by> Jeff > If you read the second amendment doesn't it apply to militias rather than > private individuals ? Oh well, whatever I just wish fewer kids were killed
If you read the Constitution, and consider it in conjunction with history, and knew the law, you would know that every able-bodied male in the United States is actually in the militia, whether you want to be or not. Since I do believe in equal opportunity, to me that means women too. (But the law doesn't read that way unfortunately.) Oh, but there are no "accidents" involving firearms. There is no such thing as an "accidental discharge". (Guns don't just go off by themselves, and they don't just get handed out to kids like pop tarts.) There is only negligence and carelessness. While I have been around firearms all my life, and shot my first deer when I was ten, I was never allowed unsupervised access to them. (Not until I was 16 and I had proved myself worthy of that responsibility to my father, who was a state employed firearms safety instructor in his spare time.) As a parent I too worry about my three year old daughter. It is terrible when kids get in the line of fire. But the people to look at are not the manufacturers of guns, or all of the people who own them, but those "adults" that allowed their guns to fall into the wrong hands, that didn't keep their firearms secure, that allow their children to run wild with no responsibility. (And the criminals too, but that goes without saying.) More people are killed in car crashes everyday in this country. Do we hold the automobile manufacturers responsible when a drunk driver kills somebody? In the Army, as a Squad Leader in a Ranger Battalion, I was personally responsible for everything the members of my squad did, or failed to do. As a parent, I am responsible for my family in exactly the same way, until my daughter is 18. I feel that the lack of personal responsibility is probably the largest problem with our society today. We live in a society that is always looking for someone or something to blame, and never ourselves. We would rather sue the inventor of the fork for causing our own fat butt. BTW, I also hold myself personally responsible for ensuring the safety of my family, and not the police (who are not legally obligated to protect us, and are often hesitant to, i.e. Columbine). Jeff> accident, don't you ?