certain seasons, in certain areas, and only with limits and licenses. The game warden, also known as the conservation officer or wildlife officer, is a seriously scary dude. If you misuse your hunting license you will be in a lot of trouble, possibly arrested, and a ban on hunting will not be shortened due to overcrowding like many prison sentences are for other sorts of criminals. So yes, I am an advocate of hunting as it can be carefully regulated and controlled.
I cannot use the same reasoning for possession of personal protection arms. I should reveal that I was also a handgun owner when I lived in Texas, but not when I moved to New York because I lived in a home with roommates. If people like me ruled the world there would be no problem with handguns, but then I imagine that I wouldn't need a handgun if people like me ruled the world because we would all be busy raising our chickens and playing rugby.
Unfortunately, people like my imaginary perfect self do not populate the world. Bad people, and even worse- dumb people exist. Being a handgun owner is a responsibility that a lot of us don't even think about. You would be an idiot to own a gun and not be able to protect yourself. I practiced at a range probably once per month. I cleaned the gun after every shooting session and then gave it a really good cleaning twice per year. I was always checking and rechecking where I had it hidden, and I always had to move it to a closet and lock it in a hidden safe when I had visitors. If I hadn't lived in the middle of the country in Southwest Texas and had not been given the gun by a family member I would not have owned it.
Like babies, I wish we could strictly license gun owners but there are some issues with those requirements. My country is rooted on concepts of freedom and free will. We allow almost anyone to reproduce as it is his/her natural right and only remove that right after a person has proved themselves to be undeserving or incapable. We feel similarly about guns. We try to teach responsibility and social order but we believe that all citizens have a right to own guns.
And this is where I am torn. I think that I may agree in principle but not in practice. Our capacity to do great harm with our firearms gives me pause. I would agree to regulate because of that but what about my rights as a US citizen? Is legalizing a clip that will allow you to fire thirty rounds part of my constitutional right or is it just irresponsible? What responsible gun owner needs to use thirty shots to defend himself/herself?
I also saw a lot of danger with a former boyfriend's handgun ownership. I won't get into the whole story but will share that he legally carried a concealed weapon and we never had an incident but I was always worried because he had gotten it after a coworker tried to fight with him and I thought that he was carrying it for all the wrong reasons (bravado). I think he should have learned not to be such an ass that people wanted to punch him rather than arming himself to feel in control, but luckily knowing that he carried a weapon caused me to work very hard to diffuse anything that might have become a situation.
Whenever I hear Johnny Cash's Don't Take Your Guns to Town, I think about my year of living nervously and wonder if we need other options.
What do you think? Does anyone out there have another opinion?
Comments
I think that it's in the public interest to require people to be licensed to use and carry guns in the same way that it is in the public interest to license people to drive cars, trucks, and motorcycles.
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/education/hed/hed_gun_laws.htm
Plenty of people hunt in Massachusetts.
I hope the nose is on the mend.
I think there's probably a middle ground between let everyone carry an AK-47 to church and ban all guns outright.
We're in awe of the Constitution because it's a pretty amazing document that's stood the test of time. Neither side should try to tear it apart for their own agenda.