The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

I've always been so-so on the gun issue, mostly out of fear. I've shot a few guns in my life but haven't seen a point in owning a gun for anything other than hunting. O.k. I go out and shoot a gun, fun fun. Since I don't want to be involved in the aftermath of shooting an animal (other than cooking and eating), I'll leave the hunting to others.



Glen has talked about wanting a gun and I've been mostly opposed since we first got married. I haven't wanted a gun in the house, especially when we have kids. Whenever we'd start talking about the subject, it's been a safe feeling to know we haven't had extra funds to just go out and buy a gun. So I would just nod and shake my head and let him dream.=)



The other night I think was our first real communication session on our different views. Now I feel I've always been living in ignorance. The media portrays it in such a bad light that guns have never held a good purpose in my book (other than hunting ... and even then you hear about the accidents and think 'how can we fix this?'). Glen's been getting emails from an organization called FrontSight which is here in Nevada who have some of the best gun training out there (or so we've heard.) Watching their video and talking to Glen, I've decided I'm not for gun control anymore. The 2nd ammendment protects our right to keep and bear arms and the reasoning finally makes sense to me. Living in Vegas too close to crime central has always made me think "WE NEED GUN CONTROL TO GET THESE GUNS AWAY FROM THESE DUMB KIDS." (I'm so thankful we live on base ... just south of us is a major not so friendly part of town. There are way too many shootings right in our backyard.) Glen pointed out that the black market is always going to be able to get these guns to these kids (for some it may be a little harder but not impossible.) The scary part is with gun control laws, they can get the guns through their illegal ways, but law-abiding citizens can't. O.k. I know this post may not convert any of you, but for me, it was enlightening. Maybe I'm just too easy to convince and since Glen knows everything (ha ha), I finally agree with him on the gun issue.
The 2 points that hit closest to home were:
1.Talking about Hurricane Katrina. Some of the people are survivors because they had guns to say, "Stay away." If there's a natural disaster and everyone's in a panic, guns will be helpful in keeping the looters away and protecting our families. If we have enough to share, we'll gladly share, but no one is going to take the food out of my children's mouth so they can save their own skin. People will do anything when they're not sure what's going to happen to them. A bumper sticker I saw says it all, "It's better to have a gun and not need it, than to not have a gun when you do."
2. Our country was safest back in the day when people could walk around with guns. Why? ... Well Glen and this video could explain it better than I can, but it made a lot of sense.=) It seems to be the places that are most attacked are the gun free zones. Part of that could be because they know they aren't going to get stopped. These school shootings, those are gun free zones.


Now what about accidental shootings? (We had a long discussion about this one.) I'm so afraid one of my kids will get a hold of one ... (don't even want to finish that thought.) A big problem is because we try to keep it away from them. 'Guns are bad. You can't play with guns because ...' I've always struggled with this. It seems like there are so many parents that don't want their kids to even play with toy guns so I've tried not letting my kids play with them. (Yep, me following the crowd.) No matter how hard I've tried, the hockey stick, little toy army men, whatever; my kids are shooting at everything. They don't even watch the crazy Elmer Fudd cartoons I watched as a kid. Where do they come up with this stuff? So I tried making rules with the pretend guns. It didn't work so well because I haven't been consistent. How can I be consistent on something that I haven't fully agreed with and didn't have specific ground rules? I've tried searching online for any thoughts on the subject as to how to teach your kids safety playing with guns, but it's always let them squirt rubber duckies instead of squirt guns. Yeah right.=) I played with toy guns as a kid. I'm not a mass murderer out to get revenge on anyone. I turned out just fine. (I sometimes argue this argument with myself about the homeschooling issue when I'm doubting myself, but that's another story.=) Anyways, I'm rambling here. Guns become a problem when kids are curious. They know they can't have it, but they're curious. All kids are. I remember my dad for some reason had brought a gun home from work (he was in the Air Force and to this day, I don't know why that gun was in the house.) I don't know if it was loaded or not (doubtful, but I was scared to death of it.) Despite my fear, curiousity got the better of me. I remember picking it up and handling it wanting to know what in the world a real gun felt and looked like. Scared out of my mind, I carefully put it back down, but I can see how easy it would be for someone to think it was safe and joke around with it and cause an accident. Or not even joke around with it but be handling it not knowing anything about it and something happening. Talk to your kids. If they're curious about a gun, show them your gun. Let them handle it. Have rules that if they want to see the gun, they can see it with daddy's or mommy's help. Of course keep the ammo elsewhere. Teach them the purpose and resposibilities that come with guns. The most important thing to teach them are that Real guns are not toys.

Of course I'm writing this as I'm listening to the news broadcast about the lastest drive-by shooting. Then another story about the college students shot. I'm not sure what can help fix these problems. There is so much hate out there, but I'm leaning more towards gun control not being the answer.


Like I said, I'm rambling. But these are my thoughts. If you want a fuller debate on the subject, call me up and you can talk to Glen cuz if your argument is good, I'm easily persuaded.=) I'm still learning more about the subject and getting more comfortable about it. I want to be as informed as I possibly can. Knowledge is power.