This comment is by BlacksmithSEAL on the post “A Liberal and a Gun-Nut Walk Into a Blog”.
For those that don’t realize it…I am the “Navy SEAL” described in the blog…and I am a gun enthusiast. In the 1980s I lived with my first wife and our 4 children in Huntsville Alabama, and had a home built in a nice, clean, new, modern subdivision. Within about 6 months a series of horrendous attacks/rapes started occurring.We quickly found our entire area under intense police surveillance… but the attacks continued. We got a large dog and kept a very close eye on our kids and the streets, always aware of those in the area…who belonged and who didn’t. One night our next door neighbor was attacked and raped in her own home, while her child slept undisturbed in a bedroom down the hall from her. The next day her father mounted BARS on the windows of her home. She was safe from a repeat attack, but if her house had caught fire she would have been hopelessly trapped and unable to get out any of the windows. The rapist was eventually caught… a construction worker who specialized in working with windows… and he’d used his knowledge to break into the homes of his victims. Police were a constant presence, yet it took many weeks to apprehend the criminal…weeks during which attacks/rapes were committed literally under their noses.
My wife and I were divorced and I moved to Florida, then eventually remarried. For a time my new wife and I lived in Daytona Beach in an apartment complex with close to a dozen local police officers as fellow residents (police officers were given a discount rate for rental, and encouraged to park their patrol cars in the apartment complex lot). There were many, MANY occasions when we heard gunfire in our vicinity after dark… single shots, multiple shots, and even some fully automatic gunfire. On these occasions we always quickly extinguished all lights and ducked below the level of the window ledge so as to eliminate the possibility of either of us being selected as a ‘target of opportunity’. We were living in “the best part of town”… not the “less desirable” part. There was a small, isolated “branch bank” less than a block from where we lived. It was robbed on almost a monthly basis… always with the aid of firearms. Some of the perpetrators were caught, some were not. The police were RIGHT THERE, living around us, constantly… but we were potential targets and victims.
Now we reside in a rural area of SW Missouri. Everyone one around us owns weapons and shoots on a regular basis to maintain their proficiency. Everyone hunts… turkey in spring and fall, deer in the fall, and squirrels almost year round. A couple who purchased the rural lot beside ours turned out to be meth makers/dealers. We were threatened by not only them, but by their clientele until they were evicted for failure to make their land payments. The male was also a convicted sex offender who had failed to properly register as required by law. We complained/reported events to the police and the county Sheriff on multiple occasions, but despite their best efforts and regular visits/patrols, they never could find a reason to arrest the man. We armed ourselves and spent many a night watching/waiting for a retaliatory attack for having reported his activities to the authorities. He made verbal threats, but thankfully he never actually attempted to carry them out. They were evicted and a wonderful friend lives there now. I understand that the former occupant is now behind bars once more on another sex charge. The constant reports to the police never resulted in any resolution for us, and despite all we did, the man was never charged with drug violations or for conveying threats.
Not long ago a retired couple (in their 60s, like my wife and I) living in our area were attacked and brutally murdered in their own home. The attack was carried out by two teenage boys who had run away from a “home for troubled youths”… a sort of “camp” for delinquents which was just a step down from prison/incarceration. The two boys wanted a place to hide so they brutally slaughtered the elderly couple and then “lived” in the home to avoid capture. Ultimately they were captured… but that “camp” is still there, still has no fences, and the elderly couple is still dead.
If we lived in a perfect world no one would need protection, no one would need a handgun or a rifle or a shotgun. But our world is NOT PERFECT and there are real, vivid dangers. We don’t live in the town, we live just outside the town limits in the COUNTY… where law enforcement is handled by the County Sheriff. Law enforcement officers do their best, but response times are in the 30 minute range at best…and their forces are stretched very thin. If there’s another call on the other side of the county, then it could be an hour or more before a single officer responds. If an attack were to take place, their likely task upon arrival would be limited to drawing chalk outlines around the bodies and filing a report.
So…I am a gun enthusiast. I practice to maintain my skills with a variety of weapons. My wife practices. The County Sheriff’s response time might be about 30 minutes… but if there is an intruder in our home, our personal response times are in the 30 SECOND range. Cell phones and loaded firearms are within reach from virtually EVERYWHERE in my home. They aren’t obvious, but we know where they are and how to use them… with deadly efficiency.
We do NOT live in a perfect world…and until we do, I will remain a gun enthusiast, and I will vehemently defend my right to keep and bear arms, my right to defend our lives with deadly force if necessary, and will loudly decry those who would take away my ability to maintain my safety and security.
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(and, in response to a question about the terminology of assault weapons and semi-automatic weapons)
The term “assault” is used only with weapons that are capable of being fully automatic in firing… i.e. one pull of the trigger and hold it will result in multiple bullets being fired. A “semi-automatic” cannot be fired on “fully automatic”. A “semi-automatic weapon” fires one bullet for every pull of the trigger… and at the end of the function it discharges the spent brass shell casing and cycles in preparation for firing the next bullet. There is no such thing as a “semi-automatic assault weapon”. The term “assault weapon” has been horribly, irresponsibly and INCORRECTLY used by the media in their effort to promote and support the implementation of stricter gun laws. Almost every single handgun, with the exception of old style “cowboy” guns, are “semi-automatic”. It has been against the law – a violation of US federal law – for non-military, non-law enforcement individuals to own any fully automatic assault weapon for decades. Anyone who wishes to own one must go through a very costly and exhaustive sequence of taxes, applications, background checks, and regular oversight. Those laws are already in place. If a “new law” is put in place which outlaws “semi-automatic” weapons, then almost every single weapon except the cowboy lever action rifles, antique bolt action rifles, and revolvers will be illegal.
You say that you don’t understand why anyone would “need” a semi-automatic assault weapon… but (1) there is no such thing and (2) even if you were just referring to the “semi-automatic” nature of the weapons, you apparently don’t understand that the term refers to almost every modern handgun and rifle currently made. I strongly urge you to learn more about weaponry before you make such all-encompassing statement and use terms that are contradictory or meaningless.
No progress can be made in any discussion if only the people on one side of the debate are conversant with the words/terms that will be used. MISUSE of the term “assault weapon” is intentionally being done by the media in an effort to scare listeners who do not understand the true meaning of the words. The word ASSAULT is threatening in and of itself, and using it incorrectly, and intentionally, to scare people if absolutely unconscionable. When a knowledgeable gun enthusiast debates someone who has never held/fired a gun and does not understand the function or the terms, the gun enthusiast is fighting to educate the other person at the same time he’s attempting to support his own position… and the anti-gun debater just feels like he’s being treated like an idiot. There truly is some degree of EDUCATION required before meaningful participation by either side can take place.
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photo by nakrnsm / flickr
