I’m a responsible gun owner, so I destroyed my gun

88m3

88m3

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I’m a responsible gun owner, so I destroyed my gun
The gun lobby only has as much power as we give it. It's time for a change.

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By Steve Elliott October 15 at 7:00 AM
Steve Elliott is a writer and former journalist who lives in Calaveras County, Calif.

shooting at Umpqua Community College — after every mass shooting on a college campus, movie theater, elementary school or wherever — someone from the NRA or some other gun-rights group, or someone in Congress or running for president, goes on television and says we can’t fund federal studies into gun violence or have universal background checks of gun buyers or do anything that even hints of gun control because it infringes on the rights of responsible gun owners.

My gun is being used to argue against doing anything to even try to reduce gun violence in America. That’s what being a responsible gun owner means today — I’m responsible.

I’m a bit ashamed how slowly I came to that realization. For most of my life, I never thought about guns, and certainly didn’t weigh in on the gun control debate. Until recently, I didn’t even connect the personal tragedies in and around my family to guns.

I was in a restaurant when I first learned about the Sandy Hook massacre, watching news reports on the television over the bar. Like most of America, my reaction was horror and disgust. But I could also overhear a guy talking at the bar, and his first reaction was, “They’re gonna to use this as an excuse to come after our guns.”

The authorities were still trying to figure out how many 6- and 7-year-old children had been killed, and he was worried about his guns.

I thought Sandy Hook might prompt a sober discussion on gun control or even legislative action, but that didn’t happen. The NRA’s proposed solution was more guns — arming teachers and guards at every school. The church shooting in Charleston, S.C., happened about a week after I’d visited that city for the first time, and again, the gun lobby opposed any hint of gun control, ostensibly on behalf of us responsible gun owners.

[My son was killed at Sandy Hook. We need to do more to prevent mass shootings.]

I thought about giving up my gun then, but I didn’t. In the face of so much gun violence in our society, disarming is bit frightening (even though I know statistically I’m safer without a gun in the house than with one). I still told myself I wasn’t part of the problem.

That ended a week ago.

After the Umpqua shooting, and the predictable gun lobby response, and a visibly angry President Obama admitting there’s no political will to try to solve our country’s gun violence problem, I realized it’s not their problem. It’s mine.

The Monday after the shootings, I disassembled my Ruger, clamped the pieces in a vice and cut them in half with an angle grinder. I sent the proper paperwork in to the state to report it destroyed. And then I wrote about it on Facebook, and included a hashtag: #ONELESSGUN.

I’m not an activist, I’m an angry American. I’m angry about the senseless killings, and the more senseless “stuff happens” response to them. I’m angry that the gun industry’s special-interest spokesmen claim to speak for me, and that politicians believe them.

Mostly, I’m angry about what it says about America. The idea that kids getting slaughtered at school is too big a problem for us to solve absolutely infuriates me. If there is truly nothing we can do, nothing we can try — if we just have to accept it — then we have failed as a nation and as a culture. I don’t want to believe that.

[People are getting shot by toddlers on a weekly basis]

Instead, I believe that the overwhelming majority of Americans — including American gun owners — want to reduce gun violence and are open to solutions: policing, education, training, technology, mental health, media and yes, gun laws.

I believe claiming the NRA speaks for all gun owners is like saying theWestboro Baptist Church speaks for all Christians. It doesn’t. The gun lobby in America is seen as some all-powerful political force, but it is a narrow special-interest group, same as any other. It has exactly the amount of power we give it.

And I believe people are ready for change.

More than 46,000 strangers shared my post and picture of my destroyed handgun with their friends and networks. A few were mocking it, of course, but the overwhelming majority of the shares and messages people sent were positive. Some of those positive comments came from other gun owners. Some came from men and women who had guns and already got rid of them, or are considering it or who support my personal decision but aren’t going to part with theirs. That’s okay. At least they’re in the conversation.

None of us individually can stop gun violence in America, but responsible gun owners can change the debate, and individuals can act when politicians won’t. I know I will no longer allow myself to be used as a justification for doing nothing.

Maybe cutting up a perfectly good gun is nothing but a symbolic — some say stupid — gesture that accomplishes nothing. Maybe. But at the very least, there is #ONELESSGUN.

I’m a responsible gun owner, so I destroyed my gun

:wow:
 
JahFocus CS

JahFocus CS

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It's sad that I have to say this, but thankfully the gun lobby and pro-gun crowd are powerful enough to make sure the 2nd Amendment is defended, since most of the circles with sensible positions advancing freedom on everything else drop the ball on the gun issue.

Democrats going hard on this is just going to ensure mounting political losses for them.
 
unit321

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Dude was a full-on homo.
Side note, if the liberals want to change the second amendment, what other amendments do the liberals want to change? You give an inch, they take a mile.
And if you don't believe that, gay civil unions rolled over into full-on gay marriages. They put in the tip, but then shoved it in balls deep. That's an analogy.
 
tmonster

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88m3 said:
[People are getting shot by toddlers on a weekly basis]
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People are getting shot by toddlers on a weekly basis this year
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Comments 738

By Christopher Ingraham October 14 Follow @_cingraham
This week a 2-year-old in South Carolina found a gun in the back seat of the car he was riding in and accidentally shot his grandmother, who was sitting in the passenger seat. This type of thing happens from time to time: A little kid finds a gun, fires it, and hurts or kills himself or someone else. These cases rarely bubble up to the national level except when someone, like a parent, ends up dead.

