Yesterday I linked to an Ezra Klein post that included data showing the rate of firearm ownership in the U.S. has been declining over the past several years. Specifically, the data showed the percentage of Americans who kept guns in their homes, which is 20 to 30 percent lower than it was in 1960, depending on which poll you go by.
But Mark Follman writes that the number of guns in the U.S.has increased much more than population growth.
America has long been heavily armed relative to other societies, and our arsenal keeps growing. A precise count isn’t possible because most guns in the United States aren’t registered and the government has scant ability to track them, thanks to a legislative landscape shaped by powerful pro-gun groups such as the National Rifle Association. But through a combination of national surveys and manufacturing and sales data, we know that the increase in firearms has far outpaced population growth. In 1995 there were an estimated 200 million guns in private hands. Today, there are around 300 million—about a 50 percent jump. The US population, now over 314 million, grew by about 20 percent in that period. At this rate, there will be a gun for every man, woman, and child before the decade ends.
This suggests to me that all these guns are being hoarded by a shrinking percentage of U.S. citizens. And what sorts of people are these?
John Cole writes about being stationed in Kuwait after Desert Storm:
So why am I telling you this? Because in the middle of one of the most dangerous regions in the world, even with clear Rules of Engagement, every time I went on gate duty, there was a piece of tape over my ammo clip on my M-16 and M1911 .45. Why? Because the most heavily armed military in the world did not want accidental shootings. If a situation arose, I would have to eject my ammo clip, remove the tape, and reinsert and work the action before I could fire.
This was in a combat zone. Yet I have spent the last two fucking days dealing with armchair commandos telling me they need unlimited firepower to be safe in… Connecticut.
If there are bigger pussies in the world than gun nuts, I don’t know who the fuck they are.
So we have a minority of citizens who are paranoid and armed. And as the number of mass shootings escalates, they constitute a bigger threat to most of us than the threats the minority arm themselves against. Threats that mostly exist in their own heads, I might add.
Thanks, Barbara. Over the last couple of days, I have heard much about “America’s obsession with guns” – from Americans especially. I object highly to that, as I don’t think most Americans ARE obsessed with guns. But clearly, we have a minority that are amassing armaments for something they think is going to happen soon, whatever that might be.
And the poster-sphincter for this arsenal collecting, is the epically feckin’ stupid Phil Gramm – the man who was probably most responisble for this nation’s near economic collapse.
In his words:
“Ah hay-ave mower guhns than Ah nee-ood, butt nowat az manah az Ah wawant!”
For those who don’t speak or read Texas Moron, aka: Frontier Gebbersih, that’s:
“I have more guns that I need, but not as many as I want.”
And let me get this straight, Righties, YOUR solution to this school massacre, is to arm the teachers and Principals?
Would these be the same teachers that you’ve called union thugs, who are parasites, leeching off of society with their demands for decent hours, fair pay, benefits, and secure pensions?
The people who you claim are lazy moochers, living on Easy Street, working only only part-time, with plenty of paid vacation days throughout the years?
The ones who take the Jesus and prayer out of “edumacation,” and waste our childrens precious minds and replace Him with secular garbage like math, science, poetry, literature, history, civics, foreign languages, art, and gym?
The same people you call Godless Socialists and Communists, and you claim use Fascistic methods to achieve their goals? Methods learned at the feet of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Che, Castro, and Alinsky and Ayers?
And these are the people you want to arm, and be able to open-carry in the classrooms of America’s children?
The people who’ll be trained to shoot-to-kill?
THESE PEOPLE?
If all that you’ve said about teachers is true, may I respectfully ask, “ARE YOU MOTHERFECKER’S CRAZY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”
There have been many articles recently on ammunition hoarding. Gun dealerships that have people buying several boxes of bullets each month are making lots of money. The background music of the NRA has lyrics that say “”Bama gonna take your mama’s gun” to whip up their membership and political clout. We have a subculture that wants to promote paranoia about their guns being taken because it makes them appear to be the “true” patriots who will rise up against “somebody” at “some time” to “save” the country. I don’t know who they plan to shoot. I guess we’ll have to wait to see who steps out of the “black heliopters” when the day arrives.
