I always liked Louisa May Alcott. I read Little Women and all the subsequent books [Little Men, etc.] by the time I was about 12. I wanted to be Jo March. I suspect every smart girl who is something of a tomboy and loves to flout convention would feel that way.
However, I was sad to stumble across this quote:
"The mere possession of a gun is, in itself, an urge to kill, not only by design, but by accident, by madness, by fright, by bravado." Louisa May Alcott
This explains, in a nutshell, why so many liberals want to remove every gun from every home in America. They think the mere possession of a firearm is a sign that the owner is crazy.
I take issue with that.
I had a .38 pistol for many years, loaded with hollow points. It stayed in a shoebox under my bed. My brother, an Army officer, gave it to me for protection. I fired it a few times at a range but I never used it otherwise. I never had the urge to go out and kill anything.
I did, on a couple of occasions, hear scary things in the middle of the night, and I was glad to have my pistol available.
As soon as I adopted my daughter, I gave the pistol back to my brother. I then put a baseball bat right by my front door. I bought pepper spray. I was still interested in protection, but I feared having a gun in the house with children, because I didn't have a gun safe.
I grew up with a father who loved to go hunting, and he collected rifles, pistols, all kinds of firearms.
He never, in his entire life, shot another human being. He was glad to have guns for protection, however. In the summer of 1970 when there were race riots all over Augusta, shots were fired into our house. There were gang members in cars going through the white neighborhoods and firing into the houses. Dad grabbed me and my brother and put us in front of the fireplace, and he grabbed a gun. If they had decided to come inside and harm us, he would have been able to defend himself.
Thank God he had a pistol that night. He was ready and able to defend his family, a right all Americans have.
However, Dad was a fanatic about gun safety and he passed that on to my brother and me. Dad always impressed upon me the fact that if I ever touched a firearm in the house I'd be spanked. I knew that from day one - I've never not known it.
I never liked to be around when Dad or Bruce came home after hunting. I didn't like to see dead birds.
I am not a violent person.
However, if someone was trying to hurt one of my kids and there was no other way, I might be brave enough to shoot them. I hope I am never confronted with that scenario. However, I am the child of warriors. People in my family have fought in every war in the USA, including the American Revolution. I like to think because their blood is in me that I could do whatever I had to do to protect myself and my family.
My grandmother Wilma Butler Hasty was a brave little woman [4'10] and she hit what she aimed at, with her shotgun. Many times she drove all over this country with a hamper full of food, one or all of her kids, and a loaded pistol in case there was trouble.
Here in the South, guns are a part of life. Are we therefore prone to crazy violence? I don't think so. Anyone who really thinks that is likely not the child of a hunter.
In the South, we are raised to respect guns, and what they can do.
Gun accidents happen because people are stupid and don't secure their guns. Children are experts at finding things tucked away in drawers, etc. In my house, guns were always in a locked cabinet and I was unable to get them out and play with them, even if I'd wanted to - that should be mandatory for ALL gun owners, IMHO, a locked gun safe.
My personal opinion is that the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms because the founding fathers knew if we didn't have that right, a tyrant could rise up and control us. They had had enough of European tyrants like George III.
I have read that the reason America wasn't invaded in World War II is that the Germans and Japanese knew that most American homes had a gun in them. There would be armed resistance. They didn't want to chance it.
I want to make it clear, however, that I am in favor of a lot of gun control measures. Yes, people should have a permit to carry concealed. Gun owners should register their firearms. Absolutely. Nobody needs an assault rifle simply for home protection. However...
If New York and California want to decide that their states are Gun Free Zones, my opinion is they should do that. Put up big signs everywhere. Warn anyone trying to carry a gun that they won't be tolerated.
The result of that will be that they will be declaring their states a target rich environment for every crazy in the world. The theater in Aurora Colorado where the madman opened fire a few years ago? That was a Gun Free Zone.
Here's what my friend Larry Correia has to say about Gun Free Zones:
Gun Free Zones are hunting preserves for innocent people. Period.
Think about it. You are a violent, homicidal madman, looking to make a statement and hoping to go from disaffected loser to most famous person in the world. The best way to accomplish your goals is to kill a whole bunch of people. So where’s the best place to go shoot all these people? Obviously, it is someplace where nobody can shoot back.
In all honesty I have no respect for anybody who believes Gun Free Zones actually work. You are going to commit several hundred felonies, up to and including mass murder, and you are going to refrain because there is a sign? That No Guns Allowed sign is not a cross that wards off vampires. It is wishful thinking, and really pathetic wishful thinking at that.
The only people who obey No Guns signs are people who obey the law. People who obey the law aren’t going on rampages.
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One final thought. My brother works for a store that sells guns. He also teaches people to shoot. After the Sandy Hook school shooting, gun sales SKYROCKETED. The shelves were emptied within days. You couldn't buy ammunition. Why?
Everyone feared that the backlash would be phenomenal, considering the current administration's stand on gun control.
Suddenly there were senators blabbing on and on about what guns needed to be banned - because they looked scary. These were people who had no knowledge whatsoever of firearms.
But.... I am a happy camper about that because it told me one simple truth. The Second Amendment is alive and well and no matter what the idiots in Washington say or do, we will not be disarmed.
Period.
We are not crazy. We are just trying to protect ourselves and our families.
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