Serious Machines
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While on Christmas break, I went with some of my husband's family to shoot guns in the desert. Two Thompson brothers and their wives. My sister-in-law asked me, with the boys in the background shooting the vintage Russian World War II rifle, what my ideas regarding gun control were. I'm glad she asked because before then I hadn't given the subject as much thought as it deserved.
Ever since high school when I learned about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in my 12th grade U.S. Government class, I recognized the need and purpose behind the 2nd Amendment.
I didn't grow up with guns being an integral part of my childhood. I knew there were some guns in my dad's closet that had been inherited from my mom's dad, a rough tough Wyoming cattle rancher. He had used them for hunting and for protecting his livestock from predators. I doubt my dad ever fired any of them since having inherited them. My dad also had a personal hand gun that he had made us aware of and we knew that it was for safety and protection purposes only.
Having married Mark, I have somewhat learned to be more comfortable and a little more at ease with guns. Although they have become more familiar to me, each time we go shooting I still feel a heaviness in the air.
They are serious machines. Their purpose or power is not to be taken lightly.
It is an ignorant thought to reason that more legislation and regulation is the answer to the mass shootings epidemic. It is shrugging off responsibility and finding an ineffective scape goat.
We have created a society that has an appetite for violence. It is fed to children through video games, blockbuster films, cartoons, the sensationalized news and more. We familiarize individuals with it and allow it to become a part of the norm. Fiction or non-fiction, we sensationalize violence. It is fed to us on a platter and we scarf it up. Violence sells.
After we teach a child every step of how to carry out a heinous crime, we are surprised when an unstable individual, child or adult, acts out a similar scene like what they have seen a thousand times on the screen. We spell out the equation for them and then ask ourselves like idiots how they could have ever done such a thing. We teach them violence and vindictiveness. Afterwards people cry out for gun control as if that is the resolution to the problem. As if guns are the problem.
We are a product of our environment and what we surround ourselves with. Its the culture that America has made so readily available that has created the problem. If we sincerely want to see change it will not happen until we own up to this responsibility.
Ever since high school when I learned about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in my 12th grade U.S. Government class, I recognized the need and purpose behind the 2nd Amendment.
I didn't grow up with guns being an integral part of my childhood. I knew there were some guns in my dad's closet that had been inherited from my mom's dad, a rough tough Wyoming cattle rancher. He had used them for hunting and for protecting his livestock from predators. I doubt my dad ever fired any of them since having inherited them. My dad also had a personal hand gun that he had made us aware of and we knew that it was for safety and protection purposes only.
Having married Mark, I have somewhat learned to be more comfortable and a little more at ease with guns. Although they have become more familiar to me, each time we go shooting I still feel a heaviness in the air.
They are serious machines. Their purpose or power is not to be taken lightly.
It is an ignorant thought to reason that more legislation and regulation is the answer to the mass shootings epidemic. It is shrugging off responsibility and finding an ineffective scape goat.
We have created a society that has an appetite for violence. It is fed to children through video games, blockbuster films, cartoons, the sensationalized news and more. We familiarize individuals with it and allow it to become a part of the norm. Fiction or non-fiction, we sensationalize violence. It is fed to us on a platter and we scarf it up. Violence sells.
After we teach a child every step of how to carry out a heinous crime, we are surprised when an unstable individual, child or adult, acts out a similar scene like what they have seen a thousand times on the screen. We spell out the equation for them and then ask ourselves like idiots how they could have ever done such a thing. We teach them violence and vindictiveness. Afterwards people cry out for gun control as if that is the resolution to the problem. As if guns are the problem.
We are a product of our environment and what we surround ourselves with. Its the culture that America has made so readily available that has created the problem. If we sincerely want to see change it will not happen until we own up to this responsibility.
