All right I can't go into too much detail. Right now to keep money coming in while I'm looking for something meaningful, I've taken a job with a telemarketing co. (Yes I know, but I really don't want to push french fries).

This firm is a pretty upscale organization as far as these places go, one of their biggest clients is the NRA. We do fund raising for them. (for those in the NRA understand I'm just an operator and yes I know we've been calling you every week for the last fifteen years. Obviously I have no control over that.)

Anyway they started a new campaign and I got to say, things just don't seem right. As large as the NRA is every single thing they seem to do is all they seem to care about is politicing and raising money to fend off the GREAT EVILS OF ANTI GUN LEGISLATION. Honestly their official script makes 1950's anti-commie propaganda seem tame. Their scare tactics are so over the top and nearly delusional sometimes it's hard to keep a straight face.

So my question is, what do you all think about gun control?

My self I believe in a common sense approach. Just because you know how to fire a gun, doesn't necessarily mean you should have an automatic weapon at your disposal. If weapons and ammo are millitary & police graded, I really don't see why anyone in the private sector would actually need them.

And before anyone goes off on me about the criminals, there is nothing anyone can do about them. They'll get whatever they want, no matter how hard anyone tries to stop them. I'm refering to the rest of us, who at least pretend to be honest.

I think most folks have no justification for owning fully automatic weapons. The same applies to grenade launchers or recoiless artillery. Ownership of those types of weapons should be regulated. Handguns, rifles and shotguns are common fare and don't need the vast legislation against them that they presently have.

I think most folks have no justification for owning fully automatic weapons. The same applies to grenade launchers or recoiless artillery. Ownership of those types of weapons should be regulated. Handguns, rifles and shotguns are common fare and don't need the vast legislation against them that they presently have.
i try to keep an open mind when it comes to this subject, but I honestly think that a little tweaking to NFA34 would have done a lot better than all the crap we have to deal with now. GCA68 was a joke, and its gone downhill ever since..

Pendragon,
On the subject of ammo, you mention police/military not being available to the public (slightly out of context, but bear with me). Most military ammo shouldnt be available to the public, although tracers are fun to play with. Rubber bullets should be publicly available for home defense purposes. And I do have issues with ceramic bullets used by local law enforcement (and available to the public if you know where to look). Not until they start embedding microchips in the ceramics will I ever buy off on that environmentally friendly idea.
Before you ask, I'm not a gun totin nut case, nor a left wing whack job.

And I wouldn't think you would be Ride4life. That's exactly what I was thinking about myself, I just apparently hadn't phrased it correctly.

Some control I think is reasonable - the Constitution gives one the right to bear arms, not the right to obtain any and every weapon there is as soon as you want it. But I'm OK with concealed carry and the like.

Personally, I have no interest in guns whatsoever.

all my neighbors are in thier 80's

I have my concealed weapons permit. I have never needed it, but I have it for my own protection and because it was the way I was raised...to have the right to bear arms...legally. I agree that the NRA goes overboard sometime, but I still support them.

:)
Kimi

Kimi, consider yourself lucky that you can get a CCW. In cali, you have to die first, then they issue one posthumously. What a sense of humor.

We Floridians also carry concealed weapons, Kim. It is a great deterent when the criminal doesn't know if his intended victim has a weapon or not. I am not ready to give up any of the guns I have in New York or those I have in Florida.

Kimi, consider yourself lucky that you can get a CCW. In cali, you have to die first, then they issue one posthumously. What a sense of humor.


Do what????? How crazy is that? I've always heard it's the land of fruit and nuts, but geeze!

:)
Kimi

We Floridians also carry concealed weapons, Kim. It is a great deterent when the criminal doesn't know if his intended victim has a weapon or not. I am not ready to give up any of the guns I have in New York or those I have in Florida.


I'll give mine up when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers. I agree with you completely, Frogger!

:)
Kimi

Do what????? How crazy is that? I've always heard it's the land of fruit and nuts, but geeze!

:)
Kimi

But then, it always has been difficult to conceal an AK, SKS, AR, or my personal favorite, my M14.

Nobody uses handguns to commit crimes in LA. Those things are dangerous.

I grew up at a time when everyone had guns at home. Either in closets, hung on walls, or in dresser drawers. Oh yeh, or under the mattress, like grandma did. Grandma shot a guy breaking in the back door one night. Sure broke him from the habit.
Kids knew not to mess around with the guns without adult supervision. I suppose some did, but we were taught, at an early age, how to safely handle them.
No one ever considered taking one to school. Sometimes you would see a pocket knife, but not often.

Disputes were handled with someone getting a black eye, usually ended up friends later.
Kids seemed to know the difference in life and death.

In the 8th grade one quite kid in art class with me killed himself at home. Went into the woods and shot himself. Guess he would have hung or drowned himself if he had not had a gun. I always believed he was molested at home or abused in some manner. I did not know his parents.

I saw two guys shoot at one another in the street, argueing over dogs. They went into their houses and met on the street, western style. One put 5 rounds in the other and spent the rest of his life in prison. He was the best shot of the two.

I also went into a home where a woman had just killed her boyfriend with a butcher knife. I suppose she didn't have a gun.

Went to the funeral home, during viewing, where a man had killed his wife, mother-in-law and three kids, with a hammer. Guess he didn't have a gun. Sad to see, as a child, all the coffins lined up. One boy was my age, about 10.

You see, people have always killed other people. Guns, butcher knives, or hammers are not the problem. Bad people are the problem. Sorry we can't ban them.

Ahh, the good old days.

Good post, Dan.

