Yet another "take" on Gun Laws. Oregon writer
#1
Takes more than two minutes to read: I thought it was worth it, but doesn't necessarily fit my view of the subject. Still, a voice worth attention I think. 

BEND, Ore. — When we hike together, my oldest son, who is 5, scans the ground for the perfect “gun.” His ideal stick has an ergonomic crook in it and is a comfortable size to hold. When he finds one like that, he lifts it for a test fire — pew, pew. A mile in, he’s usually got one in each hand but is still on the lookout for an upgrade: anything smoother or more gunlike. My youngest, who is 2, isn’t far behind. He’s been saying the word “gun” for more than a year.
Should I forbid this kind of play? Ignore it? Set ground rules such as “Ask for permission before you shoot someone”? Psychologists say there is no evidence that imaginary gun play is abnormal or harmful. Still, it bothers me, as a gun owner and a hunter, to watch my children violate basic rules of gun safety, even if armed only with sticks. I want my kids to grow up to be what I am: a responsible gun owner.
Last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas is a reminder that this is a perspective our country needs to hear more from: that of gun owners who favor safer gun laws. We should be helping lead the national conversation about gun control, because we are uniquely suited to move the debate away from polemic and toward effective compromise.
In December 2012, when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children and six others, I was a new mother, preparing for my son’s first Christmas. I was also a relatively new hunter and gun owner. I had taken up hunting six years before, in my mid-20s. As an environmentalist and a meat eater, I discovered that hunting was a fascinating and firsthand way to learn about wildlife and the ecosystem around me, and to sometimes bring home healthy, tasty food. It had taken an intensive hunter safety class and many hours at the shooting range and in the field before I felt comfortable handling firearms. It was an adjustment to even think of myself as a gun owner, especially in the aftermath of tragedies like Sandy Hook, when the prevalence of guns in the United States would be angrily cited as the root cause of violence.
This is my reality as a gun owner: I use guns for an activity I love, but I also worry about gun violence. Like most Americans, I want stronger gun laws such as nationwide universal background checks. I don’t support the National Rifle Association, which seems as if it’s just a few years away from arguing that the Second Amendment guarantees our right to buy nuclear warheads. (On Thursday the N.R.A. did make a rare concession, suggesting that a federal agency reconsider the legality of devices like those used by the Las Vegas shooter to make semiautomatic weapons fire almost as rapidly as automatic ones.) I’m not alone in this position: Approximately 90 percent of gun owners do not belong to the N.R.A.



Our family has moved three times in the past five years, and each move has necessitated a reckoning with where and how my guns are stored. My armory is small by American standards: two shotguns and a rifle. I don’t own a gun safe, which is enormous and expensive. Instead I keep my guns unloaded in padlocked hard cases, with the ammunition stored in a separate part of the house. For years I fretted about where to keep the keys, moving them from my underwear drawer to the back of a high shelf in my closet. Eventually, I learned about a product called a key safe, a metal box that can be mounted to a wall and secured with a combination code.
These days, the keys mostly stay there. I’ve barely hunted during this early phase of child rearing, instead focusing on activities my sons can do now to become competent hunters when they’re older. We camp and hike. We identify birds and look for animal tracks and scat. We practice spotting deer and keeping quiet so that we don’t scare them away. We tiptoe closer to wildlife. My 5-year-old has taken up archery.
Newsletter Sign Up

[size=undefined]
A great many hunters and gun owners are like me. We are not “gun nuts,” stockpiling weapons in the name of some future apocalypse. We exercise our Second Amendment rights in a way that is palatable to most people who otherwise oppose guns — we’re the bridge that connects the two sides of the chasm in the national debate. Even the N.R.A. recognizes this, which is why it tries to enhance its legitimacy by identifying as a sportsmen’s group, though few of its stances reflect the will of sportsmen. Hunters are accustomed to following nuanced gun laws (gun calibers and ammunition types are limited depending on the season and species we’re hunting, for example), so we understand that common-sense regulation doesn’t mean an end to bearing arms. And because we see the brute power of a gun every time we kill an animal, we are regularly reminded of why guns need to be regulated.
We also have an interest in drafting sensible gun laws now, rather than waiting for an avalanche of pent-up frustration to generate a policy response so long overdue that it overreaches. If we don’t want onerous regulations to infringe on a tradition we love, then we can’t afford to stay quiet as body counts rise and politicians offer no more than thoughts and prayers.
The N.R.A. doesn’t represent gun owners like me, but the problem is that no one else really does, either. Americans who don’t own guns are represented by an array of nonprofits that share their wish to crack down on gun violence with gun laws that are as restrictive as possible. Gun owners are hesitant to get behind these groups because we first want to understand their nuanced views on gun laws. Details matter to us.
Last year I joined the board of a small nonprofit in Oregon called Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership. This group was founded by gun owners and relatives of victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a mall near Portland. The killer stole his rifle from a friend, who left the weapon unsecured and containing a full magazine of ammunition.
Our group is trying to do important, mostly apolitical work — handing out free gun locks, training doctors to talk to patients about safe firearm storage, offering basic information about guns to the news media so they can report about the issue more accurately. But we are frequently met with suspicion or disdain by gun owners who think we’re secretly out to disarm them.
We do very little lobbying, though our board endorsed a proposal signed into law in Oregon this year to issue protection orders to keep guns temporarily out of the hands of people who, in a situation like sudden extreme distress, pose a clear threat to themselves or others. Suicides account for 60 percent of the nation’s more than 33,000 firearm deaths a year. Many suicides are impulsive acts, so even minor barriers — akin to putting guardrails on bridges, for example — can save lives.
78COMMENTS
By the time my boys are hunters, I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic. I also hope my sons take a broad view of what it means to be a responsible gun owner. Responsible ownership is about more than safe storage and careful handling of one’s own firearms — it’s also about making sure that as a society we have effective laws to keep guns out of unsafe hands.
Gun owners already embrace the idea of personal responsibility, whether by hunting wild meat to put food on the table or keeping our homes safe. Now we need to take responsibility to help stop gun violence, too.[/size]
Reply
#2
(10-08-2017, 08:13 AM)Wonky3 Wrote: Takes more than two minutes to read: I thought it was worth it, but doesn't necessarily fit my view of the subject. Still, a voice worth attention I think. 

