Recently in my class in school we were talking about the topic gun control, and I have been thinking about it. At first I felt like guns should be taken away from all people who have them for hunting and no "real" purpose but to kill animals; only reason they are needed it for police and such to protect people. BUT I happened to change my mind about it recently also. I thought that police could use them for protection, but couldn't normal people use it to protect their families as well, it really only seems fair. My mind was changed because not long ago in a town near mine, two people broke into this families house where a wife, husband and new born child were living. This is VERY rare for this to happen around where I live, so I was completly shocked. The husband of the house asked the two men to leave before they could steal anything and they didn't listen. Instead they stole one of the man's rifles and was going to use it to shot. So the man did what any normal human would do to try and protect his family, he shot the one guy after he refused to leave and they other guy ran. In this case I can understand why having guns for protects can be good, because anyone could steal a gun if they don't own one themselves so it is very easily that people could get a hold of guns even if they were fully taken away. I think that certain guns are a good idea to use for protect like with your family, but I'm still not on the whole thing about keeping guns to kill animals. I mean I understand many people do it for food, but what if their gun got into the wrong hands? Like what happened in this situation where the men that broke into a house stole the man's rifle, which I am guessing he used to shot with.
There are many different views on gun control, and I for one really can't say I know much about it. I guess I changed my mind a few times, but I only agree with keeping guns in your home to only use for protect, but how does anyone know that is all you'll use it for, see that's what makes me a little confused on exactly how I feel about gun control and what certain things should be in forced more. Many bad things have happened whenever the wrong people got a hold of guns, such as all these attacks on school where the killer is only around the age of 17 or 18 and has a gun that you would think that the military and people like that should have. So many dangerous things happened due to guns, but why take the guns away whenever you could just take the people away from the guns? If that even makes any sense. Feel free to post your thoughts on this topic.
I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't put my 2 cents into a gun control blog posting. heh.
You are exactly right about the need to protect yourself. The point is not that I am afraid that I will get mugged or shot one day, but that I choose to be prepared if it ever happens.
As for hunting animals, the stereotype of a hunter is a drunken redneck who kills animals for the fun of it, just to get a set of antlers to hang on the wall. While many DO put up such a trophy on the wall, the animal itself is eaten, either by the hunter, or by friends/family of the hunter.
Frankly, of all the ways for an animal to die for use as food for humans, hunting in the wild with a rifle is the most humane treatment. Much moreso than bludgeoning a cow to death for beef in a plant somewhere. Hunting limits and seasons are based on what the local environment can safely sustain that year, which is why there are limtis on the number of deer or any other animal that can be hunted.
The state Department of natural resources (Different states call it different things, but the job is the same) spends the spring and summer studying how much food there is for the animals in question, then look at the population. This tells them how many more animals there are than the environment can support.
Rather than having the deer or elk starve to death, which if done to a dog in your harm would be a crime in almost every (if not every) state, the state governments license hunting to reduce the numbers to a safe limit for the environment, so both the environment and the animals thrive.
There are limits on how young the animal can be and in many cases, you can only hunt males, so as to increase the breeding pool. This lets younger bucks mate with existing females to keep the genetic pool diverse (which helps to avoid birth defects due to genetic disorders), while keeping a bigger number of females alive. (though there times that the number of female animals are limited too, if there is too much of an imbalance)
Well, this got a bit longer than I intended. Anyway, It is nice t see someone young start to understand that guns aren't evil creations that ought to be banned from society, but can serve an important purpose in protection of the innocent from the criminals who would harm them.
Edit: Clean up your spelling and grammar errors, maybe separate the blog into a few more paragraphs, and this blog would have been rated at a 5 instead of a 4. Good job.
At first I felt like guns should be taken away from all people who have them for hunting and no "real" purpose but to kill animals;
Hunters don't kill just to "kill animals" and that is a ridiculously wrong and offensive stereotype; especially saying that hunting is not a "real" reason to own a gun.
For one thing, hunting controls the population of those animals who would otherwise kill themselves for overpopulation (and saves precious little toy poodles who run around in the back yard because when the animals become overpopulated, they move into the city...).
For another thing, the vast minority of hunters kill just for the sake of mounting a head on the wall. I don't do the hunting myself, but I am from a family of hunters and know many, many hunters who have no respect for those who hunt for the "trophy" at the end. That's not to say that mounting antlers or heads or whatever it may be is inappropriate, as long as the animal is used for a valid use....
Like food.
An elk feeds my family four about four months. An elk tag for my adult father is about $30, and it's even cheaper for minors (ie my brother who fed us for 3 months on a small-ish elk).
Now my family doesn't have a lot of money (thought that's not the sole reason they hunt... there are the other reasons, as I have expressed, like their love of animals [controlling population] and of nature and wildlife), so it's spectacular when we can spend less than $30 dollars to eat meat for a quarter of the year when most people spend $30 in a week or two on beef.
So before you denounce all hunting and hunters, check out the how's and why's of hunting.
Real hunters have zero respect for those who kill just to kill.
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Success Is In The Eye Of The Beholder [The Dresden Dolls]
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