As a responsible gun owner, it pains me to see media and politicians continue to misuse terms and facts related to firearms that only help elicit fear and eliminate facts from the debate. I also hate to see media use the most extreme personalities when debating these issues only to sell the story. I felt like some facts need to filter through the noise or else our leaders' responses to these tragedies will be completely ineffective, feel good policies that do nothing but take away freedoms from law-abiding citizens.

Misused terms like "Assault Rifle" (often confused for the debated term of "Assault Weapon"), and "Automatic Rifle" when referring to the rifles used in some of the most recent shootings continue to show that those reporting on the topic the loudest aren't properly educated on the subject themselves.

Also, the focus on a particular subset of firearms that are popular for sport shooting and collecting that are statistically insignificant in the overall gun violence picture also shows that media is resorting to what scares more instead of looking at a bigger picture solution. More information at: http://www.assaultweapon.info/

Although this iReport video spends more time covering some of the misunderstood points on these firearms and some common sense arguments as to why currently proposed legislation will likely do more to limit legal gun-owners rights, it does cover what I think are some common sense, more realistic solutions to the problem. Some solutions are ones that many pro-gun groups may disagree with but something has to be done to stop guns getting into the wrong hands. Unfortunately at least one of the needed solutions is more of a personal responsibility issue with gun owners than one that can be realistically legislated. However, if people that don't understand firearms would stop screaming so loudly for removing the rights from responsible gun owners out of an unrealistic fear of guns, it might be easier for gun owners to hear what we really need to do to help contribute to a solution: lock up our guns so children, criminals, and others cannot access them so readily. With the right to bear arms comes a responsibility to keep arms out of the wrong hands.