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I keep hearing these talking heads discussing how you can make schools safe, and how can we stop people from doing this again. We have the same discussion every time someone does something evil, and it always seems to devolve to the choice of tool not the person.

We always want to do away with the tool, in this case guns, but there are those who then ask the obvious question, since more people are killed by drunk drivers than are killed by guns, should we then get rid of cars, or alcohol, or drugs. You see it is a vicious circle, the tool, is just that a tool. In the hands of a stable law-abiding citizen, the car, the drink, the gun are used properly. Let me say that I am an instructor in handgun use, and the first thing I teach is that we have to watch what we are doing with any tool. The handgun being a tool. 1. The gun is always loaded, do not pick up a gun thinking it is unloaded, please be sure that it is indeed not loaded. If you don’t know how to do this, DO NOT PICK UP THE GUN. 2. Never point a gun at anything you are not willing to shoot at, (some would say, destroy). If you have a gun in your hand make sure it is pointed downrange, or in a safe direction. Better yet, put it down or put it in your holster.

I was reading a piece earlier today that spoke about getting retired first responders, Police officers, Military personnel or others who have experience with firearms, to volunteer at your local school. Of course these would be armed persons, that would be able to at the very least slow down the assailant, and at the best stop that person before they could harm anyone inside the building or grounds. I would add persons who have qualified for concealed carry license, they have learned how to use a gun, they are licensed to carry and they have no criminal record. I know of a couple of people who would be glad to volunteer to protect the teachers and the especially the children in schools. It is a shame that there is a need to protect children in what should be the safe place for them, but our society has become somewhat coarsened over the last 50 years or so.

New gun laws, banning this or that gun, I note that a number of politicians and pundits keep referring to automatic weapons, these have been illegal for almost 50 years, what they are actually talking about are semi-automatic guns. You fire only one bullet when you pull the trigger, not a burst of bullets, just one. If you want to fire another you must pull the trigger again. Another thing that the politicians want to ban is the magazine that holds more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The problem there is simple, if I am out on my ranch, which just happens to be very close to the southern border of the USA, with Mexico. You don’t know what you will run into while feeding cattle or goats, or whatever it is you are raising. There can be anything out there from poachers, to human traffickers, to drug runners. All of them armed, now in the case of poachers, you probably will not have any real problem, but with the drug runners and human traffickers, you will be dealing with a number of guns looking back at you. I want to be able to protect myself with a decent amount of bullets that I can return fire with.

Some of these guys do have true assault weapons, so they can fire multiple rounds with one pull of the trigger. I can only hope that I can stop them before they end my life. So there are those of us who actually do need larger magazines. So let’s have a discussion that is not governed by emotion, or politics, but rather by common sense. First, lets talk about enforcing the law on the books now. Second, if you are going to have a school or place of business go into lockdown, then make sure that the bad guys can’t get past the locked door by shooting out a window and climbing in. Common Sense is a wonderful thing, and usually helps to being some decent ideas to the table.

What kind of ideas to you have about all this craziness? Add your comments to the discussion, I’d love to hear from you.

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