Gun Advocates, What Say You?? (Page 3)

Not to mention the last thing you want to be doing during an active shooting scenario is running across campus with a gun.  just saying.  

My primary goal is to always protect myself and my family if I'm in a deadly threat situation.  However, I just can't imagine being in a situation and just watching somebody kill somebody else without intervening in some capacity.  I think it's our basic human instinct to help others in distress and even the most anti-gun person I know wouldn't hesitate to jump in (even with his bare hands) to help save another life when given the chance.

It happens multiple times per day in every city in America.  But hey, we should take guns away from people who don't use them to commit crimes.....because, you know, that's the problem.

I saw an article on Facebook a month or so ago of a cop standing with a guy who tried to stab him 10 months earlier who had just gotten out of jail.  It was a nice article about how the guy had overcome a lot, gotten sober, etc. and that he was able to be friendly with the cop who put him away.  However, my first thought was WTF, he tried to kill a cop and he's already on the street after 10 months.  /facepalm

The stupidity of this woman is not helping the CHL cause. link

I wonder what the whoe story is on that since the story is "not sure if charges against the woman will be filed".  On face value, I thik she should be because she looks like she may be a lunatic.  On the other hand....if the vehicle was trying to run someone over, and it's on video....then I don't know.  I wouldn't do it, but in some cases, and under some state laws, a private citizen may have a bigger right to shoot at someone than a Police Officer would.  The picture can get pretty cloudy.

You have to be careful with these kinds of stories........the media has an agenda in almost everything they produce these days.  I'm not defending her, like I already said.....but I'd like to see what else there is.

I'm with LB, on the surface with what little information we have it looks like she's an idiot.  She's dang lucky she didn't hit anyone.

Here's the problem I have with this comment....

"this is the type of ignorance that can really set back gun rights. If she had hit an innocent bystander, democrats would be doubling down on no gun zones and the dangers of concealed carry.................... the type of idiot that gives responsible gun owners a bad name."

Let's assume, for the sake of discussion, that the woman in the story just started firing wildly at a car that a shoplifter was escaping in.  I think all normal thinking people would agree that, under that circumstance, the woman is a complete idiot and a danger to anyone around her while she has a gun.  Let's take her gun away from her because she's too stupid to have one.

However, and this is where the left gets it wrong every single time......  that woman's actions have NO BEARING on me carrying a gun or me as a person.  Not one. It damn sure doesn't tarnhish my good name. They can try to claim that since that woman is an idiot  we should not let anyone carry a gun because we are all idiots......but you can't get that past me, because I know that sentiment is as stupid as that woman.

The ONLY problem with guns is that you can't let some people have access to them.  The best way to start down that path is to lock up people who use them in a crime.  We can work on the rest of the people who shouldn't have them once we get a handle on these really violent azzholes running around....and we should.  Then, we can lock that woman up as well....I really don't care.

But......leave me alone.  I don't bother anyone.......and no, you won't EVER get my guns.  (I'm speaking for the overwhelming majority of gun owners with that statement)  I stand with those folks.

Here's where you and I are not on the same page. You said "all normal thinking people"  would think the woman is a complete idiot that has no bearing on you or me responsibly owning guns. And with that I agree 100%. But I'm not talking about normal thinking people, I'm talking about politicians. Fear mongering, grandstanding, showboating politicians.  Being rational does not get a politician air time.

It doesn't matter, and it's why they will never win this.  You just can't take the property of a law abiding citizenin this country.  You can't lump me in with stupid gun owners anymore than I can lump rioters in with peaceful protestors. 

Keep in mind......take the personal safety issue out of this....many of us keep guns precisely so the govt. can't do what some people are proposing it does...take away my property and my rights and my freedom to own a gun and go about my life in a peaceful manner.  It's never going to happen, and I don't care what grandstanding moron politician thinks it is.

Once upon a time, 6,000,000 people were loaded onto rail cars and taken to their death,by a handful of people with guns, with barely a wimper.  That will never happen to me.  

Having the means to at least fight back to maintain my liberty is very dear to me.  It won't be taken by a showboating politician.

That's fine.  It won't do anything to stop the current carnage, but I don't really care if I have to have insurance.

I wrote this earlier......this is my idea:

Free up prison space and lock up people who use guns in crimes....that's step one. Legalize drugs and stop the "turf wars"....it worked when we got rid of prohibition...that's step two. Identify and institutionalize people who have serious mental health problems...that's step three.  It would take a few years, but if you get those people off the street your gun crimes will drop dramatically. 

All of my ideas have to do with taking guns away from violent and crazy people......because, you know, they're the problem.

It gets lost in my copy and paste from an earlier post, but you free up prison space by releasing non-violent offenders.  We can find other ways to punish them.  Prison should be for people who need to ne removed from society because they are a danger to the rest of us.

Here's a gun story, and it pretty much sums up my feeling about them.

