My two cents on guns and gun lovers.

I've never had any desire to ever own or fire a gun.  I have friends who love guns and hunting and I'll never understand what makes them think any of that is cool.  It's completely ridiculous to me.  Well, the hunting aspect...OK...I can understand (somewhat) but still...

Even if I lived in some shitty ghetto neighborhood and needed a gun because I was under constant threat of home invasion, I would LOATHE the fact that I had to have a gun.  I would be at work constantly worrying that my kids could get to it, no matter how secure it was.  That's where me and gun lovers will never see eye to eye...they cherish and collect killing machines as if they're fucking Star Wars action figures.  Me, I see them for what they are: leathal killing weapons that I don't ever want to be around, nor have my kids around, and certainly don't want flooded into the populace and into the hands of every half-cocked Joe Dickface walking around out there.

I especially love the "the answer is more guns" schtick.  Good idea, give every asshole a gun.  What will happen is the next time you inadvertently cut someone off on the highway, or bump into someone on a line somewhere you're going to get your head blown off, because there are just too many demented idiots out there.

Even if I had a gun and was trained to use it, if someone broke into my house I STILL wouldn't want to confront them.  I'd grab my wife and kids, huddle them in a room and shout to the intruder "I have a gun, don't enter this room or I'll shoot" and then I'd call the police.  You clowns thinking that you'd disable the robber and look like a hero are watching too many Jason Bourne movies.  Here's a clue:  you're not Jason Bourne and you're most likely going to kill one of your own family members.  I read some people's thoughts on the matter and it's almost as if they WANT to get burgled so they can test out their "toy."  Totally insane.

But fine, you feel the need to compensate for your tiny dick by having an arsenal of guns, ok.  Well, I say we put you through the ringer.  Make it SO difficult and such a pain in the ass that you'll wonder why you thought owning a gun was a good idea in the first place.  Fuck background checks, that's just the tip of the iceberg.  You want to own a deadly weapon then I want random searches of your house by a government official to make sure you have a gun safe and that that shit is locked up tight.  I want you to go to monthly gun training meetings to make sure you know what the fuck you're doing and make sure you're still mentally capable.  I want the laws to be so strict that if you decide to keep a gun then you are making one hell of a SERIOUS committment.  And all those illegal guns floating around out there?  Well, if you're ever caught with one then it means instant testicle removal.  And if you don't like my new laws then build a time machine and transport your ass back to 1843 where it was more apporpriate to walk around with weapons strapped to your hip like a douchebag.  Have fun living to the ripe old age of 33.

I'm sick of this nonsense.  These are weapons designed to kill people, not fucking toys.  Don't get me wrong, I love violent movies and video games, etc.  But I'll never understand the real-life love of guns.  Owning a gun shouldn't be "awesome," it should be a BURDEN.

Thats a interesting perspective and I can respect it.

By and large, its the small percentage of gun user's/possessers that cause problems for all of us.

I've been watching old western shows quite a bit lately and often think about what it was like back in the 1800's when you had to train your wife how to use a rifle if you ever wanted to leave your homestead for any period of time. Even back then you had to chose if you wanted to strap a six shooter on your hip. You could choose not to and if someone shot an unarmed person they had a certain stigma to it. Or you could choose to carry and any shooters would have to know that they could get seriously hurt or killed if they messed with you.

I certainly don't like that you want peoples homes searched for gun safes and all that. Very slippery slope!

Many of us grew up with Yosimite Sam and Elmer Fudd cartoons with them shooting guns at other cartoon charactors that seemingly didn't get injured when shot.

To me, it comes down to parenting. Its a parents role to prepare their children for all perils we will reasonably face in life. I spent a great deal of time explaining to my boys the dangers and rules of gun ownership and I feel fine about it. I have also raised my boys to respect others and their property. I acknowledge that many parents won't spend one second preparing their children for anything let alone firearms. To me that is the problem and nothing more. Its quite frustrating to me to see people barking up the wrong tree to solve problems.

