Text 376, 69 rader
Skriven 2004-10-15 06:55:02 av Greg Sears (1:153/307)
     Kommentar till en text av Dave Coble
Ärende: Ho ho
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I've got a gun and I know how to use it!

Sure you've got a gun, you wouldn't leave home without it. You might even
have a gun for the car and the house. It looks good in your hand when you
brandish it in front of the mirror, and it makes you feel safe when you
see those pesky homeless people begging for money on a street corner.
Your gun is a good gun; hey it might even be registered. I'll bet you
know the technical name for your gun although you call it "Steely" or
"Trigger" casually. A number of you could even tell me what kind of ammo
it takes without referring to the cartridge box that sits unopened in the
garage, those luckless bullets collecting dust and dreaming of the only
dream they could possibly entertain, that of flight.

The real question is, do you know how to use a gun, and do you have a
healthy respect for the weapon you have purchased? Do you know the
caliber of your weapon, the optimal range for shooting accuracy, where
the safety is or what kind of ignition system it has? If so then great, I
want you to have guns. In fact buy as many as possible and help to
educate those around you, or shoot others well, as the case may be.

Another thing that is certainly helpful to know are your own local state
laws concerning firearms. If you live in Alabama, like I do, you cannot
carry a gun concealed unless a special permit is granted, but if you are
like me that isn't a problem because I've never bought a gun small enough
to conceal, if you know what I'm saying . . . and I think you do. But if
you live in Tennessee, as some of my friends do, it's open season,
because not only is there not a waiting period or license required to
purchase a gun, but you can carry it concealed at all times. At a
national level gun laws can be as rigid as New York where it takes six
months, a urine sample, and mandatory organ donations to get a gun, or as
lax as Vermont where the requirements to own a gun are that you have to
be finished teething or strong enough to hold your head up before a gun
is issued.

See, this is more aimed at gun owners who would argue that a magazine is
a book with pictures, a barrel catches rainwater or that a safety is the
football strategy of tackling the offense in their own end zone. If I say
Colt and you think of a baby horse, you should put the gun down. I don't
fear the owners of guns that know how to use them . . . It's the morons
who are packing and think that a target is a super center down on Main
Street that scare me. Target practice and basic gun handling classes are
inexpensive and readily accessible. Anyhow, I don't see why you wouldn't
WANT to be accurate when you are shooting at an intruder. I mean, you
don't want them coming out of this alive and able to press charges right?
It always looks better if you can take someone out with one or two shots
. . . anything else appears excessive and could fall under suspicion.

In my opinion, guns have bastardized our sense of mortality with their
instant finality. We created guns, then tanks, then airplanes to drop the
bombs we built, and now nuclear weapons. It seems that our weapons create
more and more physical distance from those we anticipate killing,
obfuscating the horror of hand to hand mortal combat. I ask you, do you
think that makes killing easier or harder? Don't get me wrong. I think
guns are great. I myself enjoy hunting and the occasional drunken "shoot
the Copenhagen can" contest, but when it comes to resolving personal and
global issues, I think swords are better and discussions even more so
than that.

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 [________]_|__|________)<   Cheers,
  oo    oo  'oo OOOO-| oo\_  I C E-man 
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