I currently live upstate, NY. I will not go into the S.A.F.E. Act, that is not what this is about. This summer, we plan to take a short, two or three week vacation to Florida, mostly to check on our vacation home, which has been abandoned for the past 5 years or so. If the house is to need any work, we would like to get it done now. Long story short, we moved upstate from Long Island, temporarily, after living there for many years. Originally, we were thinking of permanently moving here and building a house, or purchasing a modular home. After realizing it is not for us, we decided that after our lease is up in our current dwelling, we would be moving permanently to our Florida house. Not only that, it is simply too expensive to be doing what we've been doing, with all the taxes and overall, our cost of living. It is getting out of hand.
Unfortunately, our upstate property is not the greatest for shooting. We've only about 60 yards at the longest possible position. It's fine for most shooting, but nothing great for high powered rifles. This is all pretty unimportant in the story. So, while we were planning to move to Florida, of course, I had to find a nice place to go shooting. Our house happens to be in Palm Beach County. Enter: Delray Shooting Center, an absolutely huge gun shop, with guns knives and other gear stretching the entire store. They are not the biggest place I've witnessed, but they are a lot more impressive (size, selection and variety wise) than most of the businesses I've frequented over the last few years. Turns out they offer quite a few services, have on-location training, have a plethora of firearms for renting, and of course, an on-location range, actually many ranges, to use them on. What got me, was their selection of fully-automatic firearms that were available to be rented.
After searching for more information about this place, reviews, testimonials, etc, I found an article (from Palm Beach Post) where in this same location, a 23 year-old man had taken his own life... As it turns out, quite a few other incidents, just like this one, have occurred at this very same location. Something then hit me. This was not an unfamiliar feeling. After the tragedy in Newtown, I've often found myself lost in thought, connecting the dots. Why do us pro-gunners feel the way we do? Why do some people on the other spectrum despise us, and everything we are about? Even owning a gun, makes you a baby killing spawn of Satan. It's unfortunate that this is a reality.
What I find even worse, as most other gun owners do, is the "typical liberal" logic that "because one tragedy has occurred, we should ban everything". I have been against all gun bans, simply because I believe that good legislation can be constructed, while not having to disarm the good, law-abiding gun owners. What I constantly find is that one bad apple, or 8,500 bad apples to be exact, spoil the bunch. You know, that large percentage of Americans that own guns?
Something different clicked this time. I had always hated the fact that these bad apples ruined it for the rest of us. They exist in society, no matter where you live, no matter what walk of life you come from, there is always someone who is dangerous and unstable, usually in more ways than one. I've figured out my true position on the issue. I don't hate the number of people who use guns for evil, greedy, or unfortunate purposes (note the man who took his life at that shooting range). What I hate is the fact that guns are used for these purposes, period.
Guns were designed for one purpose: to kill. This is a fact. Guns may be useful for many things, but in the most basic sense, they were the next big thing in weapons and warfare. Like bows, they have been used for sport for as long as we can remember, but what were they designed to do? YES, KILL! And I absolutely HATE it. Why? Because I constantly reflect firearms on myself, me, as an individual. Although it is an unrelated issue, it is one of the many reasons I absolutely hate the terms "assault weapon" or "weapon of war". Anything that paints guns or more specifically, certain kinds of guns as "murder weapons" is a pet-peeve of mine. How can something be an "assault rifle" if I am not assaulting people with my "modern sporting rifle"?
To me, that is what a semi-automatic rifle is! As I said before, I reflect firearms on myself. Anti-gunners really have no idea how much it hurts to be judged based on the belief of a basic American freedom, being judged for doing no harm to anyone. So, what is my primary use of firearms? They are a form of recreational enjoyment. A hobby. Something to simply do in my downtime. It is something I simply enjoy doing, and honestly, I have no idea why.
It absolutely crushes me that firearms are used for anything besides good old fashion enjoyment, it really does. Sure, I have a loaded shotgun for home defense purposes, but besides that, all I do is enjoy my firearms. One bad apple really does spoil the bunch. What we get is an unrelenting attack against us because some loon went and shot up a school. In turn, some of us get discouraged, even shameful about our firearm ownership, and I HAVE seen it happen.
What most of the far-left seems to ignore, is the fact that most gun owners are surprisingly normal, kind people. Of the many fellow gun owners I have met, I can hardly count on both my hands how many I didn't find to be down-to-earth, cool to be around, just overall likable people. Some examples of this would be people like Hickok45, IraqVeteran8888, FateOfDestinee, Sootch00 or MrColionNoir, all great youtube personalities, all extremely pro-gun. When will the media focus on that part? On the opposite side of the spectrum... Of the many anti-gunners I've met, before I even knew their positions on firearm ownership, I did not find them likable at all. I found a larger percentage of these people excessively opinionated, up-tight, and just overall not the type of person I would intentionally be hanging around. Some of these people were worse with this than others, and many were wonderful people as well. People who were neutral on the subject were generally pretty nice as well, but in many cases, also a mixed pot. The reason people who are anti-gun behave this way, is because most of them tend to fall into a certain "paradigm".
What annoys me is that so many of these types of people will jump down your throat, lecture you, and just overall, have some sort of dis-like towards you, not for owning, or supporting ownership of so-called "assault weapons", but simply for owning a gun, period.
What have I learned to call this type of person? A typical liberal. The ironic part of this, is that on most issues, I am liberal. Many Americans will find it surprising that they, too, lean left. There are extremes on both sides, however, and in my opinion, the far-left is as dangerous an extreme as you can find.It is these same people that paint gun owners as baby-killers. How can we have a legitimate conversation when we have sub-humans like Piers Morgan or Jim Carrey around? When they don't have a legitimate, feasible argument, they talk over, or insult their political opponents. These people will never understand. It is not just about hunting. It is not just about government tyranny. It is not just about our basic right as an American to own a firearm. It is about the fact that there are people out there, who want to take away the thing we love to do, or the things we use to protect ourself, because of a handful of anomalous incidents involving firearms. I, as a gun owner, heck, a gun nut, am absolutely tired of this nonsense. It has to stop. Now.
Maybe I am a little selfish to only think of myself, my enjoyment of firearms. Quite frankly, I am tired of being demonized because I own a firearm. How did it get like this? Why did it? Regardless, I think this is why gun owners, no matter what spectrum of gun ownership they believe in, are becoming more vocal. Although people who own guns are technically still a minority in the United States, were are no longer a silent minority. We are getting more fence-sitters to see it our way, while pissing off more anti-gunners every day. I'm going to end this abruptly, but the bottom line is;
The first victims were the fallen. The second victims were the good people of America, alive and well, who have to pay for it. And that, is the other tragedy of firearm tragedies.
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