I have been around guns most of my life, as a teenager shooting in competition for a youth group I was in, my step-father was a policeman, and Beth's Dad was an avid gun owner - loving to target shoot and rid his place of unwanted varmints.Here at Nutwood, we would never dream of using anything more powerful than a BB gun against our malicious critters, preferring to shoot using a shutter rather than a bullet, but we do have a few rifles (one the target .22 rifle I used in competition and others from Beth's Dad) and hand guns.
Over the last several days, it has been tragic and traumatic to watch the images of the victims from Aurora Colorado on the news. The shooter was able to buy multiple guns over a short period of time, and to order more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the internet. One of the guns was a semi-automatic rifle. That is where I draw the line, there is not reason to have a semi-automatic rifle with a clip that holds a hundred rounds except to use in war for maximum damage. Would you use one while hunting - I cannot imagine.
This was only reinforced today as we were having our morning beverages (coffee for me, snapple for Beth) and perusing the newspaper. The property adjacent to us is an abandoned slaughter-house and now used for a civil engineering/construction company. On the weekends, one individual takes target practice, and I purposely counted this morning and there was one stretch of over 30 rapid fires shots. To what end???
The United States is one of the most violent and high murder rate countries in the world. I think we could stand to do without semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity clips. I am a supporter of the Second Amendment, but also believe that some form of regulation is warranted. Why not start with re-instituting the ban on assault weapons.
To sign the petition that Beth created, please follow this link: Assualt Rifle Ban
