Friends, I've been posting/reposting a lot of anti gun stuff on here of late. I think I can back away now. You know how I feel.
But before I leave the subject, maybe my journey at how I view weapons is worth a few lines.
My dad was a gun collector, and the long-standing joke in our family was that when my mother asked what he'd paid for this or that one, he'd reply, "$15." We all knew he lied like a rug, but it was just something he said to her. After all, he also said that when it came to women, "99% lies, 1% truth."
Among his guns, at the time of his death, were a couple of hunting rifles. There had some age on them, but in his day, he really did like to go into the woods after deer, squirrels, rabbits, or whatever was in season. He'd even made a big trip to Colorado to hunt in the Rockies.
But he gave it up because the woods were suddenly full of crazies who drank a lot of beer and weren't careful with their guns. He had no desire to lose his life at the hands of a stupid person with a high powered rifle.
Nevertheless, there were guns all over our house - under the sofa, under my bed, in my pajama drawer, in his closet, the attic, the basement.... you could stub your toe on one that wasn't there a week ago. Finally, he created the metal gun safe and he packed them away. (Blacksmith - not going to buy one; going to fabricate one.)
When we had the collection auctioned, we did all right. But understand, there were no automatics, aside from his pair of elderly hunting rifles. It was a collection of Civil War era Colts and the like. There were a couple of Kentucky rifles in there, and an 18th Century flintlock dueling pistol. There were a couple of cute little Derringers. (You didn't know I knew about this kind of stuff, did you?)
So what's changed? It's the 45 or 50 rounds a minute guns that are used in movies, indiscriminately and pseudo heroically. It's the people who are so insecure and unschooled in common civics that they believe a black president is going to show up on their doorsteps to remove their arsenals. It's the people who seek to control women by insisting a zygote is a life while proceeding to show no respect to human life by refusing to allow such weapons of mass destruction.
When the Supreme Court upheld the anti-assault weapon ban, even they recognized this is an issue. The problem was, in order to get that ban, there had to be an expiration date, like on a quart of milk.
Now they are trying to frame the discussion by saying that only the mentally unbalanced should be prevented from purchasing weapons of mass destruction, but this is disingenuous....are not those people barricaded on their land in the woods who have several assault weapons because they are sure a Harvard educated Constitutional scholar who happened to be elected President of the U.S. is going to show up to take away their dangerous toys?
At this point, I have no patience with any of this. The idea that people I love and treasure could be blown away by someone with an agenda and a perfectly legal assault weapon - at the movies, at a concert, in a restaurant, at school - is repugnant. I've already lost one at Tech. Damn it. Do we really deserve to have to live in fear of who knows what?
I survived the bomb shelter era, for cryin' out loud. These days we have more to fear from our own citizens than we do anyone else. Terrorism is just one more false face the people beholden to the NRA are parading before us. It's way past time to deal with this at the polls, because we sure as hell won't see any action otherwise.
But before I leave the subject, maybe my journey at how I view weapons is worth a few lines.
My dad was a gun collector, and the long-standing joke in our family was that when my mother asked what he'd paid for this or that one, he'd reply, "$15." We all knew he lied like a rug, but it was just something he said to her. After all, he also said that when it came to women, "99% lies, 1% truth."
Among his guns, at the time of his death, were a couple of hunting rifles. There had some age on them, but in his day, he really did like to go into the woods after deer, squirrels, rabbits, or whatever was in season. He'd even made a big trip to Colorado to hunt in the Rockies.
But he gave it up because the woods were suddenly full of crazies who drank a lot of beer and weren't careful with their guns. He had no desire to lose his life at the hands of a stupid person with a high powered rifle.
Nevertheless, there were guns all over our house - under the sofa, under my bed, in my pajama drawer, in his closet, the attic, the basement.... you could stub your toe on one that wasn't there a week ago. Finally, he created the metal gun safe and he packed them away. (Blacksmith - not going to buy one; going to fabricate one.)
When we had the collection auctioned, we did all right. But understand, there were no automatics, aside from his pair of elderly hunting rifles. It was a collection of Civil War era Colts and the like. There were a couple of Kentucky rifles in there, and an 18th Century flintlock dueling pistol. There were a couple of cute little Derringers. (You didn't know I knew about this kind of stuff, did you?)
So what's changed? It's the 45 or 50 rounds a minute guns that are used in movies, indiscriminately and pseudo heroically. It's the people who are so insecure and unschooled in common civics that they believe a black president is going to show up on their doorsteps to remove their arsenals. It's the people who seek to control women by insisting a zygote is a life while proceeding to show no respect to human life by refusing to allow such weapons of mass destruction.
When the Supreme Court upheld the anti-assault weapon ban, even they recognized this is an issue. The problem was, in order to get that ban, there had to be an expiration date, like on a quart of milk.
Now they are trying to frame the discussion by saying that only the mentally unbalanced should be prevented from purchasing weapons of mass destruction, but this is disingenuous....are not those people barricaded on their land in the woods who have several assault weapons because they are sure a Harvard educated Constitutional scholar who happened to be elected President of the U.S. is going to show up to take away their dangerous toys?
At this point, I have no patience with any of this. The idea that people I love and treasure could be blown away by someone with an agenda and a perfectly legal assault weapon - at the movies, at a concert, in a restaurant, at school - is repugnant. I've already lost one at Tech. Damn it. Do we really deserve to have to live in fear of who knows what?
I survived the bomb shelter era, for cryin' out loud. These days we have more to fear from our own citizens than we do anyone else. Terrorism is just one more false face the people beholden to the NRA are parading before us. It's way past time to deal with this at the polls, because we sure as hell won't see any action otherwise.
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