As many of you know. I owned the DFW Gun Range in Dallas TX for several years. I have been licensed to carry a firearm since 1993 and have done so. I have many friends from my participation in the gun industry, but none have ever openly supported my advocacy of universal background checks and none has ever published in social media that I have seen, of advocacy of any gun limitations.
I have been interviewed in the news, many times on gun ownership and openly stood against most gun restrictions and argued passionately that the problem is more about mental illness and poverty than guns. I am right about that but those problems are much more difficult to address than simply putting restrictions on buying guns.
I do not believe that the safety of my community must rely upon my ability to carry a gun. It certainly should not rely upon folks who are precluded by law from getting guns but can buy one privately without limitation. We are asked throughout history to make compromises and sacrifices for the safety and welfare of the common good. Hitler and Mao may have instituted gun control in their countries before persecuting folks. But is it better to be shot at the grocery store or in your first grade class than in a gulag or prison camp?
Don’t be ridiculous. It was useful to have a gun when men tried to commit violence against me or break into my home. I have never needed a rifle, ever. My handguns were just fine.
We are dying as a democracy but it is not liberals killing it. I have said this repeatedly…I know more about gun rights than any of the pontificators who continue to assert some absolute right to have guns. I know more about gun laws, the constitution and history. Your zealousness arguing in any absolute right to guns is wrong as has been determined by every governmental authority, legislators, courts and executive branch. You continue to misinterpret the law, believe propaganda and stand on ground which you can only hold through obstinacy not morality or legality.
Wash your hands of my input. Put no weight on my experience, education and training. I guess the blood will have to flow through your living rooms to bring change.
To the rest of you, there are too many guns already in private hands to confiscate, eliminate or buy back. There are many actions which can be taken to help but if you advocate confiscation, you will fail, miserably. Safe storage, background checks and a thorough examination and study of the causes of gun violence. And please stop pontificating about gun owners unless you have insights rather than prejudices. We are as afraid of being victims as you are. Our reaction to violence has been to prepare ourselves to defend ourselves and our families. We never lived in a country that had gun control and an absence of violence. We know this country which has made blood an integral part of our history, anthem and flag. In our world where we do not harm anyone, we do not practice callousness towards others. We intend on being good citizens, helping our communities and loving our neighbors. The carnage you see was not initiated but the average gun owner. It is precipitated by hate mongers, gang members and mentally ill persons.
We gun owners sure do need to broaden our perspective, initiate, investigate and advocate for reasonable limitations on gun access and its use in murders and mayhem. Shit happens. Shit changes. We learn. Now we need to act. Let me be clear. I have used a gun to prevent felonious assaults intended against my person. How badly I would have been hurt without a gun I do not know. But when I weigh my safety against those many victims of gun violence, I submit to the better good. (I do not believe the government is my biggest threat and necessitates my owning guns. I think it is white supremacists.)
lawdisorder.blog 
A thoughtful and insightful post.
Kind of you to say.
Amen!