This iReport is part of an assignment:
Gun control debate: Background checks
About this iReport
- Posted January 4, 2013 by
- MalakieUSN Follow
Location
Theresa, Wisconsin
Theresa, Wisconsin
Assignment
 |
Writing to our representatives about this gun debate...
I too have written a large number of letters to my congress and senate representatives. I also wrote TWO letters to the Whitehouse.
To date, all I have gotten back are form letters.
I am a United States Navy Service Connected Disabled Veteran. In those letters I stated emphatically that I will NOT give up my 2nd Amendment rights, I will NOT give up my weapons nor will I support any attempted change to the current laws.
Basically, here is the text from the letter I sent:
1) Set in place a system that requires mental health evaluations under certain circumstances before the allowance of the purchase of a firearm. I.E., if convicted of any crime (including misdemeanors) involving a charge stemming from physical injury, domestic dispute, and a few others that pertain to a persons frame of mind and/or ability to control anger. Basically any charge they were CONVICTED of that entail some type of bodily harm to others.
Additionally, require the eval for someone who has been INPATIENT treated for any mental condition and/or convicted of multiple DUI or DRUG use arrests. Again those CONVICTED of such things.
All of these categories still allow them all to be gun owners BUT due to their past actions they would be required to have a certified medical and mental clearance first and before authorized to purchase any firearm. Basically a background check on their demeanor and whether they are at risk of continuing that pattern of behavior.
2) We trust ourselves to airline pilots, who we now allow to be armed. We trust numerous security people to guard common public places that include places our children go. In fact we seem to have no problem and place great importance on security officers being armed who guard bags of money everyday on our streets yet we do not place the same importance on our own children!
Allow trained and certified teachers and school officials to carry concealed! We already trust them with our children's lives... Why not let them really be able to fully protect them instead of only half way?
We have a lot of trained disabled Veterans who need work or the ability to feel useful again... ask us to give time to patrolling our schools. We would without hesitation. We are trained to carry firearms, we have shown and earned the trust in our duties and we would give our lives to stop someone from doing harm to any child.
3) Require any gun owner that has someone in the home who is known to have a mental defect or shows signs of mental distress, trigger lock and/or remove said firearms from that home until such time as the person with the issues is removed or is no longer a possible issue pertaining to that condition. And any gun owner who does not take measures to properly protect those firearms in those situations should be held fully accountable should their weapons be used by that same person who is having the mental issues.
4) Start an education program recommending that all parents who are gun owners TEACH their children about firearms, the proper use of and the right and wrong times they are to be used or even loaded. If a parent owns a firearms, make it a requirement that any children in the household be required to attend and pass a hunters/firearms safety course EVEN IF the child has no intention of ever shooting, hunting or owning their own firearm. In essence give them the information and facts and let them decide for themselves with FULL facts whether they would ever decide to be owner or use firearms.
My father started teaching me around age 10. He drilled it into me the proper carrying methods, safety methods, and shooting methods. He also drilled into me to NEVER ever point a gun at another person, even accidentally, unless I had no choice because I had to stop someone from killing another human being. And that was a last resort even so.
EVEN then I was not even allowed to go on my first hunt with a gun WITH my father until after I passed a hunters safety course AND until I was 14 years old.
We need to get rid of the stigma of firearms. Firearms are not what should be scaring people. What should be scaring people are the ones who GET the guns who are mentally unstable or repeat criminals who care not for human life.
5) DO NOT ban anything. Banning assault type weapons or high cap magazines will only make a lot of us more angry. It is also the first step toward reducing our 2nd amendment rights even further.
It does not matter if a weapon has a 10 round or 20 round mag.. Anyone with training can swap a magazine almost as quickly as if they did not need to during any situation.
As for the 'assault' weapon issue.... let's get the facts right first!! The weapons so many seem to want to call assault weapons are in fact NOT. They do not fire 3 round burst. They do not fire in AUTO mode. They do not automatically come with the add-on's found on military versions... AND most do not even use the same ammo types. In fact the .223mm used in this latest tragedy is a SMALLER caliber than just about every single other HUNTING rifle that has been in use for over a hundred years!
Yet because it simply LOOKS like an assault rifle, people who do not know anything assume it is. But in reality it is NOT an assault rifle, only a LOOK A LIKE. And again most deer hunting and other hunting rifles pack MUCH more power and damage into their rounds than most of the look alike assault rifles do.
And so those are my suggestions... I sincerely hope that as this debate progresses, suggestions like mine will prevail with cooler heads and common sense. Banning guns, magazines and making even more worthless rules and laws will only make many more of us angrier than we already are and look toward our government not as for the people but against the people.
