Bullet Point

I keep this live round as a souvenir on my bookshelf. I found it in the trash, of course.

 It's a Bernaul (Russian made) 7.62 X54R shell. It's pretty close to deer rifle ammo, but is manufactured for military weapons, primarily sniper rifles or machine guns. Researching to identify it brought me to some websites that gave me as much of a shudder as finding the live round in the first place (had I crushed this thing, it could have blown).

Circumstances lately have got me thinking about my own relationship with guns. I have two in my basement. One is my dad's 22 caliber we used for target practice and rabbit/squirrel hunting. Single shot, bolt action. The other is my Springfield 20 gauge shotgun, pump action, used for all kinds of bird hunting in my youth.

I will admit that I did use my shotgun for self defense once. We had a pretty mentally deranged neighbor, who got verbally violent when high. One evening he was making threats to my family from his upstairs window. I called the police AND I grabbed my shotgun after sending everyone inside. I sat outside with that shotgun, thinking to scare the crap out of him if he came over. The gun was empty. I didn't have any shells. He stayed put, and the police took him to jail.

Speaking of that gun, it still has a "plug" in it. A plug is required in a pump action shotgun when hunting ducks. Typically, pump-actions can hold six shells. However, the law requires a plug for duck hunters so that one can only hold three shells. If we were checked out by the game warden (often enough), he would insert a thing into our guns to make sure they were plugged. If they were not, the penalty would be severe. We could have our guns, our vehicle, our boat, decoys, and anything else used for hunting, confiscated. No trial, no jury. AND THIS WAS TO PROTECT THE DUCK POPULATION. We all accepted that. Gun control.

This was the hunting culture I grew up with. The NRA was all about gun safety and responsible gun use. I received a national gun safety patch after passing a course sponsored by the NRA. The old NRA supported and helped draft the nation's first gun control laws.

I was trained to freak out when I saw someone holding a gun not pointed to the ground or to the sky. A high school acquaintance blew his hand apart when he used his gun to lean on and it discharged. You would not hunt with someone like that. Nor would you hang out with someone who was a gun "enthusiast." To my mentors in my hunting days, that would be like someone who was a poison "enthusiast." Guns were tools, very dangerous tools. You took care of them, used them for a purpose, and put them away.

There's a website called AR15.com. It boasts 300,000 members. That's all I have to say about that.

I know that boys love their toys. I have two motorcycles. But the nobility and responsibility I grew up associating with gun ownership has gone begging. Now it is an absolute right, "based in the second amendment." Sounds like boys who like their toys to me. The 2nd amendment argument sounds a lot like the survivalist rationale: If we stockpile weapons and food, we can survive the coming apocalypse... for at least 60 more days.

Absurd. If you are fearful of government infringement on your liberties and want to prepare to defend yourself, you might want a Hellfire missile--or 400. Nothing less will do. The second amendment argument is goofy.

We are in the realm of fear, I fear.  I can appreciate those who geek out over guns, who know all the kinds, and capabilities, just like car enthusiasts. And I know that most of these are safe and responsible people.

I get the argument that the AR-15, and other so-called "assault rifles" are only different in style from weapons that are designed for hunting. Oh, but style matters. We know this in our commercial-cultural bones. Tuggs are not Uggs. Merona is not Patagonia. Kia is not Lexus. And a military-looking rifle stirs the imagination differently than something else. Why else do these young men go for the "assault-looking" rifles? It's a nexus with the elite killers. Commandos, Seals, Green Berets.  The pros who are expert killers. It's a weak ego that wants to be strong. Inadequacy bent on super-power.

Psychologically, style matters big-time. It has become deadly. Dead straight. Dead straight shooter. I don't think any of my hunting mentors would want to be part of this fearful, selfish, goofy, insistence on the "right" to unlimited access to kill-people-weapons. Nope, they would give up their own firearms if it would save children. They were all teachers who loved children more than their own guns.

We all agreed that a shotgun that held six shells was illegal, to protect the ducks. Still the law.