Posted on 10/01/2013 5:17:17 AM PDT by SJackson
Every time there’s a shooting tragedy, there are more calls for gun control. Let’s examine a few historical facts. By 1910, the National Rifle Association had succeeded in establishing 73 NRA-affiliated high-school rifle clubs. The 1911 second edition of the Boy Scout Handbook made qualification in NRA’s junior marksmanship program a prerequisite for obtaining a BSA merit badge in marksmanship. In 1918, the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. established its own Winchester Junior Rifle Corps. The program grew to 135,000 members by 1925. In New York City, gun clubs were started at Boys, Curtis, Commercial, Manual Training and Stuyvesant high schools. With so many guns in the hands of youngsters, did we see today’s level of youth violence?
What about gun availability? Catalogs and magazines from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s were full of gun advertisements directed to children and parents. For example, “What Every Parent Should Know When a Boy or Girl Wants a Gun” was published by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The 1902 Sears mail-order catalog had 35 pages of firearm advertisements. People just sent in their money, and a firearm was shipped. For most of our history, a person could simply walk into a hardware store, virtually anywhere in our country, and buy a gun. Few states bothered to have even age restrictions on buying guns.
Those and other historical facts should force us to ask ourselves: Why — at a time in our history when guns were readily available, when a person could just walk into a store or order a gun through the mail, when there were no FBI background checks, no waiting periods, no licensing requirements — was there not the frequency and kind of gun violence that we sometimes see today, when access to guns is more restricted? Guns are guns. If they were capable of behavior, as some people seem to suggest, they should have been doing then what they’re doing now.
Customs, traditions, moral values and rules of etiquette, not just laws and government regulations, are what make for a civilized society, not restraints on inanimate objects.
These behavioral norms — transmitted by example, word of mouth and religious teachings — represent a body of wisdom distilled through ages of experience, trial and error, and looking at what works. The benefit of having customs, traditions and moral values as a means of regulating behavior is that people behave themselves even if nobody’s watching. In other words, it’s morality that is society’s first line of defense against uncivilized behavior.
Moral standards of conduct, as well as strict and swift punishment for criminal behaviors, have been under siege in our country for more than a half-century. Moral absolutes have been abandoned as a guiding principle. We’ve been taught not to be judgmental, that one lifestyle or value is just as good as another. More often than not, the attack on moral standards has been orchestrated by the education establishment and progressives. Police and laws can never replace these restraints on personal conduct so as to produce a civilized society. At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. The more uncivilized we become the more laws are needed to regulate behavior.
What’s worse is that instead of trying to return to what worked, progressives want to replace what worked with what sounds good or what seems plausible, such as more gun locks, longer waiting periods and stricter gun possession laws. Then there’s progressive mindlessness “cures,” such as “zero tolerance” for schoolyard recess games such as cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians, shouting “bang bang,” drawing a picture of a pistol, making a gun out of Lego pieces, and biting the shape of a gun out of a Pop-Tart. This kind of unadulterated lunacy — which focuses on an inanimate object such as a gun instead of on morality, self-discipline and character — will continue to produce disappointing results.
THAT explains the surge in mass shootings since the 1960s
Was that cartoon drawn by a real six year old or by his gun hating mom?
Anyway, Dr. Williams nails it: “Customs, traditions, moral values and rules of etiquette, not just laws and government regulations, are what make for a civilized society, not restraints on inanimate objects.”
Anti-Western attitudes and promotion of anti-Western cultures.
In our rural Texas high school in the late ‘50s, boys had their guns in their unlocked lockers all day, so they could go hunting after school. There never was a problem with either theft or murder. That’s because all the children in our school were reared by Christian parents who expected responsibility from an early age.
I’m tired of my gun trying to get me in trouble, so I’m taking it to an anger Management course today.. Being Proactive is the only way..
My gun is the son of a gun as well, both sides of the family, Smith & Wesson, and probably has it’s dangerous family traits, and you really can’t blame it.. Bad gun..
Liberals and all the societal rot they cause is the problem.
I think I need to take mine to an anti sexual harassment training. The other day I caught my Mossberg looking at my wife's LCP .380 in a decidedly ungentlemanly like way. Now, the Mossberg stays loaded all the time (which he should probably seek treatment for too) but he's never killed nor even threatened anyone. Never "accidentally discharged" or anything like that. Though grand-dad's old 30-30 is leaned up in the corner saying "just you wait you young whipper-snappers, AD can happen to anyone, why back in 1952..."
