During the Cuban Missile Crisis, my father took us down to the basement to teach my sister and I how to shoot. I was 9, she was 11. He was afraid it would be necessary for our survival then.

The only guns we got were Super Soakers and a Laser Tag set that my son and his friends went insane with.

Responsible gun owners register their guns and teach their children how to handle guns--target practice, skeet shooting, etc.

When "good guys" get extra cocky because they have a gun, they stand in danger from a "bad guy" who will relieve them of their money, gun and life because they don't hesitate to shoot someone. If you'd avoid a situation if you weren't armed, avoid it when you are armed.

No one needs an assault rifle and the ban should never have been lifted.

There are times when guns can prevent a tragedy from happening. Remember the widowed mother who shot the man who had finally managed to break into her home?She and her son wouldn't be alive today without the gun she defended them with.

I don't own a gun today, but I don't hunt for my food, either.

Congratulations on the skeet shooting scores.

Mar 7, 2012 -- 9:25AM, Marcion wrote:

I don't believe young boys are buying guns most get their guns from adults...

Especially the gangstas in the 'hood...

Anyhow, law abiding gun owners are not the problem.

But, that being said,  there is a problem (whereas 2,800 people died on 9/11, more than 100,000 people have been killed by guns in the US since); so, some fears are more rational than others.

Mar 7, 2012 -- 4:00PM, vra wrote:

Mar 7, 2012 -- 2:25PM, karbie wrote:

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, my father took us down to the basement to teach my sister and I how to shoot. I was 9, she was 11. He was afraid it would be necessary for our survival then.

The only guns we got were Super Soakers and a Laser Tag set that my son and his friends went insane with.

Responsible gun owners register their guns and teach their children how to handle guns--target practice, skeet shooting, etc.

When "good guys" get extra cocky because they have a gun, they stand in danger from a "bad guy" who will relieve them of their money, gun and life because they don't hesitate to shoot someone. If you'd avoid a situation if you weren't armed, avoid it when you are armed.

No one needs an assault rifle and the ban should never have been lifted.

There are times when guns can prevent a tragedy from happening. Remember the widowed mother who shot the man who had finally managed to break into her home?She and her son wouldn't be alive today without the gun she defended them with.

I don't own a gun today, but I don't hunt for my food, either.

Congratulations on the skeet shooting scores.

 

Very nice post, karbie.

I was a young, married adult during the Cuban Missile crisis. Once the Soviets backed down I never again feared them. My husband's shotgun and hunting rifle were stored at his parent's house.

When my husband died nearly ten years ago I had my s-i-l sell his and his father's hunting shotguns and rifles--whatever he got for them was a commission. My husband's father and he and some family used to fly on a pontoon plane to a hunting preserve in Maine.

My kids and grandkids had supersoakers they used in and around our in-ground pool.

I have no problem with genuine hunters. I do have a problem with too many handguns afloat where I live. Assault rifles are beyond the beyond.

The second amendment is not about hunting. In the late 18^th century America , in the rural and frontier areas, hunting  was the modern equivalent of going to the supermarket.  The second amendment is a about local communities having sufficient arms for a militia armory. 

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.   

The second amendment  does not read  “game hunting being  necessary for the gathering of food , the right of people to have  arms shall not be infringed”

A well regulated militia was the purpose .   In sec. 8 or Article I of the constitution,  Congress was granted the power to :

11.To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

12:  To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

13:  To provide and maintain a Navy;

14:  To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

15:  To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

16:  To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

 Because the militia was a standing part-time army under local and state control  unless called for Federal service ,  it was not under the two year appropriation rule; the Federal Government t paid for some arms and those arms could be kept by the  regulated militia members in there homes if no armory was available  or the situation called for quick response . The second amendment   protect the right to keep  militia  type  arms and quantities in homes;  “assault rifles” automatic weapons and  other modern military weapons  were unknown in that period.  If the militia was called out the members could directly leave their homes an gather on the common or in the woods, ready to face an outside threat or an insurrection.   The second amendment is about “the security of a free state.”  

BTW, as a bit of a "side-bar" on the subject, halacha (Jewish Law) forbids us to hunt unless survival is at stake as it is not kosher slaughter. 

It's "interesting" that in some countries in Europe that are trying to ban kosher slaughter on the basis that supposedly it is too "inhumane", they all allow hunting.  Go figger.