But cases like this happen a lot more frequently than you might think. After spending a few hours sifting through news reports, I've found at least 43 instances this year of somebody being shot by a toddler 3 or younger. In 31 of those 43 cases, a toddler found a gun and shot himself or herself.

found a loaded handgun at his grandmother's house and shot himself in the torso. His mother took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Earlier in the year a Michigan 3-year-old found a loaded .40-caliber handgun in a closet while his dad and brother were outside. He shot himself in the head and died before rescue workers arrived.

[This is what one year of gun deaths in America looks like]

The stories go on and on like this: Roughly once a week this year, on average, a small child has found a gun, pointed it at himself or someone else, and pulled the trigger. Boys are disproportionately likely to do this: I could find only three cases where a girl under the age of 4 wounded someone with a gun. In 13 of the 43 total incidents, a child's self-inflicted injuries were fatal. In two other cases, another person died after being shot by a toddler: a father in Alabama, and a 1-year-old in Ohio.

In one instance, a 3-year-old managed to wound both of his parents with a single gunshot at an Albuquerque motel.

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Shootings by toddlers have happened in 24 states so far this year. Missouri has seen the most, with five separate incidents. Florida has had four. Texas, three. Due to the low number of total cases and the isolated nature of these incidents I'd caution against drawing broad conclusions from the map above. But it is worth noting that the shootings don't necessarily follow broader population trends. California, the most populous state in the nation, hasn't had any. Nobody has been shot by a toddler in New England or the Upper Midwest.

These numbers are probably an undercount. There are likely instances of toddlers shooting people that result in minor injuries and no media coverage. And there are probably many more cases where a little kid inadvertently shoots a gun and doesn't hit anyone, resulting in little more than a scared kid and (hopefully) chastened parents.

Notably, these numbers don't include cases where toddlers are shot, intentionally or otherwise, by older children or adults. Dozens of preschoolers are killed in acts of homicide each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But I haven't included those figures here.

[How often do children in the U.S. unintentionally shoot and kill people? We don’t know.]

These cases are invariably referred to as "accidents" in media reports. But as Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates for stricter gun laws, argues, many incidents like this are preventable. In a study of accidental shootings by children of all ages (not just toddlers), they estimate that "more than two-thirds of these tragedies could be avoided if gun owners stored their guns responsibly and prevented children from accessing them."

There are policy and technical responses to preventable childhood gun deaths as well. States and localities could require guns to be locked up at home, a policy supported by 67 percent of Americans. Various types of smart gun technology, which prevent anyone other than their owners from firing a given gun, exist as well. But gun lock requirements and smart guns have been vehemently opposed by the National Rifle Association and its allies.

Instead, the NRA continues to promote a response that seeks to solve gun problems with more guns, and aims to broaden the saturation of firearms in nearly every sphere of public and private life, from homes to schools to churches to bars to airports and beyond. In a country with more guns than people, it's only natural that a certain number of small children are going get their hands on an unsecured firearm, with tragic consequences.

[Guns in America: For every criminal killed in self-defense, 34 innocent people die]

Depending on where you stand on gun policy, you may feel that 13 dead toddlers in 10 months is too many. Or, you might reason that stuff happens, and that this is part of the price we must pay to protect our gun rights.

I've included my tally of toddler shootings below. News sources are linked in the City column. Know of any this year that I missed? Drop me a line.

Date City State Child's age Child's gender
1/8/15 High Rock Lake NC 3 male
1/21/15 East Lake FL 2 male
1/21/15 Benton Harbor MI 3 male
1/24/15 Las Vegas NV 3 male
1/31/15 Albuquerque NM 3 male
2/3/15 Davie FL 3 male
2/9/15 LeBleu Settlement LA 3 female
2/23/15 Florissant MO 3 male
2/27/15 Houston TX 3 male
3/3/15 Hillsboro TN 3 male
3/8/15 Green River UT 3 male
3/19/15 Chatsworth GA 2 female
3/26/15 Montoursville PA 2 male
3/30/15 Jefferson GA 3 male
4/3/15 Raleigh NC 2 male
4/12/15 Cleveland OH 3 male
4/30/15 Peoria AZ 2 male
5/9/15 Louisville KY 2 male
5/9/15 San Antonio TX 3 male
5/15/15 Oklahoma City OK 2 male
5/17/15 Venice FL 3 male
5/19/15 Snowville UT 3 male
5/23/15 Jackson MS 3 male
5/25/15 Lunenburg VA 2 male
5/30/15 Myrtle Beach SC 3 male
6/12/15 Jeffersonville IN 2 male
6/12/15 Cincinnati OH 3 male
6/15/15 York PA 3 male
6/26/15 Pontiac MI 3 male
6/29/15 Franklin Township MI 3 male
7/2/15 Shreveport LA 3 male
7/6/15 Spring TX 3 male
7/14/15 Conway SC 3 male
7/15/15 Kansas City MO 3 female
7/18/15 Columbia MO 3 male
7/21/15 St. Louis MO 3 male
8/4/15 Miami FL 3 male
8/5/15 South Anchorage AK 3 male
8/18/15 Hoover AL 2 male
8/25/15 Hanley Hills MO 1 male
9/22/15 Lake Placid NY 3 male
9/22/15 Dallas OR 2 male
10/12/15 Rock Hill SC 2 male

yo this is real...:wtf:
 
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