Let us be clear on this. We citizens do not have the right to carry concealed weapons on our persons. We can carry rifles on racks in the backs of our trucks but walking down the street with a shotgun or even a 22 rifle is not common even in states where gun ownership is legal. Are things so bad today that calls for either right to bear arms or gun ownership should be illegal are taking the place in the news of stories about the fate of a celebrity’s baby? Let me review some of my thoughts on guns, their ownership, use, and future.
As a male who lived on stories of the old west in the 19th Century, the idea of having a gun strapped to my waist was compelling. You needed one for you never knew when a sidewinder or a four footed varmint might turn up. There were never actually the numbers of gun-fights to see who had the quickest draw that have been depicted in movies. That is clearly the invention of Hollywood and writers of action novels.
The sad truth is that when some individual (if not a cabal of haters) acts out his or her sickness – convinced that voices or some force compels murder, there is nothing we can do about it. Many such individuals live quiet, unremarkable lives until something causes them to act out and vast numbers of people are affected by violence.
This is the time to really, really think about control over the meaning of weapons of destruction that can reach the hands of virtually anybody. My plan, offered some time ago, is simple. I had to give up my ownership of a German Rifle from World War I at the end of World War II when we soldiers were asked to pick out one from a huge pile collected from the defeated. It rested over a doorway into my garage for many a year but Carol made me sell it when we came to Florida.
Now, there is no reason why someone should NOT be able to own a finely made piece of machinery such as a hand gun. It may be capable of being hidden under clothes but it is like a poisonous snake without fangs if there are no bullets in it. Let everyone who thinks it is impressive to carry around visible evidence that he or she owns such a weapon. If it has no bullets in it, who is to know?
My plan is to allow ownership of personal protection in the form of a gun of one’s choice. BUT: bullets or ammunition MUST be licensed and marked so ownership is clearly seen and are able to be traced to the manufacturer and the retailer who sold them. If this is adopted I think that the number of deaths from such weapons and their missiles would drop dramatically. Of course, the legal users, the police and the military, have compelling reasons to use such tools.