It's a national bad habit.Our children and our grandchildren have toy guns in their hands as soon as they can stand and toddle. 99% (I'm making that % up) of the people/characters seen on television by those children, has a gun in their hands at one time or another. The amount of filmed gun violence seen by our children grows along with them until by the time they are old enough to watch R rated films, murder and mayhem are almost, but not quite, boring to them. They've seen it all.
Then if they choose to go into the military, they can use guns for real! Big guns and little guns but all very real. Did you know that we are now buying bullets from Israel because we can't make them fast enough for our grown up kids. They are averaging over 250,000 bullets per enemy dead!
I went to Cabo San Lucas in 1990 and was surprised to see militia with rifles over their shoulders at the airport and walking around town. Shocking! A couple of years later, my wife came on a trip to Cabo with me and I warned her ahead of time about the 'guys with real guns' that she would see. Even prepared, she was scared when she saw them. We had nothing like that at home and we figured it was the sign of being in a third world country. And it was. Now we see automatic weapons routinely at our airports and other public venues. Just a sign of being in a third world country I guess.
I have hunting weapons but I gave up hunting many years ago. The weapons are in the back of the closet and I suppose I should look at them and dust them off every now and then. But I never get around to it. And hunting isn't necessary. It's expensive, dangerous, and we have all the food we need at the store. Is there a good reason to hunt? I don't know what it might be. When I stopped hunting, I thought of it as growing up.
Pistols are a real problem for me. If you're not involved in some form of law enforcement, I see no reason to have one. If you must have a pistol; can't bear the thought of doing without...do you really need one that holds more than, let's say...six bullets? Of course not. Actually just one is enough to kill a loved one by mistake or in a fit of anger.
Well, I can vent here and could even write to 'Dear Wally', our congressman but I doubt that with his siege mentality he would be interested in addressing the issue of gun control. So I'm just venting a little.
I agree with you 100% on the handgun issue. Handguns were made with the express purpose of killing people. They should be abolished.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has shotguns and rifles. He shoots skeet with friends a couple of times a year. It's a man day of shotting and scratching and drinking beer.
I have an uncle who very sweetly provides me with venison steaks and venison jerky and venison sausage. YUM! He hunts as a hobby. He is good at it.
I don't have a problem with his hunting. I don't understand why people feel the need to own huge amounts of handguns or even huge amounts of ammo.