Guns 101, part IV: The 4 Commandments

Part I: "Evil Guns"
Part II: "Why"
Part III: The Law

At this point, before even putting a weapon in your hands, some time should be devoted to the 4 Gun Commandments. The first, and by far the most important - every gun is always loaded. Notice there is no room for any sort of doubt in that statement; absolutes such as every and always are used. Sometimes you will hear this: treat the gun as if it's loaded. I don't like this version because of the conditional use of "as if." As a result of this Golden Rule, we have...

Rule number two - never let the muzzle cover anything you're not willing to destroy. To translate, don't point the gun at anything you don't want to put a hole in, especially another living being. This applies anytime the gun is in hand, whether in a full grip or held in an otherwise safe manner. Keeping this and the all important Golden Rule in mind leads us to...

Rule number three - do not put your finger on the trigger (or even inside the trigger guard) until your sights are on the target. This is the most commonly broken rule on TV and in movies. It kills me to watch the lack of trigger and muzzle discipline on shows like 24, NCIS, CSI:Miami, etc. Many guns have a very light trigger (especially in single action) and if you're in a situation where you need to use a firearm to defend yourself, between the adrenalin and nerves, your finger is going to be quite twitchy, which would be just enough to unintentionally discharge the weapon.

Rule number four is a little different, and in some cases is like a rule 3.5 - know your target and where your bullets are going to hit. What this is warning against is another thing seen in Hollywood all the time; just spray the area where the bad guy is with bullets and hope something hits. The reality is that any confrontation will probably be in your house, and contrary to beliefs, bullets will travel through sheetrock - any misses endanger others in your house.

Another angle

Neal Boortz brings up a view on the illegal alien issue that hasn't crossed my mind until now:

A recent study tells us that there are some 240,000 illegal alien sex offenders each having committed an average of 4 sex crimes. Were these crimes committed in Mexico or Latin America before these pervs crossed the border? Nope. Those crimes were committed right here in the United States. That's 1 million sex crimes committed in the U.S. that, if we had secured our borders, might not have occurred. Hundreds of thousands of children's lives affected, perhaps destroyed; women living with the history of a violent rape or assault, all because the federal government can't live up to its main responsibility: to secure the border.

If they're illegal and living "off the radar", then how are they ever registered? Just one more reason our elected officials need to get serious about this issue, and by serious I don't mean amnesty.

Tighten up the border.
Punish those that hire or employ illegals.
Refuse all services except for life-saving medical care.

The cause is in Mexico and Washington. The effect is felt everywhere.

Bad ball

If you're a Braves fan, you've got to be a little concerned with the last two games they've played. First was Sunday afternoon's series closer against the pitiful Cubs, a team that's crafty at inventing new ways to suck at God's game. The Braves hit 8 homeruns and scored 12 runs through nine innings, which should be more than enough to beat Chicago. And yet, somehow, in a move that only must make sense in Bobby-Cox-land, in comes the most ineffective closer since Dan "So Not the Man" Kolb - Chris Reitsma, who promptly gives up 4 runs to allow the Cubs to tie. Thankfully for the Braves, they were playing a team that is masterful in the art of losing, and through another lost pop fly, won the game.

That same Braves team showed up against the Dodgers yesterday, except they forgot their homerun swings and apparently thought they would mimic the Cubs fielding skills on there way to a 12-5 loss.

Guns 101, part III: The Law

Part I: “Evil Guns”
Part II: “Why”

When it comes to talking about firearms laws, there’s really only one you have to worry about… err, make that 50! State laws currently are the governing force to what you can and cannot do with a firearm; federal laws pretty much just prohibit silencers and fully automatic weapons, though those are attainable with the proper permit and a lot of patience.

One of the best sites I’ve found for deciphering state gun laws is Packing.org (go here to select your state and view the laws specific for where you live). For purposes of this post, I’ll be focusing on Georgia’s statutes.

In Georgia, it is not necessary to obtain a permit in order to own a firearm; in fact a permit is not even necessary for you to carry a gun in your car. The license allows for you to carry a concealed weapon on yourself or in your car with certain places being off limits (such as schools, most government buildings, churches). The ambiguous part of Georgia’s laws that can get quite confusing is this whole “public gathering” stuff.

For instance, if you’re at a mall or grocery store or any sort of private business, you are legally permitted to carry a concealed weapon. However, if an “event” is going on, such as a concert, fashion show, or something that is free to the public, then it becomes a public gathering and a concealed weapon is not allowed. Even if that business has a sign stating “No firearms”, unless it is of a particular type that cites state or federal code, you are still permitted, by law to carry a weapon in there; they are also permitted, by law, to ask you to leave (it is a private business).

