I read that 256 people were shot by children getting access to guns in 2016. I don't know if that number is correct or how many of them died. SIGH. Thank you for your reply Tom! :)
What is wrong with our society that so many people feel it's necessary to use guns to settle arguments? is it lack of education, upbringing, ignoring the consequences, stupidity?
I wish I could answer that question m'dear. I cannot. I am not a gun person. To be fair though, had I grown up in a home where folks hunted and did target practice I would be a different RosieG. I will share with you my one and only direct experience with a gun. I was ten years old and my dad worked nights. I had a "baby" sister who was 3 at the time and a mom who was a rather fragile woman. One day my dad took me into the bedroom, opened the closet and reached up to a high shelf and brought a handgun down. I didn't even know there was a gun in the house. I was a very mature/serious 10-year-old. My dad told me he wanted me to understand how to use one if I had to. I told him I didn't want to learn but he said "here I will show you". He put the gun in my hand and all I remember is that I started to shake and then cry. Poor guy. So he took the gun out of my hand and I never saw it again. Guns mean death to me. Pure and simple. I think there is a difference between those who go out and hunt so they can put stuffed dead animal heads on their walls to brag about and those to whom guns are a normal and natural everyday part of life. I cannot imagine going out to kill an animal that I would then eat. But I'm not a vegetarian. I eat meat. Someone had to kill the animal in order for me to do that. What scares me most are the folks who hate and get drunk and carry loaded weapons. If it were up to me guns would be banned/abolished/unheard of. America has a fixation with guns, a defiant attitude about their right to carry them and use them as they see fit anywhere at any time. Which is front and center among the things that makes Americans the laughingstock of the world. Now some of those same folks voted for and got elected an evil despot as our next prez. That is not so funny. SIGH. We are a ridiculous people who think we are exceptional and "better than". I KNOW I shall never live to see a day when the absurdity of that is acknowledged by the "usual suspects". Thank you for your reply. Apologies for not being able to provide a lucid answer to your reasonable question TomT! :)
Thank you for your reply Rosie, I understand your concerns about guns and you are right. Years ago people who had guns were usually hunters and people who liked to target shoot and many belonged to fish & game clubs. Today there are too many guns in the hands of people who don't even know how to use a gun responsibly and don't have the temperament to carry and use a weapon. even fully trained people like police have a hard time deciding in a split second whether to pull the trigger so you can imagine how dangerous it is out there with hundreds of thousands unqualified people walking around with guns you are more likely to get shot by one of them than any terrorist. just a thought. I didn't mean to bore you, sorry.