When I woke up this morning the last thing I really felt like thinking about was gun control. Being a gun owner, I had been dwelling on it enough ever since Sandy Hook.
But because of recent developments in Springfield in trying to get gun control legislation passed (HB 815 and HB1263 if you care to look them up) it was like being slapped awake this morning.
Doom and gloom, our guns are being taken away from us. Soon marauding hordes will be kicking down our doors to rob us and rape us and kill us.
In my 56 years I have never even considered any of that as a possibility, but that’s all I could find this morning on the local outdoor sites I visit.
What is being missed in all this doom and gloom noise are the voices of reasonable and responsible hunters.
I like to think I am one of those.
I read through the legislation, not being a lawyer, it’s grueling, and there is not a single thing in it that would have any affect on my ability to hunt in Illinois. The legislation has no effect on any gun I own. I have no interest in hand guns, so bans on those don’t bother me at all.
The only thing I have an issue with is the insistence of magazines that hold no more than 10 rounds.
Ten is too much, I’d rather see a five round limit. If I’m out target shooting, no skin off my butt to stop and reload a magazine after five shots.
My friend Mark Kasick found a couple of articles that he linked to on Facebook. These voices of reason are worth reading.
A Conservative Case for an Assault Weapons Ban
An Open Letter to Fellow Gun Owners
I am all for expanding gun control like Illinois is proposing to the federal level, even stricter. As I said, it will have no affect on my ability to go out hunting.
The only thing that will keep gun control from happening is that the ones that should care will get distracted or give up. You can’t do that. You’ll have nobody but yourself to blame when another Sandy Hook or Aurora or some other tragedy happens.
The anti gun control crowd is organizing and contacting every one that needs to be contacted in order to defeat this gun control legislation.
If they succeed it will only be because everyone else sat on their hands and did nothing.