I had a dream last night. Our 9 year old niece, Bethany, came to visit. When she came into the house, she had a contemplative look on her face. I asked her, "What's wrong, Bethany?"
"Who controls guns?" she said.
I knew where this question had come from. She had been watching the news or heard her parents talking about it. The subject most likely had come up during school. It's something she has heard a lot about lately.
I said, "Do you see this rocking chair?"
"Yes," she said.
"Can a rocking chair rock by itself?"
"No," she said.
"What about a book? Can it open itself and read itself?"
"No," she giggled.
"How does a rocking chair rock?" I asked.
"A person has to be in it," she said.
"Correct. And what about a book?"
"Someone has to open and read it," she said.
"Well there's nothing wrong with someone rocking a rocking chair, and there's nothing wrong with someone reading a book. And there's nothing wrong with guns. They can't shoot themselves, right?" I asked.
"No," she said, thoughtfully.
"So who controls the guns?" I asked.
"People do," she said.
"That's right. There's nothing wrong with owning a gun and learning how to use it. The problem comes when someone uses a gun to harm or kill another person. Unless, of course, they are a police officer or in the military where part of their job is to protect people. Do you know what the Constitution is?" I asked.
"I think so," she said, uncertainly.
"Well, the Constitution is the law of the United States. It says in the Second Amendment that we, as citizens, have the right to "bear arms." Now do you think that means we're allowed to wear sleeveless shirts?"
"No. That's silly. We can wear those anytime we want to," she giggled.
"To 'bear arms' means we can own guns in the United States. The main reason why they put that in the Constitution is to give us freedom to protect our own property and lives. If a bad person came into our house and we had a gun to protect ourselves, then the bad person would be the loser. Now we do have police, and if one were living right next door to you, you could call them to come take care of the bad guy. Unfortunately, the police cannot be everywhere at the same time. So the people who wrote the Constitution knew that and made a way for us to be able to own guns." I said.
I woke up about that time, so I don't know how the dream ended. She probably fell asleep sometime during that last paragraph. She is 9 after all. But my concern is for all the children who hear about guns and this issue, either at home or at school. There's a lot of confusion out there over this issue. But it's really quite simple, as I've explained above. Guns don't control themselves. It's people who control them. I think most of us are pretty smart and can figure out that if we have guns, we need to keep them safely in our homes and practice using them safely. We need to use them responsibly and take gun safety classes if needed. We need to abide by the laws of our state when we carry them.
Now I don't know about this whole idea of who can and who can't own a gun. I know those who have committed a felon are not allowed to own them, and with good reason. But those are the only ones I know of who can't own a gun. Some people higher up in government say that "crazy" people shouldn't own a gun. How do you determine that? I don't know. All I know is that when the government starts "regulating" guns, it hurts our freedoms because it gets harder and harder to exercise those freedoms.
Which brings me to another topic... But that's for another day.