BEND, Ore. — When we hike together, my oldest son, who is 5, scans the ground for the perfect “gun.” His ideal stick has an ergonomic crook in it and is a comfortable size to hold. When he finds one like that, he lifts it for a test fire — pew, pew. A mile in, he’s usually got one in each hand but is still on the lookout for an upgrade: anything smoother or more gunlike. My youngest, who is 2, isn’t far behind. He’s been saying the word “gun” for more than a year.
Should I forbid this kind of play? Ignore it? Set ground rules such as “Ask for permission before you shoot someone”? Psychologists say there is no evidence that imaginary gun play is abnormal or harmful. Still, it bothers me, as a gun owner and a hunter, to watch my children violate basic rules of gun safety, even if armed only with sticks. I want my kids to grow up to be what I am: a responsible gun owner.
Last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas is a reminder that this is a perspective our country needs to hear more from: that of gun owners who favor safer gun laws. We should be helping lead the national conversation about gun control, because we are uniquely suited to move the debate away from polemic and toward effective compromise.
In December 2012, when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children and six others, I was a new mother, preparing for my son’s first Christmas. I was also a relatively new hunter and gun owner. I had taken up hunting six years before, in my mid-20s. As an environmentalist and a meat eater, I discovered that hunting was a fascinating and firsthand way to learn about wildlife and the ecosystem around me, and to sometimes bring home healthy, tasty food. It had taken an intensive hunter safety class and many hours at the shooting range and in the field before I felt comfortable handling firearms. It was an adjustment to even think of myself as a gun owner, especially in the aftermath of tragedies like Sandy Hook, when the prevalence of guns in the United States would be angrily cited as the root cause of violence.
This is my reality as a gun owner: I use guns for an activity I love, but I also worry about gun violence. Like most Americans, I want stronger gun laws such as nationwide universal background checks. I don’t support the National Rifle Association, which seems as if it’s just a few years away from arguing that the Second Amendment guarantees our right to buy nuclear warheads. (On Thursday the N.R.A. did make a rare concession, suggesting that a federal agency reconsider the legality of devices like those used by the Las Vegas shooter to make semiautomatic weapons fire almost as rapidly as automatic ones.) I’m not alone in this position: Approximately 90 percent of gun owners do not belong to the N.R.A.



Our family has moved three times in the past five years, and each move has necessitated a reckoning with where and how my guns are stored. My armory is small by American standards: two shotguns and a rifle. I don’t own a gun safe, which is enormous and expensive. Instead I keep my guns unloaded in padlocked hard cases, with the ammunition stored in a separate part of the house. For years I fretted about where to keep the keys, moving them from my underwear drawer to the back of a high shelf in my closet. Eventually, I learned about a product called a key safe, a metal box that can be mounted to a wall and secured with a combination code.
These days, the keys mostly stay there. I’ve barely hunted during this early phase of child rearing, instead focusing on activities my sons can do now to become competent hunters when they’re older. We camp and hike. We identify birds and look for animal tracks and scat. We practice spotting deer and keeping quiet so that we don’t scare them away. We tiptoe closer to wildlife. My 5-year-old has taken up archery.
Newsletter Sign Up

[size=undefined]
A great many hunters and gun owners are like me. We are not “gun nuts,” stockpiling weapons in the name of some future apocalypse. We exercise our Second Amendment rights in a way that is palatable to most people who otherwise oppose guns — we’re the bridge that connects the two sides of the chasm in the national debate. Even the N.R.A. recognizes this, which is why it tries to enhance its legitimacy by identifying as a sportsmen’s group, though few of its stances reflect the will of sportsmen. Hunters are accustomed to following nuanced gun laws (gun calibers and ammunition types are limited depending on the season and species we’re hunting, for example), so we understand that common-sense regulation doesn’t mean an end to bearing arms. And because we see the brute power of a gun every time we kill an animal, we are regularly reminded of why guns need to be regulated.
We also have an interest in drafting sensible gun laws now, rather than waiting for an avalanche of pent-up frustration to generate a policy response so long overdue that it overreaches. If we don’t want onerous regulations to infringe on a tradition we love, then we can’t afford to stay quiet as body counts rise and politicians offer no more than thoughts and prayers.
The N.R.A. doesn’t represent gun owners like me, but the problem is that no one else really does, either. Americans who don’t own guns are represented by an array of nonprofits that share their wish to crack down on gun violence with gun laws that are as restrictive as possible. Gun owners are hesitant to get behind these groups because we first want to understand their nuanced views on gun laws. Details matter to us.
Last year I joined the board of a small nonprofit in Oregon called Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership. This group was founded by gun owners and relatives of victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a mall near Portland. The killer stole his rifle from a friend, who left the weapon unsecured and containing a full magazine of ammunition.
Our group is trying to do important, mostly apolitical work — handing out free gun locks, training doctors to talk to patients about safe firearm storage, offering basic information about guns to the news media so they can report about the issue more accurately. But we are frequently met with suspicion or disdain by gun owners who think we’re secretly out to disarm them.
We do very little lobbying, though our board endorsed a proposal signed into law in Oregon this year to issue protection orders to keep guns temporarily out of the hands of people who, in a situation like sudden extreme distress, pose a clear threat to themselves or others. Suicides account for 60 percent of the nation’s more than 33,000 firearm deaths a year. Many suicides are impulsive acts, so even minor barriers — akin to putting guardrails on bridges, for example — can save lives.
78COMMENTS
By the time my boys are hunters, I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic. I also hope my sons take a broad view of what it means to be a responsible gun owner. Responsible ownership is about more than safe storage and careful handling of one’s own firearms — it’s also about making sure that as a society we have effective laws to keep guns out of unsafe hands.
Gun owners already embrace the idea of personal responsibility, whether by hunting wild meat to put food on the table or keeping our homes safe. Now we need to take responsibility to help stop gun violence, too.[/size]

