Whenever I say one of my favorite activities to do when my brother comes to town is shoot our guns, people either take pause or they give me a skeptical facial expression.
Some people perhaps might picture the crew from the Beverly Hillbillies, but we don’t grab our guns, run out the back door and start shooting to the sky. We are just a couple of college-educated individuals who enjoy target practice.
My dad had a gun cabinet and when I was little, I would sometimes sit in front it of and marvel at the guns, wondering when I would get my chance to go shooting.
I never got the chance to shoot with my dad because he died when I was 6 years old. But my older brother, Robert, took me under his wing and would draw targets on paper plates. We would take those paper plates and empty soda cans into the backyard and shoot them with a BB gun. I got pretty good at a young age, too. I would even shoot down nearby wasps. I have been stung one too many times to feel much sympathy for them.
Other than the wasps, we don’t hunt, not that I’m opposed to it. In fact, neither does my husband or anyone else in my family. Our dad didn’t do it and I feel it’s one of those activities you need to start at a young age with your father to really get into it.
For us, shooting those targets was, and still is, our favorite activity. The only difference now is we have upgraded from paper plates and Coke cans to using steel targets and real paper targets.
Whatever we use, I get a great deal of satisfaction from setting aim, pulling the trigger and seeing the result of my mark hit.
Working a job that requires the majority of my day sitting in front of a computer, it’s just how I prefer to spend my free time outdoors when I get the chance.
And now, my brother’s 16-year-old son, David, is enrolled in JROTC, enjoys shooting with us. We bond more in that time than we ever do while sitting in the house watching TV or playing video games.
We are always extremely cautious when we get ready to go shooting and we always make a point to go over the four basic rules of gun safety:
- Always treat every gun as it is loaded;
- Never point the gun at anything you aren’t willing to destroy;
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have made the decision to shoot; and
- Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.
If you teach your children proper gun safety from an early age, shooting guns can be a wonderful family-bonding tool. It’s something I plan to do with my own children when they are a little older.
There has been a tremendous amount of debate throughout the years about why guns should be banned.
If I haven’t already made this point clear, I will always stand behind the Second Amendment and believe we have the right to keep and bear arms.
However, I do think there should be a better background check system in place for a person wanting to purchase a gun.
My first time going gun shopping as an adult, I was surprised all I had to do was show them my drivers license, fill out a few pieces of paper, and voila: In a matter of minutes, I was leaving with a gun of my own.
Yes, background checks are conducted by dealers, but it all happens in a matter of minutes. Is that really enough time? Perhaps so. What’s even more concerning is that private sellers, such as when the gun show comes to town, doesn’t have to run a background check at all.
I firmly believe guns are not the problem, people are. Banning guns won’t reduce crime, just look at cities like Chicago and Baltimore that have strict gun laws and some of the highest gun-related crime rates.
Some might say banning guns will reduce mass killings, but I don’t think so.
What about the man who drove a 19-ton truck in to the crowd celebrating France’s Bastille Day in July 2016, killing 85 people as a result? What about the man who set an animation studio in Kyoto, Japan, ablaze this summer that killed 33 people? Or what about the 168 people who lost their lives and the hundreds of others who were injured when a man set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995? If someone truly wants to hurt a large number of people, they will find a way.
I don’t know what the answer is to solving crime but I know banning guns isn’t the answer. Banning guns will stop gun crime about as much as banning marijuana stops people from smoking in illegal states. It just doesn’t work that way and it will never be that simple.
Perhaps there is no real answer.
The fact is, we live in a world where people sometimes do terrible things. I like knowing I have a greater chance of defending myself and my family should I ever need to.
Catherine Kirk is managing editor of the Delta Democrat-Times. She can be reached at ckirk@ddtonline.com.