Since we are likely never going to see a ban on all guns or a confiscation of guns I will always be on the side of the law abiding people that wish to defend themselves from the non law abiding people. I would even advocate for classes in public school that deal with preparing kids for things in our world that their parents failed to prepare them for.

The issue is not an uncomplicated one by any means. As long as criminals want guns, I want to have the same means to protect myself and my family....and even have a little fun at the target range.

you make alot of points so I will try to respond to them one at a time...

I agree that there are people that like to live in the fantasy land of star wars actions figures... or playing GI-joe pretending they were a war hero... or pretending to be an MMA fighter....  

For them it is all an escape... creating multiple alternate realities and the gun thing is another form of this...

I personally see the gun issue like I see abortion... I personally am against abortion, but believe in the rights and freedoms for individuals to make a personal choices...  To me pro-choice is not only the right to own a gun, but also the right not to own one...

So to me the banning guns agenda and the arming everyone including kindergarden teachers is the same thing in that it is imposing an agenda upon individuals... and the dichotomy of "criminals/bad guys talking point" is on the level of the kindergarden students that the teachers mandated to be armed with assault rifles teach in their classrooms...

It is always interesting to me how certain groups of people are for more rights and freedoms while others are against rights and freedoms...

with that said...  I agree with you about the issue of children and guns... you sound like an actual parent talking about his real children... rather then one who plays with star wars actions figures and chooses to play pretend parent among his other identities...

and the answer to the guy who shoots someone because of road rage is that if you were armed with a gun or more guns or a bigger gun then you would have prevented the shooting by shooting him...

which in the end would necessitate the need for everyone to be armed whether or not they want to or even know how to properly use and take care of the guns...  so guns would end up in the hands of people that do not want them nor know how to properly use, maintain or store them...  

that fantasyland schtick is absolutely crazy...  By flooding everyone with guns the need to have gun would increase, including for "criminals"... if every house has a gun then every burglar would have to have to be armed as we have seen that nothing deters the "criminals" from being "criminals"...  so every burglary where there is a confrontation should result in a shoot out... 

Um, ok. So you don't like guns.

Your personal preferences don't make good policy choices.

I especially love the "the answer is more guns" schtick. Good idea, give every fool a gun. What will happen is the next time you inadvertently cut someone off on the highway, or bump into someone on a line somewhere you're going to get your head blown off, because there are just too many demented idiots out there

People like you keep making these assertions, yet states with concealed carry have lower gun & violent crime rates.

Here is a data point refuting your assertion:

Thanks guys for the feedback.  Bowl, I agree that poor parenting contributes to a TON of the problems this country faces, at least with troubled teens.  If more kids were raised properly to respect each other and to be able to separate fantasy from reality, I feel there would be less of these ridiculous issues.  And DL is right about proliferating guns...you're telling me my kids would be safer at the mall if everyone was walking around with guns?  Come on, that logic makes no sense.  The NRA and lobbyists need to stop trying to force feed that twisted notion to everyone.  Then let's let every country stockpile nuclear warheads...would we all be safer then?  It's the same concept...

14, you can throw all the stats at me you want, they're meaningless to me.  I'm sure I could find just as many stats that refute everything you say.  I'm not talking stats anyway, I'm talking culture.  Take your stats and go talk to the father of a little girl who just got her brains blown out the back of her head.  I'm sure that guy would love hearing how safe we all are.

It's fine to watch a Tarantino movie and revel in the violence.  But we have a big problem in this country when it translates from that fantasy to reality.  If you want to love guns, then fine.  I don't get it personally.  To me they're tools.  I don't go into my garage and salivate over hammers and screwdrivers but whatever.  And if the world was overrun by zombies then for sure I'd wanna be armed to the teeth.  But that's fantaasy and doesn't compel me to want to have a gun.

