More gun control won't fix it

I'm a middle class white woman of retirement age.

I'm a law-abiding citizen.

I have no criminal record.

I was the victim of a violent crime involving a handgun in my youth.

I do not support new firearm control measures.

I do not monetarily or politically support the National Rifle Association.

I plan to purchase my first handgun and a permit to carry within the next two weeks, before the right to do so is stripped from me by someone I didn't vote for and who does not represent ME in the state legislature. Call it a form of protest. 

The men in my family have always owned firearms so I grew up around guns. Firearms are not toys and I never misunderstood that they were. The toy pistols my little cowgirl self played with were the only "guns" I played with because never, ever, never did any of the adults in my life leave a gun where I could pick it up and play with it.

When I was about eleven or twelve, I was allowed to accompany the men to target and trap shoot. They taught me my first lesson - NEVER let the barrel of the gun point at anyone. Second lesson - how to make sure the safety was on. As you may imagine, those lessons were taught simultaneously. It was only after I demonstrated I could find the safety on the various firearms they had was I allowed to handle an unloaded handgun. And it was a few target shooting trips later until I was allow to actually point a rifle at anything, and later still until I got one with a cartridge in the chamber.

At the very core of our past, current and future weapons control debate lies the fact no one wants to be responsible for their own actions anymore. No one wants to take the time to teach their children how to be responsible and no one wants to be held accountable when their children do bad things through lack of parental instruction.

The government is not a substitute parent.

The Second Amendment as ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, is worded as follows: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

I concede the point I'm not part of a militia, but should the need, God forbid, ever arise, I could be. I see in the first half of the Second Amendment a clear call that as an American I should stand ready to defend my home and my freedom at all times because my country has acknowledged the action may be necessary.

And because this action may become necessary no one shall have the right to deny me "arms." Which we all know in the language of those times means firearms.

But back to why I can't support new gun control laws.

Laws are made by and for lawful people. It is the lawful that uphold the law. When I purchase a handgun I expect to fill out multiple forms and jump through multiple hoops. It's annoying, but I'll do it because it's the law. And because I abide by the law, I'll be able to purchase a handgun. 

(Maybe I'll get a surprise and they won't give me a permit, at which time I'll know in my gut America is truly dying and dystopia is closer to reality than I feared possible.)

The checks and balances we have in place are enough to ensure law abiding citizens continue to have the right to bear arms. They are cumbersome and bureaucratic and waste time and money and I think it's been proven they don't stop criminals or someone bent on killing from doing whatever they damn well please whenever they want to do it. More laws will simply impact and infringe on the law-abiding citizen.

Enough, already. Let's live in the real world, stop the political posturing, and fix what really needs fixed - people.

People. The beginning and the end of everything.

People.