The running meme that somehow possibly being personally haunted by killing someone to save your family’s (or your own) life is somehow worse than losing a family member is a calculus my mind cannot understand.
For me, to place any potential haunting or regret at the forefront of a life and death decision it is the same as saying that my own personal mental health is more important than my family’s lives. Ah… No!
Not sure what other conclusion to make with that line of thinking. Well, I just cannot get there from here. And thank god and neither can my kids or my wife, so I feel rather secure and confident that I will be protected if that ever is required. It is very comforting to know someone has your back in a life and death situation.
Interesting On The Media podcast this week. A reporter sought the concealed carry database from the only 2 states who have not blocked release of the data. One promptly blocked the release with retro active legislation. But the other (NC) gave it to him. He discovered that over a 5 year period, 10% of them were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors. They were supposed to lose their license for the felonies, but many of them didn’t.
I would support only women having guns as a possible step (esp if all were smart guns). That would cut our problem by 95%!
I keep my gun loaded and in an unlocked drawer (though with the safety on). Why shouldn’t I be allowed to do that?
Say that was the law and someone broke it, what is the value in locking someone up for decades for that? How does society benefit?
And how would that have prevented this shooting?
I sincerely hope you have more than slight sarcasm in the “someone who owns a gun shouldn’t be able to receive mental health medications” because that sounds more like the best way to increase the number of mass shootings rather than decrease.
You are a young man with no children… probably few young visitors. Be sure you let siblings, roommates, etc who may bring young visitors to your place about this. You may find yourself with a very peaceful existence (no visitors) very quickly.
People who claim they would be the ones to kill the burglar, or protect their family, - I’ll bet the woman whose toddler shot her used to say the same things. Or the dad whose baby shot him - I’ll bet he was convinced he would protect his family. Or Lanza’s mom - I wonder if her actual experience impacted her theories. This conversation is beginning to remind me of that poor unfortunate poster on CC years ago who used to boast that he could handle drinking, and colleges shouldn’t be so stupid about their stupid alcohol rules, etc etc. I wish he could post on this forum one more time to talk about what his experience taught him.
I said I met them in CCP training class. To get a conceal carry permit, your entire life is perused with a microscope, similar to what @dietz mentions above. This review is several levels deeper than any federal background check, and because it is local, will always have more current information than any federal system.
CCPs are serious stuff and the last thing a locality wants is a mentally ill person or a person with known violence in his / her background legally walking around with a gun. And this is why even for the tens of millions of CCP holders, there are virtually no news stories of CCP holders being mass shooters or just going and randomly shooting someone. The CCP programs have proved to reduce crime, not increase it.
It is amazing how many police thank me for conceal carrying. At the range, they are the friendliest to CCP holders and often joke that “Before we get there, keep the bad guy tied down for us.” Pretty similar to this guy in Atlanta. I love this dude!
EDIT to add: Watch how the police shakes the hand of the CCP holder.
And not everyone who wants a gun should have to go this CCP-type microscope because not everyone wants to conceal carry. Someone who wants a rifle or handgun for home protection and the gun never leaves the house should have to pass a background check to ensure that they are not mentally ill or have felonies or restraining orders against them. But. wait, we already have all of those in place and crazies still get through. Pretty much the same as chronic drunk drivers are still able to get behind cars even though they should not be able to. No system is foolproof, unfortunately.
if you EVER at any time have children in your house, you need to lock up your guns or have them on your person
I was reading some research yesterday, and came upon a study where researchers put pairs of 8-12 year old boys to wait in a room where, unbeknownst to the boys, there was a gun hidden in a drawer. The kids had not been told about the gun, but within 15 minutes or so, three quarters of the pairs had found that gun and picked it up. Many of these boys had gone through the NRA training teaching them not to touch guns, but they couldn’t resist. A good number of them pointed the gun at the other boy.
I own two guns. Both for small game/bird hunting. I would not dream of keeping them loaded, or even unlocked. The ammunition is locked separately. They are combination locked, and I have the number memorized. One other trusted adult in another state has the combo as well.
I have no qualms about gun control laws, and honestly would be happy to register, train, store them elsewhere, or even give them up if this mindless slaughter and the frustrating obfuscation & obstruction by testosterone-fueled gun nuts could be stopped.
