“When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns…Happiness is a warm gun….Guns don’t kill people, people kill people…I support the right to arm bears…” …and it goes on and on.
Everyone has an opinion about our Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” and those opinions are as diverse as the people who have them. And every time some lunatic opens fire and hurts or kills a bunch of people the debate about gun control starts up again.
My knee jerk reaction is to think we need much stricter laws about who can own guns and what kind of guns can be owned. Strict background checks and mandatory waiting periods should be involved. I also think you ought to have to pass some kind of a test and get some kind of license in order to own a gun. After all, that’s what we have to do to drive a car.
I know this kind of talk incites a certain type of riot and since I come from a long line of gun owners, gun collectors and gun enthusiasts, I get that. My forefathers (and mothers) were Wyoming ranchers and Eastern Colorado farmers. You can bet they were no strangers to the need for and use of a gun. My dad and my brother are both gun collectors who jumped through all the hoops required to be licensed to carry a concealed weapon in the state of Colorado, which requires a lot more hoop-jumping than Georgia does.
I have fond memories of shooting skeet after Thanksgiving dinner out on my grandparents’ farm. My dad taught my kids how to shoot and the basics of gun safety in their early teens. My daughter and her husband think going to a shooting range is a great way to spend an afternoon. I have an old “chunk chunk” shot gun, as my kids used to call it, based on the sound it makes when you “chunk” a shell into the chamber. And getting a nice pistol and learning to shoot it really well is on my “Bucket List.” So, it’s not all “Ban Guns!” in my brain.
This latest tragedy, in Arizona, got me thinking again about my views on gun control and because I didn’t know much about why our founding fathers thought it was such a good idea to let everyone have a gun, I looked it up.
It turns out their social context was very different from ours. They were fresh from a country where tyranny reigned – a country where ordinary people were not allowed to own guns. They were crafting a new country, based on ideas so new they were, indeed, revolutionary, and insuring individual rights was a huge concern. They were also fighting for freedom without an organized military, so the importance of having an armed citizen militia was paramount.
Some of the sites I visited on my Google search about guns had a lot of really good quotes from our founding fathers about why guns were so important and what they had in mind for their use. James Madison hit the nail right on the head when he said, “A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”
Self-defense, and of course, obtaining food were also important ideas, but the key notion was training. Nothing I read, that our founding fathers said, seemed to contain the idea that every Tom, Dick, Harry or Jane should be entitled to the right to order a semi-automatic weapon off the Internet. The kind of carnage we see now was inconceivable back in the days of the flintlock musket and short shot pistol.
My conclusion was that, while I understand the basis of our right to bear arms and agree with it in principle, there’s a big difference between maintaining the right to own a rifle or pistol to be used for hunting, sport or self-defense and living in a society where anybody even contemplating committing a crime can find a Glock in no time.
The comedian Chris Rock had one of the best takes on gun control I’ve ever heard. His thought was let people have all the guns they want, but make bullets expensive and hard to get. After all, he said, it’s not the guns that kill people – it’s the bullets…Okay, blog away; I know a can of worms when I see it.
Lorin Sinn-Clark is a reporter for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.
But Can I carry my leaf blower concealed?
Every government regulation of gun ownership represents a little chipping away of a right. For years the anti-gun crowd screamed that the 2nd Amendment didn't mean what gun owners said it did. The U.S. Supreme Court settled their hash when they ruled (twice) that gun ownership is an individual right guaranteed by the U.S. constitution.
So, the anti-gun crowd now has to bleat, moan and holler as they try to subvert the interpretation of the law of the land.
You know, I don't like innocent unarmed people getting shot to pieces by a loon one bit more than you do.
But, further regulations of guns by the imperial government is not the answer.
And, really, citing a filthy comedian's "solution" is about like citing Wikipedia as a source of fact.
I kinda doubt that's his real name, either, so we know you especially couldn't couldn't lend any credence to anything he spouts, right?
In Texas, you must take a course on the gun you intend to carry (revolver,semi-auto etc) and once you demonstrate you know how and when to shoot, are you allowed a permit. Even hunters have to have a license to hunt, therefore must pass a test to do something that has been done hundreds of years.
