A Time for Change

If you read my Facebook post of Sunday, you know I had the hair-raising experience of being shot at.  The shooter was our neighbor and he obviously had a major lack in judgment when he aimed toward our home and shot off several rounds of 22 caliber bullets which went whizzing by me and my two dogs.  My first reaction was sheer terror.  I started screaming at the top of my lungs, “Stop, stop, stop…you’re shooting at me.”  They heard me cause the shooting stopped for a few minutes.  

That response lasted seconds and then I went into maniacal, hell-bent, out of control anger.  Within seconds I had the dogs in the house, I was in my car and driving like an Indy stock car driver to our neighbors.  The father of these 30+ year old sons answered the door and when he understood the problem he started laughing.  Oh boy, was that a mistake!!!!  I started screaming at him and using every curse word in the book.  He quickly realized that this was not a laughing matter to me.  

By the time I got home the shooting started again and that was it, I called the county sheriff.    It took a while, but eventually the County Sheriff stopped by the house and let me know he had spoken with our neighbors, cautioned them to aim away from our house, and left it at that.  Turns out it is not illegal to discharge a firearm in our township.   So, while they have their 2^nd Amendment rights, I have nothing to protect me from these idiots who randomly fire off their guns without regard for anything except their personal entertainment. 

So, here’s my argument:  The 2^nd Amendment was written at a time in our country’s history when the use of firearms was a requirement for every white man/woman who needed to protect their property/families and provide food for their family.  It was a time when every person understood the serious nature of using a gun and every person grew up with guns in the house and an understanding that they were not toys and not for amusement.

That is not the case today.  Today, there are a minuscule percentage of gun owners who actually take guns seriously.  After that, the other 99.9% of gun owners don’t have a clue.  The fact that our neighbor started laughing when he understood my problem proves my point.  It would have been altogether different, I suppose,  if Peter had found me wounded or dead in our yard, if we had come home from our errands and found our dogs wounded or dead, or God forbid, it had been one of our grandchildren who just days before had been playing in that vicinity of our yard.  My thought keeps going to the fact that they wouldn’t have had a chance.  They would not have known what that whizzing sound was, they would not have come running back to the house for safety.    

The problem with our culture today is that most people simply do not take guns seriously enough.  Our children are not exposed to guns as our ancestors were, and understand their deadly purpose.  Setting the ‘Crazies’ and criminals aside, we assume that gun owners are responsible people who at all times, understand that the handling and discharge of guns results in death….that is the only purpose for them.  There is no other reason for their existence.  Death.  That is it. Target practice?  That is practice to kill.  Whether it is humans or animals, the only purpose for a gun is to kill.  PEOPLE HAVE GOT TO UNDERSTAND THIS AND INCORPORATE IT INTO THEIR CONCIOUSNESS. 

So, should the 2^nd Amendment be updated, you betcha!!!  The general population no longer has a need to arm and protect themselves from hostile governments.  We have enough weaponry as a country to take care of that situation.  The general population no longer needs to protect their family and property….that’s why we have a well armed police force.  And while I have no problem with subsistence hunting, any infraction of responsible rifle handling, as I experienced on Sunday, should result in some kind of legal sanction against the gun handler.

If we could trust that every responsible gun owner would never get drunk and pull out their hand gun for some personal affront, or never experience road rage, or never leave their gun for a child to find, or never be irritated by a fellow theater goer, or never just have a general lack of judgment, as I experienced on Sunday, then maybe we would all be safe and never experience a profound loss of security and safety in our own homes.  But I for one have now experienced that loss and have absolutely no faith in general gun ownership to not make me or one of my beloveds one of their victims.  

And I realize that the majority of people who read this will totally disagree with me.  But as a culture, as a country, as concerned citizens, we cannot continue like this.  We have to realize that the 2^nd Amendment was written at a time when gun ownership was for an entirely different purpose.  To not accept that times have changed so astronomically that warrants an update to the 2^nd Amendment is to keep our heads buried in the sand as they have been for many, many years.

In the book, The Art of Power, there is a quote by Thomas Jefferson regarding the fact that the constitution must be continually updated, that to expect it not to be updated is like expecting a 21-year old to wear the same coat that he wore as a 6-year old.  Makes sense to me.