The NRA-Gun Rights- Finding Solutions

[kmcconaughey]

I've been reluctant to post this but figure now might be a good time. Some of you that have been here for at least 10 years might remember that back on March 31, 2003 my youngest brother Kent was murdered in his home. (Hard to believe it's already been 10 years) He was shot in the head twice after being held at gun point for several hours. The evil guy first broke into his uncles house and stole the handgun. Then he went to my brother's house and knocked on the door and when my brother open the door he kicked it the rest of the way open and pulled the gun on my brother. The evil guy was the ex boyfriend of a girl that my brother had worked with and was good friends with. The evil guy was jealous. During the time he held my brother at gunpoint he had my brother call the girl and told my brother to invite her over. His intent was to kill both my brother and himself in front of the girl. She figured out that something was not right, my brother was somehow able to infer to her what was up. (My family stayed in contact with her for a year or two after.) She called the police informed them of what was up. When they went in the evil guy shot my brother twice in the head, first shot was a glancing hit, perhaps my brother tried to escape somehow... second shot was direct. Bad guy then shot himself in the head once. My family, Mother, Father two older sisters and my other younger brother did not in any way blame guns, we blame the evil guy. Still don't blame guns for any of the evil acts, we blame the evil person that did the act.

 

[rrunty]

Kraig,
I'm fairly new here and sorry to hear of your loss. From what you've described, it sounds as if no law could have prevented your brothers terrible passing, other than the fact that evil guy was "not right" in the head.
I just believe we as a society need to look at the deep down cause of these incidents and not try to blame inanimate objects. Nothing different than being the victim of a drunk driver and trying to blame the car or alcohol.

Bob

 

[kostendorf]

Kraig, You have my condolence's too. I have never talked or written about this before and think also this may be a good time to heal a little. May 21 2011 My son at the age of 25 took his own life with a 30/30 he got from a friend. My guns were in a safe that only I have the combination for. He had girlfriend problems. Long story short it's what's in their mind not the weapon which could be any object available. He left me a beautiful granddaughter I'm raising. The mother is in and out of prison and has no contact with us. He thought he could change her life and lost his in the end.

 

[mfrade]

Kraig M., I do remember and cannot believe it's been 10 years... sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Keith O., sorry to hear of your tragedy and loss, I hope your Grand-daughter eases the pain and brings some joy to you and the family.

 

[jclazar]

Richard, you know,.........do you know what it is like to have a family member gunned down? Well, in our family's case the gun man/ ex-boyfriend at least put the gun to his head after he shot my mother's/my second cousin 5 times in the chest.

So before you start wondering if I'm wondering, why don't you wonder why it is RIGHT for a killer to live out his life in a prison, and who picks up the tab for that. NOW, look here,...we have the second Boston bomber suspect. Tell, me sir, what do you think should be his fate? Please send that fate across the Nation in hopes that will prevent more of these selfgovernoring , godless acts of human violence.

I'm done with this thread, it is like trying to clean a coo-coo clock with boxing gloves.

 

[kshultz]

I wonder if alot of the liberals in Boston was wishing they had an AR-15 in their closet Friday.

Thank God they got 'em!
God bless the families that were affected.

 

[rchristensen]

I have been following this thread along with many letters to the editor in the local newspaper over the gun control debate because we do have a problem in this country with too many deaths with guns. They say 2/3 of them are suicide, where you can’t blame a bad guy. I have read a lot of comments and suggestions, some well thought out and some to me that seem ridiculous.

I served in the Military along with many of fellow forum members so that we could have the freedom to think and say what we want unless it overly infringes on others. (You can’t say Hijack on a plane, or yell Fire in a crowded theater.)

I may not agree with John on his comments that if you don’t agree with me you have to leave the country, but I will defend his right to say it.

I was here when Kraig’s brother was killed and remember the shock, and the feeling that I couldn’t properly express my condolences. I believe like Kraig does that it was not the Guns fault, but a very sick man. If Kraig was for or against Gun Control of any kind that wouldn’t matter to me and he would not be an Evil man or would he have to leave the country.

Just so you all know I have rifles, shotguns and pistols and don’t want them taken from me. I was a card carrying member of NRA when they were more about gun safety but no longer support them in their radical agenda.

To me the man who killed the Abortion doctor for Religious reasons is no better than the Boston bombers.

I don’t see this Gun control debate as between Liberals and Conservatives. To solve this problem we will eventually have to come together and figure out how to treat the mental problems that are the probably the cause of the majority of the killings. I suppose people will call that Socialism.

If I was living in Boston while the hunt for the bombers was on I would have rather had my shotgun than an AR15 to protect me.

 

[rchristensen]

My Brother just called me, a friend of his just got word his 5 year old son picked up a loaded pistol this morning and killed himself. I don't know the particulars yet, but I wonder will we ever learn. No Gun Control bill will ever prevent stupidity. My heart goes out to this family and ever other family that will lose someone today.

 

[mfrade]

Richard C., that's terrible news and I am so sorry to hear of this! To lose someone so young has to be one of the worst things that could happen to parents.

