Americans have owned guns since the founding of the country. I grew up in an area where it was more the exception than the rule. A lot of that has to do with it being a big city. Even the most avid gun owner might be a little leery of carrying a handgun on a subway so crowded that violent crime is rendered implausible; you can’t exactly rob someone when you can barely move your arms without poking someone in the chin by accident.
Still, I own several guns. I own a very nice H&K that I carried for several years. Anyone who has an appreciation for solid, well-crafted mechanical devices can’t help but admire the way a quality gun is put together.
We’re all troubled by the horrifying acts of violence we’ve seen at Columbine, VA Tech, and dozens of others. I don’t know about anyone else, but I became physically ill when reading the stories of children in Lancaster, PA. How many people would ask a deranged man with a gun “shoot me first” in order to buy a few seconds that might allow the person next to you to live?
So here’s my proposal: You’re allowed to buy any gun you like. You’re allowed to carry it anywhere you want (I’ll let the property rights vs. gun rights experts work out the details). I’ll ask only one thing in return: Personal responsibility.
If a crime is committed with a firearm or ammunition that you’re responsible for, you stay responsible for it. Your gun knocks over a liquor store, you sit at the defendant’s table with the guy who held it. You leave a gun in your car, and it gets used to knock off someone’s ex, you get a needle, right after the guy who pulled the trigger.
Your kid brags about your collection to a friend who is having some emotional turmoil, you go to trial for the murders and the suicide. Premeditated.
We know that gun ownership is as close as we come to a sacred right in this country; it’s truly second only to the right to free speech. To allow it to be denigrated as a simple exercise in consumerism – high-margin toys for immature men frustrated by their sedenatary lives – would be a national humiliation.
Here’s your chance, ladies and gentlemen: America doesn’t need defending from russians dropping in on parachutes. It doesn’t need protecting from rogue cops kicking in the doors of minivan-driving protestants nursing a used car to save for college tuition.
Are you willing to put your own freedom and life on the line, to protect America from guns getting into the hands of killers?
Posted by oopsmybad 