We will look back someday at the gun manufacturers and gun lobby like we do at big tobacco now. You are sheep, parroting their message for profit at the expense of a civil society. They feed on your fear and your desire to be “big men”, and you lap it up and rush to buy more. I am not fearful of guns, but indiscriminate ownership and essentially no limits on them is ruining our society.
Actually, to get a CCP, I know there was a list of drugs that if you were taking that you could not get the CCP.
However, that is a CCP. Anxiety drugs and the like are no reason to stop someone from being able to defend himself in in house, given the fact the gun never leaves the house.
I train with current line duty commercial pilots and I need to get my flight medical renewed every 6 months. People would be shocked at how many pilots who are on anxiety-reducing drugs, who just got out of rehab, have restraining orders against them, have been arrested for assault, and have depression histories, while being allowed to captain an airplane full of people.
The vast majority of people function just normally on the proper medication and it would be worse if they did not take them. And unions have made it all but impossible to fire such people under the ADA act. Ah, the stories I could tell.
Simply, if pilots with these histories are allowed to fly hundreds of people in a potentially explosive cannonball, surely a private citizen can defend himself in his house with a gun.
Let’s change the subject! Airplanes, abortion, maybe we can get this conversation off on another tack. Because there is no legitimate argument for owning large magazine or large clip guns, or handguns that holds up under scrutiny.
“Pilots don’t intentionally crash very often, so anyone should be able to access and own all the guns they want with no restrictions or insurance or tracking.” Duh. Nope.
I’m sure they did too. I don’t understand what point you are trying to make. People live their lives with the best intentions and love for their families and then accidents happen, like to parents who accidentally back their cars over a toddler, or who own pitbulls that end up attacking and killing a child. As I said before, unless we ban guns altogether, which according to jazzymom is not something anyone is advocating, accidents are going to happen because humans are not perfect.
Again, I’m not sure what your point is here. Is it that since the government is incompetent in doing its job, then everyone should be deprived of the right to own a gun? That sounds again like an argument to repeal the 2nd Amendment.
Even though these are accidents, I understand the outrage of the deaths of toddlers etc… However, people do not seem to get that all they are advocating for is being able to choose who becomes a victim, not that there would a reduction in victims.
What do I mean by this? I mean the media does not highlight the kids who successfully protect themselves with guns. Media only highlights the accidental deaths.
In my state, a 4 year old shot a 6 year old. Father was arrested for letting children have access to guns. Father was convicted and is spending 3 years in prison.
I am sick and tired of “what is the point?” in response to comments about children and guns. It is EXACTLY the same point as people running over their toddler or leaving their child in a hot car. If parents are neglectful, they should be arrested.
As for the government not doing their job, then DO something about it! Why can’t we arrest government officials who aren’t doing their job? We let DNA kits pile up, but at some point bodies can’t keep piling up for the medical examiner. Our state’s DMV now has very minimal wait times; used to be an hour or more across the board. The people now are pleasant to deal with.
Things can change, and if there is a Federal mandate to enforce background checks and removing gun permits and guns under specific circumstances, states will take notice if they lose funding.
Gun enthusiasts seem to think that the 2nd Amendment means anyone can own any weapon under any circumstances and carry it loaded anywhere. And that is not the case. If we do indeed ban certain kinds of weapons, and we certainly ban children from various activities, we need to be reasonable about who can own a gun and where they can carry it loaded.
When someone says “they can take my gun from my cold, dead hands”, I think of the 6 year old’s cold, dead hands
Interesting you blame the gun, but not the criminal or hold responsible the person who chooses to take their own life…
I do not see these as gun deaths, but human-caused deaths who just happened to use a gun - of which the vast majority are actually suicides (60%) and accidents (1% or less) making up the smallest cohort. And since accidents can never be eliminated, not a starting point. The rest is criminal activity.
But, I get it, you are so against guns that someone getting killed by an home invader is a trade-off you are willing to make. Not a trade-off of I am willing to take, as I believe a person has the right to effective personal defense.
I’d rather you quote me correctly. I said banning guns altogether is not something anyone in power is advocating.
It’s not worth discussing the desire by some to ban guns as that would require the repeal of the 2nd Amendment and that is not possible.
It is worth discussing why improving background checks, closing loopholes, and banning assault weapons that are not necessarily for protection or hunting is fought so fiercely by the NRA that absolutely no legislative attempt gets through Congress and how to change that.
