Gun Control

I had a short conversation today with someone who was unhappy with the proposed gun control policies of the Liberals.  When I suggested they made great sense he immediately accused me of being an anti-gun nut in a very snide voice.  Understand we had just met and we did not know each other beforehand but my disagreeing with him caused him to insult me.  Figuring he was just another classless Conservative supporter I just walked away.

I could have argued with him but I do not believe it would have mattered and as I get older I realize that life is too short to argue with close minded people but that short conversation got me thinking 

I grew up in rural Eastern Ontario.  I started pinging away at old tin cans with my grandfather's old single shot 22, on his farm, when I was 10.  I killed my first animal, with a firearm, before I got my drivers licence.  My grandfather had firearms, my father had firearms, his brothers have firearms, my brother has firearms, my cousins (both male and female) own firearms, even some family pets own firearms.  I would own firearms if my wife would let me keep them in the house.  To this day if someone invites me to go do some shooting I almost always say "Let's go!".  So by no stretch of the imagination could I be called anti-gun.

All that being said I am a big supporter of gun control and I came to that position as a result of my family.  My grandfather used to say that the only thing a handgun is good for is scaring away the moose.  When I asked my father if he would ever like to own a military style weapon like the AR-15 he said no because they are useless for hunting.  Understand both men were as conservative as they come but they still understood the need for gun control.

I could have said all of this to the guy if I thought it would have been useful.  I could have also said that my father's preferred weapon for hunting large game was a Savage .308 magnum, which he stated could bring down a full grown moose at 400 metres and a dear at 600 metres.  The small 5.56mm round of the AR-15 could not do either.  If you hit a large target with such small rounds you would mortally wound the animal but not kill it outright.  In all likelihood it would run off to die a slow, painful death, which all hunters want to avoid, at least all of the hunters I know.  I could have argued that the AR-15 and other similar weapons are specifically designed and built to kill and maim HUMANS and nothing else.  Hunting rifles and shotguns can be used for kill humans but their manufacturers are looking at the hunting market.  

Allowing people to own hunting rifles and shotguns, with suitable regulations in place to make certain that they are handled and stored properly makes perfect sense.  Banning weapons designed specifically to kill and maim humans, such as assault weapons and handguns also makes perfect sense.  

A personal disclaimer.  I know someone who owns and AR-15.  He has given me several opportunities to shoot it.  I did and I liked it.  If a re-elected Liberal government bans such weapons I will not have another such opportunity.  That would be disappointing but I can live with it.