a good guy with a gun... 3/31/2016 0 Comments   Hansel and Gretel prepare to blow away whatever. by E.L. Christianson Jr. National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre offers his opinion, "So many of those elites, they think they're better than us.  They think they're more intellectually evolved somehow than we are...Well, I've got news for the elites who look down their noses at all of us and our rights: We gun owners are a heck of a lot smarter than you'll ever be...Never have there been smarter, freer American citizens than America's one hundred million gun owners."  Of course, that's his opinion.  The evidence indicates something altogether different.  Those brilliant gun owners outsmart the rest of us by continuing to shoot themselves or being shot by their children, often their toddler children. ​An online petition to allow guns into the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July has received more than 24,000 signatures in favor of overturning the “irresponsible and hypocritical act of selecting a ‘gun-free zone’” for the party’s quadrennial gathering. ​The petition, posted anonymously to Change.org last week, declares the Cleveland arena’s weapons ban “a direct affront to the second amendment and puts all attendees at risk... how a venue so unfriendly to second amendment rights was chosen for the Republican convention”. Let's go for it.  As with gun owners shooting themselves and their loved ones all over the country, perhaps the republican party would eliminate itself in a frenzied shoot-out at the convention. Today, guns and gun owners are appearing everywhere.  Now, there are guns in the woods on the way to grandma's house. Little Red Riding Hood (Has a Gun) by Amelia Hamilton... One New Year’s day, Red awoke to learn that her grandmother wasn’t feeling well. She and her mother put together a basket of food to bring through the woods to her cottage, which lay on the other side. Red loved the woods, and was happy to walk through them. Usually, there would only be the sunlight and the squirrels, but there was a dark side to the wood. There were shadows, there were beasts, and there could be danger. One birthday not long ago, Red was given her very own rifle and lessons on how to use it—just in case—to be sure that she would always be safe. So, with a kiss from her mother, rifle over her shoulder and a basket for her Grandmother in her hands, Red took a deep breath and entered the woods.  Red with her rifle  With a shiver, she burrowed into her cloak, her breath making clouds in the frozen air.  Deep into the woods Red went, playing a game with herself to see how many animal footprints she could recognize in the snow. “Deer,” she quietly said to herself, “squirrel.” She turned as another set of footprints caught her eye, and gasped. Those footprints cast in snow were undeniably the tracks of a wolf. They were fresh, so Red knew the wolf couldn't have gotten far. Red felt the reassuring weight of the rifle on her shoulder and continued down the path, scanning the trees, knowing that their shadows could provide a hiding place. A man shot to death, likely in a tragic accident at the hands of his toddler son, loved his family and died doing one of the things he treasured most – spending time with his kids, family members said. The parents of 31-year-old Divine Vaniah Chambliss believe he was taking a nap with his 2-year-old son when the boy found the semi-automatic handgun and pulled the trigger. Chambliss was found dead in the bed from a single gunshot wound to the head. "We've talked with the detective, we've talked with the coroner and everything is pointing to the baby,'' said the victim's father, Larry Chambliss. "I just can't comprehend it." Larry Chambliss and his wife, Marilyn, said they are praying their grandson won't remember what happened, but said he already knows something is amiss. "I hurt my Dad,'' the boy told his mother. The real numbers just make one's head spin.  Please follow this link and read Key Gun Violence Statistics. Or, read some of the 730 individual stories of 'gun fail' wherein the gun didn't fail but the human component did like human components often do... killed or wounded accidentally. Here's another side of the 'human component'... arming opposite and opposing armies in battle as the United States government is doing in Syria.  By providing guns for both sides, it would appear we have a hedge against losing the war... 'our' side is guaranteed to win.   On the other hand, we know that we are certainly backing a loser. The Knights of Righteousness (yeah, that really is what they call themselves) have been armed and funded by -- wait for it -- the Central Intelligence Agency. Their opponents, the Syrian Democratic Forces, have been armed and funded by the Pentagon. Ergo, based upon the most recent battle in Marea, the Defense Department went to war with the CIA half a world away. Now, we fight proxy wars between various departments of our own federal government, using your tax dollars to buy the bullets and the bombs. Thunder has more sense. Newborn kittens are more clever. Stones at least have the wisdom to sit still. ​They did this for money, and most of the bodies biting the dirt over there fall at the hands of American weapons we abandoned or sold outright because a small group of people you'll never meet were handsomely paid for the privilege. All along, we must keep focused on the real truth of these situations... "a good guy with a gun..." 0 Comments Leave a Reply.