PA Bill Number: HB1472
Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...
Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...
Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT
Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024
If you want to keep your gun rights, take them seriously :: 06/24/2019
Every time someone is killed with a firearm, one side of the political aisle shouts for gun control and the other side shouts against it.
The truth is that these arguments about gun control are nothing more than doubletalk by politicians who would like very much to end gun violence. The problem is that they are powerless to do so. You can make all the laws you want, but it will not change the culture, and it will not reduce the number of firearms already in circulation. Worst of all, gun control laws don’t impact those who are obtaining guns illegally.
Then there is the Bill of Rights, which grants Americans the right to have firearms and doesn’t put limitations or stipulations on that right, so any bill that is passed could be challenged in court.
But all of our laws and amendments and rights pale in our minds when an 18-year-old loses her life after being shot by a 14-year-old while they were out joyriding around town. The 14-year-old was most definitely in violation of the law by possessing a firearm at his age. There is no way he could have legally purchased the gun.
My youngest daughter attended Collins-Riverside Middle School this past year. On one occasion a student brought a gun to the school and on another occasion a student brought part of a gun to the school. Both kids planned to sell them to other middle school kids.
Obviously, these kids are not walking into stores that sell firearms and buying the weapons legally. So where are the guns coming from? They have to be coming from adults who, for one reason or another, have lost control of them. Maybe some of these adults are even selling the guns to the kids.
If you are a gun owner, it is absolutely incumbent upon you to possess that weapon in such a way that it cannot easily be taken from you. If you carry a weapon in your automobile, you must not only lock the automobile, but you should certainly secure it in a gun safe inside the car. If you have guns in your home, they should be secured in a gun safe or equivalent device.
I can’t even begin to tell you the number of stories I have either covered or heard of where a juvenile took a gun from a parent’s bedside nightstand and killed someone with it or accidentally killed themselves while playing with it.
Look, be smart. If you are going to keep a gun in your home or in your car, secure the thing so kids can’t get it and mishandle it. If you don’t have a gun safe or a trigger lock or some other mechanism to prevent the weapon from being accidentally fired, at least be smart enough to keep the ammunition in a different place from the gun, and for the love of God, please don’t keep a loaded gun where a kid can access it.
Teach your children about guns. Teach them that you can’t unpull a trigger. Once the trigger is pulled, whatever happens after that is irreversible. A bullet is uncaring. It has no conscience. If it hits another human being, it will do what bullets are designed to do.
Guns don’t shoot themselves. Guns are always fired by a human. If you are going to own a gun, be responsible enough to control that gun. The government can’t do that job. Gun control is totally, one hundred percent, up to gun owners.
If there are children in your home, take the time to teach them about the gun you own. Show them how to handle the gun safely and make them familiar with its operation but also make them familiar with the consequences of firing that gun.
It is up to parents to teach children the value of every human life.
No law can ever stop gun violence. If laws could have done the job, they would have done so already. The job of gun control falls upon gun owners. If you are a gun owner, gun control is all about what you do. Take it seriously and control your firearms.
The only way the government could ever justify taking away firearms or amending the Second Amendment is if gun owners fail at the job of gun control. Rights have responsibilities. Take yours seriously.
Gary Cosby Jr. is photo editor of The Tuscaloosa News.
