I'm a responsible gun owner, so I destroyed my gun

[Fred Sanders]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/10/15/im-a-responsible-gun-owner-so-i-destroyed-my-gun/

By Steve Elliott

I am a responsible gun owner.

I bought my first gun when I was 12. It was a Browning 12-gauge shotgun, and I saved money from my paper route and cleaning a drive-in restaurant to buy it in time for dove season. In the years before I could legally drive, I’d tie the Browning across the handlebars of my bike and ride to the fields outside town to hunt.

I’ve owned several guns since — deer rifles and target rifles, shotguns and a handgun. I bought that gun, a semi-automatic Ruger, to keep my family safe, and locked it up to keep them safe from
it. Like I said, a responsible gun owner.

........................

I believe claiming the NRA speaks for all gun owners is like saying the Westboro Baptist Church speaks for all Christians. It doesn’t. The gun lobby in this country is considered an all-powerful political force, but it is a narrow special-interest group, same as any other. It has exactly the amount of power we give it.

And I believe people are ready for change.



__________________________________________________

Excerpts from a wonderful, moving, heartfelt and intelligent full article.

Highly recommended and topical.

[onehandle]

1. Smart. The used gun market fuels domestic violence, terrorism, and all sorts of crime. nt

[DustyJoe]

2. speaking of dove season

When dove season ended the end of September I had done my part also by destroying literally boxes and boxes of 12ga ammunition on the fast flying foe.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Sad to see how bad your aim is with your GUN! Maybe time to destroy it!?

[DustyJoe]

12. Never hunted them I see

If you had hunted dove before you would understand the nuance of my entry.
And I won't be destroying my decades old 12ga, just cleaned, oiled and ready
for the January season, but thanks for the advice.

[Fred Sanders]

17. See right there is your problem. Old guy with old gun and new doves, destroy the gun, it is useless.

It is comments like yours that are helping with reaching critical mass to destroy the guns, voluntarily.

[Thinkingabout]

3. NRA is gun manufactures lobby. No reasoning behind NRA, just sell more guns.

[Duckhunter935]

4. NSSF

[GGJohn]

5. I'm a responsible firearm owner,

I keep my numerous firearms and ammo locked in safes when not in use.

[Travis_0004]

7. Actually, you are not a gun owner.

[Ron Green]

8. Decide to live courageously, and unarmed.

I think this is the movement that's got to happen.

In the Army I qualified on just about everything including the .50 caliber machine gun, and owned firearms up until about 10 years ago. I've gotten rid of them all now, the last one a revolver I cut up into 3 pieces.

Keeping these weapons around could make sense for a very small group of people, but in my opinion modern civilization calls most of us to live less fearfully, and unarmed.

[Snobblevitch]

9. I grew up in a home with guns.

My father also bought his first gun at age 12. It was a single shot .12 gauge.

My father had a gun collection when I was a kid. Most of them were never used. He had hunting guns that he did use.

I have a few guns, two shotguns, four rifles, and two handguns. They are all locked up in a safe. If I thought destroying my guns would save lives, I would do it.

If I had experienced the gun violence the author wrote about, I probably would have gotten rid of my guns as well. The author's family experiences seem to indicate he should not have guns in his home.

The author did not mention what he has done with his long guns.

[Decoy of Fenris]

10. I'm a responsible gun owner.

My guns are disassembled, the parts are stored in different locations, and the ammo is in another location entirely; It is impossible to accidentally fire my guns, and if you steal them, there's a good chance you'll never find all the parts needed to fire them.

o7 Doin' my part.

[cherokeeprogressive]

11. I am also a "responsible gun owner"; I keep mine in a safe.

The single exception being the night after Murderin' Christopher Dorner's truck was found abandoned and burning half a mile from my house. I spent that night with a pistol on the nightstand. More than a few DUers rejoiced in my cowardice.

[Kang Colby]

13. I found this pretty funny. Thanks Fred.

Notice how he didn't take the angle grinder to the Browning shotgun...instead the $200 Ruger P95 was the subject of this display of idiocy. Wow, what a sacrifice.

I can see him now, going to town with that angle grinder while humming:

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya;
Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya;
Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya;
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.

[Luminous Animal]

14. A very good friend of mine, who owns a gun, said he would kill a person

if he saw that person stealing his car.

Really? A death sentence for stealing a car.

[GGJohn]

16. Yeaaahhhh,

someone like your good friend should probably not have a firearm if that's the way he thinks.
He acts like killing someone is not a big deal, I can personally attest to the fact that, in fact, it really is a huge deal.

[jamzrockz]

15. Isn't this akin to burning

your holy book because Westboro and ISIS exists? if you've never hurt anyone with your gun and have kept it safe all that time, why destroy your gun now? this doesn't make any sense.

I don't own a gun, in fact I am scared of gun but if I did have a gun, this wouldn't convince me to give my gun up.

[Fred Sanders]

18. "Akin to burning your holy book"? What does that even mean? Obviously guns need licensing, and

comments like yours always help with making the argument for that.

Voluntary destruction of guns offends no one and breaks no laws.....your comments help a lot to convince lawmakers that some folks should not get guns so easily as now.