I Don't Own a Weapon!

This was once a common sight.

I have firearms, I own or have owned; sporting rifles, small-bore rifles, air guns, shotguns, handguns, pistols, revolvers, bows, arrows, slingshots, knives… but I don’t own a weapon. If you attack me or my family I’ll use the above or anything handy, a baseball bat, a golf club, my wife’s fingernail file… as a weapon.

We started having more “gun trouble” in our country about the same time firearms lost their proper names and became ‘weapons’. No I’m not saying we have gun trouble because people started calling all firearms ‘weapons’.  I'm saying there has been a growing change in attitude with a parallel growth in ignorance about guns.

Many homes in our country once had a loaded gun standing in the corner by the door, over the fireplace, in window gun racks of unlocked pickups… Few people thought much about it, they were little different than any other tools. Occasionally there were accidents with kids or adults, but most of the guns simply sat there and sometimes rusted from neglect. Most people knew what a gun could do, what to use it for, and how to use it. 

My high school parking lot had so many guns in vehicles today they’d call Homeland Security. We seldom thought about them unless someone started talking about hunting or shooting. 

If someone showed a picture of a gun at school kids could tell you if it was good for birds, small game, or big game.  Today the same picture is of a ‘weapon’. The boys and girls eyes get big and some may say “it’ll do you man” or some negative comment.

Even sportsmen, hunters, shooters, gun makers, gun writers… have blurred the lines. I wonder is it because with a more urban society, more separated from nature, and yes, more crime; is it easier to sell 'weapons' than guns? 

I used an M-16 occasionally in the Air Force and it’s good for what it does, but it’s an ugly weapon, and weapons are designed for ugly purposes. Today’s gun stores have racks of similar ugly guns. They wouldn’t have them if people didn’t want them. As I said in the first paragraph if you mess with me or my family I’ll stop you in any way I can.  But! I worry when so many are interested in 'weapons'. 

There is little "working" difference in my deer rifle and a sniper rifle. Mine is a little better looking, but the real difference is the operator, the use, the intent... Mine is for sport, recreation... It kills to feed, to nourish... 

I look at fine sporting arms the way my wife looks at jewelry.  The best of them are above my pay grade. Both are made by craftsman-artist and neither brings to my mind any evil thoughts.