Now that you (sorta) know where you can carry, let’s address what you can and can’t do. Georgia law is based on the Castle Doctrine; simply put, if someone is trespassing in your home, you can reasonably believe that they are there to do harm to you or your family and you may use whatever force is necessary to remove the threat. The law also applies the same idea to when you are in your car; it’s when you’re in public that things get a little trickier.

Recently, a law was passed that has been called the “Stand your Ground” law – simply, when presented with a threat in a public place you are not required to attempt to retreat before you use deadly force to defend yourself (interestingly, there was no duty to retreat before this law was passed). Just remember that the threat must be immediate and harmful. Johnny Redneck flipping you off is not a threat; when he starts walking toward you with a bat or knife, that’s a threat.

That’s about all I’ll really say about the legality of owning a firearm. There is plenty more to be said about possessing a firearm within the letter of the law, but it’s a pretty dry subject. That said, it’s still no excuse – you need to know the laws regarding guns in your state (or any other state you travel to) as good as if not better than any law enforcement officer. Next up: we revisit the 4 Gun Commandments before we get to the fun part – deciding what to get!

Guns 101, part II: Why?

In part I of this series, I (hopefully) dispelled the "evil gun" myth; if I didn't go back and re-read it (not much sense in moving forward if you buy that nonsense). In this chapter, I will list the two primary reasons that I think you should own a gun of some type.

Although the main stream media like to bury news stories of a person defending themselves with a gun, it happens on an almost daily basis in the U.S. In a utopian society, the police would protect you from any and all criminals and predators; however, the reality is the police are often 5 or more minutes away when a crisis occurs, and that’s 5 minutes you don’t have to waste when thugs are breaking in wanting to do you or your family harm. In some cases, simply brandishing the weapon has caused a criminal to turn and run, no shots fired. Wouldn’t you want a chance to defend yourself, shots fired or not, if this were to happen to you?

While self defense is of great importance, I think an equally important (maybe more so) reason to own a gun is your own children. Kids, especially most boys, are at some point and time going to be fascinated with guns; cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, playing army, etc. Where do you want your kids learning about firearms? TV? Movies? Videogames? A friend at school? Or, you?

Children are going to be naturally curious about everything; instead of putting guns in the proverbial cookie jar and putting it on a high shelf and telling them “leave that alone”, why not teach them about it? Show them the responsibility and the respect necessary for the proper handling of firearms; take the mystery out of it. Then, when your son goes over to Johnny No-Good’s house and he wants to pull out dad’s guns to show off and play with, your son may just be the one to save his own life by walking away from a dangerous situation (or saving Johnny’s life by telling him to quit fooling around). Instead of kid-proofing guns, gun proof kids!

I’ll cover when to start teaching your kids about guns in a later part of this series. Next up: part III, the law and the 4 commandments.

Guns 101, part I

Spurred on by Mark, I've decided to do a series of posts on something I'm passionate and semi-knowledgeable about - guns. No, this isn't going to be more guns that I can't live without. Instead, it's kind of a "how to" for newbies or amateurs with little to no experience with guns of any sort. Initially, I'll deal with the primary question that gets thrown out by most people - "why should I?" Before I really get in to that question, though, I’d like to address the “guns are evil” slogan thrown about by various anti-gun groups.

Making the “evil gun” claim does two things: first, it strips away the responsibility of the action from the individual (“he only did it because of the gun; he’s not really like that”); and second, it gives the (false) impression that evil did not already exist in the person with the gun. No real need to address the first one – to my knowledge courts haven’t started trying and convicting a gun for a crime – except that this idea of the “evil gun” has opened up “evil manufacturers” to frivolous lawsuits. The second one, though, could use some thinking through…

In the movie Hollow Man, a scientist figures out how to become the Invisible Man. Once he does, he realizes he can get away with whatever he wants and becomes quite the pervert. When found out, he begins to murder to keep his secret. Did the scientist really go bad because of the invisibility? No; evil already pre-existed in him, he just held it in check because he knew he couldn’t get away with what he wanted to do. It’s the thought that counts.

Same thing with a gun. A professor once told me that “power tripping” is what occurs when authority is given to someone who doesn’t know how to handle it, and let’s face it – a person with a gun in their hands pointed at you has authority over you, whether they’re evil or you are. This doesn’t mean that a gun shouldn’t be feared – it most definitely should, just not the normal definition of “fear.” Think more of a deep reverent respect, almost similar to “fear the Lord” without the extra gravitas.

I hope that sufficiently covers and dispels the evil gun myth. It’s probably more than you wanted to read in a given sitting about the topic. In part II, I’ll let you know why you should at the very least, become informed and somewhat experienced with guns.

Guns are illegal at church, right?

