On Gun Control

Ever since my husband and I were shot at by a neighbor boy June 8, 2012, I have been leaning more and more toward gun control.  I was shocked when so many of my neighbors told me they carry concealed weapons and they have many guns in their homes. I was shocked that this unstable boy was allowed unlimited access to what amounted to a small arsenal:  30-06 rifles, .22s, 50 calibers and others.  He shot at us with the .22 and then paraded up and down our road with a 30-06 on his back.  His father had the nerve to target shoot on our property the next week without permission and become offended when my husband told him to leave the property and not come back.  Said property was across the road from our house.

I was told by many that arming themselves to the teeth was not only their right but their responsibility. 

BULLCRAP! 

We have seen that having more guns has done nothing at all to stop gun violence.  According to this article (http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/18/15977143-gun-control-offers-no-cure-all-in-america?lite ), 310 million guns are owned in the US, 114 million of them, handguns.  Assault rifles and handguns have one purpose, killing other people.

Since Aurora and Sandy Hook and our own experience, I have decided that the only solution for our country is a multilayered one. 

1.  We must figure out why and how our young have become so desensitized to violence that they actually think to use a gun first, instead of talking things out or instead of contacting authorities. 

2.  We must treat the mentally ill.  They are sick and need help, not simply jail.  Jail sometimes turns out even more violent people. 

3.  Ban assault rifles and sponsor a mandatory buy back as Australia did.  I would consider handguns also in this ban.  (See article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/02/did-gun-control-work-in-australia/ )

4. Make longer waiting periods and stricter background checks standard for gun purchasers.  Perhaps even require ANY gun purchaser to take a class in safety and handling firearms (See this: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/08/15780233-police-7-year-old-fatally-shot-by-father-outside-gun-store-in-pennsylvania?lite ).

5. Consider longer mandatory sentences for any crime committed involving a firearm.  Also consider making lending firearms used in violent acts criminal with the SAME sentence as the offender.

I hear many people clamor about their Second Amendment rights and I doubt many of them have ever read the amendment. 

“Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

I cannot see where, in the absence of said militia, anyone actually has need or right to bear arms without being in the military.  Sorry but it’s just not there unless you hold it sideways to force it in. 

Gun control does work and the Brady Bill has worked some – deaths by guns have actually declined from 6.6 per 100,000 in 1993 (the year the bill was enacted) to 3.2 per 100,000 in 2011.  We can only hope stricter controls will work even better.

We have become a nation of gun toting lunatics and it sickens me.