 A lot of talk and not a lot of and new ideas.


[size=undefined]I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.

[/size]

What IS this loophole on background check requirements?

 [b][size=undefined] restore funding for research on gun violence



 
[/size][/b]How much "funding" could anyone possibly need? What research has not already been done?


[b][size=undefined]regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.


[/size][/b] That must refer to bump fire stocks and I'm nearly positive they will be outlawed.
 



Reply
#3
(10-08-2017, 04:04 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(10-08-2017, 08:13 AM)Wonky3 Wrote: Takes more than two minutes to read: I thought it was worth it, but doesn't necessarily fit my view of the subject. Still, a voice worth attention I think. 

BEND, Ore. — When we hike together, my oldest son, who is 5, scans the ground for the perfect “gun.” His ideal stick has an ergonomic crook in it and is a comfortable size to hold. When he finds one like that, he lifts it for a test fire — pew, pew. A mile in, he’s usually got one in each hand but is still on the lookout for an upgrade: anything smoother or more gunlike. My youngest, who is 2, isn’t far behind. He’s been saying the word “gun” for more than a year.
Should I forbid this kind of play? Ignore it? Set ground rules such as “Ask for permission before you shoot someone”? Psychologists say there is no evidence that imaginary gun play is abnormal or harmful. Still, it bothers me, as a gun owner and a hunter, to watch my children violate basic rules of gun safety, even if armed only with sticks. I want my kids to grow up to be what I am: a responsible gun owner.
Last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas is a reminder that this is a perspective our country needs to hear more from: that of gun owners who favor safer gun laws. We should be helping lead the national conversation about gun control, because we are uniquely suited to move the debate away from polemic and toward effective compromise.
In December 2012, when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children and six others, I was a new mother, preparing for my son’s first Christmas. I was also a relatively new hunter and gun owner. I had taken up hunting six years before, in my mid-20s. As an environmentalist and a meat eater, I discovered that hunting was a fascinating and firsthand way to learn about wildlife and the ecosystem around me, and to sometimes bring home healthy, tasty food. It had taken an intensive hunter safety class and many hours at the shooting range and in the field before I felt comfortable handling firearms. It was an adjustment to even think of myself as a gun owner, especially in the aftermath of tragedies like Sandy Hook, when the prevalence of guns in the United States would be angrily cited as the root cause of violence.
This is my reality as a gun owner: I use guns for an activity I love, but I also worry about gun violence. Like most Americans, I want stronger gun laws such as nationwide universal background checks. I don’t support the National Rifle Association, which seems as if it’s just a few years away from arguing that the Second Amendment guarantees our right to buy nuclear warheads. (On Thursday the N.R.A. did make a rare concession, suggesting that a federal agency reconsider the legality of devices like those used by the Las Vegas shooter to make semiautomatic weapons fire almost as rapidly as automatic ones.) I’m not alone in this position: Approximately 90 percent of gun owners do not belong to the N.R.A.



Our family has moved three times in the past five years, and each move has necessitated a reckoning with where and how my guns are stored. My armory is small by American standards: two shotguns and a rifle. I don’t own a gun safe, which is enormous and expensive. Instead I keep my guns unloaded in padlocked hard cases, with the ammunition stored in a separate part of the house. For years I fretted about where to keep the keys, moving them from my underwear drawer to the back of a high shelf in my closet. Eventually, I learned about a product called a key safe, a metal box that can be mounted to a wall and secured with a combination code.
These days, the keys mostly stay there. I’ve barely hunted during this early phase of child rearing, instead focusing on activities my sons can do now to become competent hunters when they’re older. We camp and hike. We identify birds and look for animal tracks and scat. We practice spotting deer and keeping quiet so that we don’t scare them away. We tiptoe closer to wildlife. My 5-year-old has taken up archery.
Newsletter Sign Up

