First, what happened in Connecticut is a complete tragedy; my condolences and prayers go out to the families and students who lost people that were so close to them.
The media glorifies tragic incidences, however, look up San Antonio Theater shooting, which happened just days after the massive Connecticut shooting. Someone with a concealed weapon stopped a madman there.
People say that all the legally owned firearms in the United States cannot be properly secured. I agree. There will always be a lack of education pertaining to almost anything. There will be that small percentage of people who do not follow the ‘rules or guidelines’. Adam Lanza, according to media, used to shoot with his mother at the shooting range. The first mistake is obviously not locking down the firearms properly. Just a few days before the shooting in Connecticut, Lanza went to a store to purchase a firearm and was turned away because he did not want to wait the check period. Where is the tracking that should be put on a person? Oh yeah ‘invasion of privacy’ lines may have been crossed, but a whole bunch of lives would have been saved.
Firearm safety: 1. Criminals do not get and use guns legally. Adam Lanza broke multiple laws before he even pulled the trigger the first time. Criminals do not follow laws, period. Adam Lanza was planning this attack regardless of where he was able to get the firearms. He tried a store and failed. One article says the .223 was in the car, another said it was in the school. There are conflicting reports all over the place and yet a debate/discussion on firearms has begun. Consider this: If all the responsible gun owners handed all of their firearms over right this second, the only people left with firearms would be criminals and government/law enforcement. I am sorry, but that is a country I do not want to live in, many others will agree. The second amendment is not only about hunting and target shooting, and if anybody reading this thinks that’s all it is about, you need to do some research.
People are concerned with children getting their hands on legally owned firearms. What is the right solution? A firearm safety courses in our schools would be a good start. Or at a minimum the parents should teach their children about the things in the world that are risky. The school already has safe sex education, drugs, alcohol, and drivers education. Schools should teach basics of gun safety. When I was 10 years old, I took a hunter education course. It took one full day. I took it right here in the state of New Jersey and it taught the basics about firearms. How many people take the course today?
When somebody says the word “firearm” or “gun,” people instantly associate that with what the media is shoving down people’s throats: It has been associated with killing. Twenty years ago, it was much different. People who do not know anything about something always assume the worst – that’s a fact.
There are basics, the golden rules of firearms. ‘Never aim at something you do not intend to shoot, always treat a fire arm as if it was loaded’. If everybody knew those two basic philosophies, there would be no ‘accidents with firearms. By the way, in my opinion there is no such thing as an accident with firearms. When is the last time you heard of a gun aiming itself at somebody, then going off by itself? It is always user intervention/error, period.
All kinds of people have a voice on things. They come up with ridiculous statements like “Why do you need a gun anyway?” “Guns are barbaric.” “You don’t need a gun to hunt, you can go to a supermarket.” “Who needs self-defense? Can’t you just call 911.” When I ask these people if they have ever had any education about firearms, ever shot one or handled one, the answer most of the time is no. It always seems the people with the least amount of experience with things will always have the biggest voice. Usually they are completely wrong about what they say, they argue based on emotion and not fact. This needs to change.
My experience? I have been around firearms most of my life. I have taken education courses about them and I was taught many times over about the safety of firearms. I was taught that there is no such thing as “too safe” or “safe enough.”
When a firearm is handed to a learned individual, they first ask if it is loaded, check, double check and triple check it to make sure, open and lock the slide, bolt, chamber so that there is no way it can fire. They will inspect the firearm, always keeping the barrel aimed away from people. When you hand a firearm to somebody who has no previous education, it is disgustingly sad how they handle the firearm, never checking the status of it, looking down the barrel, taking aim on other people, joking and playing around. Unknowing people do this even if they do not intend to shoot others, yet amazingly these unknowing individuals are the people who are going to tell me and all the other responsible gun owners that guns are the problem. These people make me sick.