Last night at my youth group meeting, one of the kids (who is highly involved in JROTC) brought up the topic of gun control during our dinner conversation. He had done a lot of thinking about not only reasonable limitations on guns, including thinking about what the constitutional purpose of the second amendment was for. We also had a good conversation about violence in video games, movies, and the media in general. I was really proud to hear him express his opinions in a well thought out manner, weighing the pros and cons, and explaining his interpretation of other people's arguments for and against gun control.
Today I signed up to attend a rally in Annapolis next week for preventing gun violence. It wasn't just because of the discussion last night. It's something that I have been debating getting involved in for some time now. It seems as though, after Newtown, everyone has an opinion on gun control, preventing gun violence, and which "rights" outweigh which. And I have tried my best to stay out of the very heated debate. You see, I grew up in a card-carrying NRA family (I passed the Vermont Hunter Safety Course when I was 9 years old, and I out-shot all the boys in my group during the field test... and they were all older than me). My son owned his first rifle before he was born (a cricket that my dad bought for him when I was about 5 months pregnant). But I also now serve as clergy in a denomination that holds the media accountable for the violence it portrays (Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2012 para.162.S), and one where many people feel we also need to take a stand against many contributing factors that lead to gun violence.
After much self-debate and some time in prayer, I took the time to visit the Maryland Legislature's list of legislation for the 2013 session focused on firearm safety. It was a long list. I have to be honest, I did not read each bill in its entirety. I did read the full bill actually called Firearm Safety (HB0294/SB0281) and skimmed many of the others. The Firearm Safety bill is comprehensive and includes many measures I think are common sense and do not pose unreasonable burdens on people. Some of the other bills are not nearly as "common sense", so I don't think I could support them.
I pray that my family understands why I have chosen to speak out for justice on this issue. I'm not against guns. I'm not against gun owners. In fact, I still plan on enrolling my son in a hunters safety course this year. But I do think we need to more strongly monitor who owns guns by licensing guns and gun owners - if I need a drivers license, and my car must be registered before I can operate it, why not similar safety measures for guns? I do think it makes sense to not allow people with certain severe emotional or behavioral disabilities to not own/operate guns without support/training/safety measures in place. And I do think regulating guns/gun owners is not the only measure we need to take to stop gun violence, so I pray others will hold me accountable to speak up for other measures beyond firearm safety.
Today I signed up to attend a rally in Annapolis next week for preventing gun violence. It wasn't just because of the discussion last night. It's something that I have been debating getting involved in for some time now. It seems as though, after Newtown, everyone has an opinion on gun control, preventing gun violence, and which "rights" outweigh which. And I have tried my best to stay out of the very heated debate. You see, I grew up in a card-carrying NRA family (I passed the Vermont Hunter Safety Course when I was 9 years old, and I out-shot all the boys in my group during the field test... and they were all older than me). My son owned his first rifle before he was born (a cricket that my dad bought for him when I was about 5 months pregnant). But I also now serve as clergy in a denomination that holds the media accountable for the violence it portrays (Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2012 para.162.S), and one where many people feel we also need to take a stand against many contributing factors that lead to gun violence.
After much self-debate and some time in prayer, I took the time to visit the Maryland Legislature's list of legislation for the 2013 session focused on firearm safety. It was a long list. I have to be honest, I did not read each bill in its entirety. I did read the full bill actually called Firearm Safety (HB0294/SB0281) and skimmed many of the others. The Firearm Safety bill is comprehensive and includes many measures I think are common sense and do not pose unreasonable burdens on people. Some of the other bills are not nearly as "common sense", so I don't think I could support them.
I pray that my family understands why I have chosen to speak out for justice on this issue. I'm not against guns. I'm not against gun owners. In fact, I still plan on enrolling my son in a hunters safety course this year. But I do think we need to more strongly monitor who owns guns by licensing guns and gun owners - if I need a drivers license, and my car must be registered before I can operate it, why not similar safety measures for guns? I do think it makes sense to not allow people with certain severe emotional or behavioral disabilities to not own/operate guns without support/training/safety measures in place. And I do think regulating guns/gun owners is not the only measure we need to take to stop gun violence, so I pray others will hold me accountable to speak up for other measures beyond firearm safety.
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