I've got no problem with someone not liking guns, or choosing not to own one. Where I draw the line is when someone is trying to restrict my God given right to protect myself.
Let's put it this way. There are some women out there that believe in Ozzy & Harriet's and Ward & June's way of life. Let's examine one in particular: She may choose not to work outside the home and in fact doesn't even feel 'qualified' to vote and participate in "man's business."
How would you like it if that woman was very vocal and had free use of her husband's millions and tried to repeal suffrage and outlaw women working outside the home?
Preposterous isn't it?
I bet you would be outraged! I know my wife would be!
This is how I feel about the anti-gunners. They believe in a way of life that I know is dangerous, foolish and totally irresponsible.
We currently have access to wonderful and effective means of protecting ourselves from injury and crime. Airbags, seat belts, grounded electrical outlets, lightning rods, cell phones, deadbolts door locks, pepper spray, handguns....
It just doesn't make any sense at all not to make full use of the means available to us. That's not even taking into consideration the Constitutional and Bill of Right's guarantees.
All of the above devices I mentioned result in a small percentage of tragic deaths each year.
Recreational equipment and activities result in many times more death than any of the above.
Thousands of children are killed in swimming pools each year. Even those cheapo four foot diameter lawn pools are associated with drowned babies. Bicycles, rollerblades, school sports, etc. All of those EACH result in more injury and death to children than all firearms accidents each year. Take note that I said "accidents." The statistics you see about one "child" dying every couple minutes from handgun violence. That includes everyone up to nineteen years old as a child. It includes gang homocides, suicides, justified shootings by police and other situations in the total. This also is derived from a study of one county in one state for three months of one year back in the 1990's. They multiplied the three month total by four to get an approximated theoretical annual total. So, you can't believe everything you see on CNN.
The point of the lengthy rambling is not to minimize the significance of firearms accidents.
The point is that firearms are not the most dangerous thing to children. All the anti-gunners say that they're "doing it for the children". Bull, if they set out to find a cause to support that would protect our kids, they wouldn't pick guns.
Some anti-gunners are elitists. They believe that regular working folks like you and me don't deserve to own guns. Only "important" people and the wealthy are worthy.
I don't really know what are the motives behind some of the other anti-gunners.
It doesn't really matter. I am only concerned with what I stand for.
I am a human and my life is worth as much as the most powerful king or the most admired movie star or the richest rich man or the most talented painter or .......
I have available the means to safeguard my life and that of my wife and family. As well as your life if one day I walk past an alley where you are being held down with a knife at your throat by a rapist/murderer.
I apologize for the length of this post. I just felt I need to see what my views look like in print. Thanks for bearing with me.
-Kframe
[This message has been edited by Kframe (edited December 10, 1999).]