I hear via the grape vine that my nephews and nieces among other relatives are unhappy about my stand on gun control. I find it ironic, that the most adamant are the deer hunters, the very ones whose rights I am concern me the most. You know guns. You have grown up with them in your closets with tennis rackets fishing rods, baseball bats, etc. You like my brother and brother-in-law and I grew up learning how to track deer, hunt for ducks, shoot geese, flush out pheasants and quail, wait until a squirrel or rabbit stopped rabbits. You guys are expert hunters. I know for certain, you would be ashamed to be caught going into the woods to hunt deer with a 30 round clip or an assault weapon—it would be an admission you did not know what they are doing. Yet, some among you oppose bands on assault weapons. Why?
There can only be one reason. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has so poisoned the environment that everyone thinks the government is going to come and take their hunting guns. That’s crazy talk. Gun manufacturer greed drives the NRA to convince you this is the case. The people who make guns are not content making money by manufacture of hunting weapons; they want more. It is the military industrial complex at work; the thing about which Eisenhower warned us. They designed and built guns and clips to kill lots people in a big hurry for the military. The government paid them well paid to do that. Now that they have the assembly lines up and running they can use an advertising campaign to sell a few more guns at little added costs—low costs equals big profits.
Here is my message to my nephews, fight like hell for gun control, you as hunters are the ones who will benefit the most by gun control but more importantly, you and your families will benefit more by being safe in schools, shopping centers, and theaters. You as hunters know the fog of excitement experienced by an amateur known as buck fever. You can appreciate more than most that an experienced deer hunter like an experience solider, knows if some demented individual with a handgun starts shooting at it is too late. People have already been killed! Because of your experience with guns, you know what it would take to pull out a gun and command the situation by killing the aggressor. You know how dangerous it is to have a loaded gun in your pocket “at all times”. Because you know what it means to kill. You also know how dangerous it is to have a gun in the hands of an armature. Wayne LaPierre’s council that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” is nice rhetoric but it is also immature nonsense.
Gun control is a classic emotional panic management feel good reaction that does nothing to get to the root of the problem. We as a nation need to find a system of identifing the demented individuals at an early age and help them or keep track of them. We need to change the culture of this country's younger generation. Start with K though 12 reciting the ten comandments before the start of each school day. We all know the second amendment has nothing to do about hunting guns. To often in this country the minority of the people are making changes that only serve their own special beliefs. My take is if you don't like assualt weapons then don't buy one, but don't try and stop me from buying one. Reread the second admendment.
ReplyDeleteMy point in the post was that my deer hunting friends know guns and know how to handle guns. Similarly, men, and now women, who have combat experience (not just military experience), would also receive my respect. I would feel safe if they were to buy a useless assault weapon but they never would because they know guns. The people who seem to be buying these weapons are macho types that think they will gain respect if they are seen toting a weapon designed to kill people or nut job anarchists. survivalists. I would invite them to tell me the difference between respect and fear. I fear them but do not respect them. I do not want them to have assault weapons because they are putting my family, if not my family, then other families in danger just by having guns like that in our society.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I am more worried about some nut job with a hand gun putting my family in danger than someone with a long gun. You are correct, as life long hunter I will not own an assault weapon or a hand gun. However I am not willing to give up my right to purchase one. My point is that it is not the weapon, but the person operating the weapon. Removing one means of inflicting harm will not make the problem go away. Every life is special and we should do everthing we can to protect it. Lets not waste time on measures that will do nothing to prevent loss of life. Do you believe it is better if only one life is lost than ten? I am sure you don't so lets work on a real solution that will provide real results. We start by changing the culture of this country by educating the youngest.
DeleteThank you for your honest comment. I too am worried about the nut job with handgun. Your comment that guns do not kill people; people kill people, is true, however, people with guns do kill people. What the ban does is remove one of the two elements of the “people with guns kill people”. Therefore, I disagree with your premise that banning assault weapons and high capacity clips will “do nothing”. And, by the way I am sure that I do believe it is better if only one life is lost rather than ten.
ReplyDeleteI am open to your suggestions about how we change the culture; please guide me. tell me how. What is it we should teach our children? As an aside, I believe life is important no matter where you find it but I also believe quality of life is important. If your quality of life is enhanced by the pleasure you get from hunting, then you should be able to go hunting, which is why I feel guns used for hunting are a good thing.
Ok lets look at this. If I do as you say and take out the gun it looks to me that I am left with "people kill people" Of the two elements, we focous on the people the gun is irrevelant. If we focus on the gun we still have the nut job who wants to kill. Look if we kill ten people one at a time or ten all at once we still have ten dead people. We need to take our emotions out of this and find a logical solution. So back to cultral change. We teach our childern as I was in sunday school each week Tho shall not kill. We are beating racism through education of our young people we can do the same with education of the importance of life and other ways of resolving differences. The cub scouts have 12 very teachable values that could be taught to all of the children. Heck, I am no expert here I just have some opions as you do. I would just like to see the focus be on the root cause.
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