[size=undefined]
A great many hunters and gun owners are like me. We are not “gun nuts,” stockpiling weapons in the name of some future apocalypse. We exercise our Second Amendment rights in a way that is palatable to most people who otherwise oppose guns — we’re the bridge that connects the two sides of the chasm in the national debate. Even the N.R.A. recognizes this, which is why it tries to enhance its legitimacy by identifying as a sportsmen’s group, though few of its stances reflect the will of sportsmen. Hunters are accustomed to following nuanced gun laws (gun calibers and ammunition types are limited depending on the season and species we’re hunting, for example), so we understand that common-sense regulation doesn’t mean an end to bearing arms. And because we see the brute power of a gun every time we kill an animal, we are regularly reminded of why guns need to be regulated.
We also have an interest in drafting sensible gun laws now, rather than waiting for an avalanche of pent-up frustration to generate a policy response so long overdue that it overreaches. If we don’t want onerous regulations to infringe on a tradition we love, then we can’t afford to stay quiet as body counts rise and politicians offer no more than thoughts and prayers.
The N.R.A. doesn’t represent gun owners like me, but the problem is that no one else really does, either. Americans who don’t own guns are represented by an array of nonprofits that share their wish to crack down on gun violence with gun laws that are as restrictive as possible. Gun owners are hesitant to get behind these groups because we first want to understand their nuanced views on gun laws. Details matter to us.
Last year I joined the board of a small nonprofit in Oregon called Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership. This group was founded by gun owners and relatives of victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a mall near Portland. The killer stole his rifle from a friend, who left the weapon unsecured and containing a full magazine of ammunition.
Our group is trying to do important, mostly apolitical work — handing out free gun locks, training doctors to talk to patients about safe firearm storage, offering basic information about guns to the news media so they can report about the issue more accurately. But we are frequently met with suspicion or disdain by gun owners who think we’re secretly out to disarm them.
We do very little lobbying, though our board endorsed a proposal signed into law in Oregon this year to issue protection orders to keep guns temporarily out of the hands of people who, in a situation like sudden extreme distress, pose a clear threat to themselves or others. Suicides account for 60 percent of the nation’s more than 33,000 firearm deaths a year. Many suicides are impulsive acts, so even minor barriers — akin to putting guardrails on bridges, for example — can save lives.
78COMMENTS
By the time my boys are hunters, I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic. I also hope my sons take a broad view of what it means to be a responsible gun owner. Responsible ownership is about more than safe storage and careful handling of one’s own firearms — it’s also about making sure that as a society we have effective laws to keep guns out of unsafe hands.
Gun owners already embrace the idea of personal responsibility, whether by hunting wild meat to put food on the table or keeping our homes safe. Now we need to take responsibility to help stop gun violence, too.[/size]

 A lot of talk and not a lot of and new ideas.


[size=undefined]I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.

[/size]

What IS this loophole on background check requirements?
Wonky responds:
I don't know: Is a background check required if I buy a gun at a gun-show? 
[size=undefined]restore funding for research on gun violence
[/size]Wonky responds: 
Don't know: How much funding has been authorized and spent?

How much "funding" could anyone possibly need? What research has not already been done? 
Wonky responds:
Don't know. Do you? 


[b][size=undefined]regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.


[/size][/b] That must refer to bump fire stocks and I'm nearly positive they will be outlawed.
Wonky responds:
That's a good thing isn't it? 
 
So, the woman (a gun owner and hunter) might want to make sure her rights continue and is guessing that in time some compromises may have to be made? 

I posted it because I thought it was a good read and written by a Oregon gal.



Reply
#4
(10-08-2017, 04:26 PM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-08-2017, 04:04 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(10-08-2017, 08:13 AM)Wonky3 Wrote: Takes more than two minutes to read: I thought it was worth it, but doesn't necessarily fit my view of the subject. Still, a voice worth attention I think. 

BEND, Ore. — When we hike together, my oldest son, who is 5, scans the ground for the perfect “gun.” His ideal stick has an ergonomic crook in it and is a comfortable size to hold. When he finds one like that, he lifts it for a test fire — pew, pew. A mile in, he’s usually got one in each hand but is still on the lookout for an upgrade: anything smoother or more gunlike. My youngest, who is 2, isn’t far behind. He’s been saying the word “gun” for more than a year.
Should I forbid this kind of play? Ignore it? Set ground rules such as “Ask for permission before you shoot someone”? Psychologists say there is no evidence that imaginary gun play is abnormal or harmful. Still, it bothers me, as a gun owner and a hunter, to watch my children violate basic rules of gun safety, even if armed only with sticks. I want my kids to grow up to be what I am: a responsible gun owner.
Last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas is a reminder that this is a perspective our country needs to hear more from: that of gun owners who favor safer gun laws. We should be helping lead the national conversation about gun control, because we are uniquely suited to move the debate away from polemic and toward effective compromise.
In December 2012, when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children and six others, I was a new mother, preparing for my son’s first Christmas. I was also a relatively new hunter and gun owner. I had taken up hunting six years before, in my mid-20s. As an environmentalist and a meat eater, I discovered that hunting was a fascinating and firsthand way to learn about wildlife and the ecosystem around me, and to sometimes bring home healthy, tasty food. It had taken an intensive hunter safety class and many hours at the shooting range and in the field before I felt comfortable handling firearms. It was an adjustment to even think of myself as a gun owner, especially in the aftermath of tragedies like Sandy Hook, when the prevalence of guns in the United States would be angrily cited as the root cause of violence.
This is my reality as a gun owner: I use guns for an activity I love, but I also worry about gun violence. Like most Americans, I want stronger gun laws such as nationwide universal background checks. I don’t support the National Rifle Association, which seems as if it’s just a few years away from arguing that the Second Amendment guarantees our right to buy nuclear warheads. (On Thursday the N.R.A. did make a rare concession, suggesting that a federal agency reconsider the legality of devices like those used by the Las Vegas shooter to make semiautomatic weapons fire almost as rapidly as automatic ones.) I’m not alone in this position: Approximately 90 percent of gun owners do not belong to the N.R.A.



