The Rights and Responsibilities of Gun Ownership

‘I think of a hero as someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.’

— Bob Dylan

I got my first gun at age seven. It was a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun from K-Mart. Eventually, I graduated from BB guns to a single-shot .22 rifle, to now owning over a dozen guns of various types. (That includes a Daisy Red Ryder that I just bought at a flea market.) I have had a Texas license to carry a handgun for over 15 years and I carry a gun on a regular basis. I am a Boy Scout Shotgun and Rifle merit badge counselor and have trained more than a few boys and girls to shoot. I hunted (mostly unsuccessfully) growing up.

I say all that to set my gun owner street cred. I like guns. I like shooting. I believe the Second Amendment gives citizens the individual right to own firearms. I believe that hunting and fishing, when properly regulated, is critical to the successful conservation of natural resources.

All of that is to say that gun owners have to accept that fact that at best half of Americans own guns. Which means half of Americans don’t. Even significant numbers of gun owners appear to agree that some stricter gun control laws are acceptable. That half is what we need to start thinking about. We need to accept and understand that with our right to bear firearms come major responsibilities. If we don’t do a better job of meeting them those same rights are at risk.

Secondly, we as gun owners need to quit going out of our way to scare and anger non-gun owners. Frankly part of the reason I don’t shoot as much as I would like is that I got tired of going to gun shows and ranges and listening to people talk about how they needed yet another AR-15 because ‘Obama/Hillary/Nancy Pelosi/Bloomberg’ was going to come take their guns. Or tell me what they just saw on Alex Jones/Rush Limbaugh (Jade Helm, anyone?) about how the UN was going to take our guns. Or how they needed yet another handgun because that’s what the Navy SEALS were buying. My personal favorite was the part-time gunsmith who had a small shop behind his house. He registered it as a different address because (and I am serious) if federal agents showed up at his home to look at his records he could shoot them. I failed to understand the logic of that but he was incredibly serious. Even when we say these things jokingly, to people who don’t own guns, their take away is that people who own guns are scary and have no problem contemplating killing police officers or overthrowing the government. Yes, in Texas you have the right to openly carry a handgun. Every serious gun owner I know thinks that’s a bad tactical idea. If the Bad Guy walks in and sees you with a big hogleg on your hip, who do you think he’s going to shoot first? Not me with my .380 tucked under my shirt. More importantly, you are scaring the living crap out of people who don’t understand and don’t like guns. You are accomplishing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, except to turn off people who may one day be voting on a gun control law that we need their help with. What do you think they are going to remember then? Yes, you showed what a big man/woman you are and you enjoyed your constitutional rights. You might have also done more damage to our future as gun owners than you think. I grew up in a rural area where it was completely usual for people to drive around with a rifle or shotgun hanging in their rear window. It was accepted that it was occasionally necessary for a farmer/rancher to deal with coyotes or wild dogs or snakes. But seeing an old lever-action .30-.30 or a 12 gauge shotgun in a rack is an entirely different world from seeing someone in Target dressed like they are going on a SPEC OPS raid.

Finally, and most importantly, we need to make sure we distance ourselves as far as possible from the militia/nationalist/anti-government/Neo-Nazi/White Supremacist movement. They have hijacked our freedoms of assembly and speech as well as our gun rights to spew hate and violence. For those of us who truly believe in and enjoy owning guns, these are our biggest enemy. If you are genuinely worried that the government is looking for an excuse to take your firearms then seeing a bunch of guys parade in front of a Mosque dressed in masks and carrying black rifles should absolutely fill you with fear. Remember that the second deadliest terror attack in US history occurred in April 1995 when two white former Army soldiers (Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols) set off a truck bomb at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. One-hundred and sixty-eight people died including children who were in the day care center, several federal law enforcement officers, and six members of the military. Those people you saw in Charlottesville wearing hoods and swastikas are the direct descendants of that hatred. We should let no one ever think for a moment that we condone that behavior and we should call it out when we see it.

I grew up listening to people swear we would never, ever have an African-American (not exactly the term they used) person in the White House. Many of them also said they’d die before gays and lesbians were allowed to marry. At one point the US Constitution prevented women from voting and allowed slavery. I think it’s time that we as gun owners start showing a little humility. It might just prevent a time when we are on the same list.

Related posts:

Alpha version of OCDSearch is available. As of today, it is indexing tender notices from Paraguay, Columbia, and Mexico. We will add new data sources soon. Currently, it is closed alpha testing. If…

We have all experienced grief in one form or another. Grief is what we feel when we experience a loss. Sometimes we grieve over the loss of a job, a relationship, or the death of a loved one. Unlike…