Quote:
Originally Posted by btmj
...The author asks that gun owners exert peer pressure on those of us who are unsafe or careless... But that has been exactly my experience. Gun owners DO exert peer pressure to promote safe and responsible ownership.
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But I think the author heaps too much blame and responsibility onto gun owners. He asks us to self-police ourselves...
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If a gun owner does not keep his guns locked up, and burglar steals them, well, bad on him. That gun owner bears some moral responsibility. But is the entire gun-owning population somehow to blame because we did not properly shame the guy into buying a gun safe? Really?
Jim
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I agree that gun owners are responsible people, for the most part. And I agree that the author would have us fall on the sword of honor without need. So I do think he goes a bridge too far.
But I would point out that the prevailing attitude among the gun community has been "it's not my responsibility what those damned
KRIMINALS do. Now get off my lawn, punk."
And while it's true we aren't responsible for the actions of the criminals, we have to all live in this society together. We had darn well better participate in the solution or we'll get handed a solution. And I'll bet we won't like that.
So we must,
*MUST* begin engaging the non-shooting, non-gun owning population in positive ways. Not necessarily the hard core antis, but the uncommitted.