For me the idea of gun ownership was nothing short of insanity.  I could not understand why anyone would want to own a gun unless they were a cop or a hunter.  I truly believed that only crazy people who loved to kill owned guns and I honestly believed that less guns would mean less crimes.

I understood that the bad guys didn’t care about laws, but I also believed that I should not contribute to something I believed was harmful and I completely believed that the police would be there to protect me and everyone else.

I remember having a conversation with one of my students about gun laws.  He was trying to convince me that guns save lives, but I could not for the life of me understand this argument.  Guns kill and if no one had a gun then there would be less crime and if not having guns saved one innocent life from an accidental discharge than to me it was worth it.

I am a mother and the thought of one of my children being killed by a gun I had in my house, was unimaginable to me and I believed that any effort to keep them safe was worth any price to include anyone’s right to own one.

I understand that my thinking was flawed.  I know what the statics are on accidental deaths and I also know that while it may have been an accident, the gun itself was not the one making the mistake, but rather whoever was handling the gun, but all that is for another post.

When someone believes something to be true, they tend to make all their choices and decisions from that view point.  So, if I sincerely believe guns kill innocent people then all of my actions are going to stem from that belief.

It isn’t until the belief changes that the actions does.

Up until the grocery store indecent,my experience with guns had been a very personal one that evoked a lot of pain and sadness.  I had only known one person who had a gun and he killed himself with it.  While I loved my brother dearly, he had problems and the way he took his own life only served to strength my beliefs on guns and their dangers. My experiences with guns and gun people were limited, but they were very personal and very powerful.  It wasn’t until something equally as personal and powerful happened to me that my beliefs began to change.

That experience jolted me into realizing things I just simply never realized before.  The arguments of those who supported gun rights and gun ownership never made any sense to me until I was living one of those arguments.  My reality changed and in doing so it rocked my world and everything I believed to be true up until that point.

Once I opened up to the idea of using a gun for protection, I dove right in to find out everything I could about anything and everything that had anything to do with guns.  What I found was that much of what I believed was based on ignorance and miscalculations.

I can’t speak for the mind set of everyone who is anti gun, but outside of the far side of any spectrum and the politicians, I think most people are acting out of a flawed thinking on issues they are ignorant about. 

If those of us who support the rights of Americans to carry and bare arms want to change the laws and gain more of our freedoms back, we need to focus on changing how people think and that is not going to happen with angry words and threats.

When I visit the NRA Facebook page or read an article posted by a pro 2nd Amendment person and then I read the comments that follow, I am saddened a bit.  Not because I think these people are wrong in what they are saying, but because it won’t help doing anything to further the cause.

Let me first say, that I think it is natural and even healthy to vent and we all use humor and sarcasm to let out our frustrations.  Of course, it is natural to share those thoughts, ideas, and frustrations with people who share your same values.  However, I see myself in those comments and if I had read any of those angry, hateful comments it would have only served to reinforce a belief I already held.

While I believe it is healthy and even fun to get all worked up about an issue with like minded folks, it does little to motivate anyone to look at an issue differently and if we want to secure our rights we need to change the way people view guns and those who own them.

One of the places I often go to, to learn about guns is YouTube.  I have found an awful lot of very helpful information on there.  The channel LimaLife is very, very informative.  The woman who runs it has started a new blog about being armed and pregnant and on that blog she writes about guns being inherently dangerous.  I think understanding that guns, in and of themselves, are nothing more than an inanimate object is fundamental to changing the way people view guns.  If your interested in reading what she has to say go here…

http://armedpregnancy.blogspot.com/ and read the post “But Aren’t Guns Inherently Dangerous?”