No one is coming to take your guns away. No one is coming to take your guns away. No one is coming to take your guns away. I felt the need to repeat that a couple of times because many people don’t seem to get that.
Here’s the thing: If you bought your guns with your own money from a legal dealer, passed a background check proving that you are responsible and don’t have a history of violence, register your guns and keep your license up to date, and keep your guns safely locked away from children and inexperienced users, then they are yours. End of discussion.
I admit, guns can be fun. I was always against guns until my dad took me shooting about a year before he passed away. I agreed to do it because he was slowly getting sicker and I wanted to bond with him, but shooting at targets with real guns with him proved to be a lot of fun. We ended up going several more times because we enjoyed it so much! I would be mad if the government decided to take away what is rightfully ours. I know people like to fantasize about government officials busting in through their front door and demanding to hand over their guns. You respond with something epic like, “You can have them when you pry them from my cold dead hands!” and then defend your freedom in a blaze of glory like you’re a cross between Dirty Harry and John McClane.
There’s just one thing: that will never, ever happen. It makes for a decent action flick, but it will never happen. So please, stop saying “the government is trying to take our guns away!” They’re not going to do that. I’m on your side, but we have to understand that gun control does not mean gun abolition. No one is saying “We’re taking guns away from all Americans!” It’s more like “Maybe let’s make it so that not literally everyone can purchase military-grade automatics and irresponsible, mentally unstable people who are more likely to shoot up a school can’t purchase anything!”
We need this, because our children’s right to not be scared and get murdered at school outweighs your right to own whatever gun you want. It just does.
Felicity Olivera
Thurston County
