I try to limit my rants to few things, but seeing as everyone is still talking about how terrible every gun in America is; I think it is time I rant too.
There is a lot of in depth proposals asking for things like mental health searches for gun applicants and longer wait periods and banning of guns that are very similar in function to guns that most people accept, except for in name and styling.
I think that though these measures may in the short term (a decade or two) help things, there are other things that need to be addressed as well and in all honestly these other things are the more important issues. This should be the talking point of the idiot gun nuts. I grew up in a red neck rural state. Maine. There is a very high rate of gun ownership up here and it is not unusual to find "average" Mainers with several firearms. (Often an "hunting" rifle, a shotgun, maybe a light caliber rifle like a .22 and quite possibly a pistol of some sort) Maine is one of the safest states in the country as far as shooting deaths, despite the relative high number of guns. And the gun laws in Maine are actually quite lenient. (Assuming the information on the websites I had read is at least partly right)
One of the biggest things that need to be done is education. People need to understand firearms and need to learn responsibility for their actions. I was raised into a family that is not that unusual for my area. Kind of redneck, but not in the ignorant (they gunna take my guns when they pry it from my dead hands) sort way. I was taught very clearly, very early that guns are a tool. And any tool can be dangerous. You learn to respect the tool because it has a purpose and should never be misused because it is dangerous to fool around with tools. And to never and I mean never fire at a human or in a direction that there might be a human, ever.
You do not hand some idiot a chainsaw, tell him to go cut a tree down and expect him to do it safely. You should not hand someone a gun, not teacher them the responsibility and expect them to be any better.
Educate the people, especially the children and the anit-gun people who have never fired or held a gun in their life. These two core groups among everyone are the most important groups to teach. The children need to be taught because whether we are willing to admit to our own mortality or not the children really are the future and they should be given everything we wanted in ourselves for freedoms. And they should be raised to be better people than we are. And instill upon them that ideal that we should all aim to be better and to help make the world a better place. This approach may seem ridiculous or silly, but it is the long ball. The shot that is not focused on the immediate return, but what will be gained later. This would work, if people were will to be that active in the lives of the youth. Teach them of the tool of its danger, proper use, instill the desire to save lives not take them and to pass this philosophy forward and most gun crimes would be gone in a couple generations.
We need to educate those who speak out against guns but refuse to understand them because they will always want to be rid of guns. That is their right as Americans. However, they should understand what it is they fear. They should be trained in all the proper safety usages as should everyone. They should be able to tell what the difference between a hunting rifle and a semi-automatic assault rifle with a standard magazine is, aside from the fact that one looks like what soldiers use and the other doesn't. Teach them about the areas of the country where gun ownership is highest, but violent crimes involving a gun are the lowest. It may not make any difference to them. But at least they will know what they are really fighting about now, not just the spin that either side of the guns argument want to spew forth. Blind hatred is no better than blindly denying all accountability.
After these two groups we do need to focus on everyone in general. Teach the people that really do not care one way or another, because on day they may have to vote on this issue and ignorance is not a excuse to randomly hop on whatever bandwagon sounds the best at the time. Causal voters need to educated, because if it comes to a vote, it will be messy and most people will not know what to believe or which way is up. Learn now while the true facts are still relatively unmarred, albeit a bit tedious to find.
Teaching safety to responsible gun owners may sound like a bad idea; however no one should ever forget or underestimate the power of the tool they own. This goes for the tools that plug into walls and do not fire bullets too.
Lastly we can try teaching the violent criminals with past gun charges and the truly reformed ones will adhere to law. The problem is, the ones that truly want to hurt people will never respect law. They want a gun, they will find one. If by some chance the honestly cannot get one, they will find some weapon to use as attack. Guns are convenient. That is why they are popular for criminals. But banning them does not stop crime; it just makes it closer and more personal.
To reduce the number of guns I support turn in programs and other such ambitions. I also have no quandaries with bans pertaining to high capacity magazines and fully automatic weapons. The background check is problematic at best. I understand the need for it, however I believe the current disqualifications are haphazard and should be re-worked in the near future. Nor do I believe that Mental Health should be a automatic disqualification (which is currently a popular proposal in instating). The fact is, not everyone that kills has a history of mental health issues. And not all people with mental health issues are dangerous. For that matter, nor are all people with a criminal record dangerous. That may sound ignorant to some, however as much as I love my country, but the criminal justice system is flawed and in many ways biased. (That however is a whole different matter facing this country) Though I support bans on people deemed as high risk or career criminals. And temporary bans (5-10 years) for most people, especially if no further crimes have been committed and truly have tried to recycle themselves into society.
So I sincerely hope that if you hung around to read this whole thing you are willing to thinking more broadly, if not differently about the firearms issues facing the people at large.
