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Dear Senator Heinrich,
While I am glad to see an effort to limit war-like weapons, it is, at the same time discouraging; it's another example of treating the symptom rather than the cause.
In 2010 I drove up the east side of the Rockies and crossed over through Banff-Jasper park from whence I took the Al-Can highway to Tok and on to my destination in Palmer, Alaska.
It was my first visit to Canada and I was nervous about being in another country, but from the Mountie who greeted me at the border with "Welcome to God's country" to the border guard who waved me through and back into The States two months later, I never felt safer.
I have no fondness for the 2nd amendment and actually think anyone who does is deluded. Surely you recognize the problems that engender "mass shootings" have little to do with the availability of weapons or the right to arm bears.
Though we've made progress toward changing the bigotry, rascism, mysogyny and xenophobia that're endemic to America, until we accept the challenge of fostering a sense of inclusive well-being, I suspect our country will end up mired in corruption and internal enmities much like the Mid-east.
I am in no way suggesting we give up, but the changes necessary will need to begin in our schools. We need smaller classes that provide an environment of safety in which trust and openness enable teachers to address the incipient emotions that incite mass shootings.
Recognizing the role teachers play as surrogate parents, limiting class size to around 12 and paying them at levels commensurate with their role is essential to changing this country's trajectory.
Limiting access to war-weapons only affects those whose attitudes are grounded in ignorance and fear. And though there are many of them, it is their children who carry forward the behaviors of bullying, derisive epithets and other forms of ostracism and devisiveness.
My opinions stem from several years as owner of a small company that provided over 20 after-school programs to APS (Albuq Public Schools) elementary and middle schools. I saw first-hand the individual attention children need in learning to navigate the path toward critical thinking and adult decision-making. We have yet to meet our duty to our children. Perhaps you can find a way to get us started.
Appreciative of your patriotism,
MFH
Back in the 1960s I became involved with competitive shooting. That led to six years in the National Guard where I spent most of my enlistment with an exclusive unit provided advanced training in marksmanship. This included smallbore rifle and pistol and highpower rifle including but not limited to M-14 and M-16. All in, it was a great experience and I met a lot of good people.
ReplyDeleteI've been a life member of the NRA for over fifty years and have watched two significant political overthrows within the organization which diverted it from its' initial purpose, ethics and standards. The recent departure of the President is long overdue. He exploited the members and created a target for all who have any questions of 2nd Amendment rights.
Recent Supreme Court decisions have followed very literal and originalist interpretationsof the Constitution and one can be assured that the current clown show at the Supreme Court will continue supporting the firearms industry. The tide really turned with the evolution of the Glock handgun which at one level was a good technological advancement but at another level promoted the 'large capacity' frenzy. In 1966 I worked at a small town sporting goods store and we had one of the first Colt AR-15 rifles laying on the counter for several years. Despite the fact that we sold many guns to hunters, shooters and collectors no one saw any practical use for the AR-15. Now that weapons system is gold for the manufacturers and it's the standard for competition of all types, hunting and the valued home defense and crazy person gun nut.
Now after that long intro I have to concur that now it's impossible to control the stream of AR weapons. The court will never stand up to the challenges and the Republicans want only to be re-elected and that will continue with gerrymandering. College attendance and graduation and high school graduations have been decreasing and curriculum dumbed down for a long time. That's in the U.S. in contrast with the other obvious countries worth comparison. It's about critical thinking, true research, literary skills and the motivation and awareness to understand and grow. That's my opinion that agrees with yours but from the perspective of someone who still enjoys competition and has a permit to carry. I don't like the idea of carrying because it's a bit hassle and even in a self-defense scenario you'll end up in jail but there are just too many dumb fuck gun nuts out there. They vote for Trump.
Art,
DeleteWhat were the original ethics and goals of the NRA?
2.Feb.24
DeleteArt,
I recently heard an attorney comment that at any given time, nearly everyone is in violation of at least SIX laws. While comments such as these provide fuel for the reactionaries, the truth in the statement highlights the myriad (plethora of!) statutes that though not generally enforceable, provide potential for abuse as seen in the death of George Floyd.
We returned from Germany in Nov, 1961 to Nashville, TN. We lived in a cute (but cold) log cabin 15 miles from town at the edge of a huge woods. At age 10 I had a high-powered bb gun and was a pretty good shot. My uncle was a bird enthusiast and "okayed" the shooting of starlings and blackbirds but inpressed on me and his boys that we weren't to kill songbirds. At 12 I acquired a single-shot 12-guage with which I hunted squirrels. I never grew enthused about killing but sustained enough interest in guns to be able to converse moderately well about ballistics.
After my first wife and I moved to Albuquerque, I was invited to join the guys in the shop on a deer hunt. I picked up a .303 Enfield for $40 from a pawn shop and spent the weekend of the hunt sitting on a log listening to the shots all around me hoping not to get hit. Though purportedly not as accurate as modern guns, I enjoyed fooling with the adjustable peep to lob shots at gallon jugs set off about as far as I could still make 'em out...I'm guessing 1,000'.
In my 30s I grew paranoid and acquired a Ruger Security Six .357. For years I carried it w/o a permit in a shoulder holster under my sport coat. I got good enough to pivot 180° while drawing and hit the center of a half-liter bottle at 12 feet. I figured that was good enough...any further away and I'd be running away. Fortunately, the one time I felt the need to pll it out I was able to avoid firing it.
Around 2013, wrangling another bout of nerves, I picked up the 20-guage "Pardner Pump," by H&R. I had the barrel cut down to 18" and replaced the stock with a small rubber nub. Still of legal length, it was manueverable inside Phoebe and the light recoil made it easy to fire from any position. I enjoyed practicing with both guns but the noise always bothered me. Around 2018, after I lost the sight in my left eye (I was a left-handed shooter), I took up archery which I did right-handed. I gave the guns away after the heart attack in 2020 and haven't missed 'em.
With all the above as preamble,
Sandia National Laboratories at Kirtland Air Force Base is known, along with Los Alamos, as being in the business of developing war weapons. Very little about what they've devised leaks out, but given the advanced technology of night vision, communications and drone navigation one can only imagine what *else* they've come up with.
Advocates of the 2nd amendment might point to the success of the Peoples' Army of Viet Nam as evidence of the success attainable with small arms and tenacity, but from what I've seen, very very few of the AR enthusiasts and home defense people have any combat training and wouldn't stand a chance against anyone except equally untrained adversaries. Based on the reaction to the rioting after Floyd's murder, I seriously doubt an outbreak of civil war in this country would last more than a few days.
The media's fueling of paranoia is troubling. I traveled in Mexico in 1972 and the larger homes in Merida had armed guards. Are we moving in the same direction?