Our family has moved three times in the past five years, and each move has necessitated a reckoning with where and how my guns are stored. My armory is small by American standards: two shotguns and a rifle. I don’t own a gun safe, which is enormous and expensive. Instead I keep my guns unloaded in padlocked hard cases, with the ammunition stored in a separate part of the house. For years I fretted about where to keep the keys, moving them from my underwear drawer to the back of a high shelf in my closet. Eventually, I learned about a product called a key safe, a metal box that can be mounted to a wall and secured with a combination code.
These days, the keys mostly stay there. I’ve barely hunted during this early phase of child rearing, instead focusing on activities my sons can do now to become competent hunters when they’re older. We camp and hike. We identify birds and look for animal tracks and scat. We practice spotting deer and keeping quiet so that we don’t scare them away. We tiptoe closer to wildlife. My 5-year-old has taken up archery.
Newsletter Sign Up

[size=undefined]
A great many hunters and gun owners are like me. We are not “gun nuts,” stockpiling weapons in the name of some future apocalypse. We exercise our Second Amendment rights in a way that is palatable to most people who otherwise oppose guns — we’re the bridge that connects the two sides of the chasm in the national debate. Even the N.R.A. recognizes this, which is why it tries to enhance its legitimacy by identifying as a sportsmen’s group, though few of its stances reflect the will of sportsmen. Hunters are accustomed to following nuanced gun laws (gun calibers and ammunition types are limited depending on the season and species we’re hunting, for example), so we understand that common-sense regulation doesn’t mean an end to bearing arms. And because we see the brute power of a gun every time we kill an animal, we are regularly reminded of why guns need to be regulated.
We also have an interest in drafting sensible gun laws now, rather than waiting for an avalanche of pent-up frustration to generate a policy response so long overdue that it overreaches. If we don’t want onerous regulations to infringe on a tradition we love, then we can’t afford to stay quiet as body counts rise and politicians offer no more than thoughts and prayers.
The N.R.A. doesn’t represent gun owners like me, but the problem is that no one else really does, either. Americans who don’t own guns are represented by an array of nonprofits that share their wish to crack down on gun violence with gun laws that are as restrictive as possible. Gun owners are hesitant to get behind these groups because we first want to understand their nuanced views on gun laws. Details matter to us.
Last year I joined the board of a small nonprofit in Oregon called Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership. This group was founded by gun owners and relatives of victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a mall near Portland. The killer stole his rifle from a friend, who left the weapon unsecured and containing a full magazine of ammunition.
Our group is trying to do important, mostly apolitical work — handing out free gun locks, training doctors to talk to patients about safe firearm storage, offering basic information about guns to the news media so they can report about the issue more accurately. But we are frequently met with suspicion or disdain by gun owners who think we’re secretly out to disarm them.
We do very little lobbying, though our board endorsed a proposal signed into law in Oregon this year to issue protection orders to keep guns temporarily out of the hands of people who, in a situation like sudden extreme distress, pose a clear threat to themselves or others. Suicides account for 60 percent of the nation’s more than 33,000 firearm deaths a year. Many suicides are impulsive acts, so even minor barriers — akin to putting guardrails on bridges, for example — can save lives.
78COMMENTS
By the time my boys are hunters, I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic. I also hope my sons take a broad view of what it means to be a responsible gun owner. Responsible ownership is about more than safe storage and careful handling of one’s own firearms — it’s also about making sure that as a society we have effective laws to keep guns out of unsafe hands.
Gun owners already embrace the idea of personal responsibility, whether by hunting wild meat to put food on the table or keeping our homes safe. Now we need to take responsibility to help stop gun violence, too.[/size]

 A lot of talk and not a lot of and new ideas.


[size=undefined]I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.

[/size]

What IS this loophole on background check requirements?
Wonky responds:
I don't know: Is a background check required if I buy a gun at a gun-show? 
[size=undefined]restore funding for research on gun violence
[/size]Wonky responds: 
Don't know: How much funding has been authorized and spent?

How much "funding" could anyone possibly need? What research has not already been done? 
Wonky responds:
Don't know. Do you? 


[b][size=undefined]regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.


[/size][/b] That must refer to bump fire stocks and I'm nearly positive they will be outlawed.
Wonky responds:
That's a good thing isn't it? 
 
So, the woman (a gun owner and hunter) might want to make sure her rights continue and is guessing that in time some compromises may have to be made? 

I posted it because I thought it was a good read and written by a Oregon gal.




Wonky responds:

I don't know: Is a background check required if I buy a gun at a gun-show?

No not everywhere YET. I just didn't think that was a loophole Smiling

How much "funding" could anyone possibly need? What research has not already been done? 
Wonky responds:

Don't know. Do you?

It just sounds dumb. What the hell do they think "research" is going to find that we don't already know?

And yes banning bump fire stocks is a good thing IMO. Smiling
Reply
#5
(10-08-2017, 04:33 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(10-08-2017, 04:26 PM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-08-2017, 04:04 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(10-08-2017, 08:13 AM)Wonky3 Wrote: Takes more than two minutes to read: I thought it was worth it, but doesn't necessarily fit my view of the subject. Still, a voice worth attention I think. 