Yep, as a "responsible gun owner" you have to stay on top of these things. They have a mind of their own dontcha know. While it is easy to fault them when something bad happens (as oh so many people do fault them) I tend to look deeper. It isn't really the firearms' fault it wasn't raised in a loving and caring environment. Not it's fault it couldn't achieve high marks on the range. Many are disadvantaged from the start and don't set their sights high enough.
Ok, enough silliness. I've got to get to work. Gotta fund insurance for a couple of illegals' families that are counting on me for healthcare. (unlike the other paragraphs, sadly not satire)
“In our rural Texas high school in the late ‘50s, boys had their guns in their unlocked lockers all day, so they could go hunting after school. There never was a problem with either theft or murder. That’s because all the children in our school were reared by Christian parents who expected responsibility from an early age.”
Had a similar experience when growing up in rural Arkansas (I’m 68). We kept shotguns and rifles in our cars, many were stashed in gun racks on the back window of pickups. My freshman year of college at Arkansas Tech which was/is located in very rural Arkansas, I kept my deer rifle in my dorm room. I got in trouble with the dorm mom for having Playboy pinups taped on my room walls and had to remove them but not a word was ever said about my deer rifle. The times have indeed changed......
Good to see another responsible gun owner.. Too many bad guns, getting away with murder for far too long.. :)
“In our rural Texas high school in the late ‘50s, boys had their guns in their unlocked lockers all day, so they could go hunting after school. There never was a problem with either theft or murder. That’s because all the children in our school were reared by Christian parents who expected responsibility from an early age.”Had a similar experience when growing up in rural Arkansas (I’m 68). We kept shotguns and rifles in our cars, many were stashed in gun racks on the back window of pickups. My freshman year of college at Arkansas Tech which was/is located in very rural Arkansas, I kept my deer rifle in my dorm room. I got in trouble with the dorm mom for having Playboy pinups taped on my room walls and had to remove them but not a word was ever said about my deer rifle. The times have indeed changed......
Shotguns and deer rifles in gun racks in windows of pick ups were common in my Texas high school parking lot in the late 70s. No one ever thought anything about it.
Guns ARE a problem. Especially when the law abiding don’t carry them.
Stuyvesant H S, mentioned. An all male school until the feminist movement. The rifle team, boy’s from every borough of the city, traveled to and from school, to after school “rifle meets” with other schools, CARRYING THEIR ENCASED RIFLES, BY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION,bus/subway- NO PROBLEM
I think my guns are well-behaved but lonely. I'm planning on getting them some companions.
Shucks, in the early/mid 60’s in Albuquerque there were always at least a couple of rifles in gun racks in the pick-up trucks in the student parking lot. Never became an issue. Today, you can’t wear a shirt with a gun on it because it might be threatening or offensive. How far we’ve fallen. (Can’t even order a gun out of Popular Mechanics or Field & Stream. LOL!)
To be honest, I have seen this graphic a few times in the past...And I have to wonder...
Does anyone believe this picture, and the statements made in it were really the sole work of a child, and their own opinion about gun-control???
A part of me says yes, but I believe it was a setup from the get-go...That child obviously has been the product of the effort to breed this type of anti-freedom message at an early age...And it is obviously more prevalent than just this instance...
Unfortunately, these kids grow up, and it is unlikely they will ever change their mind about the issue...
And if the time ever came that this child ever faces a situation where they wish they had the means to defend themselves, and they somehow relinquish themselves to fate, and the good graces of the person threatening them...
They’re being dissapointed (that help was not right there)does not garner any pity from me...You made your bed, now you get to lay in it...
Again, just my opinion...
I would love to attend a meeting like that...
Especially if you placed your gun on the table, as a sign of respect to the others, because of the potential dissagreements that may follow...
I vaguely rememebr that being something done back in the day when you could have a dissagreement with another person, show your cards, and work things out...Everyone seemed to desire to work things out and everyone end up going home at the end of the discussion...
An Anger Management class (session) would probably disperse rather abruptly if this ever happened...hehehe
You could almost say, “Was it something I said???” ;-)
/funny stoopid rant
Well, shoot...You beat me to the punch...hehehe
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