My thoughts on gun control.

My house has 4 guns in it. My father likes to go hunting so he has a rifle for hunting, a shotgun and two pistols he keeps for self defense. One was the magnum he carried when he was with the sheriff's department, I'm guessing this was before they started standard issuing Glocks. My father is responsible with his guns. He drilled it into my head from an early age that guns are not cool, they are not toys, they are weapons designed to kill and they serve no purpose beyond that. The shotgun has a lock on the trigger, the rifle's ammo is stored separate from the rifle and I think there is a lock on it as well, though I haven't seen it in about a year so I can't remember. The pistols are kept unloaded and out of reach. He keeps the 9mm in a drawer beside his bed, but he stores the clip in a box on a high shelf where my nephews can't reach it, hell I can't reach it without a step ladder. He gave the Magnum to me to keep simply because I stay home alone a lot there have been a lot of home invasions around our area lately. However, I store it on a high shelf and keep the bullets hidden where only I can find them.

I'll be completely honest, I am wary of the idea of the police being the only armed force in our society simply because they have a tendency to abuse their power, but on the other hand you're a a complete and utter fool if you think you can outgun the U.S. government so that is pretty much a moot point. Perhaps once we have phased out guns from the majority of the population we could mandate it so that your average street cop only carries a tazer like I've heard they do in the U.K. and give guns only to special units who require weapons like that.

It has gotten to the point where the right to keep and bear arms is infringing on the much more important and fundamental right to life and that cannot be tolerated. I am still not a proponent of a full ban because I do think guns can sometimes serve a legitimate use, however if it that is the only way to stop this violence then I'll vote for it a heartbeat and be first in line to turn in any weapons in my house. The right to live outweighs the right to keep and bear arms any day of the week. The latter is a fundamental right, the latter a holdover from the 18th century.