A naive and unarmed populace

This will be short, sweet and to the point.. most Americans don’t understand why citizens own guns, should own guns or even why the constitution protects the right to do so.

Don’t yell at me – I have an armory and believe that every good American citizen should, but the excerpt I am about to share with you is about understanding how a large swath of naive Americans feel about gun ownership.

According to an article in Newsweek there are 215 million guns in America — and a terrible analysis says that that means more than half the households across the country own one. The post about the article goes on to try to discover why Americans own guns:

This statistic triggered photographer and author of “Armed America” Kyle Cassidy to travel 15,000 miles across the country to ask people who own guns “why do [you] own a gun?”, and take portraits of them in their homes.

Some of the reasons were just beyond my comprehension:

• “My shotgun will take care of any intruder, and I know how to use it.”
• “I own a shotgun for the same reason I own a fire extinguisher.”
• “Gun ownership is a right and privilege, everyone should exercise it. I think everyone should have one, on the range, on the playing field, in the world.”
• “It’s not the guns that kill, it’s the people.”
• “I have nothing against guns, I think they are cool and I love that we have them in the house. My friends are very impressed by the collection we have.”
• “It’s up to us as citizens to protect ourselves, our family and property. Our constitution provides us with the right and method by which to achieve that objective, and I simply choose to exercise that right.”
• “I think the ownership of arms is not only a right, but the duty of a free people to themselves and future generation.”

Somehow this idiot believes that guns kill people all by themselves. Great, the next time someone is murdered by a shooter, indict the gun and let the shooter go free..

Forgetting that the whole premise for objection to gun ownership is wrong.. let’s start with the usual tactic of anti-gun activists.. incorrect statistics.

While there may be that many registered guns in the U.S., most gun owners do not only own one gun. Enthusiasts like me have 2-3 for target shooting, a few for deer, a few for upland birds and 1-2 for waterfowl. Add in home protection and having more than one gun in the house is not that uncommon. That means that the author’s assumption that more than 50% of Americans have a gun is just absolutely and flatly WRONG. Gun ownership is on the decline and is currently around 25%. It was closer to 39% in 2001, 30% in 2005 and now 25%. Slow degradation of the second amendment is the favored tactic of the left since an outright ban has been impossible for them to achieve.

Second amendment activists not only wish the 50% statistic were true, we would like to see 100% of households owning guns. Instead, 10% of the population owns 77% of the firearms. That 10% are the base that would see gun rights as a wedge issue in an election. If we do not broaden that base, we risk losing the right all together.

I own guns to hunt, for competition, for enjoyment, for home protection and to make sure that “the people’s teeth” aren’t dulled by those less-informed. People like the poor, naive sap that admits gun ownership is beyond his comprehension and understands nothing more than “guns are one more thing I cannot control.. yet”.