About 5 years ago I was asked to talk to a fellow in the lobby of our station.  When I met him he told me that he had a gun he wanted to turn in.  He said it had belonged to his dad, who had recently passed away, and that he had no use for it.  He handed me a paper bag.  I opened the bag and ....woah.....it was an old Colt .45 M1911A1.    I took it out of the bag and it was in surprising condition.  The bluing was just about worn away, but the wood grips were good, and the action was smooth. I said, "where did he get it?"  He told me that his Grandpa had been a St. Louis City Police Officer and that he had given it to his dad when his dad went off to fight in WWII.  "Uh.......come on back here to my office", I said.

I sat down at my desk and was working on the serial number while we talked some more about the pistol.  He told me his dad had been an Island Hopper in the Marine Corps in WWII.  He told me that he didn't know all the places his dad had been, but he knew he'd been on Guadacanal and Tinian.  I'm a former Marine....I knew this was probably right since I know my WWII history a bit and  the 2nd Marine Division fought on both islands.

By now I had figured out from the serial number that the gun was probably manufactured around 1920.  "Tell me about your Grandpa", I asked.  He told me that his Grandpa had been a detective for years, but he didn't know much about him.  He told me his name.  I later found out he had been a typical son of Irish immigrants.....many had become cops.  I have no idea how his Grandpa came across that gun, but I have imagined many scenarios over the years......part of serial number is almost gone.....like someone had tried to file it off.

He told me his dad had been wounded on Tinian, and sent home soon after.  He had been shot in both legs, but came home and raised a family of 4 kids.  His wounds had not been a factor in his life.  My own Grandpa fought with the 2nd Marines on Tarawa.  My imagination churned again. It still does whenever I look at it.

"So", I asked, "what do you want me to do with this?".  He said, "whatever you do with guns is fine, we don't want it".  I told him that we sent them off to be melted down, but, "look, I can't do that with this gun, no way......it's a piece of history.....can I buy it from you?"  He offered to give it to me, which I couldn't accept.  I did some work on the computer and we settled on a fair price.  He left my office that day without another thought of that gun.

I had a shadow box built for it and it's on the wall in my den.  Of all the guns I own, I consider it my most prized possession.  A father, the son of an Irish immigrant, gave his son that gun to help keep him safe and bring him home when he went off to war, probably 20 years before I was born. The same war my Grandfather fought in. It's priceless to me. It represents family, and love, and freedom.  I know it's sometimes corny today, but I was raised with those values, and they are important to me.  I am here because the man who carried that gun in war fought for my way of life.  We are all here in this country because men took up arms and fought for it's freedom.  A gun is a tool of freedom in the right hands.  That .45 certainly was. It's undeniable in our history. The founders knew that.

We need to get guns out of the hands of people who commit crimes with them......and that's really the end of the argument. I suppose we can take them away from people who are stupid with them as well .  The rest of us know what they are for, and you can't get them from us......forget about the idea. 

I don't have a single problem with that.  In fact, if someone can't do the things you listed then they fall into the "stupid" category and I don't care if we take their guns because they can't be trusted with them.  The ONLY problem I see is that we will need to do more than just take guns away from people who commit crimes with them.....we have to get rid of those people too, because they just keep getting more guns and committing more crimes.

did somebody hack JMK's account?  Who is this guy?  haha, just kidding.

I agree completely.  One of my pet peeves is people who don't secure their firearms properly.  I either have the one I carry on my person, or it goes in the safe when I go to bed.  I don't want to have a loaded firearm on the night stand when I'm waking up in a fog from a whacked out dream.  I figure me being conscious enough to hit a 4 digit code on a gun safe on my nightstand is a good test to make sure my brain is in a state to make life or death decisions.  lol

All my other weapons and ammunition are stored in separate safes as well.  They're even bolted to the floor/wall, so it would be very difficult for a bad guy to even steal the safes. 

Yeah, I know you've been consistent on this one.  I was mostly making light of you being fairly liberal on most topics, but not this one.  

It is tricky on the last part about a family with somebody who is mentally ill.  I don't necessarily subscribe to removing all firearms, but there definitely needs to be something in place to secure them so they never have access to them.

Little bit different scenario, but similar in a way.  I have a friend who has a drug felony from when he was 18 years old (he's 45 now).  His wife owns a handgun and they keep it in their bedroom.  It's locked in a safe and she's the only one who knows the passcode.  He is a felon, but has no access to the gun so it's legal.  I could see a similar thing with somebody mentally ill in the household where an individual can still legally own a firearm, but they have to ensure that the other person never has access to it.

A bigger problem though, is many parents are so disconnected from there kids that even when they are mentally unstable the parents are too close to see it.  I think Adam Lanza is an example of that.  Her kid was whacked, but she still let him have access to firearms and paid the ultimate price.  /facepalm
My kids are totally normal and healthy (as far as I know) but I still don't let them have access to any of my guns.  My oldest turns 21 here in a few weeks and I was just talking to my wife that I should probably give him the safe combo's in the event we both get hit by a bus at some point.  lol

If you are mentally ill and violent and over 18 you can't live at my house.  It's a rule.  The guns are staying, but you're not.

Well crap, now I have to find somewhere else to stay when i visit St. Louis  

that leaves two of us, share a hotel room?  your side can have guns and steak, my side can have carrots and an electric car?

deal, but I want an electric car too.  :-P