CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD

Gun ownership has reached a point that society is like a circular firing squad. The problem is the people in the middle are the ones who are getting killed.  I am not talking about sporting weapons or target weapons but handguns and assault rifles in the hands of wimps and cowards and otherwise unstable people. I could slough this off by saying, “Who cares; let them shoot each other.” The problem is that I do care. It is true I care more about the people who are in the middle of the circle as the shoot up each other but I am concerned about the heartache and grief they cause with their guns even if it each other they shoot.

 I have listened to all l their arguments for owning guns and have found them hollow. For example, their Second Amendment Rights argument they base on a deliberate and obvious misreading of the constitution. In the colonies, by law, every man had to own a gun and belong to the militia intended to protect their “soon to be state”. Against a background of developing domestic law enforcement intended to protect individuals from each other, the state governments knew they needed what amounted to an army to protect their state from other states; a militia is very different from individual “stand your ground” laws.

The people who are buying guns seem to be the least trained in how to use them or understand the power they have in their hands, the exclusive province of actual combat veterans and not want-a-bees like those over armed and under brained people we saw surrounding rancher Clevin Bundy. We know combat veterans are trained but also we know we can trust them with “responsible use” of a gun; they are not the “punks” who are buying the assault rifles, etc. I include the experienced deer, elk and moose, hunters. They know that guns can kill but also wound. Thus, I am not just referring to how to load or unload, turn on and off a safety latch, and aim and fire at a target but am talking about responsible self or family protection. Very few people really understand the balance of power when it comes to protecting them selves with a gun; even some experienced police need more training in that regard. I often think of this lack of ownership “responsibility” when I see a person with an assault rifle. I think in the same light when I see a person being pulled down the street by a pit bull with a studded collar and an extra heavy chain; does anyone really have to ask if this people knows how to train and control a dog. Do they really understand the potential force they have at the end of that chain? They obviously do not know that dog breeders and trainers trained this dog at the end of the chain to be a junkyard dog and should not coop them up in a small apartment and treat them as lap dogs.  

Gun manufacturers, supported by unscrupulous Republican political operatives such as Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, have bought and paid for a small bunch of “hate the government” nuts, “hate Obama” crazies, and other easily misguided punks, the pit bull owner types for example, to take over the National Rifle Association. This is sad commentary on our society, but what is a bigger tragedy is that many sports hunters, target shooters, and gun collectors have fallen under their spell—including some of my relatives—they should abandon the NRA and form their own organization that would stands for responsible gun ownership. They should stop being blinded by jingoistic crap and become leaders.    

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