So, I am a gun owner and, more importantly, a gun user but if you aren't a gun owner or, more importantly, a gun user then there is a unique paradigm you may not be aware of called "I don't know how my gun is hitting". This, basically, means you haven't shot your gun in a while and you don't know where the bullet will go despite where the sights are pointed. If you are an automobile driver then you might compare this to "I haven't had to back up in a while" The long & short of it is that you own a thing but can't properly use it and, more importantly, don't trust yourself to use it. I think this is the crux of the modern gun-control debate. It's not about the criminals who would use their guns for terrible, unspeakable things but the result of the modern uncertain gun-owner who knows, deep-down in their heart, that they can't use their guns well enough to be trusted with them. I must now apologize to the hundreds of youtube channel gun-nuts who spend all their time assuming that everyone lives in the imaginary world they do where everyone takes their guns out and shoots them repeatedly until proficiency is achieved. The reality is that most gun-owners are not gun-users and should NOT have guns. (Am I the least popular guy on the internet yet? I will be. Wait until I talk about dog owners and voters!)
I'll jump ahead to the part where I am talking to gun owners who use their firearms and suddenly realize that there are some guns they simply do not shoot enough and often (let's say once per year) feel a sudden sense of doubt in their ability to use said firearm. I have a couple rifles that fall into this category. I say to myself "Dear sweet Jesus, Norris! You haven't shot that in a year! You have no idea how it shoots or where it's hitting!" Then I make a point to take it to the range, load it and shoot it only to find it shoots exactly how it shot last year and I was worried for no reason. The worry is a good thing. The shooting is a good thing. The discussion this opens up is, also, a good thing. So, to open this debate I bring up the last time I shot my VEPR .308. Late last summer I noticed the geese at my favorite fishing hole would not go into the lake and they looked very worried which is a hard thing to notice about a goose (I'll post more on this later). Once I sat still for a while and waited I suddenly saw what they saw. A young alligator trolling the placid waters of my favorite fishing hole where the children (DEAR GOD THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!) often come to play. Not to ruin the end of the story I took 2 shots from ~100 yards with iron sights from my AK-47 and planted a nice head shot this little gator. The first shot was a miss. I adjusted and BLAMO! I reduced a 100 million year old brain pan design to a cocktail shrimp bowl. So be it. If you own guns, shot them. If you hate guns, take solace in the fact that at least some of us can use ours properly and are a minimal threat to you and yours.
