Automatic Weapons

My dad is a lifetime member of the NRA, and I grew up in a home with a gun closet locked with a dead bolt. To this day I have no idea where the key was kept, but if I ever even thought about opening the gun closet I would have had my ass tanned. My family was and still is full of hunters. I believe in the right to bear arms. As a child I spent many weekends at a gun range or in a deer blind, and I wouldn’t take anything for those memories. We were taught to respect guns and never to pick up one in anger. I am a gun owner, and you can bet your last dollar that if someone were invading my home I would shoot first and ask questions later. I actually have shot an Uzi at a gun range A range attendant NEVER left my side while I was shooting paper targets. Without him I actually would have fallen on my ass! At the time I only weighed 100 pounds (yes it was years ago), and if the attendant hadn’t stood behind me I would have sprayed the ceiling with who knows how many rounds. I had fun, and I am thankful for the opportunity. It was in a controlled environment, but I never would have thought about bringing one into my house.

But here is where I draw the line. Why on earth does any citizen in this country ever need to possess an automatic weapon or an extended clip for a semi automatic weapon? I get that automatic weapons with extended clips are completely necessary for the marine on the front line in war. As far as I am concerned give him or her every possible weapon to fight the enemy. I want my military armed to the teeth, and I don’t mind my tax dollars paying for it.

I just don’t understand why the gun lobbyist and the NRA find it necessary to push the message that if we let the government take away our extended clip and automatic weapons that we will loose our right to bear arms granted to us under the constitution. Really? Where is the sanity in that argument? I also want a 30-day waiting period to purchase any weapon. File the appropriate paperwork; let the background search take its course, and then wait 30 days. It is not asking too much, and it gives a pissed off person time to calm down. If, God forbid, our country were ever invaded, then by all means let every citizen be armed to the hilt.

Yes, a deranged young man in Tucson cleared the background check and bought the gun legally. But I dare say that if he had not been able to buy an extended clip that held 30 rounds the massacre might not have been as bad. 30 rounds! Maybe after 1 or 2 shots those heroes could have subdued him. Maybe, but we will never know. However, I am willing to give up my right to purchase an extended clip in the hopes that in the future a deranged individual seeking his 15 minutes of fame will be unable to arm himself like our marines. Good grief!  We need more rational thought and a little less irrational behavior. We need to live like compassionate human beings. It’s not that hard!