just because you used guns for “skeet shooting” and turkey hunting or other form of entertainment does not mean every gun owner shuold follow “your” example. There are MANY uses for a gun and no one person should dictate what others use it for. I use my motorcycles for recreational purposes, that does not mean someone cant use thiers for a main source of transportation.

Simple truth is…guns are a right…..might not be “god given” but it is a patriot blood shed right given to you by their life. Gun owner ship is a right you can choose nooottt to exercise. It is a right to own a gun if you WANT to…it is not mandatory. You choose not to exercise yoru right, or exercise it a certain way, then good for you….but do NOT try to dictate to others how they choose to exercise theirs.

On an “aside” note i am willing to bet you have never served a day in the military services have you? im not judging, i can just always point out who has never served becasue they are the first to be willing to give away or take away the rights given to people by the lves of them who have served.

I’m Canadian. I also grew up with guns. I learned gun safety, we kept them secured. I still have the small-guage shotgun my father bought me when I was 12, and it is secured properly. So I can relate to some of what you say.

Where your logic veers off into the incomprehensible for me is where you introduce the idea that having guns in your home is for the purpose of protection or to combat crime. We had guns because my father and I hunted and did some skeet shooting for fun. Never in a million years would we have (nor do I now) justified owning a gun to be used in any circumstance on another human being. There is a deep cultural difference in thinking about guns here, just about two hours’ drive from the US border.

Of course, part of that is that we have a long-standing restrictive policy on handguns. It seems to be working for us.

I totally agree that people should be held accountable for their firearms, how they are handled and how they are stored.

Unfortunately, reality sets in and we see some other things happening.

One, it will probably never happen. As you say there are similar laws on the books. Why launch the massive fight (and there will be one) for laws that aren’t going to be any different.

Two, you say that current laws aren’t enforced. That’s true. So why will new laws be enforced when existing ones aren’t? Hell, one town is not enforcing domestic violence laws. There are probably millions of laws that aren’t being enforced. In Texas it’s still illegal to spit on the sidewalk and sex in any position other than missionary is illegal too.

What we don’t need is more laws. We need enforceable laws and laws that actually make sense. We need laws without lawyer loopholes and we need laws that generate the maximum good for the buck.

Now, if you want kids to NOT play with real guns, take them out to a big empty field, get a watermelon and shoot it with a .357. I promise the kid will not play with guns anymore.

Gun safety is like drug safety and every other form of safety. It requires effort to teach children what is right, what is wrong, what is OK and not OK. Most modern parents aren’t willing to do this.

My son is 4. He knows where my guns are kept (in a safe in my bedroom closet). He knows that he is not to go into my closet for any reason… ever. He knows that my guns are not toys and that, even when I have them out and am standing there he may not so much as touch them. Of course, I hardly ever do anything with them any more.

You just can’t make people better parents though. It won’t happen. Personally, I’m all for limiting reproductive rights, but that’s totally unacceptable to everyone so that’s not an issue either.

I won’t go through the scenarios that actually occur or the deaths that have occurred because someone couldn’t get to their gun quickly (because it was locked up). I’m sure you have read all that and dismissed it.

You do have to understand that guns, like drugs, are a part of our society. There is nothing that you can do to get rid of them. Collect every registered gun from every person in the US… criminals will still have them. Kick down every door and raid every house and find every gun… there will be more on the streets in days, if not hours.

Until you can prevent crime before it happens, guns will be a part of our world-wide society.