"What is it with you gun lovers?"

Thanks to a post at the Gun Free Zone, I've found a letter to the editor from a person who is opposed to guns.

Let's read it.  My comments are in bold.

What is it with you gun lovers? Don't you see the damage they do?
by Hugh Buchanan

What is it with you gun lovers? (And I feel as though I am asking the minority of Americans).

Surprisingly, you are right.  A minority of Americans own guns: 47% Note that this is "self reported" gun owners.  I, for example, would not be inclined to say weather or not I own guns.

You cling to the Second Amendment as though it were written yesterday; it was written 228 years ago, and back then, the “arms to bear” were single-shot rifles or pistols. What if the amendment stated: “Only single-shot arms allowed”?

You cling to every other amendment as though it were written yesterday; they were written years, and decades ago.  What if the 1st amendment said "freedom for the press only"?

This guy apparently does not understand why there is a second amendment.  It is to protect us, not from each other, but from the government.

What can happen when guns are banned from private individuals? (from here):





If that picture is not enough for you read "Why Grandpa Carries A Gun," for many examples of a disarmed populace.

Even I would approve of that, and I hate guns. Why do any of you need a automatic rifle?

Why do you need knives? a car? electricity? Why do you want to restrict access to them?

How anyone can find “beauty in a well-designed and manufactured rifle or pistol” is beyond my comprehension. There is absolutely no beauty is a “manufactured and designed” device, that, when loaded with a powered projectile, is capable of the destruction it can administer.

Oh, I forgot! It’s not the gun that kills?

How can anyone find beauty in cars, abstract art, dogs, etc.?  If you don't think that any  "manufactured and designed" things can be beautiful, then I might suggest that many items of art fits the definitions of "manufactured and designed."  It would also seem that you have never seen an Alfa Romeo 8C("a powerful projectile capable" of much destruction:





 

A few years ago, President Obama attended a town hall meeting in a city that has laws on the book, allowing one to carry a loaded gun. (Portsmouth, N.H.). A man there attended this meeting with a pistol and holster strapped to his leg. Do you suppose he felt threatened by The President being there? (“Is The President gonna pull out a gun and try to shoot me?”)

People carry guns on many  occasions; did you expect this particular guy to remove it just because he attended a speech?

Incidentally, New Hampshire had the second fewest violent crimes per capita in 2008.   The District of Columbia had the highest number of violent crimes per capita.

According to The Free State Project's "101 Reasons to move to New Hampshire": "New Hampshire offers some of the least restrictive gun laws in the nation: no permit is required to open carry and a concealed carry permit is available on a shall issue basis."

Whereas the District of Columbia has perhaps the most restrictive gun laws.

Coincidence?

Why teach a 12-year-old how to shoot a automatic rifle, or any other powerful weapon?
(If she rolls her eyes at you, give her the water pistol and she will be much happier.) You don’t know the memories that might cling to a child, when the child is taught unordinary teachings. I’ve never been to a gun range, but I would assume that, once the firing is completed, that you examine your target to review, not the damage done to the target, but your accuracy. You would not want any student to see the damages that these same type bullets could inflict upon flesh and bone; even the news media won’t show us the horror of it all.

Why, indeed.  It would be much better if children didn't learn anything.  It would be better if children learned to be defenseless and learned instead to always turn to the government for their protection.

Are you suggesting that no child enjoys shooting guns?  I, for one, quite liked it.  I suppose next you'll tell me that no children shoot guns in video games either.

These guys seem to be having a terrible time noting "the damage done to the target":

You're right its best if children never learn that some things can be dangerous; it might corrupt their minds.  If they don't know anything about guns, they'll be safer if they find one than if they knew how guns work.

When I was a child, a father in our neighborhood thought he heard a burglar in the middle of the night, and he took his loaded pistol from beneath his pillow, and killed his only son. You could hear the mother crying throughout the neighborhood. She cried for three days and three nights. And I cried too.

Then lets ban all guns. And let's ignore all of the lives that guns save, such as this one from about the time of the Colorado Shooting:

One of my best friends loved guns, and he had a locked gun rack cabinet in his home. His young son learned how to “pick the lock,” and killed himself. The guns and gun rack are no longer in my friend’s home.

What neighborhood do you live in?

Which is more likely?

A.) a child who knows something about guns kills himself with a gun 
or 
B.) a child who does not know anything about guns kills himself with a gun

After completing my four years in the US Air Force, I started college, under the GI Bill.

You were in the Air Force, but you've "never been to a gun range"?

After the first quarter, I went home that weekend to visit my parents. Looking through the closet, I found the trusty old BB gun that I had as a young boy. With nothing better to do, I went for a walk in the woods behind our home. I spotted a bird in a tree, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

The bird fell to the ground. I walked over to examine my “kill,” and picked up the lifeless body of what had been a beautiful woodpecker.

Immediately I asked myself, ”Why?” I buried the bird, took the rifle home, smashed it to pieces, and put it in the garbage can.

Clearly that was the gun's fault. Ban all bb guns!

My bb gun must be defective; when I'm not around it doesn't kill anything.  Do you think that I should return it, and get a bb gun that will kill birds? 

Incidentally, woodpeckers have put all sorts of holes in my parents house; how do you suggest that they get rid of them?


Since that time, I have fired no weapon, not even a sling shot. No guns are in my home. I can still laugh, though, at fun with a water pistol.

You monster! Using a water pistol!

This wouldn't happen to be your neighbor?

(text in picture: "My Next Door Neighbor wants to BAN all GUNS! Their house is NOT ARMED! Out of RESPECT for their opinions, I promise NOT to use MY GUNS to PROTECT THEM".)

 I must agree that a deranged individual who has thoughts of causing bodily harm to others has more than guns as his weapon of choice; but we should at least start the framework of trying to make the gun less popular for these sick people. The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence would be the place to start.

...because it would be better if "deranged individual"s used explosives instead.  And we wouldn't want anyone to be able to defend themselves would we?