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Growing Up With Firearms

Above: My very first firearm, given to me by dad. A Savage Model 3D, single shot, bolt action, 22lr.

   Growing up there was always a firearm of some sort in the house. Now, my dad served in ‘Nam with the 82nd Airborne in a Scout/Recon squad, he knew guns, knew what they could do. He made sure I knew too, at an early age, he taught me to use and respect firearms. Now that I’m older, I’m glad he did. My dad is gone now, but those lessons and wisdom will never leave me. You could say I have a fascination with guns, and you’d be right, is it an unhealthy fascination? Absolutely not. I see a gun for what it is, a tool. Like some tools,if you use them wrong, you end up regretting it. You’ll never see me mishandle a gun or behave unsafely or ignorantly with one, you’ll never hear me say, ” I can’t wait to shoot somebody or kill something.” I don’t get a feeling of “power”when holding gun, I don’t get an ego boost from it. I get a feeling of pride, respect, and joy for a well made tool. I’m gun happy,not trigger happy, although I do like to shoot, and shooting well does give me confidence. I’m not a “nut-job”, far from it. I’ve never been in trouble with the Law, never been arrested for anything. It’s called “responsibility” and “discipline”, something a lot of people from my generation, and the younger generations know very little about. Not to unfairly group them all together, I know some younger people that are very responsible, especially towards firearms. But more often than not in this age of everything fast, gimme, gimme,right now, I’m too busy texting,twittering….or whatever-ing, responsibility and discipline get left by the wayside. Too many parents tell their children, “Don’t you ever touch a gun, they’re dangerous (and/or evil)!” and leave it at that. When instead of vilifying firearms, they should be educating their children about guns, how to be responsible around them and respect them, regardless of how they feel about guns themselves. Too often parents instill their own fears upon their children, it’s a vicious cycle. When I was in school, we actually got to learn about the types of firearms used in the Revolutionary War, the firearms that were wielded by those who won our Country’s independence. I’d be willing to bet they don’t teach that now! As a responsible gun owner, I never stop learning about firearms. I always practice firearm safety,and I never assume to know everything about them.

Don’t get me wrong here, my heart goes out to those who have been victims of an irresponsible person or criminal wielding a firearm, I also grieve that every time that happens, the gun it’s self gets blamed and law-abiding, gun-owning citizens get punished for it. It’s been said thousands of times: The blame lies in the person wielding the gun, not the gun it’s self, a gun has no will of it’s own, it cannot aim and pull it’s own trigger. This Country does not need less guns,less gun rights,and stricter gun laws, it needs more guns, and the laws and rights that put them in the hands of disciplined, responsible citizens.

I’ll leave you with some words of wisdom from some of the men I admire.

Thomas Jefferson: “The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes….Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

George Mason: “To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.”

Thomas Jefferson: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”

George Washington: “The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good”

Alexander Hamilton:”The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”

Ted Nugent:”There are millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period.”

Wayne LaPierre:”The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Ted Nugent: “To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic.”

My Dad:”If I give you this gun, then I’m gonna be the one to teach you how to use it.”