I wonder if i can con Dan into coming to california and giving that story to our state legislature

Random thoughts

Dan, in reading your post, and especially about the dead kids, well, I'd like to say this.

This may sound odd, coming from me, but I can understand why some people steal. I can even understand and have sympathy for even when they kill sometimes. If you're that desperate...

But I will never understand crime against kids, the old, or the helpless. It is beyond my comprehension,the cruelty and evil that some can display, and I've studied this subject for over 35 years. I guess I've learned nothing except their motives are merely selfishness, or they enjoy hurting others because it makes them feel alive, or they hate themselves so much they want to die and take many others with them.Or they just feel like killing. Whatever their motive, the end result is the same--dead people, dead kids, hurt, maimed, murdered.

And all the studying in the world will not stop them. They've always been around. They always will be. I've learned something else tho. There's good people out there--caring, decent folks who bring comfort to the families, who work long hours trying to track the bad guys, who even counsel and try to help the criminals. People who care.

We can't win this battle. The best we can hope for is a standoff. A draw.
But we have to keep fighting. We can't let these people win.

Rendova, the murders that I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with, while in law enforcement, seemed detached from the act.
I am speaking here of the calculated murders, not the "heat of passion" occurances.

It was almost as if they were the observer, instead of the actor. When we spoke alone it was if they spoke of a third party. A third party with a coldness that few of us will ever know.

I sat alone, in a cell, with a man that had killed 4 young people that had come upon an inprogress drug deal outside Panama City, Fl. He had been in charge of "security." Two brothers, dating two sisters, had drove up to the rural site and recognized a man with "Walt." He immediately shot him.
He tied up the other three, put them in the back of a van, and threw the dead body in with them. He drove most of the night with the young people knowing they would die sooner or later. Must have been a living nightmare.

He stopped at a sink-hole filled with water. He took the kids out and shot them one-at-a-time, tied blocks to them and tossed them in the water.
Divers found the bodies a few years later and the crime was back tracked to eventually finding the murderer. He was executed for his crimes.

I had asked him if he had any regrets. He said no. That his family had nothing before the drug deal, now they lived in the lap of luxury. He said he would do it again.

I studied this man as he spoke, one good eye and the other blind and glazed over. He spoke with a coldness that was almost tangible. No remorse, no regret, no feeling.

These people exist among us. The neighbor, the person behind us in the checkout, or in the pew in front of us. There is no distinguishing them. They may not yet know who they are themselves.

We can only seek the good in life and at the same time be aware and cautious.

These people exist among us. The neighbor, the person behind us in the checkout, or in the pew in front of us. There is no distinguishing them. They may not yet know who they are themselves.

We can only seek the good in life and at the same time be aware and cautious.

Well said. I am having such a hard time with the state of things and people's thinking these days. I made the comment just a few days ago that I would truly be fine if my children never have children of their own, for the simple reason I don't want any grandbabies of mine being born into such a sick world. THAT's sad, too.

:)
Kimi

Dan,
I'd like to express to you my thanks for being one of the good guys. Those in law enforcement see and hear things that most of us will never know, or even want to know. It is truly the hardest, saddest, most thankless and misunderstood job on Earth.

I am glad the man was executed. Maybe that makes me sound like a barbarian. But I am glad he paid full measure for his crime. Chalk one up for the good guys.
But even so, he is still three ahead. The battle goes on.

Again, my sincere thanks.

Well said. I am having such a hard time with the state of things and people's thinking these days. I made the comment just a few days ago that I would truly be fine if my children never have children of their own, for the simple reason I don't want any grandbabies of mine being born into such a sick world. THAT's sad, too.

:)
Kimi
================================================== ==

Kimi, parents throughout time may have had the same thoughts.
"Sick" people have always existed.
The world is beautiful. A wonderful experience, if you let it be so.
Those grandchildren that you speak of may make changes that make it a better world in some way.
They will have ups and downs like we have had, but the experience is worth it, I believe.

Dan,
I'd like to express to you my thanks for being one of the good guys. Those in law enforcement see and hear things that most of us will never know, or even want to know. It is truly the hardest, saddest, most thankless and misunderstood job on Earth.

I am glad the man was executed. Maybe that makes me sound like a barbarian. But I am glad he paid full measure for his crime. Chalk one up for the good guys.
But even so, he is still three ahead. The battle goes on.

Again, my sincere thanks.


AMEN!

:)
Kimi

Dan,
I'd like to express to you my thanks for being one of the good guys. Those in law enforcement see and hear things that most of us will never know, or even want to know. It is truly the hardest, saddest, most thankless and misunderstood job on Earth.

I am glad the man was executed. Maybe that makes me sound like a barbarian. But I am glad he paid full measure for his crime. Chalk one up for the good guys.
But even so, he is still three ahead. The battle goes on.

Again, my sincere thanks.
==============================================
Oh, shucks mam, just doing my job.

================================================== ==

Kimi, parents throughout time may have had the same thoughts.
"Sick" people have always existed.
The world is beautiful. A wonderful experience, if you let it be so.
Those grandchildren that you speak of may make changes that make it a better world in some way.
They will have ups and downs like we have had, but the experience is worth it, I believe.


Oh, I love life to the fullest and truly believe in the common good of man. I would love to experience being a grandparent one day and you make a great point that they might make great changes. I've see some evidence of the younger generation today maturing and seeing what needs to be done. They have had to grow up in such a different world than I was so blessed to experience. I just want Mayberry, you know?

:)
Kimi

True Dan but its hard for a murderous psycho to kill more then a few people at the same time without a gun.

Guns = power. Power corrupts.

I think there should be psyche evaluations for concealed permits.