Interesting rules on another site im on

We DO have too many people shooting innocent people, both intentionally and accidentally. I don’t know all the reasons we have more per person than other countries. I do suspect access makes it easier here than elsewhere, but access does not equal cause. As a responsible (former*) gun owner, I think all the anti gun folks need to stop making enemies and pariahs out of us, and instead start asking for insight. The NRA has been viewed as Demon Number 1 by the left, ignoring the fact that, as Wild Bill said, they’re heavily involved in teaching and fostering responsible and safe gun ownership, including providing certified range instructors to the BSA’s shooting sports program. We as a nation do have a shooting problem, but my (former*) guns, nor Bill’s nor Gary’s, nor anyone elses’ caused it.
Even if the BandAid of ‘gun control’ is effective elsewhere, we have at least two major obstacles to it. 2A ain’t going away, and 300 million plus guns aren’t going away. So, gun control folks, do you want to keep jousting at this windmill, or do you want to back up and try something different? Stop lumping every shooting into the ‘guns bad, ban them!’ box and instead categorize them. I see several categories, each needing different approaches. Domestic? Counseling, intervention, and teaching people not to date, marry or have children with dangerous assholes. Gangs and general crime? Youth intervention, economic intervention and strong law enforcement. Nutjobs with no record who shoot up schools? That’s a tough one, but the answer won’t come from gun control, but rather in depth study of psychology and sociology. Again, guns aren’t the problem. Their use is a symptom.
The left devotes a lot of air explaining the multiple different reasons for homelessness (unhousedness? unshelteredness?) and says ‘the answer isn’t simple!’ but refuses to apply that same nuance to shootings. Why is that?

Patrick

*Don’t forget the boating accident!

 

Your post reminded me of a personal story. I too have had my CWP for many years, about 30. I've never had to use my weapon in self defense but came close a few years ago when I was accosted by two scum bags upon leaving a favorite Mexican restaurant. I'm in the driver's seat getting ready to depart when one approached from each side of the car. They were very scary looking guys. I open my console and put my hands on my car gun, a .45 Smith semi auto. When one tried to open the passenger door I pulled it out and held it upright at which time both turned and ran the other way. I shook for an hour after that and it scares me to think what probably would have happened had I not had it ready to use.

By the way, I was driving my '87 Turbo T that day.

 

There are reasonable steps that could be taken short of "gun control" that include proper background checks on ALL gun sales, that the NRA has opposed for decades.

The NRA isn't the white knight that you portray.

Before someone buys a gun, purchaser should be able to show that
1) Not convicted felon who is disallowed
2) Not currently named in a domestic violence protection order
3) Not currently being treated for Mental health crisis.

Most of the gun deaths in the USA are suicide.

Also, gun owners NEED to be held accountable for sloppy management/storage as that becomes a vector for crime and accidental death.

If you leave a gun in your glove box, that's a problem. If it laying in your house, unsecured, that's a problem. If you kid brings it to school to show it off?

All and all both sides are hysterical. The right is paranoid and militantly against any regulation, the left doesn't understand the problem and comes up with insane ideas like the above mentioned regulation of oversized magazines.

There is a middle ground that could save many lives, but finding it in our political climate is not likely.

 

First off, what? where did I ever say "we should take everyone's guns away"? This is the type of unhelpful and unfounded hyperbole that get's thrown out there every time any suggests that some sane limits be instituted.

making ridiculous comparisons to taking away any sharp object as compared to reining in military-grade killing hardware is not a strong argument.

But a comparison to grenades and grenade launchers is a valid comparison. They are arms, I could most assuredely use them to defend my home, yet I cannot buy them. Why? because society drew that line and agreed having such weapons would be crazy.

Yet grenade control works. No one has them. Not criminals, not law-abiding citizens. And plenty of both would buy them if they could. Drive-by shootings eould be replaced with drive-by grenadings.

we could all defend ourselves before AR style guns were available. Could we all not defend ourselves still without them?

 

Somehow I have to register my cat, dog, car, camper, house, marriage, electronica, god knows what, but if you had to register guns "oh lawd have mercy its the end of America as we know it."