BEND, Ore. — When we hike together, my oldest son, who is 5, scans the ground for the perfect “gun.” His ideal stick has an ergonomic crook in it and is a comfortable size to hold. When he finds one like that, he lifts it for a test fire — pew, pew. A mile in, he’s usually got one in each hand but is still on the lookout for an upgrade: anything smoother or more gunlike. My youngest, who is 2, isn’t far behind. He’s been saying the word “gun” for more than a year.
Should I forbid this kind of play? Ignore it? Set ground rules such as “Ask for permission before you shoot someone”? Psychologists say there is no evidence that imaginary gun play is abnormal or harmful. Still, it bothers me, as a gun owner and a hunter, to watch my children violate basic rules of gun safety, even if armed only with sticks. I want my kids to grow up to be what I am: a responsible gun owner.
Last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas is a reminder that this is a perspective our country needs to hear more from: that of gun owners who favor safer gun laws. We should be helping lead the national conversation about gun control, because we are uniquely suited to move the debate away from polemic and toward effective compromise.
In December 2012, when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children and six others, I was a new mother, preparing for my son’s first Christmas. I was also a relatively new hunter and gun owner. I had taken up hunting six years before, in my mid-20s. As an environmentalist and a meat eater, I discovered that hunting was a fascinating and firsthand way to learn about wildlife and the ecosystem around me, and to sometimes bring home healthy, tasty food. It had taken an intensive hunter safety class and many hours at the shooting range and in the field before I felt comfortable handling firearms. It was an adjustment to even think of myself as a gun owner, especially in the aftermath of tragedies like Sandy Hook, when the prevalence of guns in the United States would be angrily cited as the root cause of violence.
This is my reality as a gun owner: I use guns for an activity I love, but I also worry about gun violence. Like most Americans, I want stronger gun laws such as nationwide universal background checks. I don’t support the National Rifle Association, which seems as if it’s just a few years away from arguing that the Second Amendment guarantees our right to buy nuclear warheads. (On Thursday the N.R.A. did make a rare concession, suggesting that a federal agency reconsider the legality of devices like those used by the Las Vegas shooter to make semiautomatic weapons fire almost as rapidly as automatic ones.) I’m not alone in this position: Approximately 90 percent of gun owners do not belong to the N.R.A.



Our family has moved three times in the past five years, and each move has necessitated a reckoning with where and how my guns are stored. My armory is small by American standards: two shotguns and a rifle. I don’t own a gun safe, which is enormous and expensive. Instead I keep my guns unloaded in padlocked hard cases, with the ammunition stored in a separate part of the house. For years I fretted about where to keep the keys, moving them from my underwear drawer to the back of a high shelf in my closet. Eventually, I learned about a product called a key safe, a metal box that can be mounted to a wall and secured with a combination code.
These days, the keys mostly stay there. I’ve barely hunted during this early phase of child rearing, instead focusing on activities my sons can do now to become competent hunters when they’re older. We camp and hike. We identify birds and look for animal tracks and scat. We practice spotting deer and keeping quiet so that we don’t scare them away. We tiptoe closer to wildlife. My 5-year-old has taken up archery.
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A great many hunters and gun owners are like me. We are not “gun nuts,” stockpiling weapons in the name of some future apocalypse. We exercise our Second Amendment rights in a way that is palatable to most people who otherwise oppose guns — we’re the bridge that connects the two sides of the chasm in the national debate. Even the N.R.A. recognizes this, which is why it tries to enhance its legitimacy by identifying as a sportsmen’s group, though few of its stances reflect the will of sportsmen. Hunters are accustomed to following nuanced gun laws (gun calibers and ammunition types are limited depending on the season and species we’re hunting, for example), so we understand that common-sense regulation doesn’t mean an end to bearing arms. And because we see the brute power of a gun every time we kill an animal, we are regularly reminded of why guns need to be regulated.
We also have an interest in drafting sensible gun laws now, rather than waiting for an avalanche of pent-up frustration to generate a policy response so long overdue that it overreaches. If we don’t want onerous regulations to infringe on a tradition we love, then we can’t afford to stay quiet as body counts rise and politicians offer no more than thoughts and prayers.
The N.R.A. doesn’t represent gun owners like me, but the problem is that no one else really does, either. Americans who don’t own guns are represented by an array of nonprofits that share their wish to crack down on gun violence with gun laws that are as restrictive as possible. Gun owners are hesitant to get behind these groups because we first want to understand their nuanced views on gun laws. Details matter to us.
Last year I joined the board of a small nonprofit in Oregon called Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership. This group was founded by gun owners and relatives of victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a mall near Portland. The killer stole his rifle from a friend, who left the weapon unsecured and containing a full magazine of ammunition.
Our group is trying to do important, mostly apolitical work — handing out free gun locks, training doctors to talk to patients about safe firearm storage, offering basic information about guns to the news media so they can report about the issue more accurately. But we are frequently met with suspicion or disdain by gun owners who think we’re secretly out to disarm them.
We do very little lobbying, though our board endorsed a proposal signed into law in Oregon this year to issue protection orders to keep guns temporarily out of the hands of people who, in a situation like sudden extreme distress, pose a clear threat to themselves or others. Suicides account for 60 percent of the nation’s more than 33,000 firearm deaths a year. Many suicides are impulsive acts, so even minor barriers — akin to putting guardrails on bridges, for example — can save lives.
78COMMENTS
By the time my boys are hunters, I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic. I also hope my sons take a broad view of what it means to be a responsible gun owner. Responsible ownership is about more than safe storage and careful handling of one’s own firearms — it’s also about making sure that as a society we have effective laws to keep guns out of unsafe hands.
Gun owners already embrace the idea of personal responsibility, whether by hunting wild meat to put food on the table or keeping our homes safe. Now we need to take responsibility to help stop gun violence, too.[/size]

 A lot of talk and not a lot of and new ideas.


