Here’s the fundamental disconnect in the gun debate: People like me respond to the possibility of threats (mass shootings, assault, rape, home invasion) by arming themselves with the most effective tools at our disposal. Meanwhile, others respond by calling for gun control.
Gun control advocates think there’s this pernicious “gun culture” powered by the NRA and that it is the only thing keeping them from enacting “common sense” gun control. But the reality is, gun owners who think differently than they do are responding in a way that they have no interest in understanding.
This is why gun control arguments fail to sway most law-abiding gun owners. All their reasons for disarming Americans, or adding serious impediments to the ownership of certain firearms, are the same reasons why many Americans arm themselves.
When you have someone, like myself, who prepares for every possibility, including violence perpetrated against my family, telling me that I’m “up in the night” while at the same time arguing that my legal ownership of a gun makes society more dangerous doesn’t make any sense.
So, when calls for “common sense” gun control are opposed, don’t blame the NRA. Gun control advocates should blame their own unwillingness to engage with fellow Americans in good faith.
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I agree with your article’s premise. Gun owners’ can-do, even prefer-to-do attitude extends to other activities in their lives. With little exception, most gun owners I know don’t just prefer to be responsible for their family’s security but also removing their own snow from their driveway, leaves fron their lawns and other outdoor property maintenance, doing their own oil and tire changes and other minor equipment maintenance, felling their own trees and cleaning up storm damage, planting and processing their own home-grown foods, rekeying their own door locks, installing electrical outlets and other household maintenance, and other self-sufficiency tasks.
Much of this step-up-to-the-plate attitude is driven by experiences proving they can themselves better provide for their family’s needs and wants than a bloated and expensive government bureaucracy staffed by shift workers. Given even the most dedicated and self-sacrificing cops, they will ALWAYS hold their needs and those of their family primary, which is as it should be. Beyond this, can-do people have a natural and too-often-proved-correct opinion that the majority of all government workers will ALWAYS opt for actions and decisions that benefit themselves, NOT the constituencies they are sworn or contracted to serve; yes, I’m not just talking about cops but also 9-to-5 government bureaucrats and ESPECIALLY politicians.
In the final analysis, the ONLY people you can trust to “do the job right” are yourself and your family. This is even more true in life and death situations when one’s life or the lives of loved ones are in peril. If YOU can’t protect or secure something or someone, YOU cannot count on keeping them!