 

[aschumacher]

Ya know, maybe the NRA should send out literature reminding people of the responsibility they have when children are/could be around. I noted earlier that 2 weeks ago a 4yr old girl shot her 6yr old neighbor with a rifle that was under the parents bed. <font size="-2">N.J. has a law regulating this kind of thing, but never enforces it. What are you going to enforce or penalize when 2 families are grieving...will they even be able to live next to each other anymore?</font>

 

[mfrade]

So let's write some more laws? That we won't enforce?

Massachusetts wrote a law years ago that says mandatory 1 year in the slammer for unlawful possession of a firearm.. So far NO ONE has served a day for violation of it!

And we keep re-electing them!

 

[wshytle]

My two little tractor buddies that are 3 and 5 respectively both know how to handle their plastic guns that just make noises. That's the first thing their father taught them when they received the toy guns. They have brought them with them when they come out to play with "Uncle Wayne" and ride tractors and it's neat to watch them handle those toys like the real thing.

These children we read about in the newspaper have never had any type of proper instruction on how dangerous guns can be and especially how to handle them. That's the whole thing in a nut shell. Chances are the parent(s) own guns for the wrong reasons as well. It seems nowadays it's just "cool" to have a handgun because Jo Blo has one. When I was coming up few people even had handguns. What you owned depended on what you hunted. .22s for small game, shotguns for birds, and rifles for big game and that was about it.

Last year Damon took Nolan, the 3 yr old hunting and they harvested a button buck from a blind. Of course Damon did the gun handling and shooting but Nolan experienced the concussion and noise as well as the harvested deer, blood, etc. I think this is good because it teaches not only about death but Nolan is learning the reasons why (and it was delicious...they brought me both hams). Damon told me how Nolan whispered everything he said while they were waiting and has learned how to be very still. This is something for a 3 yr old. His brother Griffin is the same way and has experienced the same things.

It's such a terrible shame for very young people to kill or be killed and for absolutely no reason.

A good dog trainer will tell you that puppies start learning before they are weaned. I feel it's no different with people.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Robert, Keith, Mike and Richard, thanks.

Keith, sorry to hear about your son.

Richard, sorry to hear about your brother's friend's 5 year old son. I will never understand how an accident like that one can happen. We will never know all the details but a loaded gun should never be left out where a child or anyone who isn't knowledgeable about how to handle one properly can get their hands on it. I grew up around guns and we were taught very early on that even with a toy gun it was never pointed at anyone and we were to always treat a gun, even a toy gun, as if it were loaded. When each of my siblings and I were old enough we all had to take the Hunter Safety Course. We would need to have passed the course in order to hunt in Wisconsin but one sister did not intend to hunt, she has never hunted but she did become a gun owner for target shooting. I taught my daughter how to safely handle guns when she was young and she has since taken and passed the Hunter Safety Course. She both hunts and target shoots, with guns and a bow and arrow. She turned 18 a couple months ago and can now own the long guns she has been shooting and hunting with. As in the past, they will stay in the safe until needed.

 

[kostendorf]

I still have and use the mossberg .410 bolt action shotgun and bolt action .22 my grandfather taught me to hunt with when I was 8 years old. Parenting does have a huge effect on how and why a firearm is used.

 

[kide]

I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, but this group, for the most part, does not have the orientation, knowledge and experience necessary to develop solutions to this problem. WAIT! Before you start typing ......

I make that statement because most of us are in suburban or rural areas, have lived in that environment our entire lives and have developed our value systems and beliefs based on that. If you look at where the majority of the violence takes place, it is the inner city and urban areas of the country and (this is where I may sound bad) the environment in much of those areas is as foreign to our experiences as that in Afghanistan or Chechnya.. Life is not valued, the effect of one's actions is not taken seriously, there is no leadership - except for within gangs. Drugs are used as escape from the surroundings, stealing is how you get what you want, and if someone gets in your way, you eliminate them....and guns are a tool, used to get what is wanted. The guns aren't at fault, the entire population of the country is for letting things get this far out of hand.

I'm not sure if there is a way out of this - hell, the prisons don't work, and you can't throw the entire population of a city in jail. I'm starting to get the feeling that the US is using the Roman Empire as a model.... and the cities are burning while Washington fiddles...

 

[kmcconaughey]

Gerry, I have to agree with you. One sentence (sorry for any pun...) "...you can't throw the entire population of a city in jail." reminded me of the 80's movie "Escape From New York" with Kurt Russell.

 

[kide]

Kraig ... and that scenario keeps coming up in fiction ... and I get more nervous every time I see it....

 

[aschumacher]

Thank you Gerry for wording thoughts I have and didn't know how to express them.

 

[kostendorf]

This may be really stupid to say, But maybe we should start building new prisons in the city instead out in the rural areas.

 

[mfrade]

My frustration with this whole topic is that people in this country think writing a law will change something!

The man upstairs wrote 10 laws.. one of them says "shall not kill".. Humans haven't paid attention since that time, what makes anyone think writing another law will change anything?!?!?

I don't have the answer, like most of you I was taught very early about firearm safety and believe it should be mandatory training before operating firearms.

You know I've been angry many times in my life and I have never even thought about causing such harm to another human being!

Now I've ranted about a dozen different topics and dragged religion into it.. I'll apologize to Charlie and everyone who reads this now, I couldn't help but cross that line to make a point.

I think what we as a nation really need to do is teach Tolerance along with Respect!

Stepping off the soapbox, saying thanks for letting me vent!