[size=undefined]I hope there are more sensible gun laws, such as those that close loopholes on background check requirements, restore funding for research on gun violence and regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.

[/size]

What IS this loophole on background check requirements?
Wonky responds:
I don't know: Is a background check required if I buy a gun at a gun-show? 
[size=undefined]restore funding for research on gun violence
[/size]Wonky responds: 
Don't know: How much funding has been authorized and spent?

How much "funding" could anyone possibly need? What research has not already been done? 
Wonky responds:
Don't know. Do you? 


[b][size=undefined]regulate modified semiautomatic guns just as strongly as we do the automatic guns they are altered to mimic.


[/size][/b] That must refer to bump fire stocks and I'm nearly positive they will be outlawed.
Wonky responds:
That's a good thing isn't it? 
 
So, the woman (a gun owner and hunter) might want to make sure her rights continue and is guessing that in time some compromises may have to be made? 

I posted it because I thought it was a good read and written by a Oregon gal.




Wonky responds:

I don't know: Is a background check required if I buy a gun at a gun-show?

No not everywhere YET. I just didn't think that was a loophole Smiling

How much "funding" could anyone possibly need? What research has not already been done? 
Wonky responds:

Don't know. Do you?

It just sounds dumb. What the hell do they think "research" is going to find that we don't already know?

And yes banning bump fire stocks is a good thing IMO. Smiling

I guess. Things can be "researched" to death. Kind of leaves us with lots of questions about the behavior of folks who use guns to kill other people. It would be simple if it were only people in gangs, criminals, suicides, and robbing ice cream trucks. But we shoot one another at alarming rates for a host of other reasons.
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#6
(10-08-2017, 04:26 PM)Wonky3 Wrote: [quote pid='396514' dateline='1507503846']


What IS this loophole on background check requirements?
Wonky responds:
I don't know: Is a background check required if I buy a gun at a gun-show? 

[/quote]

Are you a resident of Oregon, buying a gun in Oregon?  YES.  THERE IS NO WAY AROUND A BACKGROUND CHECK ON A LEGALLY PURCHASED FIREARM IN THE STATE OF OREGON, INCLUDING GUN SHOWS.
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#7
(10-09-2017, 06:12 AM)Hugo Wrote:
(10-08-2017, 04:26 PM)Wonky3 Wrote: [quote pid='396514' dateline='1507503846']


What IS this loophole on background check requirements?
Wonky responds:
I don't know: Is a background check required if I buy a gun at a gun-show? 

Are you a resident of Oregon, buying a gun in Oregon?  YES.  THERE IS NO WAY AROUND A BACKGROUND CHECK ON A LEGALLY PURCHASED FIREARM IN THE STATE OF OREGON, INCLUDING GUN SHOWS.
[/quote]
Thanks...good to know. I'm shamed by ALL the laws I don't know about, and because I don't guy guns (yet at least) I didn't know about this. The writer in this article might of included that. But, she is not a professional writer so maybe we cut her some slack? Probably not: I think she has "an agenda", no matter how slight.
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#8
A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.
Reply
#9
(10-09-2017, 06:46 AM)Hugo Wrote: A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.
Yes, to some extent at least. 
Hillary was not "pro gun" for sure. Just another example of how she shot herself in the foot...without a gun yet  Razz
I don't know if president Trump even knows how he feels about guns. Im not sure he knows how he feels about ANYTHING.  Wink 
(Wonder if he has a gun?. Silly of me. His PEOPLE have guns, even before he was elected). 

PS: For the sake of argument, was Hillary "soundly defeated"? President trump got 74 more electoral votes than Clinton. In 1972 McGovern got only 17 electoral votes. Not THAT is being soundly defeated.
Reply
#10
(10-09-2017, 07:08 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 06:46 AM)Hugo Wrote: A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.
Yes, to some extent at least. 
Hillary was not "pro gun" for sure. Just another example of how she shot herself in the foot...without a gun yet  Razz
I don't know if president Trump even knows how he feels about guns. Im not sure he knows how he feels about ANYTHING.  Wink 
(Wonder if he has a gun?. Silly of me. His PEOPLE have guns, even before he was elected). 

PS: For the sake of argument, was Hillary "soundly defeated"? President trump got 74 more electoral votes than Clinton. In 1972 McGovern got only 17 electoral votes. Not THAT is being soundly defeated.

Is she the President?  Will she ever be?

Do YOU really WANT her to be? Wink
Reply
#11
(10-09-2017, 08:01 AM)Hugo Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 07:08 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 06:46 AM)Hugo Wrote: A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.
Yes, to some extent at least. 
Hillary was not "pro gun" for sure. Just another example of how she shot herself in the foot...without a gun yet  Razz
I don't know if president Trump even knows how he feels about guns. Im not sure he knows how he feels about ANYTHING.  Wink 
(Wonder if he has a gun?. Silly of me. His PEOPLE have guns, even before he was elected). 

PS: For the sake of argument, was Hillary "soundly defeated"? President trump got 74 more electoral votes than Clinton. In 1972 McGovern got only 17 electoral votes. Not THAT is being soundly defeated.

Is she the President?  Will she ever be?

Do YOU really WANT her to be? Wink

Laughing Did you jump the tracks just a bit? (That will piss TVguy off  Wink ) 
Of course she is not president and nothing I said indicated that.
And no, I don't want her to be president, but I'm not all that happy with the buffoon who we elected. Still, he is president and while I have no respect for the man I do respect the office. 
But Hillary was NOT soundly defeated. The got beat, but 17 electoral votes does not a thumping make. 
And...
IT'S OVER!
Reply
#12
(10-09-2017, 06:46 AM)Hugo Wrote: A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.

