"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders...."
-Mark Twain
Yesterday, I had lunch with two newspaper buddies, Sam Bauman and Guy Farmer. These guys are a pair to draw to. They've been everywhere and done everything in just about every country in the world. I'm in fast company. Anyway, the subject of gun control came up, and while I detected no passionate disagreement amongst the three of us, it was obvious that our individual experience with guns varied widely. They both felt something unemotional needs to be said so they suckered me into doing this piece on gun control, either because I've had the most experiences with firearms or because I'm expendable.
I'm hoping you good citizens might welcome some basic truths around which the gun control debate might be resolved more easily in your own minds. One major impediment to lack of public understanding are the many different reasons for gun ownership on the part of a wide variety of people. On one hand, we have legitimate hunters who for the most part play by the rules and laws already in force but not necessarily enforced. On the other hand, there are libertarian groups who lie in fear of totalitarian government takeover through total citizen disarmament, and these peoples' concerns aren't without recent precedent.
Add to that a huge contingency of gun owners who want to be able to keep and bear arms in the spirit of the Second Amendment to our Constitution, and at the same time be able to defend their homes and themselves from harm at the hands of uninvited intruders. And there's still another large block of gun owners who love the sport of competition shooting and non-competitive target shooting. All in all, we're looking at upwards of 90 million legitimate guns in the U.S.!
Now, let's dismiss spurious safety arguments right now. There was a time not very long ago when almost all sons looked forward to learning to shoot and safely handle guns from their fathers, uncles or older brothers. I received my first rifle at the age of 10. I was drilled and drilled and drilled on the safety aspects of gunnery and so were my friends. You seldom heard of accidents in those days because most kids were taught to respect, but not fear, guns.
Even in a pacifistic country like Switzerland, where all males are in the military reserve until the age of 55 and participate in two weeks' military training each year and all take their guns home with them, even fully automatic weapons, you never hear of gun accidents with children. This is proof that training is the only answer to gun safety. Our schools must get involved.
However, for several years we've permitted the sale of guns to almost anybody. World War II surplus weaponry started this trend. It began harmlessly enough with guns being bought by those who had military experience with those weapons, but over the years, with the importation of cheap foreign weaponry, it's become trendy to own guns even when owners don't know how to operate or store them safely. Mandatory training must be a condition of ownership and use!
Unfortunately, there's no way to keep criminals from getting guns, even with world-wide gun prohibition. Criminals will make guns, have them made or buy them on the black market, and there's always a black market. Handguns are as available today to criminals or revolutionary groups as they've ever been in Canada and England where they've been outlawed for years. We can't stop the illicit manufacture, importation and distribution of guns any more than we stopped illegal booze during prohibition. There'll never be enough manpower unless everybody's a cop!
What about criminal nut-cases shooting up schools and restaurants? They'll always get a gun if that's what they're hell bent on doing, and if not a gun, explosives will do just as well. Bombs can be made by almost anybody from widely available literature, legal ingredients and sources.
The most dangerous aspect of the so-called gun debate is the not-so-hidden agenda on the part of gun control advocates who prey on our emotions. Their ultimate goal is complete disarmament of all non-military and non-law enforcement officials, and this goal makes honest dialogue impossible. There are already enough federal laws on the books not being enforced to satisfy any normal, objective citizen's concerns with respect to legitimate ownership and safety.
Citizen disarmament will never happen short of civil war, and it's imperative that our government bureaucrats, politicians and gun control advocates understand that. Most law abiding citizens will not allow their guns to be confiscated! At all costs, we will protect the ultimate defense, as permitted by the Second Amendment, against a totalitarian governmental regime. Let's enforce present gun laws! if we can't do that, then we citizens need our guns more than ever.
(Bob Thomas is a Carson City businessman, local curmudgeon and former member of the Carson City School Board and Nevada State Assembly.)