In wake of the tragedy in Las Vegas, I just feel I have to at least post what I feel about the state of things regarding guns. My prayers and condolences go out to all those affected by the tragedy.

There is always the cry to banish guns after a horrible tragedy. It is an easy flag to wave and get votes. A gun, is an inanimate object, it is no more dangerous, than a shovel. In the wrong hands, it kills. We need to concentrate on the mental and emotional issues that cause these tragedies. The US has all but turned it’s back on the mentally and emotionally ill. Closing hospitals and laying off staff. More laws they say we need. None of the laws would have stopped this evil person. What they want you to forget, is that an evil person, or a criminal has no regard for the law/s. The want you to fear the gun, it is something you can see and touch and vent hatred and fear. The gun itself, does not kill, the person holding the gun does.

Gun rights. Like many debates,  can be very heated. There are three things in this world that I have seen, that will tear apart friendships and family. Politics, Religion, and Guns.

I’ll start by saying that the wife and I are responsible Gun Owners, there are not many places I go that I don’t have mine. I don’t hunt, and I don’t target practice fanatically, or collect guns. We practice enough to be proficient if we ever have the unfortunate luck to need them in defense.  Some people collect guns like others collect baseball cards or salt shakers. Some shoot every chance they get, they study the weight, speed, and are fanatical about the stopping or killing proficiency of a certain bullet. Almost like a kid wants the fastest bike he can find.

I told myself I was tired of carrying a weapon, I wanted to be “normal”.

I spent the better part of my life carrying a gun to protect others. As a law-enforcement officer, it was a tool of the trade. In 24 years I was fortunate, and never had to take a life in the line of duty. When I left the career, I decided that I would go without a gun. After all, I wanted to fit in with society. So many people frown when they think your carrying a weapon, almost as if it would fall out at any moment and discharge killing someone. I went for about 6 years unarmed. I had forced myself to ignore all I had learned about the evil in people, and assumed the attitude that the chance of needing a weapon, is so minuscule, that carrying one marks you as a paranoid person, just so I could be a so-called “normal” person.

Then I changed my mind.

It worked for those 6 years. Then one night, when we were out late, a car of about 4 rough foreign looking individuals pulled out of a side street and began following us as we were leaving a nearby town. It followed us onto the rural county roads. From all my years as a cop, I had that icky feeling of what might happen. It’s 1am, I make several right and left turns on rural roads, and they stayed with us. About 10 mins into the ride, they start flashing their lights trying to get us to pull over. We are in a very sparsely populated part of the country, no cell phone coverage. I speed up, they do the same. Apparently I was blessed in the fact that the raggedy car they were in, was not running too well. We were able to out-distance them. It took going 70mph for a distance letting them know we were not stopping. I was sure wanting to run across a law-enforcement unit out on that long dark road. They finally dropped back and turned around. I had a horrible feeling,  wondering what if Michelle had been alone, would they have tried to run her off the road, What if their car had been in better shape, or they were more bold, would they have forced us off the road. I would have been totally unarmed against possibly armed criminals.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

The last 3 generations have been raised with mud for brains. I’m sorry to be so harsh, but it’s true. They have not been instilled with rules like, Do unto others as you would have done unto you, or just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. There are no consequences for doing stupid things. Therefore, they feel the sky is the limit. Some of these generations are 30+ years old, and the younger ones are scarier. They buy motorized conveyances of any type, and try to use them for other than what they were designed for. This has spilled over into guns as they get old enough.

What I call Gun “Nuts”

I put people who constantly think guns, ammunition, killing power, and how many can I collect, as Gun Nuts. Guns are a tool, not a toy! The last generation has decided, anything is a toy. I am going to post some videos that will scare the daylights out of many. A gun nut is anyone that thinks having a gun that can fire more than 20 rounds full auto is cool.

The solution

I respect those that don’t like guns. I keep mine concealed, unlike the other group of Gun Nuts that belong to the Open Carry movement.

We will never remove guns from society. Restricting them is hard enough. We do need them, and I am glad I can have one. We need after this demonstration of how fast and how many can be killed, to BAN automatic fire weapons to civilians. You can own one now, but you have to pay a steep price to the federal gov for a permit. Permit costing $200+ for each automatic weapon. However, with the simple add-on of a $99 bump stock, you can fire it as if it was full auto.

Make it simple. Ban any possession of a weapon from civilians, that is full automatic, or converted or assisted in any way to operate as an automatic. Plain and simple. Stop the issuance of permits for civilians to own automatic weapons. Anyone with an automatic weapon should get fined and mandatory jail time of 5 years. The current weapons allowed civilians, that are classed as semi-automatic, fire only as fast as you pull the trigger. That is still way too fast, but at least falls short of fully auto.

Hearing Protection Act

I may make some gun enthusiasts mad with this, but anyone requiring a silencer for a gun for their hearing protection, is just trying to be the coolest kid on the block. Wear ear protection! The gun nuts got this ball rolling, which was going no-where fast, until they got hunters to back their insane reasoning that it would help a hunter’s preservation of hearing. Also, not scare off other animals nearby. So up to this point when the madman massacred all of these innocents, it was on a fast track to be approved to “Protect the hearing of hunters” (cough). Imagine if this guy had one. At the range he was at, it would have been nearly impossible to spot where he was shooting from. I hear they have shelved the bill in light of this tragedy.

Stop the madness, it’s time to force some common sense into gun nuts, or at least slow them down.

If you need an example of a Gun Nut, here is just one. I couldn’t even watch the whole thing. Some idiot treating a serious item, as a toy. I could only watch the first 20 or so seconds of it. The rest was just them replaying in slow motion the event to get their thrills. Weapons with this rate of fire, have no place in the hands of regular people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HPcAvIbNsk

Comments welcome,