What a sad, sad story:

A woman fatally shot by her husband after authorities said he killed four of her relatives at a church service had gotten a temporary restraining order against him last year.

The shooting spree at The Ministry of Jesus Christ church began around 10 a.m. as the service was nearing its end, police said. Church members wept as they watched investigators examine evidence and search for clues.

Police said the victims were Erica Bell's grandparents, Leonard Howard, 78, and Gloria Howard, 72; her great aunt, Deloris McGrew, 68, and a cousin Darlene Mills, 47.

Always remember that laws are only obeyed by law-abiding citizens (hence the phrase "law-abiding"); they're broken by criminals. Nevertheless, I'm sure in the coming days we'll hear something to the effect of "we need more gun laws to prevent this from ever happening again."

Let's get real for a second. The law was already in place, and it didn't seem to bother this guy one bit. I'm pretty sure there's a law about flying fully loaded passenger planes in to buildings, too. Criminals don't care what the law says (although in this case, I would make the argument that he cared greatly what the law said. If he knew anything about it, he knew nobody would be armed there.).

That said, if the law were reversed and church carry were allowed:

1. Most people would never know when someone was packing. Sure, there's an occasional idiot that wants to show off, but he won't have a license for long keeping that up. I can conceal a full-sized large frame semi-auto wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Do you think you would see anything with me wearing a coat and tie? And what you don't see, you don't worry about.
2. Do you think we'd have any more church shootings? Wouldn't criminals think twice about approaching someplace where someone could be armed? And if the criminal does enter and start shooting at you, at least you have an honest chance at defending yourself.
   

Back to Metropolis

It may take me a few days to get back in the swing of things; being in the mountains for a week will do that to a city-dweller. Let's face it - I'm not quite the jet-setter/ traveller extroidanaire that Jeff is.

Nevertheless, fun was had, relaxing was done, even a tire was changed (that's not the relaxing part, though). I'll blog about some of the experience a little later (trust me, you'll appreciate the editing; otherwise you'd be reading a long, drawn out run-on sentence). I do wish to extend thanks to Pastor Steve for his recommendation of Bea's restaurant in Chattanooga, TN. Getting to it turned out to be an adventure (we like watching the Amazing Race, not participating), but it was worth it.

Happy Anniversary!

Monday May 15th is my 7th year anniversary. Mrs. Misawa and I will be heading up to the hills of Georgia for the week - I've gotten the 7 year itch, and she's just the one to scratch it! :D

See ya later, folks!

Student threatens teacher

Catching up from this past week's stories, there's this one from the AJC. In summary, a high school girl sang a line to the tune "On Top of Old Smokey" that included "... I shot my poor teacher with a .44 slug." This was in a class where the student had just received a bad grade with a teacher that she had conflicted with before. Now, I'm more than willing to throw copious quantities of grief at public school officials when they apply this "zero tolerance" stuff (used way too often), but I'm not so sure the criticism of the school is what is warranted in this case.

For example, had somebody at my work sang this little diddy, I'd probably think nothing of it; to my knowledge, there hasn't been a rise in the shooting of (almost) engineers. However, there has been a problem with this in the schools; too many to list, but you know the big ones. I think they did the right thing, here. From the teacher's perspective, here's a student whom he had had problems with in the past being a little smart alleck and singing about killing a teacher. From what I've gathered about her (the student) she's a bossy little brat who's now sounding her whining horn (with the help of the local media). She and her mom just need to view this as a learning experience (read: you don't sing songs about killing people, period) and move on.

My absence

No, I haven't been in another accident; just really busy. Last week was finals for me (only had to take one, exempted all the rest - yay me!); that was followed by my (somewhat) annual fishing trip down to Steinhatchee, FL with the woodbutcher and his dad (total fish brought home - 21; number of those caught by me - 0); and now it's getting ready for next week's vacation (May 15 marks 7 years of betrothal). In between all of this I've been hooking up my Xbox Live (gamertag: Nelag for other gamers) which required a great feat of engineering genius (read: I plugged a cable in and read the instructions). Nevertheless, this evening, barring anymore lightning, I plan on spending at least 30 minutes getting my butt kicked by a 12 year old in California. Great fun!

Oh, and for those that want the translation to my previous post, check the comments section - I should have it posted soon.

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Alguien envía un chimichanga con queso americano a Vicente Fox y le dice empujarlo en su extremo. Entonces, vaya comen un poco de alimento mexicano grasiento - son probablemente legales ciudadanos que habitan de la ley. ¡Pásatelo bien!

Narnia references

I watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night again - fantastic movie. While some of the symbolism is rather blatant, I was wondering if any of you knew of any good commentaries (web or book)? I did a quick google search and got mostly news articles from when it was at the theater (searched on Narnia commentary).