[Update] Gun Owners Need A Change of Heart?

Update below. A response from Richard Kyte.
Some guy I’d never heard of before, one Richard Kyte, tells us “why gun owners need a change of heart.”

What ensued was The Great Gun Debate. There were no winners and losers in that debate. (Marriages that tally wins and losses do not last long). Instead, we came to an understanding.

Our kids could have guns, but with conditions. The most important one was that guns — even toy guns — were never to be treated as toys. My responsibility was to establish the household rules and see that they were enforced. I would designate a safe place to store the guns and make sure our kids received safety training at the appropriate ages. If they violated any of the rules, their guns would be taken away. The rules applied to me, too.

Why can’t the same approach be used in our national gun debate?

Because we aren’t children.

Why can’t those who own guns and know the most about them take responsibility for ensuring they’re used safely and without malicious intent?

There are at least 120 MILLION gun owners in America. Since we don’t hear about 120 million negligent discharges, firearm-related homicides and assaults, it is blatantly obvious that the vast majority of us already use firearms safely and responsibly.

That Kyte assumes we can only be responsible at lawpoint, suggests that he has a little safety and responsibility issue of his own, and is projecting his flaws…

Onto the 120 million people whose firearms were not used to kill or injure anyone today.

I stopped reading his column at that point. Clearly, this guy is just another Fudd with no understanding of the firearm-related crime problem.

Grow up, Dick.

Update: Kyte tells me I just don’t understand analogy.

Really? Interesting to see someone work so hard to try to misunderstand others just so they can disagree with them.

You do understand how analogy works don’t you? Hint: it’s using comparison among things that are not alike to illustrate a point. The key there is NOT alike.

Analogy
a comparison of two otherwise unlike things based on resemblance of a particular aspect

A common analogy in electronics/electricity is that EMF/voltage is analogous to water pressure, in that each is the potential that drives flow; electron flow being similar to water flow. Saying that EMF is similar to bumblebees would be stupid.

Kyte considers honest gun owners analogous to young children who have not yet learned responsibility (“Why can’t those who own guns and know the most about them take responsibility“). What child-like aspect does he think feelz gun owners share with children beyond that?

 

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Bear

2A advocate, writer, firearms policy & law analyst, general observer of pre-apocalyptic American life.

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