Gun Control!?!?!?!

This past Thursday I attended the School Board meeting for Watertown-Mayer school district. While my purpose to be there was due to my role with the Watertown-Mayer SEAC, the School Board had a topic on the agenda to discuss school safety; specifically ensuring the kids are safe from a mass shooting. Several residence showed up for the meeting and offered their opinions on the how to keep the school safe. Suggestions ranged from more surveillance  more buzzer's for prime entrances, to having a roaming officer and then to the point of arming the teachers and administration.

It will not be long before a member of Congress brings before their respective chamber a bill that would restrict gun ownership in some manner. A lot of the talk shows have focused on the "assault" rifle an the large magazine clips that many of these guns have. As rule of law no weapon is permitted to be fully automatic which means that one would have to pull the trigger every time they wish to expel a bullet or a short burst of bullets. That being said, one doesn't have to be a genius to turn the semi-automatic into a fully automatic.

Recently a newspaper published those with conceal and carry permits in Westchester county in New York. Why on Earth would this type of information be made public? The newspaper just gave thieves, rapist, arsonist, and other thugs a road map for which houses to invade and which ones to avoid. Some claim that the gun is the threat to our safety. In Westchester County, now thanks to the paper, the lack of having a conceal and carry permit has made one a target!

Second Amendment does deny the Federal Government from restricting gun ownership or the right for "one to bear arms". Anti-Gun advocates argue that the Founding Fathers didn't envision assault rifles to be covered and that no one needs one to hunt with them. First let's take the hunting aspect off the table because the Second Amendment didn't materialize because the Founding Fathers needed to hunt. Besides, if one has ever heard one of my Uncle's shoot his bolt action rifle during the deer hunting season you'd swear it was semi or even fully automatic.

The gun in of itself cannot harm anyone as it takes a human or some other action for it act. Society doesn't have a healthy respect for the gun and that is our root cause. When you hear a child shoot another because they found their parents handgun it is do to the lack of respect given to that gun. Now I am not blaming the child directly; rather it is the lack of respect that parent gave the gun by not properly securing the gun and explaining to the child the purpose of the gun.

We don't need to control the access to weapons; rather we need to gain respect for the potential outcome that weapon can become. We need to educate society on usage of guns to gain the respect, understanding, and responsibility gun ownership brings.Banning assault rifles does not make us more safe; rather it prevents us, as a society, to have the means to protect our populous in the event that our government, or another government, because tyrannical or invades.