LOL what a bunch of baloney. To try and make the case that the election was about guns is absurd.
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#13
(10-09-2017, 10:25 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 08:01 AM)Hugo Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 07:08 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 06:46 AM)Hugo Wrote: A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.
Yes, to some extent at least. 
Hillary was not "pro gun" for sure. Just another example of how she shot herself in the foot...without a gun yet  Razz
I don't know if president Trump even knows how he feels about guns. Im not sure he knows how he feels about ANYTHING.  Wink 
(Wonder if he has a gun?. Silly of me. His PEOPLE have guns, even before he was elected). 

PS: For the sake of argument, was Hillary "soundly defeated"? President trump got 74 more electoral votes than Clinton. In 1972 McGovern got only 17 electoral votes. Not THAT is being soundly defeated.

Is she the President?  Will she ever be?

Do YOU really WANT her to be? Wink

Laughing Did you jump the tracks just a bit? (That will piss TVguy off  Wink ) 
Of course she is not president and nothing I said indicated that.
And no, I don't want her to be president, but I'm not all that happy with the buffoon who we elected. Still, he is president and while I have no respect for the man I do respect the office. 
But Hillary was NOT soundly defeated. The got beat, but 17 electoral votes does not a thumping make. 
And...
IT'S OVER!

[Image: icon_rvf_laugh.gif] Did you jump the tracks just a bit? (That will piss TVguy off  [Image: icon_rvf_wink.gif] )


How does that comment make any sense?
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#14
(10-09-2017, 03:23 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 10:25 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 08:01 AM)Hugo Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 07:08 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 06:46 AM)Hugo Wrote: A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.
Yes, to some extent at least. 
Hillary was not "pro gun" for sure. Just another example of how she shot herself in the foot...without a gun yet  Razz
I don't know if president Trump even knows how he feels about guns. Im not sure he knows how he feels about ANYTHING.  Wink 
(Wonder if he has a gun?. Silly of me. His PEOPLE have guns, even before he was elected). 

PS: For the sake of argument, was Hillary "soundly defeated"? President trump got 74 more electoral votes than Clinton. In 1972 McGovern got only 17 electoral votes. Not THAT is being soundly defeated.

Is she the President?  Will she ever be?

Do YOU really WANT her to be? Wink

Laughing Did you jump the tracks just a bit? (That will piss TVguy off  Wink ) 
Of course she is not president and nothing I said indicated that.
And no, I don't want her to be president, but I'm not all that happy with the buffoon who we elected. Still, he is president and while I have no respect for the man I do respect the office. 
But Hillary was NOT soundly defeated. The got beat, but 17 electoral votes does not a thumping make. 
And...
IT'S OVER!

[Image: icon_rvf_laugh.gif] Did you jump the tracks just a bit? (That will piss TVguy off  [Image: icon_rvf_wink.gif] )


How does that comment make any sense?
Just that you have so often claimed I should NEVER make comments about Topic subjects suddenly changing directions. 
Whatever... Smiling 

And THIS Topic is about the woman gun owner/hunter who wrote an opinion piece. Or it was.  Wink
Reply
#15
(10-09-2017, 07:12 PM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 03:23 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 10:25 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 08:01 AM)Hugo Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 07:08 AM)Wonky3 Wrote: Yes, to some extent at least. 
Hillary was not "pro gun" for sure. Just another example of how she shot herself in the foot...without a gun yet  Razz
I don't know if president Trump even knows how he feels about guns. Im not sure he knows how he feels about ANYTHING.  Wink 
(Wonder if he has a gun?. Silly of me. His PEOPLE have guns, even before he was elected). 

PS: For the sake of argument, was Hillary "soundly defeated"? President trump got 74 more electoral votes than Clinton. In 1972 McGovern got only 17 electoral votes. Not THAT is being soundly defeated.

Is she the President?  Will she ever be?

Do YOU really WANT her to be? Wink

Laughing Did you jump the tracks just a bit? (That will piss TVguy off  Wink ) 
Of course she is not president and nothing I said indicated that.
And no, I don't want her to be president, but I'm not all that happy with the buffoon who we elected. Still, he is president and while I have no respect for the man I do respect the office. 
But Hillary was NOT soundly defeated. The got beat, but 17 electoral votes does not a thumping make. 
And...
IT'S OVER!

[Image: icon_rvf_laugh.gif] Did you jump the tracks just a bit? (That will piss TVguy off  [Image: icon_rvf_wink.gif] )


How does that comment make any sense?
Just that you have so often claimed I should NEVER make comments about Topic subjects suddenly changing directions. 
Whatever... Smiling 

And THIS Topic is about the woman gun owner/hunter who wrote an opinion piece. Or it was.  Wink
What? Dude YOU are the one who complains about threads going off topic.
 So like I said, your comments makes no sense even it it was supposed to be funny.
Reply
#16
(10-09-2017, 07:08 AM)Wonky3 Wrote:
(10-09-2017, 06:46 AM)Hugo Wrote: A "National Conversation" took place last November.

The pro gun CONTROL candidate was soundly defeated by the pro GUN candidate.
Yes, to some extent at least. 
Hillary was not "pro gun" for sure. Just another example of how she shot herself in the foot...without a gun yet  Razz

You make a funny.....    Laughing
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