As my dad tells it, he was amid a normal service call in the fields of one of his best farming customers. This day was pretty ordinary except he had my cousin Richie, who was no bigger than a blade of timothy grass, along for the ride.
Then ordinary turned anything but.
With his focus squarely pointed toward the mechanical task at hand, a wack job with a loaded shotgun pointed it square at my dad’s head, threatening to pull the trigger at any moment. The tripped-out gunman, who turned out to be the son-in-law of the farmer, was certain that my dad was on the property stealing.
He was not.
And if the farmer wasn’t home to disarm the gunman after several intense minutes, there stands a strong likelihood I wouldn’t be here.
My dad, a concealed weapons permit holder in one of the most difficult states to be so, was able to have a weapon with him for every service call from there on out.
I pride myself on being open minded. And I’ve heard a lot in the last eight days about folks wanting to talk about gun control.
Let’s do it. I’m more than happy to converse about it. Part of engaging in the talk about gun control comes with the responsibility to get educated about the facts.
None of my arguments are new – many of them are circulating media channels and social media networks in unprecedented fashion. Very few are as powerful to me than the fact that our Commander in Chief does not spend any waking moment without armed security protecting his life.
That luxury is more than justified.
But any argument to reduce my ability to protect myself, is to say that my life is less important than the President’s. That very well could be true. My mama might beg to differ, just as I can assure you that I will utilize whatever means possible to protect my children. To me, they are the most valualbe lives on this earth.
I do not own any of the oft-reffered to “assault-type” guns. My reason is simple. The legal versions of these guns do not provide any advantage for me from several of the semi-automatic weapons I own when it comes to protecting my family. If they were to provide additional value on that front, you could bet your bottom dollar I would have one.
Why?
The evoloution of evil is scary. Anyone who thinks greater government meddling in gun rights will keep nimrods, or persons outside of their normal capacities, from performing evil acts is simply ignorant. Any further restrictions are only mandating the means for law-abiding citizens to react to that evil.
Among many of the things that still aren’t adding up to me is the fact that every single terrorist who performed the evil acts at schools in acts that are gaining media attention of late, were breaking the law the moment they stepped foot in an educational building with a weapon. THEY WERE BREAKING THE LAW. How will stricter gun control stop them from doing those hateful acts?
I’m all for talking about gun control. All I ask is that those talking come armed with the facts. Far too much is riding on it.
A Hunter's Tales - Hunting Blog 
December 23rd, 2012 at 12:11 am
Well said, bro. New laws aren’t going to stop lawbreakers. That’s why we call them lawbreakers.
December 23rd, 2012 at 3:16 am
But nobody is ready to have this discussion which is unfortunately such a huge problem
January 10th, 2013 at 11:34 am
At the core of all that the US Constitution tries to accomplish, there is one Amendment that guarantee’s and makes all of the others possible. With out it we would not have the guarantee of freedom of expression, freedom to worship or not worship as we choose, freedom to worship God, allah, wicca or what ever, freedom from unfair persecution, freedom of assembly be it a political rally, a religious event or even to protest the establishment. We would not have freedom of the press, freedom from slavery, freedom to have a relationship with whomever we want, different sex or not. We would not even have the guarantee of a representative government without it.
This Amendment gives the citizens of this country a recourse and/or protection from outside invasion. It protects us from a government, ours or another, that decides it does not need the representation of the people to decide what is right for us. You see the Second Amendment gives us a lot that we take for granted.
While the events over the last few years with all of the mass killings are very tragic and I am saddened by the events. Guns are not the cause of these killings. Guns were only the tools used. If it wasn’t for the guns some other tool would be used. In the Bible Samson killed 1000 men, the tool was the jawbone of a donkey. In Oklahoma City a man killed 168 people, the tool used was fertilizer and diesel fuel. I could go on and on with mass killings that were not gun related. The point is the person did the killing not the tool.
We need to address what is causing the person to take up the tool.
At each one of the shootings the news media was all over it. To the point that lots of false information was released with the rush to beat the competition. This rush and constant reporting created notoriety for the killer. What is wrong with reporting the events when you know the facts and not harping on it?
We need to have new ideas on mental issues. How many of use or our family members have had some mental issues and would not act on them because of the stigma of a mental problems? How many parents have tried to cover up Autism in their children? How many have overlooked a person suffering from bipolar disease stopping their medicine?
Video Games with violence in them are a problem. Some people just cannot recognize that life does not have a reset button at the end of it. How many parents and grandparents have bought their underage child or grandchild a video game when the child is to young to buy it? How many of them excuses their child’s constant addiction to them with something like “O they are bashful”?
While I don’t have one, high capacity magazines for guns should not be outlawed. A law abiding citizen needs them for only 2 reasons. 1 to defend themselves from an out law, 2 to assist with the defense of this country should the need arise for the citizens to defend from invasion.
In closing, we as citizens need to demand that our society address the real issues of violence.
We need to tell the other counties that are pressuring for our gun control to let us govern our self.
America is the only truly successful Democratic Republic in the world. We brought about the changes in government that forced the other so called free countries to accept the fact that citizens have rights. We and our citizens familiarity with guns has bailed this world out many times in the last 100 years. Let us solve this issue of violence in our society without laying the ground work for a tyrant gaining control of our country. Lets not restrain the press, just make it responsible.
And most of all lets accept the fact that all of us are not perfect and some of us have problems. Lets find ways to help those who need help with mental issues.