Images from an ongoing project, "Sons With Guns." My original text for accompanying these images was filled with the usual litany of concerns about the gun culture in America; condemnation about the belligerent NRA that continues to mythologize and cloak any attempts at sane gun control as the first measures that will trigger an avalanche of attacks on "freedom." It has all been said before, and said better -- and perhaps because this is a photo blog, the images should speak for themselves.
The final image, which may be hard to read on a computer screen, is of three men at a peace march years ago. The text on the back of his T-shirt reads: "The Gun is Mine. The Bullets are Yours. Come get em any Time."
Something like: "We don't like you to protect yourself. It frightens those that rule over you. Turn them all in, Mr. and Mrs. America!"
Semper fi
This does not mean your kids should not learn about firearms.
I live in a neighborhood where we don't "need" firearms, but lots of us have them. And our kids learned about firearm starting when they were young about not touching them, later learning about the power of firearms and about firearm safety, then later about marksmanship and about legal issues ranging from the Second Amendment and federal laws down to state, county, and municipal laws. Thus, when our kids see firearms they don't hyperventilate, have seizures, or pass out; nor do they treat them like toys. Our kids know what firearms are, how they work, what they can do, what is proper and improper to do with them, etc. and therefore are far less likely to misuse them or to be careless around them. And quite frankly, whether you have firearms in your home or not, these are great lessons for kids to learn because once they are outside the home, there is no telling what they might encounter.
And read the latest Gun Violence Prevention Report: 68,000 Guns to Mexico
http://bit.ly/K07Stq
The NRA is the US's, if not the world's, largest firearm safety and training organization.
The NRA has supported numerous gun control measures -- in fact they were the first to ask Congress to study the idea of a background check system. They supported the law forbidding convicted felons and the dangerously mentally ill from possessing or purchasing firearms. They helped with the language of the armor piercing bullet ban. They supported the restrictions on machine guns and short barreled firearms.
The definition of "sane gun control" is in the eye of the beholder.
Raise the drinking age to 21, more teenagers get drunk? Yep. Raise the kid with beer, wine, and liquor, even giving them watered down drinks the way some cultures do, and they develop a healthy respect for it.
Tell children they can't have sex, make it seem like something that needs to be hidden, they are going to find it on their own and you're going to be grandparents.
America has this war within. Very puritanical in many aspects.
Next question?