guns

Personally, I am sick to death of the gun discussion.  I read feeds on facebook about "I have a gun in my back beneath my jeans.  I will protect myself and my family!  I would rather die in a pile of bullet casings than be blubbering and begging for my life."  That does not make much sense to me.  How is it any better to die either way?  

And I call BS on how these folks are going to stop the shooters.  Orlando's recent episode had an off duty policeman shooting at the killer before he ever entered the club.  A trained professional could not stop the shooter armed with an attack rifle.  So what make's all these everyday people that had 3 hours of certification training expect to fare any better than the professional?  Just asking cause I am pretty sure most of these savior wanna bees would soil themselves before getting off very many rounds.

Now there are former military persons that have handled weapons in war situations.  That would probably a different story.  Except, well, Chris Kyle, a professional that had a business of training military and police personnel.  The term used in old westerns of the 40's and 50's was 'getting the drop on someone'.  It sickens me that a person of Mr. Kyle's quality would be gunned down by an individual he was trying to help.

There is a segment of gun owners that use the firearms for hunting.  A long tradition and a food source for many.  Most of these folks I know have 'deer rifles', not AK 47's.  That is all I know about that.

I sickens me that the US is the biggest producer of guns.  Our nation exports 31% of all guns in the world.  Guns are big business.  Hate and fear are big business.  There are evil people and as the gun lobby points out, 'why punish the innocent?'  How does a person know the difference?  2007, Cho, a mental case, purchased guns and killed 37 people.  Some loopholes were closed to help eliminate the situation.  Then 5 years later another mentally ill individual uses his mother's legal guns to kill her then 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary.  A legal gun owner with a mentally ill person having access to the guns.  That is not a responsible gun owner from my point of view.

Who is a responsible gun owner then becomes the question.  All folks will contend they are responsible.  Well until they no longer are responsible.  When does that happen?  When dementia sets in as with Charlton Heston?  No, that is when they are elected to president of the NRA.  Oh, I can hear the gun owners saying well only criminals will have guns if you take my guns away.  No, criminals and police and the military would still be armed.  And an underlying issue here is there are a lot of gun owners that disparage our government and police forces.

Maybe the answer is less production.  31% of the total weapons in the world produced in our free enterprise system.  Russia has a 21% share.  Even if the US stopped production, the other nations would simply ramp up their production.  Wouldn't it be interesting to know how many of the guns used in the recent wars and crimes were manufactured in the US?  Are we our own worst enemy?

How could a reduction in the availability of military style weapons to the general public be a bad thing?  Not wanting to grind all the guns up into a big metal pile.  Cause I still like seeing the double barrel shotgun of my Greatgrandpa Jones hang in my home.