John, you said you'd like to know the definition of a "responsible gun owner"?

Well, it seems obvious to me. A responsible gun owner, like a responsible automobile owner, is someone who has the sense not to use his gun or car (or anything else he owns) in an irresponsible and/or unlawful or harmful manner. Period. And most gun owner and car owners, by that definition, are responsible people most of the time.

My Uncle Bill, for example, was a responsible gun owner. He always had quite an interest in guns, in target practice, and in duck hunting. He always owned a few guns. He enjoyed them as precision and historical instruments (appreciating the craft that went into making them, the level of quality of different ones, the history of that craft, etc). He enjoyed being a good marksman. He enjoyed hunting.

He lived in the country, and like many other rural people back then (and still now), he was used to being around guns a certain amount. They would not have struck him as an unusual thing to have, because when he was growing up they weren't an unusual thing to have when you lived on farms or in the country. These were long guns, not handguns.

He was a completely gentle and harmless person, patient and tolerant, kind, responsible, law-abiding, not a person who ever committed a violent act against another person in his entire adult life. He was a really nice man.

He kept his guns responsibly and safely, made sure that they were not loaded or in any way accessible to his children (2 daughters), and he handled them with the utmost care at all times to avoid endangering himself and others.

A good number of ducks met their end because of my Uncle's interest in guns, and I'm sorry for the ducks, but I can't fault him for being a duck hunter. It's not a crime.

My Uncle eventually passed away having never once misused a gun or broken the law with a gun.

There are a great many other people like my Uncle living quietly all over the place. You don't hear about them on the "News" (the entertainment, fear, and propaganda network)....because they didn't shoot anyone.

Those are responsible gun owners. They probably outnumber irresponsible gun owners by about 5,000 to 1...but the only people you will ever hear about on the "News" are the few unstable and disturbed individuals and the people in drug gangs who go out and commit a violent crime.

Are there some legal improvements that could be made to increase public safety? Sure. And people here have suggested quite a number of them...but demonizing gun owners in general and stereotyping them in a perceived group together as "gun nuts" does not lead to any kind of useful public discussion...and it reinforces conservative organizations like the NRA by making them think that "the liberals" are all just a bunch of crazy people, extreme control freaks suffering from an obsessive complex of some kind. When you stereotype them...they stereotype you! This doesn't help anyone.

I say this AS someone who is definitely a liberal, and I always have been. But I'm not a control freak over other people's lives and over their lifestyle choices and their hobbies. If they don't break the laws and if they don't harm anyone, I have no quarrel with them...nor do I expect them to "be like me or see like me". (line from Bob Dylan in the song "All I Really Want To Do")