Part 4 of the list of 10 Things to know about Concealed Carry Permitholders, as I had originally seen on another blog, with comments from me:
4. We are responsible gun owners. We secure our firearms so that children and other unauthorized people cannot access them. Most of us have invested in safes, cases and lock boxes as well as other security measures to keep our firearms secure. Many of us belong to various organizations that promote firearms safety and ownership.
One of the larger misconceptions of firearms owners is that we are very unsafe with our firearms. Stories about kids getting into their mother or father's firearms make the news when the kid shoots himself or someone else 'accidentally' (we'll cover 'accidental' shootings in another post). They are indeed horrible events, not because of the death itself (though anytime a child dies it is horrible), but because it is easily preventable with a gun safe or gun lock device. However, these stories are few and far between, more spread/repeated and 'reinvented' by the anti-gun forces to make the average person think that they are commonplace. And, though a study of this kind has never been done to my knowledge, I would like to see the number of 'accidental' child-related shootings compared to legal or illegally owned firearms. (In other words, how many of these deaths were in the homes of people illegally owning firearms as they are felons, etc).
The Responsible Gun Owner keeps their guns in a safe place. I have a small safe that has all of my ammunition in it, as well as the bolt from my bolt action .22 caliber rifle. My Pistols are locked and hidden. My shotgun is kept where I can get at it. I don't even have children in the house. If I did, all of my firearms would be locked away, and the shotgun hidden somewhere that a little kid couldn't get at it.
One other aspect to this is that the gun is a 'toy' to a kid. This means that they were not taught proper respect for a firearm and learned all they learned about them from video games and TV shows. There is no 'Reset' button in real life.
Firearms owners know that. We not only stress safe storage of firearms, but also education in firearm safety, for you and the whole family. Many gun ranges or gun shops offer hunter safety courses, which teach a good primer on Gun Safety. There are many firearms classes around, and those are a good place to start, even if you never intend to hunt.
I am a member at a local gun range as well as a member of the NRA. Both of these heavily push gun safety education for both children and adults. Even if you never OWN a firearm, I still strongly recommend a hunter safety course. If nothing else, perhaps it will show you a bit more truth about firearms, to contrast with the anti-gun stuff that far too many have been taught.
Guns are ridiculous. All weapons are. But aren't they legal anyway? There's no need for persuasion.
Weapons are how the the forces that would kill you for being you are kept at bay.
Weapons are neither good nor bad. It is the user of the weapon that uses the weapon for good or bad.
As long as there are those who would use a weapon for bad, there must be those willing to use them for good.
many firearms are legal. However, every so often, particularly when there are liberals in power, they seek to make types of them illegal, or to further classify who can own them or have them with them. Or even where they are allowed to have them.
In some cities, San Francisco and Washington DC come to mind, it is illegal to even OWN a handgun. New York City is considering a new type of firearms ban. Their mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, is on a bit of a crusade against firearms. He is even leaving his city and trying to convince mayors and governors to make more restrictive gun control laws in different cities and states. He is even involving himself with a UN program to remove firearms from the hands of citizens. (A 'right' to own a firearm is something they reserve for themselves and their armed bodyguards... but your personal safety isn't very important to them.)
We (firearms owners such as myself) don't want to 'persuade' you to become a firearms owner, or a firearms lover (which will be discussed in detail on another post). WE just want to dispell the myths about firearms and firearm owners..... the myths about gun control and about gun violence statistics.... the myth about home protection via firearms and the rest of the misleading things said by the anti-gun nuts that have managed to get a foothold in popular culture and the education system.
We just want the ability to reserve the right granted by the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, which guarentees the right of the individual to keep and bear firearms in the course of their own self-defense and protection (as well as for hunting for those who hunt.)
Imagine how different the Virginia Tech massacre would have been if VT hadn't, that year, removed the ability of students with concealed carry permits to carry on campus. Someone could have fired back and stopped a cold-blooded killer before the death toll reached 32 innocent people.
Bad people are there, and if you remove the ability of the good to defend themselves (and you) then you are specifically allowing the bad people to win.