And Bowl, I was joking about the random home searches.  Of course that's insane.  But we definately are at a point in this country now where SOMEthing needs to be done.  All I'm saying is that these violent gun acts are going to keep happening.  I'm sure one day there will be a rampage that makes what happened in CT look like a day at the park.  What then?  That's gonna be a bad day for pro-gun people, cuz society just won't stand for it.  Right now even CT is fading, every day that goes by stings less and less...but it's just gonna happen again, unfortunately.

If I was pro-gun I would WANT stricter control.  Wouldn't you?  It's like having your cake and eating it, too.  If I'm a responsible owner then I get to have my arsenal, while also knowing that those few bad apples out there are way less likely to obtain guns themselves.

How about putting it this way:

If you want to own guns...for hunting, recreation, protection or just simply cuz you love guns and are fascinated by them....fine.  Have all the guns you want.  Have sex with them, if you like.  What you do in the privacy of your own home doesn't concern me.

BUT, you must 100% UNEQUIVOCALLY guarantee me that your guns will NEVER harm my family.  The burden should be on you, the gun owner, to be constantly able to prove that your killing tools (which is what they are, let's be real) are not a threat at all to MY family.

I'll be damned if I ever have to put my kids in harm's way cuz your psychotic child got bullied and now feels the need to grab daddys guns and go on a killing spree.  YOU show ME, and the rest of society, that that cannot, will not ever happen, and we're cool.

Cooper if you feel this way about firearms I completely respect your view.  However, if you do not have the same enthusiasm about any other item or action that causes more deaths than firearms your outlook is either misguided or hypocritical.  I'm not going to use phrases or buzzwords, but a death caused by a firearm is not different than any other action that results in a death.  It is tragic, almost everytime it happens. 

14, you can throw all the stats at me you want, they're meaningless to me 

I know they are. You're post is a profile in the triump of emotion over reason.

I'm sure I could find just as many stats that refute everything you say

Um, no, no you could not.

BUT, you must 100% UNEQUIVOCALLY guarantee me that your guns will NEVER harm my family. The burden should be on you, the gun owner, to be constantly able to prove that your killing tools (which is what they are, let's be real) are not a threat at all to MY family.

Actually, before infringing on my natural rights - and my right to keep & bear arms is God given and predates the US constitution - the burden on you is to explain why.

Potter, I disagree, in a way.  I'm not saying let's ban cars cuz people die in car accidents.  Guns are different.  We all know what they're main use is (remember Homer Simpson bought a gun and was using it by shooting it around the house to turn his TV on and open his beer, etc, lol).  I mean, most people don't use cars or chainsaws or drop pianos on people to kill them.  So yea, accidents happen...we can't ban everything just cuz people die in random accidents but we can try to curb senseless violence.  And I'm not even proposing a ban on guns at all.  I'm just saying that guns should only be maintained by responsible people, that's all.  And if a few crazy individuals make the burdon of proof on the responisible people harder, well then, sorry, that's just the way it is.  If all the sudden car accidents went ballistic, then I would think we would need to do a better job of who we're approving to be behind the wheel.  I mean, it just makes sense to me.  There's got to be middle ground...ways to keep pro-gun people happy while keeping guns out of the hands of the crazies.

And 14, you're ridiculous bro.  It seems every attempt by the rest of society to make the world safer and better is somehow an infringement on your god given rights.  You're saying I don't have the right to ensure that each and every gun owner is competent (to a higher level of degree than we're currently checking)??

Cooper I appreciate your response.  Its nice to have opposing view points without useless banter and namecalling that goes with most of it.  Back to your response, the example of cars goes directly to my point.  Even though no one is proposing banning cars, a death by car is still the same result as death by a gun........simply the death of a person.  One death is no more or less tragic to the people involved.  So if the issue is people dying by the involvement of a gun causes a huge uproar, then by the same token, more attention should be paid to causes that cause more death.  I own several guns and without going into direct description, are several that anti gun people would call scary or "weapons of war ".  I have .223 caliber guns and .22 caliber guns.  One looks big and imposing (.223) and one (.22) might look to the layman almost as a toy.  However, in light of these recent shootings, no media outlet has once addressed that the small .22 kills far more people every year than larger calibers.

