Maybe Outdoors columnist Eric Burnley should stick to fishing. Here are some realities about guns in America for him to contemplate.
1. Virtually every gun used for a crime in this country was once a legally purchased firearm. Large gun store robberies usually get solved fairly quickly; most of these guns are stolen from people like Burnley, who then never report them stolen.
2. There are no illegal gun dealers. And if there were, then where do they get the guns they sell? They can’t order them from the manufacturer. Again, they would have to be stolen, most likely from a citizen like Burnley.
3. You can read almost any day about teenagers as young as 13 being involved in shootings and caught carrying guns. There was just a shooting a few weeks ago at a school bus stop here in Delaware! This is enabled by the “guns are everywhere and we don't care” attitude of most gun owners in this country.
4. You can hardly even make a minor faux pas on the road without the fear of some hothead with a gun going full road rage. Something else you can read almost weekly in this very publication.
Other countries have solved the issue of mass shootings and gun violence with realistic laws and restrictions. But we will never be able to as long as folks like Burnley reject every sensible measure to control it, because they feel their right to feel all-powerful with their firearm at their side trumps everyone else's rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
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