Well, here is my two cents.

I grew up within a family where shooting was a part of life. Not a way of life. We just did it because food was there to be had on the land. It was no more an issue to shoot at a Canada Goose than it was to pull a bushell of tomatos. It was what we did. It was what my neighbors did. My home had a Steven's Model 12 12 gauge and a Winchester Model 1897 .32 special. the odd .22 and my Dad had a few pistols, the .25 autoloader he carried when he transported gold or silver and a Colt's Python that he never even fired. Of the seven kids in the house it was an un even split as to who ever fired those guns. Some did some didn't and some never have. We had them and we used them as tools, cleaned them and put them away when we were done with them. They required care and consideration. The same kind of consideration that the power take off on the John Deere took. The tractor would hurt you just as fast and a whole lot messier than the Colt would but either way you were injured or dead. It is my right and I consider it my priviledge to be a gun owner. The right is given me by the constitution and the priviledge is given me by the laws in the state of New York that say as long as I'm not a felon I may continue to hunt and shoot and carry.

I won't debate the need to own and collect a Mac - 10 or a Tech 9, or a Kalashnikov. But I uphold the right to do so. I won't try and explain the diference between an autoloader and fully automatic assault weapon. I don't need an Uzi, I couldn't afford to load one let alone bang off a clip. But I can shoot a 45-70 trapdoor Springfiled from time to time. Why, because its fun to ventilate paint cans at a 175 yards. Both the Kalashnikov and the Trapdoor are long guns. And long guns are currently in Sara Brady's sights so to speak. When you legislate the Uzi collector you also legislate the blackpowder and primitive shooters out there. An Uzi is so fast you can unlad a 30 round clip before I can chamber and cock a single round in the Springfield.

Those murderous young men in Colorado were hard wired to do this damage with or without a pistol and a shotgun. They could have as easily poisoned the soup or crashed a school bus to greater damage and loss of life. The guns were the tools. The laws in effect were adequate just not enforced.

Knee jerk laws to protect the dead after the fact do not cage the criminal, they only criminalize that casual sportsmen and subsistence hunter in all the states. If you wish to create effective gun laws don't create new ones. Enforce actively, equally, and fairly those that now exist.

Don