Gun Owner Holsters Her Weapon, Challenges NRA (via: The Big Slice)

April 16, 2013 | Filed under: Gun Control,Headlines,Politics,Women's Issues | Posted by: Sarah Zacharias

http://thebigslice.org/gun-owner-holsters-her-weapon-challenges-nra/

It just occurred to me that I have been watching hunting shows, gun marksmanship shows, gunsmithing shows and even game warden reality shows with my husband for almost thirteen years. I can honestly tell you that I have not seen a gun sale that didn’t seem worthy of a short background check, nor have I seen a sale impeded by that process. I have never seen any form of wild game hunted with one of the guns that was once banned under the previous assault weapons ban. I have never seen a sportsman with a magazine on his gun and I have never seen a competition shooter loaded down with more than a few bullets either.
My grandfather has a gun hung for easy access that he uses to shoot coyotes from his heard of sheep. I have a .22 that I have used for target practice with my children. My freezer is stocked with venison procured by sportsmen who pay top dollar to hunt the family farm.
I have never seen a gun law that would impede any lawful or sane individual from any of the rational or common uses for guns  – and I come from a gun-toting Wyoming family.
Let me make it clear, for my second amendment loving cousins and all those who take the time to read this : Nobody wants Grampy’s coyote shooter. Nobody wants my twenty-two. Nobody is coming for old west sharpshooters, skeet shooters, the weapons of honorable veterans, the pearl handled revolver sold on Pawn Stars or the guns I have personally observed Ted Nugent use in his pursuit of wild game on shows aired on the OutDoor Channel.
I have not seen a regulation that would stop me or anybody I personally know, or even any responsible gun owner I have ever observed, from procuring game, from practicing gun sportsman and marksmanship, or from use on the family farm or in the family home.
None.
Not one liberal gun control law would harm any of those people or their second amendment rights.
On the flip side, I can think of women I know, women I will never meet, women I’ve known and women I love dearly who are now and will be further impacted by the 694 new proposed laws infringing on our 14th amendment right to health and privacy which include a right to an abortion and other private health choices.
In listening to the sound bites of today, one would think there was a War on Guns instead of a War on Women.
Former VP wannabe, Paul Ryan, may dream of a country where abortion is never considered. I dream of one where the constitutionally protected right to life and the pursuit of happiness that the GOP is so concerned about when they think it applies to zygotes, is never threatened by a gun toting intruder in a first grade classroom.
I dream of an America where lock downs in elementary schools aren’t even considered.
When living, breathing, first graders can learn to read, safe from lunatics and gunfire… Then I propose that we can stop and go out to the shooting range and blow some shit up just to let off steam in our oh so destructive patriotism.
Until then, this gun owner is abstaining from the scent of sulfur and burnt gun powder.
I wonder, how many gun owners are there, like me, who are willing to respond, not by hoarding bullets but by hanging their gun up until this is solved?
I betcha that if enough of us told the gun industry that we aren’t spending more money until they drop the fallacious propaganda storm and start contributing to a meaningful gun responsibility conversation, that good, meaningful laws might come pouring out of the woodwork.
I am tired of going to the local ammo supplier and finding out that every bullet they had sold out as quickly as they put them on the shelves. I am tired of listening to hateful rhetoric about how the President is coming to take everything down to our pea shooter away. It’s ridiculous. We know that the only people who stand to profit from this are the ones who sell guns and bullets. They have motive, means and opportunity. All they want is our money.
I am a gun owner. I like my venison chicken fried. I like to shoot. My husband works as a dealer of hunting and fishing equipment. I understand what it means to know and love a lifestyle that includes guns.
I am also a mother of a first grader and I cannot look myself in the eye and believe with 100% certainty that my child will never die in a mass shooting. I cannot tell myself that simply locking up my own guns and doing what I can as a responsible gun owner is enough. We need to sit down, and make common sense gun regulations that protect all of us before we are forced to lay another classroom of seven-year-olds to eternal rest. Until the NRA, and the gun industry that pays them decides to tell the American public the truth, lay down their greed, and join the conversation, this gun owner is holstering her weapon. I won’t spend a single dollar to give them profit. I will not contribute to the death of innocents under the auspices of patriotism.
To join me, sign my petition here.