Gads, it has been nearly 2 years since I have published a diary. My narcissistic self says WTF.
At any rate, please read my bias...and my opinions...in the body of this diary.
Please understand that I have no axe to grind re my fellow Dems who are vehemently anti-gun. Everyone of us is vehemently against the outrages of psychopathic killers who have unfortunately dominated the news in recent times. I say, vehemently and strongly, let us forever keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those who are psychologically incapable of responsible gun ownership.
Before I present my opinions re gun ownership, please allow me to offer my gun owner advocate bonafides, as biased as they most certainly are.
I wish to speak as an official old fart...I am 66 years old...a Vietnam vet who has been shot at and ...mostly...missed and shit at and...mostly...hit, a husband of a beautiful wife of 40 plus years, a father of two so successful and independent children and a gun owner.
I grew up in rural Iowa in a family that was fiercely independent...and poor. I know hunger and deprivation from having no money and no food in the house. I do know that my family depended upon and enjoyed the protein provided by fall, winter and spring hunting. Probably, because of my relative economic success and because of my aversion to violence that was borne of my Vietnam adventure, I refrained from hunting after my exit from Vietnam in 1970 until about three years ago when I decided to start hunting again. I hunt small game and deer with a good degree of success. I wish to state that I would never harvest any game that I did not plan to utilize...translate that as eat. To me, this is very much more honest a way to harvest animal protein than buying blister packed meat at the supermarket. For my PETA friends who I very much respect, I only wish to point out that today, most wild game has no natural predators and that to avoid the harsh die off that occurs when a given animal exceeds the carrying capacity of its habitat, we must rely upon responsible hunters. A biologist could elaborate upon this, but most certainly would support this statement.
Be that as it may, I would ask my anti-gun Democratic colleagues and partners to be a little more tolerant of those of us who strongly believe in the Second Amendment. After all, we as progressive/liberal Democrats want to bring supporters into the fold and not to alienate otherwise kindred spirits by disparaging what I believe are legitimate beliefs about firearm ownership.