So of course there is a contradiction between the increased gun and ammunition sales as a ratio in comparison to the number of gun owners. The statistics are meaningless because of the outliers. Of course the situation is insane. Sadly, acting out with guns seems to happen more often with the severely mentally ill. Just being a “true believer” hoarder with “treasure” in the basement is probably pretty harmless. If these people were going to do anything, they would have already done it. They’re already “prepared” to do it, but it is just a hobby in reality. Unfortunately, their hobby creates an atmosphere of threat in both directions: seeing themselves as potential victims of gun control and seeing everyone else as an enemy that is both uninformed and deeply intentional. Contradictory notions are no problem to the irrational, at least in my observations.
The link between these people and the Republican party doesn’t even bear argument. Sadly, Democrats have been bowing to the Second Amendment idol all too willingly. Remember Sharon Angle and her “Second Amendment solutions” threat? Of course, she was a neatly coiffed middle-class white lady, so never mind. The cover of respectability these gun nuts get from their “Constitutional” concerns has to be blown.
OY!!!
How did I manage to mangle “Frontier Gibberish,” even after I proofed this pile of word-turds a few times?
I think I need new glasses. The ones I have now look like the 1960’s-era frosted cocktail glasses my parents and their friends used to drink “Old-fashioned’s” from.
Or, was it “Highballs?”
Oh, who cares?
They wouldn’t remember, either.
At least I have an excuse for not remembering – I was a child. And sober. At least, back then…
Second Amendment Scoreboard: https://twitter.com/kl8on/status/280017345395699712/photo/1
WAAAAAY OT – but THIS ends well!
Charlie Brown comes from NY City, back to his old neighborhood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R6pC03WRcE0
I got this from C & L’s, and I think it originally came from Louis CK’s show, or website.
Lynn- gun ownership has declined, but we do have a tolerance for gun ownership even if we don’t personally own any. I don’t see that changing even with the CT murders. There may be some legislation that happens. But it will be inconsequential and even that will eventually overturned by the SC. Sorry, I don’t have a lot of faith in our ability to govern ourselves.
A lot of people are buying in anticipation of a ‘gun ban’ that they have been reading about for years and believe in fervently. Obama invited the head of the NRA to the White House – presumably to put some of the paranoid talk to rest and set the parameters of discussion about sane legislation. Nobody will know where the discussion would have led because LaPiere or whatever his name is refused to meet.
I’m a gun owner. It’s fun to shoot. Some people collect guns like some people collect cars. To assume they are mostly paranoid would be like assuming Jay Leno is a reckless driver because he has a huge collection of exotic cars. But some of those gun folks are stockpiling for a war against the ‘gov’ment’. A few such groups have been taken down before violent action – infiltrated by agents watching for domestic threats. This points up something else – any of these folks who have attempted to coordinate with other groups are already under surveillance. That’s why lone nuts can succeed while the Hutaree and the group in VA and one in Atlanta were locked up the moment the BS talk moved to a concrete planning stage.
I’m a lot more concerned about people who own guns who don’t have a CLUE how to use them safely. The lack of education on safety, security and the rights and responsibilities of ownership border on the insane. Ignorance about guns combined with easy access to guns are more deadly than guns themselves. The ‘threat’ of armed insurrection is insignificant next to the number of people who will die in gun accidents – many of them kids.
No legislation will make it out of the gate without huge popular support – but that support is there now, If If If…. that legislation is focused on addressing the problem and does NOT look like the early stages of a gun ban. Put gun education in the FRONT of a bill that includes background checks and even more education and more stringent background examination for people who want more exotic weapons.
Last (and I hear a sigh of relief) we need a blue ribbon panel who will study the most recent mass shootings for commonalities. Would there have been an opportunity to identify and intervene BEFORE the shootings if really smart legislation was in place? I’m not sure where that intervention should be. With medical professionals? With gun professionals – (In one case, the owner of a gun range told his employees not to sell a membership to a mass shooter because of the message the shooter left on the voice mail for the gun range.) We have a statistical base to draw from as a basis for selecting WHERE intervention might prevent an unstable person from committing a gun crime. But is anyone looking at the behavior of the shooters as a guide to what might work best while doing the least to intrude on legitimate gun ownership?
I read an interesting idea this morning. And I can see some potential on selling this idea to politicians (either that, or I’m delusional again).
Treat gun ownership like owning cars and driving them.
Create laws that demand that all gun owners not only have to go for mandatory training, they have to pay forlicenses/permits annually, and they also have to have “Gun Insurance.”
You have a simple hunting rifle? Very low rate.
You have a Glock? Very high rate.
You have an assault rifle? Very, very high rate.
Got a teenage, or several? Very high rate. Even higher, depending on the type of gun.