Our founding fathers gave us these rights we Veterans and Active military have given so much to preserve. To allow anyone to subvert and step on those rights especially when done for political reasons, is not only wrong it is one of the most UN-American things you can all do to us and our freedoms.
To date, all I have gotten back are form letters.
I am a United States Navy Service Connected Disabled Veteran. In those letters I stated emphatically that I will NOT give up my 2nd Amendment rights, I will NOT give up my weapons nor will I support any attempted change to the current laws.
Basically, here is the text from the letter I sent:
1) Set in place a system that requires mental health evaluations under certain circumstances before the allowance of the purchase of a firearm. I.E., if convicted of any crime (including misdemeanors) involving a charge stemming from physical injury, domestic dispute, and a few others that pertain to a persons frame of mind and/or ability to control anger. Basically any charge they were CONVICTED of that entail some type of bodily harm to others.
Additionally, require the eval for someone who has been INPATIENT treated for any mental condition and/or convicted of multiple DUI or DRUG use arrests. Again those CONVICTED of such things.
All of these categories still allow them all to be gun owners BUT due to their past actions they would be required to have a certified medical and mental clearance first and before authorized to purchase any firearm. Basically a background check on their demeanor and whether they are at risk of continuing that pattern of behavior.
2) We trust ourselves to airline pilots, who we now allow to be armed. We trust numerous security people to guard common public places that include places our children go. In fact we seem to have no problem and place great importance on security officers being armed who guard bags of money everyday on our streets yet we do not place the same importance on our own children!
Allow trained and certified teachers and school officials to carry concealed! We already trust them with our children's lives... Why not let them really be able to fully protect them instead of only half way?
We have a lot of trained disabled Veterans who need work or the ability to feel useful again... ask us to give time to patrolling our schools. We would without hesitation. We are trained to carry firearms, we have shown and earned the trust in our duties and we would give our lives to stop someone from doing harm to any child.
3) Require any gun owner that has someone in the home who is known to have a mental defect or shows signs of mental distress, trigger lock and/or remove said firearms from that home until such time as the person with the issues is removed or is no longer a possible issue pertaining to that condition. And any gun owner who does not take measures to properly protect those firearms in those situations should be held fully accountable should their weapons be used by that same person who is having the mental issues.
4) Start an education program recommending that all parents who are gun owners TEACH their children about firearms, the proper use of and the right and wrong times they are to be used or even loaded. If a parent owns a firearms, make it a requirement that any children in the household be required to attend and pass a hunters/firearms safety course EVEN IF the child has no intention of ever shooting, hunting or owning their own firearm. In essence give them the information and facts and let them decide for themselves with FULL facts whether they would ever decide to be owner or use firearms.
My father started teaching me around age 10. He drilled it into me the proper carrying methods, safety methods, and shooting methods. He also drilled into me to NEVER ever point a gun at another person, even accidentally, unless I had no choice because I had to stop someone from killing another human being. And that was a last resort even so.
EVEN then I was not even allowed to go on my first hunt with a gun WITH my father until after I passed a hunters safety course AND until I was 14 years old.
We need to get rid of the stigma of firearms. Firearms are not what should be scaring people. What should be scaring people are the ones who GET the guns who are mentally unstable or repeat criminals who care not for human life.
5) DO NOT ban anything. Banning assault type weapons or high cap magazines will only make a lot of us more angry. It is also the first step toward reducing our 2nd amendment rights even further.
It does not matter if a weapon has a 10 round or 20 round mag.. Anyone with training can swap a magazine almost as quickly as if they did not need to during any situation.
As for the 'assault' weapon issue.... let's get the facts right first!! The weapons so many seem to want to call assault weapons are in fact NOT. They do not fire 3 round burst. They do not fire in AUTO mode. They do not automatically come with the add-on's found on military versions... AND most do not even use the same ammo types. In fact the .223mm used in this latest tragedy is a SMALLER caliber than just about every single other HUNTING rifle that has been in use for over a hundred years!
Yet because it simply LOOKS like an assault rifle, people who do not know anything assume it is. But in reality it is NOT an assault rifle, only a LOOK A LIKE. And again most deer hunting and other hunting rifles pack MUCH more power and damage into their rounds than most of the look alike assault rifles do.
And so those are my suggestions... I sincerely hope that as this debate progresses, suggestions like mine will prevail with cooler heads and common sense. Banning guns, magazines and making even more worthless rules and laws will only make many more of us angrier than we already are and look toward our government not as for the people but against the people.
Our founding fathers gave us these rights we Veterans and Active military have given so much to preserve. To allow anyone to subvert and step on those rights especially when done for political reasons, is not only wrong it is one of the most UN-American things you can all do to us and our freedoms.
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