<p>Whow - not that it matters, except perhaps to me - I didn’t start the thread intended to pick on this particular group, or on the matter of gun ownership rights.</p>
<p>As a practical matter, I fully support the concept of gun ownership, and do not want anyone anywhere legislating rights to own them. But I also happen to think that guns and children are not a good mix, and that it’s not a terrific idea to have both of those things in the same household UNLESS (fill in the blanks with the obvious here), so, it hit me as very, very strange to see such text on a list of rules for a college - ANY college. </p>
<p>Somehow, in the long list of things that get packed as part of the process to send one’s son or daughter off to college, my brain sort of sources a list like “extra long sheets, blankets, shower caddy, alarm clock, towels, climate appropriate clothing…” and so on. “Trigger locks for her guns” (???) - it’s sort of like one of those tests that say “which object in the picture below is most unlike any other object”. It strikes me as very, very odd. </p>
<p>Middlebury at least does a very nice job of explaining their policy, and sending the message of why they crafted such a policy in the first place: Middlebury’s text doesn’t strike me as “bizarre”.</p>
<p>How things have changed. When I went to HS in suburban Washington, DC, we had a rifle club. Every Friday those of us in the club would bring our rifles to school, usually on the school bus. We car pooled to another nearby HS and shot at that school’s range with ammunition that was distributed at virtually no cost. When I was 14 and 15, I would occassionally get on a city bus with my rifle and shoot at a downtown Washington, DC range. To me, shooting a rifle was a sport. After I was drafted into the Army - Vietnam era - I lost interest in the sport.</p>
<p>Oh, thanks. I guess I am too. It would have been pretty traumatic at the time, I suspect. But that was a long time ago.</p>
<p>The point I was trying to make is that there are too many people out there who think the use of deadly force is a casual thing. I think that if you use deadly force and you’re wrong, you should go to prison and they should throw away the key.</p>
<p>There really aren’t any more useful facts except that the tenants were my uncle and aunt, so had my Aunt Charlotte killed him, it would have been a big family “thing.” He was not thinking clearly by driving up into the backyard of his house at night. As I recall, he’d been driving from far away to get there, but I don’t remember from where. He should have called ahead or alerted her in some way.</p>
<p>All the same, she shot first without doing any checking. My point all along is that, if you are going to own firearms with the intent of using deadly force, you’d better NOT use them at the wrong time. And if you do, you should rot in jal.</p>
<p>There was a story in the news some years ago, also in Florida, a couple went on a second honeymoon, left their younger children with a neighbor. </p>
<p>The night they were due home, their daughter - cannot remember her age - five, six? - with the neighbor’s permission - decided to hide in a closet in their home in order to jump out and scare her parents when they returned home. </p>
<p>Daughter did exactly that, which startled her father. He mistakenly thought there was an intruder in the house and shot and killed his own daughter. I don’t recall if the father was charged or if law enforcement decided he couldn’t possibly be punished by the courts any more drastically or what…</p>
<p>I’m sure there are hundreds of stories of the same theme, anyway, guns/children = very bad mix, in most situations.</p>
<p>Oh man. I could have lived my entire life happily without hearing that story. As a father, I just cannot imagine. But as someone who believes in personal responsibility, I say nip this kind of thing in the bud with SEVERE penalties.</p>
<p>When we pack our children off to college, they are actually adults. So a discussion of firearms storage at a college does not involve “guns and kids”.</p>
<p>I included a knife and cars on my list for a reason. Seriously, other than cutting something, what is the reason for owning a knife? Why does our government allow every household to own one…why we must have about 50 in my house! AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US HAS CUT OURSELVES AT LEAST ONCE!</p>
<p>Oh, and now we come to the cars! I’ve personally known about ten people who’ve been killed in car accidents. Some involved alcohol, some poor judgement, but in all cases, there was a car involved!</p>
<p>Back to my list, what about the wine and bourbon? How many people’s lives have been ruined by alcohol? How many deaths have been caused by alcohol? I know of plenty of tragedies and I’ll bet you do too.</p>
<p>Since this is a college site, did you know that there are scholarships out there for sharp-shooters? And what about the Olympics? Should we eliminate all of the shooting sports?</p>
<p>Noticeable lack of the work “some” in front of the word “fundamentalists” it seems to me. </p>
<p>I get queasy at any generalizations. I get queasy at the implicit linking of “fundamentalist Christians” and fundamentalist (radical) Muslims. </p>
<p>I get queasy at the suggestion that, by extension of Tarhunt’s life story, we are purposely left with an image of “fundamentalist” Christians sitting on their front porches ready to take aim at black people.</p>