Have a young, white, adult male, late-teens to mid-20’s (the typical psychiatric profile of a mass murderer who uses guns)? See “teenager” above.
Have a gun accident in the house? No guns, no insurance, for 5 years.
Guns stolen, and it’s unreported within a specified time? No guns, no insurance for 10 years.
Someone in the house has psychiatric issues? Either no guns, no insurance – or prohibitive pricing, to keep guns in that house.
Be caught drunk or high with a gun? Lose the gun and insurance for X# of years.
Fire, or even point, a gun at a person, when it’s not a clear case of self-defense? Permanent revocation of gun permit and insurance.
So, like with cars, you want to insure an old clunker, or a family car? Low rates.
You want to insure some sports car that’s about as fast going 0 to 60 as a rocket? Ok – but you’ve got to pay the price. Give a teenager access to that sports car – even higher price.
This way, if you want a gun? Fine, you and everyone in the house has to be trained. You pay for the training. You pay annually to renew that license. And you pay for the insurance. The more training, and the more people trained, the lower your rates are.
Right now, in some areas, it’s easier to buy a gun, than it is to get certain decongestants and antihistamines.
Asked a gun nut why a single family needs to legally own the ability to kill 27 people in two minutes, no answers. Goes straight to “are we going to make cars illegal, they kill people!” “I don’t want to defending myself with a knife, when someone with a gun comes at me!” “Meth is illegal and people still get their hands on that!” but no one can defend what this family owned so they change the subject. One of the first things to regulate is what can be owned by individuals. If you own guns for hunting or self-defense, you don’t need a semi-automatic.
There was a comment yesterday that guns ought to be regulated in the same way as cars, and it really is a perfect analogy. I was thinking what it would be like if the 2nd Amendment guaranteed a right to keep and drive vehicles rather than a right to keep and bear arms. You’d have all these unregistered, unlicensed vehicles out there, and there wouldn’t be any speed limits either. You’d have people saying it/s tyrannical to force them to drive on the right side of the road.
I think one basic thing that the libertarians fail to grasp is that the country has filled up. Once upon a time you could get away from the government by going west, and that was fine. No one was going to make you register your gun or buy insurance (except for maybe some tinpot sheriff played by Gene Hackman), but of course you took the risk of being scalped or eaten by a bear on yourself.
So it’s possible to see how those who managed to avoid getting scalped or eaten by bears resented it when the government showed up. But of course the government wasn’t really going out of its way to oppress them, it showed up mainly because everyone else showed up too. It isn’t the Wild West anymore.
Since I’m still in “moderation,’ I assume maha is out of her her Taj-maha-house.
Rehearsing with her choir, probably.
I’m up before 5am most days, and when I’m home this time of the year, I wake up to the sound of gunshots;it’s duck season, and my house is about 1/4 mile from Big Lake Toho. The first day of duck season rattles my nerves. I don’t hunt or own a gun anymore, I don’t care for fishing either. I’d rather not hurt animals for fun, and the grocery store has most of what I want (I’d take a lobster ot two if I had the chance, but it’s a pretty long drive to the lobster grounds).
My righty friend phoned me today. He is in favor of arming teachers.
Several weeks ago he said they are overpaid, and don’t deserve union protection.
‘Makes perfect sense to me, kinda like expecting me to act as a firefighter / paramedic, so long as I’m on the road anyway…….
I was looking at my daughter’s !st grade class photo today, I can’t imagine what the parents of the murdered kids are going through.
If you want to conceal carry because you’re afraid of being assaulted, you should have to take the tactical training that cops do. Makes sense to me; if you’re going to make life or death decisions, you should be trained for it. My guess is a lot in the gun crowd wouldn’t even mind.
“Several weeks ago he said they are overpaid, and don’t deserve union protection”
Aint that the truth, most of these folks calling for more guns in the schools despise teachers and now they want them to be responsible for taking out armed maniacs.
” If there are bigger pussies in the world than gun nuts, I don’t know who the fuck they are”
I smiled for an hour after I read that. I have been saying this for years. OMG did it feel good to hear(read) someone else say it. Damn John Cole!, testify!. We got some church up in here today!
But when I came back to post about how good it felt , when I sat down I was over come by the reality of the little faces. By all of the damn joy those parents got thinking of the Christmas morning when they kids would open the presents as they shopped in secret and did their best stealth work EVER to hide “Santa’s haul”.. that day they planned for with so much joy is never going to come.
