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-Land of the Free
Do you know the gun owners in your circle?
2016-01-09
From Fred's AO
[BaltimoreSun] It's inevitable when my husband and I visit family these days that the subject of violence in Baltimore comes up. Often, I'm the one who raises it. But when it came up last week on a trip to see my parents in Georgia, I got my back up. I thought of the 11-hour drive south and the billboards we passed along I-81 boasting guns for sale ("A Glock for Christmas"!), and of the story my brother-in-law, who lives in Florida, told of a neighbor stopping by to shoot the breeze in his suburban driveway, a handgun holstered at the man's waist as their kids played nearby.
Gotta love Freedom...
I'm less afraid of the criminals wielding guns in Baltimore, I declared as we discussed the issue, than I am by those permitted gun owners. I know how to stay out of the line of Baltimore's illegal gunfire; I have the luxury of being white and middle class in a largely segregated city that reserves most of its shootings for poor, black neighborhoods overtaken by "the game." The closest I typically get to the action is feeling the chest-thumping vibrations of the Foxtrot police helicopter flying overhead in pursuit of someone who might be a few streets over, but might as well be a world away. But I don't know where the legal gun owners are or how to ensure that their children, no matter how well versed in respecting firearms, won't one day introduce that weapon to my daughter.
Yeah, cop helos overfly you just for the purpose of chest thumping, all because you have the "luxury" of being white. You need to get out more, and by that I don't mean the the Whole Food cooperative in your neighborhood. I suggest you introduce your daughter to firearms so that she will not be afraid and will learn about their use and safety. Who am I kidding? She wants to protect her daughter by taking guns away from people who are no threat to her.
And so, as President Barack Obama announced plans this week to tighten background checks for gun buyers and increase gun tracking and research, I thought, that's all well and good, but how about adding something immediately useful: a gun owner registry available to the public online — something like those for sex offenders. I'm not equating gun owners with predatory perverts,
Yes, you are.
but the model is helpful here; I want a searchable database I can consult to find out whether my kid can have a play date at your house.
Draconian gun laws in Baltimore will ensure your precious' play date will not be ruined by the presence of firearms.
Avoid all such problems (what if one of the parents of that other child smokes(?!) or has snacks containing gluten(?!?!)) by always having the play dates at your house. Granted, that greatly ups the mess factor, you'll have to double the amount of snack foods you have on hand, and you will actually have to stay home to watch over them, but that way other children's stupid other-thinking parents will never cause your little darling a moment of worry.
Before the 33 percent of U.S. households containing a gun (half of which don't secure them) gets too worked up, they should know that it would likely include many of my relatives and their friends. My parents grew up in small town Minnesota, and hunting was a regular part of their lives before they left for other states, and it still is for many they know. My folks were taught how to handle guns and use them safely. But that doesn't do much to allay my fears; it's the simple presence of the weapon in the home and the possibilities it presents that terrify me.
The 2nd Amendment was written so that we might all enjoy tasty venison, and not against the actions of a growing and increasingly hostile government. All that directing governments to make you "feel safe" will accomplish will be to place you on the front lines of any action to counter government attempts at registration and confiscation. My suggestion: either buy a gun, or learn to duck.
U.S. toddlers were accidentally shooting people — including themselves — at the rate of one per week last year. More than 21,000 Americans committed suicide with a firearm in 2014 (nearly twice the number of gun homicides), while 586 people were accidentally killed with guns (10 percent of them age 15 and younger). And most of the guns used in the last 15 unpredictable mass shootings — including San Bernardino;
jihadis
Umpqua, Ore.;
suicidally depressed
and Marysville, Wash., where a 15-year-old used his father's Beretta to kill four fellow high school students
girl problems
— were purchased legally. The mother of the Umpqua shooter, who killed nine people at a local community college, had even bragged online a decade ago about her son's "knowledge in this field" of firearms. So much for safety training.
"Safety training" is a two step process. Just providing the data isn't enough. The individual has to accept and follow the rules of safety. That they don't is no one's fault but the shooter's.
My only exposure to guns has been to legal ones. I remember as a teen-ager spending an afternoon with a couple of boys who were showing off after school, firing a family gun in the backyard and play aiming at one another. And I fired a .22 caliber pistol several years ago as a reporter covering handgun-carry regulations in Maryland; I still have the paper target practice sheet taped to my cubicle to flaunt my bullseye. There was a definite rush to handling the weapon, and I could see the attraction of target practice as a hobby. But the risk to owning the gun isn't worth it to me.
Re-evaluate, then. Guns aren't going away, but you could be if you fail to buy and learn to use a gun.
Guns in the home are far more likely to be used accidentally, in suicides or family disputes than in self defense, according to studies based on anecdotal evidence. (Perhaps Mr. Obama's improved research will show for sure.) And I'm pretty certain that if I'd had a gun the one time I was the victim of a violent crime (in upstate New York), the outcome would have been a lot worse than it was, with the firearm turned against me in short order. Instead, I was able to scream and break away from a mugger with a dull knife trying to force me into a vacant lot between rowhouses.
A 9mm or .45 Caliber "rape whistle" would help, I suspect.
Three years ago, a New York newspaper published a map online showing who owned guns in two counties outside of New York City. The backlash was swift and wide, with the most legitimate complaints being a fear of theft, which the paper said never materialized, and concerns about identifying where law enforcement lived. (I'm willing to compromise by including the officer's name, but not address, in my database.)
Golly. That's big of her.
Much of the response, though, was made up of comments like this one: "so, should we start wearing yellow Stars of David so the general public can be aware of we are??"