The ATF has a warehouse of paper gun sale records because they are banned from having an electronic database. THAT is how ridiculous things are i the US regarding guns.

 

It would appear that effort on the part of the government - registration, has not eased the events [in both quantity and severity] it was largely intended to curb.

 

I personally am glad there’s not an electronic database of gun owners, for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is data security. Our State Department, CIA and FBI can’t secure what should be the most secure data in THE WORLD, not to mention senators, secretaries of state and (ex)presidents who think the document security rules don’t apply to them.
Patrick

 

Uh, because the answer on the gun thing is robably that simple? No grenades = no grenade deaths. No AR style weapons would equal no AR weapon deaths.

yeah, take away the AR style weapons and people would resort to something else, but killing a bunch of folk with a small clip pistol is a lot harder, and the rounds don't destroy th way a high-piwer round does.

And again, please note that the same people saying it is a mental health issue are also completely opposed to any sort of spending that could possibly oppose such issues.

"its the guns!"
"No, its mental health!"
"Fine, let's deal with mental health."
"No."

 

Every gun I have owned required background checks!
Any other comment is misleading!

 

You can thank your local governments for that money grab because that is all they are.

 

I’ll note that you’re not saying ‘ban or confiscate guns’. Please note that I’M not saying ‘no’ to mental health funding. These are the kinds of conversations, debates and eventual agreements that might get us somewhere. Taking (or preventing the purchase of) a legal owner’s AR because it’s ugly, can be configured for high capacity and seems to be favored by mentally unstable people doesn’t. I don’t want to ban Dodge Hellcats or GXR motorcycles because hooligans and lawbreakers like them.
Patrick

…And an AR15’s .223 round isn’t ‘high power’, nor does that round do ‘more damage’ than a pistol round. A 9mm, 10mm, .38, .357, .40, .44 and .45, especially in hollow point, will make a much bigger, uglier and hard to treat wound.

 

I agree with all of your statements except one. With respect, if the weapon is kept in a vehicle which is either occupied or locked I submit that any attempt to access it by anyone involves a crime and the gun owner bears no moral or legal responsibility for its later use.

I also agree that leaving it unsecured in your house is a big problem...........unless you live in an "empty nest" where you either don't have any young children or, don't have young children visiting. Unfortunately, we read all to often what happens when parents don't use good sense.

 

Mass killings have occurred with a mixture of fertilizer. Ban it...?? Crazy will find a way.

Many things kill individuals but I guess those don't matter since in most cases they are just indiduals. Two high school friends of mine were killed by a drunk driver, wrong way driver head on crash, was it the cars fault?, the alcohol? Or the person? If it's not the person where is the outcry to ban cars and alcohol?

Can you dig into your fact bag and show that gun owners are against mental health spending? That is a pretty bold statement.

 

I was trying to avoid mentioning a specific political party. Y'know, the one that hates stuff like that and was responsible for the all the cuts in the first place. Read between the lines.

 

Doesn't the FBI already do that?

 

Okay who has "grow with doctor jo" in their signature line? I clinked on the link, hit subscribe, saw some interesting recipes, and now got no idea who's signature it was in...

 

It isn't the gun itself, but the fact that there are over 100 guns within a one mile radius. Anybody want a gun, no matter how angry or irrational they are, they are never far away from a deadly weapon.

 

Why do anti gun people use terms like "clip" and high capacity to describe magazines and standard capacity?

I have a friend at work that uses these terms and she is anti gun. She tells.me about how I don't need this or that and 5.56 bullets explode in bodies and other CN# stuff.
I asked her a simple question. And she admitted she doesn't know. I asked "how many rounds do you need to defend yourself"?
I told her I do not know myself. But the fact is the tactical situation of everyday life has changed. We celebrate mental disorders here while mentally ill folks commit heinous crimes. We let violent people out on low or no bail. The economy is not good despite what the TV tells you. Violent "protesters" can and do spring up for causes and target folks by political beliefs or race.
I used to worry about the "bad guy" who would break in my home, now I worry more about the group of home invaders that have no regard for life.
By the way, I lost all my guns while I was cleaning them on a fishing trip out in the Atlantic.