Getting Back To Normal
I apologize to Libby for not being much of a help the last couple of days, but the storm that affected her hit Virginia pretty hard. Electricity is just getting restored around here. My in-laws are with us because their power is out, but it's back on here. Dancing With the Stars is on and for them all is right with the world.
You add all that to the Va. Tech massacre and you don't get much blogging done. I've certainly been out of touch but I know there is lot being said both here and overseas about gun control and I'm going to give my two cents worth, speaking as a southerner and a Virginian.
I was raised in a farming and rural setting and guns and hunting were an important part of my life. My brother and I hunted and fished and trapped until he went into the marines and I went to college. I hunted until I was about 35 years old and I was very good at it
I stopped hunting when I realized that I no longer wanted to kill anything. For the past twenty years now I don't know why I loved it so much, but I did. I still love walking in the woods and fields of the home place but I do it to just enjoy the beauty of it.
I freely admit that I still own my guns; handguns, long guns, and shot guns. I still love to shoot and when my grandchildren get old enough I will teach them how to shoot. I think it's important to understand the culture that I was raised in and it is fundamentally American to know how to operate firearms.
That being said, I wish there was some way to control firearms, especially handguns. Unfortunately, there is no way, politically or socially. I heard today that the more socially liberal Europeans are blaming this on the gun culture, and they are right. I am part of the problem, but there it is. The gun culture is American culture, certainly in the South and West.
As a rural Southerner it is my family's culture to shoot, to hunt, to fish and to survive in the great outdoors. It is also our culture to be educated, responsible and loyal to our traditions.
I wish I could say that there was some law that would keep this massacre from happening. If giving up my guns would help, I would do it.
There is no solution to this, we live in an open and free society with protected rights and guns are not going away.
Jim M
You add all that to the Va. Tech massacre and you don't get much blogging done. I've certainly been out of touch but I know there is lot being said both here and overseas about gun control and I'm going to give my two cents worth, speaking as a southerner and a Virginian.
I was raised in a farming and rural setting and guns and hunting were an important part of my life. My brother and I hunted and fished and trapped until he went into the marines and I went to college. I hunted until I was about 35 years old and I was very good at it
I stopped hunting when I realized that I no longer wanted to kill anything. For the past twenty years now I don't know why I loved it so much, but I did. I still love walking in the woods and fields of the home place but I do it to just enjoy the beauty of it.
I freely admit that I still own my guns; handguns, long guns, and shot guns. I still love to shoot and when my grandchildren get old enough I will teach them how to shoot. I think it's important to understand the culture that I was raised in and it is fundamentally American to know how to operate firearms.
That being said, I wish there was some way to control firearms, especially handguns. Unfortunately, there is no way, politically or socially. I heard today that the more socially liberal Europeans are blaming this on the gun culture, and they are right. I am part of the problem, but there it is. The gun culture is American culture, certainly in the South and West.
As a rural Southerner it is my family's culture to shoot, to hunt, to fish and to survive in the great outdoors. It is also our culture to be educated, responsible and loyal to our traditions.
I wish I could say that there was some law that would keep this massacre from happening. If giving up my guns would help, I would do it.
There is no solution to this, we live in an open and free society with protected rights and guns are not going away.
Jim M
posted by Libby Spencer at 8:11 PM
2 Comments:
I agree, Jim, more gun laws will not stop the violence because the act or violence is born from the individual. The real question is what is wrong with our society that there was no intervention for this profoundly disturbed individual all during his school years? He must have displayed some disturbing tendencies long before college. If we want to stop the violence, we must be proactive and reach out to young people early on. They have to know someone cares about them. Remember that whole "it takes a village...?" That is where change must begin. In our villages for smaller towns and in our neighborhoods for big cities. There are two organizations that I know of who are trying to make real, meaningful changes and I'm leaving their links here. I'm sure there are more, and, if nothing else, we can participate by getting the word out that these groups exist.
http://www.180nj.org/
http://www.challengeday.org/
Peace
I'm with you Rocky, everything you hear about this guy was a warning that he was in trouble.
Thanks for the links Rocky
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