Unfortunatly, the scum of the earth will alway's have guns, steal them from home owners and then use them for crimes.
The second amendment was meant for the citizens to be able to protect themselves against the government, to keep the military from entering their homes and siezing property as the British did in 1776
Charlie
To clear something up, in order to hunt in the state of GA, you must possess as hunters permit. However, as in my previous sentance, in TEXAS, in order to hunt, you must take a hunters saftey course which teaches basic gun safety and pretty much common sense. I think needing to pay a fee to fish is messed up, however, you have to and if DNR finds you with a fish in the wrong season or length, you get a citation and there is no test either to obtain a fishing license.
I too believe it is a God given right to own firearms and I desest anyone who wants to take that right away from me.
(PS this is reflective of the same brand of ignorance that has been displayed in the above commentary)
Charlie
This was one crazy person. If he had driven a car into the crowd he would have still been just as crazy. A few years ago there was a woman who drown her kids in a bathtub. I recall some womens groups coming out to defend her saying it was her husbands fault for being verbally abusive and not gettting her help for post partum depression. Not one person called for looking at tougher bathtub laws. Crazy is crazy and we can never legislate or pass enough laws to prevent lunatics from committing atrocities. I think the only discussion that should be had, is that everyone said this guy was nuts. Including his college and he was still walking around on the streets. Then again if anyone had tried to put him away somewhere that would have violated his civil rights.
The actual phase "Separation of Church and State" in not in our Constitution.
A group seeking Freedom from a "Official State Church" which had the granted Authority and Independent Power to TAX Citizens like a government agency and seize their property was one of the goals our forefathers were trying to prevent here, but they founded our country based on Christianity but granted anyone the practice any religion personally without any restriction as they chose, which required allot of thought by the founders ---and also which is different that many places on earth, so we should be grateful for this Freedom among others we have uniquely here in the United States.
I agree it is amazing how the debate of our laws evolves thru time and is often mis-interpreted as well.
Google "John Lott blog spot" as one word.
Charlie
If We could simply push a button and make EVERY firearm on earth vaporize, Many would do it, but that is not reality. It is true that if we law abiding citizens give up our rights and turn in our guns, it will leave the criminal elements to prey on the rest. We, as Citizens, (and I emphasize CITIZENS) do have a Constitutional Right to protect ourselves both personally and as a free nation even if some of the context has evolved. I personally don’t think the founding fathers would have chosen much differently even with a peak into the future. I think what we fail to address in this Nation and around the world is mental health, insurance often ignores it, the way people with problems are regarded and treated, many harbor unresolved issues that if we had a better system, and did not attach a negative view of those attempting to deal with such issues we would be in a healthier world. We should do a better job of promoting people to work on their issues without shame or costs like any other medical problem. If we didn’t hold it against people many might deal with the problems that result in situations like we see on the news.
Would we be having this blog if the Arizona Shooter had attached those people with a MACHETE? ---Solve the ROOT PROBLEM, quit blaming the tool used. That guy was ignored and many had already identified him as having serious issues he had publicly displayed and verbalized before he acted out.
We have this debate because it is GUNS, but is it really a "gun problem" or "people problem"? Driver’s Licenses are a privilege, a revocable privilege and not granted in our Constitution, plus many more CARS are used as lethal weapons everyday, BUT we ADDRESS THE CAUSE and the Offenders, such as DUI, DUI laws, Offender pictures published, etc ---but for anything where a Gun was present, we blame the gun.
Make Committing an intentional Criminal Act with a firearm a more Severe Crime, quit having ultra-lib judges release VIOLENT Repeated Criminals out on Bail to shoot State Troopers.
I apologize for the length of my soap box.
about "gun nuts." Sleeping with a Glock guarded by 2 Hitler hounds might strike a sane person as, well, prima facie evidence of incipient paranoia. Let's have a little sanity & moderation on both sides, shall we?
This is America, sweetie, the right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed in the Constitution, non-negotiable...get over it.
If you want left wing socialist tyranny...move to the UK or Australia, where they have double and triple the violent crime rate as the USA.
COME AND TAKE THEM!!!