<p>I get queasy that I’ve been called a fundamentalist on these boards because I’m a traditional Catholic. </p>
<p>I get that you don’t care for the idea that some people’s religions believe that homosexuality is a sin; that adultery is wrong; that premarital sex is wrong; that not allowing people to use violent video games is wrong; that not allowing people to view PG or R rated movies is wrong, etc. etc.</p>
<p>But people on this thread are okay with the idea that “fundamentalists”–who are automatically assumed to love guns–are also racists ready at the drop of a hat to kill black people. I believe that “thou shall not kill” is a “fundamental” tenant of the New Testament. Do they ignore the Bible in that case?</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what’s scary: that a person like AM, who has never in her life met a Christian “fundamentalist” is so willing to paint as evil millions of human beings because their views differ from her views. Or that people are not embarrassed to equate Brigham Young University with Communist countries. Or that these people, blinded by their biases, fear, and hate, actually think they make sense.</p>
<p>I wonder if the severe penalties should also apply to parents and others who let kids have alcohol to drink and then drive. I can think of three kids we knew growing up from small children who are now dead for this reason, directly or indirectly.</p>
<p>Maybe losing a child is punishment enough? Would imprisonment help? I don’t know, I have my doubts. In a way, firearms are an easier issue - just lock them up, train the users, prosecute the violators, mourn the few, really, victims of accidents. </p>
<p>But underage and even adult drinking? Wow, that’s a tough one - yet far more are killed and maimed every year that way. We don’t really address that one, yet we pay a far heavier price as a society for the luxury of alcohol. We like our drinks, yet it really does not serve a useful function that justifies the cost. We celebrate it, though, even here.</p>
<p>For every single grave stone created due to some firearm incident, I’d just like to see the hundreds or thousands of head stones attributed to the drink, in the same period, just to make sure our priorities are correct. We don’t even have to add in the fights, affairs and divorces directly related either.</p>
<p>Baseballmom, apparently I expressed my point very poorly. I do not think any of those things should be eliminated. In fact, I’m probably one of the few people demented enough to want our armed forces - every single branch - present and recruiting on campuses. </p>
<p>Hanna is expressing this a little better. It’s not the concept of the guns (and sorry but in my mind, a brand new freshman stepping onto campus on day one of matriculation is still a child - I think “adult” happens sometime after; perhaps as quickly as 24 hours, perhaps in a week or a month - or maybe by junior year - “adult” is an iterative process, not an insty-mix sort of college acceptance =adult status) - it’s about the concept of presence of loaded guns owned, operated and under the control of someone who is not allowed to watch movies with content about those very same guns.</p>
<p>Allmusic:
I enjoy skeet shooting, trap shooting, and shooting sporting clays. I use a shotgun to do this. Other people like darts or badminton or golf. The gun is simply the equipment I use in that sport. You should give it a try - it’s fun and takes a high level of skill. It’s quite entertaining. It’s an expensive sport but people get enough enjoyment out of it to invest in it. In all the time I’ve been around gun clubs and thousands of people with guns, loaded, and shooting right next to me, no one has ever been shot at or hurt (on the other hand I don’t believe Cheney was ever present).</p>
<p>Note - When I was a kid I worked at a gun club on an Air Force base in Colorado Springs. Frequently the Air Force Academy skeet shooting team would show up and shoot there. I know it’s military but it’s also a college skeet shooting team. I’m not sure what they did with their guns when they returned to the Academy but my assumption is that they didn’t bring them back to the dorms with them and that they probably checked them into a secured storage area.</p>
<p>“I wonder if the severe penalties should also apply to parents and others who let kids have alcohol to drink and then drive.”</p>
<p>In many (most?) states, they do. If you over-serve someone who then injures himself or others while drunk, you may be liable for the damage they cause. I’m certainly in favor of severe penalties for carelessness with all legal, but deadly, substances and objects. Another example would be the mom who left a 5-year-old at home alone with his little sister and matches, and when the child burned the house down with the baby inside, the mom blamed “Beavis & Butt-head.” Nope, Mom, you set your kid up to die.</p>
<p>Although this thread is going off in tangents, I think I understand the point you were trying to make. I’m guessing you mean to say that on the one hand BJU trusts their students’ judgment in using weapons but on the other hand doesn’t trust their judgment in their ability to watch >G rated movies or in accessing the internet.</p>
<p>parent2noles, if I were queen, I would make alcohol completely illegal, in the same category as, say, cocaine. But I’m not; lots of reasonable, intelligent, rational and very successful people use it daily and never harm anyone and they would strongly disagree with me.</p>