Ladies and gentlemen who read this go and look at the faces. Look at them all. Look into their beautiful tiny eyes deeply. When it is time to bury all of these tiny angels don’t for a minute shy away from seeing all of those tiny coffins lined in a row. LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE DONE. Just because it is the holiday season for the rest of us don’t think it is ok to look away and not let it affect YOUR family. It is not ok to do that to these kids that WE , as a society already let down. Look when we see the images of the parents , torn to shreds that will NEVER mend. Don’t turn away from what your heart tells you they feel.
Look at those faces. Then look at the angry, frightened, white men who dare to stick that constitutional right to bear arms in the faces of the rest of us BEFORE the little bodies were even all out of the school( talk about to soon) and understand this; We traded the lives of those children for the rights of those assholes. – I am gonna say it again just to be sure the impact of that didn’t get away. We traded the lives of those children for the rights of those assholes. WE as a society have said that the right to guns out weights the right to life. Thats where we are today..Think about that.
I want to add a few more things as food for thought. I am glad to see people all over the internet speaking up on both sides about this issue. Thats a good thing. What is heartbreaking was that it took this for a bunch of adults to do something we should have long ago. Shame on us. But I add these thoughts after LISTENING to some of the arguments from the “arm everyone” faction and I hope I am not the only one hearing the things that they have to say..because we have some serious choices to make as a nation.
I am angry and sick (which doesn’t even began to describe the feeling). And I suppose I am having the human emotions most are but for the sake of the memory of those kids I -we need to be grown ups because what we do or don’t do now is going to be seen by every child in this country. They are waiting for us to do grown up things to make them safer. They can’t do it. If we do nothing what the hell are we telling them? That their lives may be the price so joe six pack can “feel” safer with a gun in his pants?
I have listened to the gun folks tell me that they need protection and even read what scalia said in heller about trigger locks violating the gun owners right because it prevents them from using the gun for it’s intended purpose- self defense. He even joked about needing reading glasses to see to enter a combination. But I have read the Constitution and the right to bear arms is not for defense against fellow Americans to protect property and self.. it was intended to be a reminder to the Government that the biggest army was the people and to protect their communities in a militia. Those saying they don’t mind if others have guns for protection; thats all fine and good but can you show me how that is a constitutionally protected right? Lets get real..if all Americans , every man, woman and child owned 200 guns each your still not going to out do the military our tax dollars funded. All your gun collection would do is make a pretty explosion when a missle
is dropped on your house. The Amendment has out lived it’s use in our society.The military has us out gunned and so the myth of why we need guns has no basis. Not to mention I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t piss their pants and rust their guns in a combat setting. And as far as my research can tell there has been 60 some mass shootings in the past 30 yrs and not ONE was stopped by a civilian with a fire arm. They just lack the facts to back up the need.
And every time they claim “If _______( enter person who was killed here) had just had a gun—” More guns is the solution to gun deaths– MORE GUNS! IF that were true 20 kids would be alive. We already almost have more guns than people so how could MORE guns be the answer?
Or it was not the gun it is mental illness that is the problem. But a nut job and a gun are harmless on their own. Bullets and guns are the problem. We gotta get rid of one or the other because as long as we have both we are telling our kids they are less important that our ability to inflict death. Well that and we can say more fake sorry’s
And you know what all this makes me think is I am glad I don’t have a small kid.
What a f’d up time to be a kid. Now look I would be a great mom and being a great mom I would NEVER want my kids to be in the same room, in the same place, in firing range, in the same house with a gun ever. Some don’t mind but I would mind very much if anyone but a police was ever even NEAR my child. I should get to make that choice as a parent.. but the state has taken that right from me. Except for bars there are no “gun free ” zones here. Schools are suppose to be. People exposing kids to guns EVERYWHERE in plain sight. There is no place I can take a child and NOT have them exposed to potential danger. Even church isn’t safe. I object to wading thru guns to get a happy meal. It must be terrifying for children to look up and see a gun hanging off a guys waist as big as they are. I don’t feel safe going places any more. Sooner or later that many guns at public events will end bad and I don’t belong in the middle of it. So how could I take my kids?
