Thread: Supreme Court finds individual right to own guns

Originally Posted by Brother Jeeter

Sir,

I have handled firearms for well over forty years. I have owned guns for almost that long. I have loaded my own ammunition for twenty years. I used to shoot seven to eight pounds of powder per year. That Sir, is an average of over fifty rounds a week. ... A gun is not malicious. It doesn't have a will. It is a tool...a highly specialized tool and it is entirely subject to the will of it's possessor.

Regards,

Jeeter

Sir,

your attitude towards firearms is commendable.

I take the same approach towards motorbikes. When I got my bike I immediately completed a safe driver course. I always ride, not only with a helmet, but with proper footwear, gloves, and leathers. I've driven across North America a couple of times on my bike without incident. When I see young guys spend ten minutes writing a learners exam and then running out to purchase something with a better thrust to weight ratio than the Space Shuttle, using it to drag one another and practice wheelies on public streets - it drives me crazy. They are giving me a bad name, driving up my insurance rates, driving up the price of helmets, bikes, and safety equipment (through pointless lawsuits). I think if people want the advantages of riding a bike but are unprepared to accept the responsibilities of doing so - well too bad for them. Licensing and registration exist, but I think proper mandatory training would go a long way to fixing the problem, as would restricting the kind of bike you can ride on a learner's permit. It won't eliminate it but I believe it will help. And it doesn't impair my enjoyment because I already use safe riding practices - if it had been mandatory it wouldn't have affected my attitude or my respect towards riding. Just because there will always be some wheelieing idiot on the streets doesn't mean we should throw the baby out with the bath water.

I know that my actions and attitude does affect others in this regard, just as theirs affects me. We don't live in isolation from one another.

If I were a responsible gun owner it would drive me equally crazy to see people treating firearms with undo respect and wisdom. Surely the people who go out and buy a hand gun, who have no training in handling one, and leave it lying in their underwear drawer where kids can mess around with them unsupervised, or from where a burglar could very easily make off with it when no one is home to threaten him with it - surely these people, besides creating most of the societal problems with guns, are also making the lives of responsible gun owners more difficult.

If we can all agree that approaching firearms with a degree of respect is the key to safety, why is registration and training so onerous? There will always be people who disregard the rules of our society. We can't legislate against them, as has been pointed out above. We can however make it harder for them to do so without preventing people who take gun ownership seriously from enjoying their passion and desire for self defense.

It is obviously a regional issue. I suspect the gun crime rate in Wyoming is not the problem that it is on the east coast. Shouldn't cities affected by the problem be allowed to address it in this manner. Starting in 1993, when the Brady law went into effect gun crime stats decreased every year. There are solutions to these problems as long as it is approached in good faith and with a reasonable attitude by everyone - as an example, in my opinion it would be silly for anyone with military experience using firearms to take more training when purchasing their own weapon.

The thing in this thread seems to be to quote my earlier post, so let me do that as well.

Originally Posted by Pudu

For both sides it should be about solving the current problems we face. That will take compromise.

Calling for no restrictions whatsoever on weapon ownership will serve you about as well as screaming for a ban on all weapons would serve me.