Gun Control

As a 14-year Recon Marine with two combat tours, one to Iraq (2005) and one to Afghanistan (2011), I know a thing or two about weapon systems and their uses. I have been a longtime advocate for the freedom of gun ownership as I have enjoyed the proper utilization of these for many years without incident. My mentality has always been that if you have enough property or the appropriate firing range to cover the absolute maximum range of the projectile then there is no reason you should not be able to have whatever weapon you want; Arnold has a tank; Why can't I have an AR-15? However, as anyone with military experience has no doubt heard “play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” and this is where we are today.

It is far past time to scale back our cultural availability of weapons that are problematic. As previously stated, I have been on the “pro 2A” side of this debate for a long time and have wanted to “keep my freedoms” as well. The problem is most people who have these weapons lack the training and experience necessary to utilize them properly and they are made too readily available to those with no training or experience at all. I am going to briefly cover the major arguments for keeping these systems but first I am going to just come right out with the obvious ones and then we can discuss the AR-15 and military-style guns.

The current situation we have with military-style guns reminds me of what it was like being stationed in Japan as an E-6. I was halfway up the island on Camp Schwab, and it seemed like we were always on restriction. To make matters worse we would come off restriction for two to three weeks and go right back on restriction. The issue was that other Marines would get drunk down on Gate 2 street, just off Kadena (Air Force Base), and get in trouble with the local law enforcement. Inevitably the Marine commander down on Camp Hansen would cast blanket restrictions as mass punishment to teach all the Marines on Okinawa that we are responsible for ensuring our battle buddies also made good decisions, as we were all in this together. This restriction would be enacted along with a speech ending in “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” In the situation we have in America right now, the stupid games are people shooting other people with military-style guns and the stupid prize is getting those guns taken away.

No one NEEDS a tank, explosive rounds (AT4, MK-19), or a belt-fed weapon system, and a fully automatic gun is pointless without a belt or drum. Blowing through a mag at warp speed is exhilarating and there is no reason that people should not be able to have this experience, but that needs to be on a range with a Range Master that has the proper safety procedures to ensure the safety of others. I think the Class III license should be expanded and refined to cover anything that resembles a “military-style” gun and cover a more in-depth look into “need for use.” However, your standard citizen without proper training SHOULD NOT have access to those weapon systems.

The issue is not the gun, it is the people... my gun has never got pissed off and shot someone no matter how much I degrade it (and I have a Glock so it suffers abuse all the time).

This argument is correct, however, the laws in this country are made to control the people and not inanimate objects. Currently, as a collective we are making some stupid decisions with weapons and the weapon of choice for these stupid decisions is military-style weapons. Because the majority of the 2A guys that defend this style of gun are either military, former military, or military groupies I am going to use a lot of military-esk terms and situations to define why these are so bad.

But I use my AR-15 for hunting...

Well, you need to do more target practice. As a hunter myself I can tell you that there is not only no need for a semi-automatic hunting rifle, but if you are using a semi-automatic rifle, you are doing it wrong because you should be hitting your target the first time. Are there exceptions to every rule? Yes, and they should all be covered under the Class-III weapons application that you will have to wait a long time and pay a high price to get. Off the top of my mind, I can think of farmers that need to shoot a herd of pigs so their crops do not get destroyed. Much like you must take all the proper classes to fly the crop duster, you will have to take all the proper classes to get the crop defender or hire a certified expert.

This is for my safety, to protect my family…

Earlier this week there was ANOTHER school shooting from a legally purchased firearm. Our children are being slaughtered by the dozens. There are currently so many school shootings that it does not even make national news unless there are over 17 children killed and it is no longer a shock. It is just another wave of sadness and a call for the NRA to push for gun rights. It is time to stop this, and the NRA should be ashamed of themselves for not wanting to make gun ownership responsible. The weapons manufacturers do not care what their guns are used for, just that they are popular, and therefore military-style guns exist.

So, what is a military-style gun? It is something that when you hold it makes you feel like a soldier. It is a gun that is designed to look like it is meant for combat. It is tactical looking rifles with pistol grips, collapsible stocks, ability to have a high cyclic rate, magazine fed, picatinny railing, and many other features designed for combat. All these features are born out of war and the desire to kill other humans, and when you get right down to it, that is what their purpose is. When I choose a gun to go hunt deer, it is a 30-06 or a 7mm mag for big game.

No matter how you look at it, they are not a need, they are a want. The need that we currently have is to educate our society and protect our families and we do that by restricting gun ownership to those that have the proper training and education. We protect our families by taking the guns out of the criminals' and psychos’ hands, and we do that by giving those guns up ourselves. None of the children at these schools could defend themselves and we do not pay the teachers enough to teach let alone try to figure out how to be bodyguards on the side.

We, much like my time in Japan, must now take responsibility for our fellow citizens actions and vote to remove these weapons of war from the hands of everyday people. This is not to say that those who are dedicated to achieving the appropriate level of training and paying the high fines to offset the paperwork and mental health checks should not be allowed to have them. There is a reason to have these guns, but there is no reason to have them so readily available that any 18-year-old can go out and purchase them.