And what about the kids? Well the advice on our local news was this? How do you make your kids feel safe after this? MAKE them go to school tomorrow. ” Yeah? Your afraid? Well we have not done shit over the weekend to fix this huge problem and we most likely wont so go anyhow.. buck up” Our children were to be scarred for life because Clinton(i love u Bill) got a little sumthin’ sumthin’ “what do we tell the children?” but when 20 kids get shot we should tell the rest of em to buck up and get used to it. Kids already know it is a dangerous world out there and that safety is no guarantee because somethings are out of our control, but this…this is in our control.
Kids used to play on unsafe play ground equipment (I did) NOW we know better and we took steps to make safer play grounds. Kids used to get hit by cars walking to and from school..Now we know better and we have cross walks and crossing guards. Kids used to flop around all over the car – we know better now and we strap em in seats and safety belts. We check Halloween candy. We have flame proof jammies and locks for cabinet doors and outlit covers. We have safer cribs and toys, complete with warning labels and age requirements. I could go on all night here but my point is we learned to do better for children and as we knew better we did better to keep them safe. We didn’t do all that to have them killed in a violent shooting spree. We know better- we must do better.
fell on the house so the myth of why one needs a gun has out lived it’s use in society.
These mass murders all seem to have a bid for infamy..Adam Lanza just raised the bar by targeting elementary school children..So you can expect the next incident of mass murder will be planned to top this latest incident because just killing a half a dozen people won’t get them what they want any more.
I really hope we get more than lip service from Obama. At a minimum, he has the power to delineate clear lines of distinction between politicians who are genuinely concerned about curbing gun violence and those who only serve as minions to the NRA by pressing hard for more stringent gun control.
justme,
“We traded the lives of those children for the rights of those assholes. – I am gonna say it again just to be sure the impact of that didn’t get away. We traded the lives of those children for the rights of those assholes. WE as a society have said that the right to guns out weights the right to life. Thats where we are today..Think about that.”
SAY IN AGAIN!
And, apparently, the right to bear arms, apparently trumps our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And the ones arguing most vehemently for that right to bear arms, are often the ones who are “Pro-life.”
Oh well, I mean, why should these people care? After all, most of these children were out of the womb for over a half a decade.
Btw – what “organized militia” was this guy, or his mother, a part of?
I want to see what “organized militia” has as its goal, the killing Kindergarteners.
Enough with “the right to bear arms!”
ENOUGH!!!
You wanna fight tyranny?
Fight the tyranny of the NRA!
One last thought:
Guns don’t kill people.
People with small, pale, peckers, kill people.
Think it is time we seize upon the “wel-regulated” part of the gun rights business.
What does Scalia think that meant 200 years ago?
Bill B,
My guess would be – probably that Niggra’s and other brown, yellow, or red, people shouldn’t own guns.
Last (and I hear a sigh of relief) we need a blue ribbon panel who will study the most recent mass shootings for commonalities.
Yes, yes, yes – this is where we start. A panel of civic leaders, law enforcement officials, mental-health practitioners, educators at the level of students-who-become-assailants. I imagine a Bloomberg Commission, although I hear he’s pretty busy….
They only have to go back 5 years, say, to Va. Tech, and study every incident where a single person with one or more firearms went to a public place, and killed at least two other people not previously known to him/her, and they will be very busy. They need to study both the perpetrators and their weapons, create a thorough analysis, and present their report to the public like the 9/11 Commission did, with recommendations for legislative change (which will probably incite both the NRA and the ACLU).
Of course, then nothing will happen unless, as so many have already mentioned, the majority of the public come out in strong support. The NRA needs to stop dictating firearm laws and attitudes in this country. That won’t change until Americans realize this isn’t Grandpa’s NRA, advocate for hunters and sportspeople. It’s become extremely radicalized in the past 30 years, and our gun laws reflect that.
One of the most heartwrenching posts I have ever read:
http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html
This is at the heart of some of the mass shootings. we can either deal with it early on or pay the price, 20 kids at a time.
I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza’s mother. I am Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’s mother. I am James Holmes’s mother. I am Jared Loughner’s mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho’s mother.
That is from Bill B’s link directly above. I don’t often use the phrase, “must-read,” but holy cow, everyone PLEASE read that post.
I would like to think that the human mind can pass through a place of darkness and despair without acting on horrific impulses, the pull of which must be nearly irresistible for a time. I would like to think that, with proper compassionate treatment, everyone of those mass killers whom the desperate mother names could have moved through their darkness to recovery beyond, without creating those incidents now known to the world by cartographic shorthand: Newtown. Columbine. Aurora. Tucson. Virginia Tech.