There is a lot of in depth proposals asking for things like mental health searches for gun applicants and longer wait periods and banning of guns that are very similar in function to guns that most people accept, except for in name and styling.
I think that though these measures may in the short term (a decade or two) help things, there are other things that need to be addressed as well and in all honestly these other things are the more important issues. This should be the talking point of the idiot gun nuts. I grew up in a red neck rural state. Maine. There is a very high rate of gun ownership up here and it is not unusual to find "average" Mainers with several firearms. (Often an "hunting" rifle, a shotgun, maybe a light caliber rifle like a .22 and quite possibly a pistol of some sort) Maine is one of the safest states in the country as far as shooting deaths, despite the relative high number of guns. And the gun laws in Maine are actually quite lenient. (Assuming the information on the websites I had read is at least partly right)
One of the biggest things that need to be done is education. People need to understand firearms and need to learn responsibility for their actions. I was raised into a family that is not that unusual for my area. Kind of redneck, but not in the ignorant (they gunna take my guns when they pry it from my dead hands) sort way. I was taught very clearly, very early that guns are a tool. And any tool can be dangerous. You learn to respect the tool because it has a purpose and should never be misused because it is dangerous to fool around with tools. And to never and I mean never fire at a human or in a direction that there might be a human, ever.
You do not hand some idiot a chainsaw, tell him to go cut a tree down and expect him to do it safely. You should not hand someone a gun, not teacher them the responsibility and expect them to be any better.
Educate the people, especially the children and the anit-gun people who have never fired or held a gun in their life. These two core groups among everyone are the most important groups to teach. The children need to be taught because whether we are willing to admit to our own mortality or not the children really are the future and they should be given everything we wanted in ourselves for freedoms. And they should be raised to be better people than we are. And instill upon them that ideal that we should all aim to be better and to help make the world a better place. This approach may seem ridiculous or silly, but it is the long ball. The shot that is not focused on the immediate return, but what will be gained later. This would work, if people were will to be that active in the lives of the youth. Teach them of the tool of its danger, proper use, instill the desire to save lives not take them and to pass this philosophy forward and most gun crimes would be gone in a couple generations.
We need to educate those who speak out against guns but refuse to understand them because they will always want to be rid of guns. That is their right as Americans. However, they should understand what it is they fear. They should be trained in all the proper safety usages as should everyone. They should be able to tell what the difference between a hunting rifle and a semi-automatic assault rifle with a standard magazine is, aside from the fact that one looks like what soldiers use and the other doesn't. Teach them about the areas of the country where gun ownership is highest, but violent crimes involving a gun are the lowest. It may not make any difference to them. But at least they will know what they are really fighting about now, not just the spin that either side of the guns argument want to spew forth. Blind hatred is no better than blindly denying all accountability.
After these two groups we do need to focus on everyone in general. Teach the people that really do not care one way or another, because on day they may have to vote on this issue and ignorance is not a excuse to randomly hop on whatever bandwagon sounds the best at the time. Causal voters need to educated, because if it comes to a vote, it will be messy and most people will not know what to believe or which way is up. Learn now while the true facts are still relatively unmarred, albeit a bit tedious to find.
Teaching safety to responsible gun owners may sound like a bad idea; however no one should ever forget or underestimate the power of the tool they own. This goes for the tools that plug into walls and do not fire bullets too.
Lastly we can try teaching the violent criminals with past gun charges and the truly reformed ones will adhere to law. The problem is, the ones that truly want to hurt people will never respect law. They want a gun, they will find one. If by some chance the honestly cannot get one, they will find some weapon to use as attack. Guns are convenient. That is why they are popular for criminals. But banning them does not stop crime; it just makes it closer and more personal.
To reduce the number of guns I support turn in programs and other such ambitions. I also have no quandaries with bans pertaining to high capacity magazines and fully automatic weapons. The background check is problematic at best. I understand the need for it, however I believe the current disqualifications are haphazard and should be re-worked in the near future. Nor do I believe that Mental Health should be a automatic disqualification (which is currently a popular proposal in instating). The fact is, not everyone that kills has a history of mental health issues. And not all people with mental health issues are dangerous. For that matter, nor are all people with a criminal record dangerous. That may sound ignorant to some, however as much as I love my country, but the criminal justice system is flawed and in many ways biased. (That however is a whole different matter facing this country) Though I support bans on people deemed as high risk or career criminals. And temporary bans (5-10 years) for most people, especially if no further crimes have been committed and truly have tried to recycle themselves into society.
So I sincerely hope that if you hung around to read this whole thing you are willing to thinking more broadly, if not differently about the firearms issues facing the people at large.