Anthony Luiz believes in his right to be a responsible gun owner, and is angry at all of the idiots treating guns irresponsibly in the name of the Second Amendment.
One of my earliest childhood memories is learning to shoot a BB gun with my dad. We went out to the back of my aunt’s four-acre parcel, just down the road from our one-acre rural ranchette. My dad had my brand new BB gun in his hand, and I could hardly contain myself. I paced back and forth, eyeing it while stretching out my trigger finger.
“Are you ready?” he asked, as if he couldn’t tell by the fact that I’d been forming my hand into a gun and shooting at the Tab can positioned on the white board fence several yards away.
I responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!” and reached for the gun. Imagine my surprise when my dad pulled the gun back and informed me that I’d first have to learn some rules. Rules? What? I was ready be a sniper, a wild-west gunslinger, a commando. What rule did I need aside from “Hit the target”?
For what seemed like an eternity, but was realistically more like the next half-hour or so, my dad explained how to operate the gun, but more importantly the basic tenets of gun safety. What I heard was simple enough for me to understand as a five-year old kid, but still sits at the forefront of my mind every time I see a firearm:
1) Treat EVERY firearm as if it is loaded with one in the chamber.
2) Never point a gun at something you’re not willing to destroy.
3) Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re 100% ready to shoot.
4) Know your target and what is around and behind it.
5) Shoot only to practice, eat, or protect. Never treat a gun like a toy.
Now that I’m grown and have a family, my late father’s lessons sit ready to be passed on to my son when he’s old enough. Unfortunately, those lessons will have to compete with a seemingly never-ending stream of debate, discussion, rhetoric, and imagery saturating the media.
I am a gun owner and a supporter of the Second Amendment. I’m a firm believer in people having the right to protect their life, family, and property by any means necessary. I’m also the father of a two year-old little boy, a teacher, and my politics tend to lean left. The depiction of gun owners in the media bothers me because of ALL those things. I don’t want anti-gun activists to have a distorted view of the typical gun owner. I also don’t want my kids (both my biological one and the 130+ who come through my classroom each day) to have a distorted view of what it means to own a gun.
Several days ago, I read Zach Rosenberg’s article referencing a photo gallery on another site depicting fathers pointing guns at their daughters’ prom dates. I was appalled at what I saw in those images. Nevermind the social implications of teenagers being threatened with physical violence, which is disturbing in its own right, I couldn’t believe the utter disregard and disrespect shown by the men holding the guns. Zach asked if this is a “non-issue.” I say absolutely not. It’s a massive issue for people trying to preserve the ideals of responsible gun ownership.
In my view, there is far too much ammo (pun intended) out there for anti-gun folks to use against gun owners. A blog I recently discovered, Idiots with Guns, is a collection of videos and photos of people completely ignoring gun safety. The fact that these individuals are ignorant enough to treat firearms this way is bad enough, but their choice to upload them to the internet is simply mind-boggling. For every responsible gun owner out there, there will inevitably be an irresponsible attention-seeker posting a selfie where their gun is in their mouth and their finger’s on the trigger.
Exhibit A:
OK, so we have the idiot-with-gun-in-mouth pictures. One might…MIGHT…write these off to stupidity, or a moment’s lapse in judgment. Unfortunately, responsible gun owners also have to compete with the danger-soaked images of gangsters, both legitimate and wannabe, holding, pointing, and using guns. Whether the imagery is provided by gangland films of decades past, gansta rap lyrics, or games like Grand Theft Auto, it’s detrimental to the overall idea of what it means to own and operate a firearm.
There also seems to be the idea that owning a gun means you’re out of control. As any responsible gun owner will tell you, it’s quite the opposite. Having a weapon capable of ending someone’s life should only be trusted in the hands of someone who has the training and self-control necessary. Take for example, the Moody, Alabama man who pulled a pistol at his son’s peewee game. Not only does his behavior make me cringe as a gun owner, but as a father. If only this was an isolated incident…
Gun control always takes such a political bent. The bottom line is, whether you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Constitutional Conservative, or a progressive preaching world peace and kumbaya campfires, the biggest issue surrounding firearm ownership is keeping those firearms from hurting people. Unfortunately, most of these idiots seem perfectly happy to hurt themselves.
Lead photo: Facebook
Forgive me, I’m not an American. But I simply can’t comprehend how anything can be defended by a constitution that is over two hundred years old. Standards should evolve as we do, along with political policy, economic benchmarks and social norms, to put it broadly. To me, it’s like saying my child should only play stickball and tiddly-winks because it was good enough for my grandfather.