But safe passage through hell cannot happen via wishful thinking. Families trapped in the hell of a loved one’s mental illness need resources, help, recourse, no matter where they are: Brooklyn or Brookline or Tucson or Tekamah, Nebraska. The loved one with mental illness needs compassion, even if it comes in the form of temporarily separating them from free society until they have passed a crisis.
I honestly believe it’s going to be easier to deal with the gun issue than the mental-health issue. I think that’s clear from this mother’s brave and candid post.
joan,
Yeah, I read that yesterday.
And I’m sure the NRA and the gun companies it represents would be happy to sell that troubled young man any number of guns.
Better yet, sell his family on the idea of carrying guns. You know – just in case he acts up. Why should his siblings run to the car and lock themselves in every time he acts up? They’re not old enough to drive. But they sure look old enough to the NRA to ‘lock-and-load.’
Ah, our fellow racist citizens opine their twitter opinions about pre-empting part of the Football game last night to make room for the President’s speech.
Caution – Foul, racist, language alert!!!
http://deadspin.com/5968935/take-that-nigger-off-the-tv-we-wanna-watch-football-idiots-respond-to-nbc-pre+empting-sunday-night-football
We have some real whacko’s in this country!
Too many of them.
And probably, most of them armed to the teeth.
Andrea Mitchell says that just 20% of gun owners have 65% of all those owned in the US – best I can figure, that’s 8 – 11 million people with 195 million out of 300 million guns.
I have a thing( among many) that I won’t type, write or speak the names of these mass shooting killers. So I normally would not mention these names, however I would like to see Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Kliebolt come out of the shadow of shame they have hidden behind and speak out. I happen to feel that they could be helpful in bringing mothers together nation wide to work towards solutions to deal with the mental health crisis. Not only is it killing innocents but it steals from us the potential greatness of the person who suffers the illness. So I am on board with addressing that situation.
But here is the problem with how it fits into this story and many others. We have mothers who think ” they have it under control” or are in denial that their little darling could do anything really wrong. This mom, some say, was right out of glenn beck’s closet. Planning for the end times stocking food and weapons in her big fancy house, getting 240k a year for alimony..sorry to pass judgement here, but if this stuff is true , she was kinda flaky too. Can we not maybe figure out it is possible she was not running on all cylinders too by her choice to think it was ok to have guns and ammo around her son?..I mean I can throw in a million more factors here but even in the best of worlds where moms are trying to get help for their kids we hear it’s hell. So lets cut to the bottom line. Even if we changed our mental health policies ( and we must) some of these mass killers are gonna slip thru the cracks.
I am of the thinking that just addressing the mental health factor is not enough. To me that is like putting new spark plugs in a blown up car engine..Yes it will need new plugs to but that is only the start.
I spoke with a firearms owner today with CCW permits. He spoke of how the photos of the little blonde girl tore him up(Emily?)- he was fighting back tears as he spoke, but he is a big tough guy. We have been disagreeing about firearms for the past several days , but respectfully. When we would reach a “argue” point we have been changing the subject,, then resume later only to disagree more. Today I asked him: Would you trade your 2nd amendment right to have this never happen again? I didn’t know what his reply would be.I was not sure if I would get a straight answer. But without missing a beat, almost faster than I could finish the words , he looked me dead in the eyes while his mouth spilled the strongest “YES” I have ever heard.
This man is a hunter(he even went to Alaska and shot the bear that is now a rug) his house has mounted racks from deer, stuffed birds he killed and two guns hanging on gun racks in the living room and a mess of guns around his house. But unlike many, he is a Democrat and a life long union man. I should also add he is single and without any children at all.
He is well educated and reads history books for fun..so he is nerdy like me :)). He knows the constitution well and he understands what the actual purpose for the 2nd amendment was( militia—) but yet he still has a house full of guns.
He is a huge man with hands bigger than my head . He looks like a giant farm boy at about 6’4 and over 300 lbs.Last week I saw him lift a 3/4 ton trucks front end so someone could put a jack under it. I wouldn’t tangle with him WITH a gun. I think shooting him would only make him more angry…But he still thinks he needs a house full of guns.
I am 5’3..maybe 110 now?How can I be less afraid then him? He is a reasonable person. My chances of being “messed with ” are greater. I am on most days much less frightening. I would take far less effort to take down than that giant mountain of a man.Yet he feels the need to fill the house with guns and he keeps buying more. It is like they can’t fill the fear with enough guns.I can’t wrap my head around it to understand them.
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