Gun owners may feel picked on, but they are not a persecuted class. They are individuals who have chosen to keep in their homes an object whose chief purpose is to injure or kill, whether in self defense or otherwise. The rest of us should have a right to know it's there before we — or our children — enter.
Gun owners because they are in such a minority are a persecuted class with the political class and the government nearly constantly demanding registration and confiscation. An open database of gun owners doesn't help the cause of freedom, but does help the control of governments over firearms.
Tricia Bishop is The Sun's deputy editorial page editor. Her column runs every other Friday.
So how have The Sun's sales and profits been doing? Trending downward like almost all the paper'n'ink news retailers in America?
Posted by:badanov

#6  Liberals despise those that don't think like them.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2016-01-09 23:34  

#5  ohhhhhhhhh

Who lives in the suburbs of the city of B?
Spongtrish Wetpants!
Absurd and yellow and boarish is she?
Spongtrish Wetpants!
If collectivist nonsense be something you wish
Spongtrish Wetpants!
Then drop your two bucks and buy the BS
Spongtrish Wetpants!
Posted by: swksvolFF   2016-01-09 15:12  

#4  Too much work AlanC.

Just plant a sign in her front lawn saying "This is a gun free zone" and let nature take its course.
Posted by: DarthVader   2016-01-09 13:07  

#3  BrerRabbit, I think you're on to something.

How about, instead of registering gun owners, we register non-gun owners. Sort of a list of all gun-free zones. Tricia could put her name up there so people wouldn't be afraid of her.

If the name you want to search is not on the list than you can assume that they have a gun and act accordingly. That work for you, Trish?
Posted by: AlanC   2016-01-09 10:22  

#2   I want a searchable database I can consult to find out whether my kid can have a play date at your house.

How about you use a phone and just ask?

This lady has also advertised to any burglars that her house is not dangerous to break into.

Wadda moroon.
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2016-01-09 09:51  

#1  An article written by a committee.

Nothing more than a regurgitation of talking points. Is Tricia actually a live human being?

Undoubtedly, Tricia believes in the wonderful concept of diversity. How she's able to square this with not allowing her kids to play with the children of gun owners requires suspension of reality.

One more thing, Trish - at what age will you stop trying to control your daughter from trying to see what firearms are all about? Fifteen? Eighteen? Thirty-six?
Posted by: no mo uro   2016-01-09 06:22  

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