I own several guns, including a couple of high-powered rifles and a revolver. I’ve enjoyed hunting all of my life, and in younger days did my share of plunking with a .22.
Taken in full measure, I’m probably pretty indicative of the average American gun owner, a person who enjoys hunting or target shooting and has a few guns tucked away at home.
I don’t think my Second Amendment rights would be infringed upon by banning weapons meant mainly to kill people or by requiring gun registration and more thorough background checks for buyers. Gun ownership should come with responsibility firmly attached.
It would never occur to me to buy an assault-type rifle, much less load it up with a high-capacity magazine. At .223 caliber, which most assault weapons apparently are, they are illegal for hunting deer in Kansas, and I suspect most other states.
Assault weapons are as the name implies: To provide suppressive fire to kill people in a military setting. To my way of thinking, there is no compelling reason for such weapons, particularly those fed by the high-capacity magazines, to be available to the general public.
I don’t think we’ll be faced with having to protect ourselves and our families, as some radical survivalists maintain, because of civil strife and I put even less stock in having to fend off an oppressive government. After all, in a democracy, we are the government.
I do think stricter laws and regulations would decrease the number of senseless killings in our nation, such as the 20 helpless little children in Newtown, Conn. And the fear that putting more controls on firearms would lead to an end of private ownership of firearms is just plain hooey.
Also, there is the human side.
A few years ago, I had a dickens of a time bearing down on a buck scampering through nearby brush. His sudden appearance unnerved me to the point that I was shaking.
Think what the reaction would have been if it were a human being, even one who was threatening. No matter the circumstance, it would be difficult for me — for any law-abiding, “good” person — to purposely shoot another person.
It just isn’t in our nature.
Gun ownership carries responsibility