I think therein lies the biggest problem, the media that I absolutley despise.  They can take someone like you who simply doesn't like guns, and by their sensationalizing and misleadings make your dislike that much more.  It works the same way for me.  I have never been a person that believes there is something wrong with people who don't like guns.  In fact, I've always thought that anyone who isn't comfortable shouldn't be around them for the sake of themselves and other people.  More than anything I absolutley loathe hypocricy.  And this is all that exists with the media and politicians.  I believe that politicians are good mostly at one thing and that is taking common people, with different viewpoints, who would on any given day help each other out and be cordial, and pitting them against each other.  If they do that, then they always have a job. 

I do agree in one area of gun reform.  That being closing the gunshow loophole.  The biggest reason I'm not for futher legislation, is that they have shown already that they are incapable of enforceing the ones they have on the books now.  Further legislation only risks taking presently law abiding citizens and turning them into criminals if they don't comply with some draconian law pushed through by Feinstein and her ilk.

14, I understand what your saying, but I have seen hand to hand transactions without background checks.  My question has always been to those people, is why would you want too?  I understand if its an older gun, but why would I want to sell something without an FFL transfer to someone I don't know?  With most guns, that serial number belongs to someone, and stays with them until transferred.  So if a crime is commited with the gun and recovered, thats whos getting the knock on thier door.

True, there are too many left wing creations.

and shout to the intruder "I have a gun, don't enter this room or I'll shoot" and then I'd call the police.

seriously? Good luck with that if the guy is jonesing for a fix.

if someone broke into my house I STILL wouldn't want to confront them. I'd grab my wife and kids, huddle them in a room and shout to the intruder "I have a gun, don't enter this room or I'll shoot" and then I'd call the police.

And you'd be dead.

What, do you think the police would be there in 30 seconds? A minute? Do you think anyone that broke into your house would believe you?

My goodness.

14, why would you assume I'd be dead?  I would think I'd be much safer in a room with the door closed and my gun pointed at the door waiting for the intruder to open it so I could blast them...then creeping around my house with my pistol in my hand looking to engage the person in a shootout.  Don't I have the advantage if I "lay in wait" as opposed to searching for the person who could be anywhere?  The bottom line is, I want to walk away with my life, not risk it needlessly.  So whether I have no gun, one gun, or 6 zillion guns, I would prefer not to have to use it and engage the person unless it was totally necessary.  The mofo can have my TV, I can replace that, I can't replace my children if a stray bullet blows their head off.

(BTW, why so much fear that roving bands of armed robbers are just dying to break into your houses in the middle of the night when they KNOW you're home sleeping?  Are there really that many criminals out there in the suburbs?  I would think if you live in a relatively safe area that your fear of this even happening is way overblown.  More likely some teenage clown would just wait till your on vacation to break into your house to see if they can grab cash or jewelry, then a half-cocked gun-toting maniac would break into your home at 2am and need your big screen TV so badly that he's willing to shoot you all to death for it.)

My first rant was just a shitty attempt at humor and just me saying that I feel uncomfortable around guns.  I don't think that makes me any less of a man or any less capable of protecting my family.  I saw someone post somewhere that "it's becuase of guns that you're free to have the opinions you have."  I disagree.  I could just as easily say that it's because of peace treaties and disarmament agreements that we haven't destoryed mankind completely at this point.

If you think the world is safer with more guns in the hands of more people then why stop there?  Then let me have a nuclear warhead, because if you don't then you're infringing on my right to protect my family in case of an alien invasion.  I mean, where does the line get drawn? 

We all want the same thing, we don't want our rights infringed but we also don't want senseless gun violence.  The excuse "well, it's tragic but accidents happen" just isn't good enough anymore.  It's in everyone's best interests to keep guns out of the hands of insane people, or inept people, or children...so what measures can we take to make that happen?