Why Responsible Gun Training Is The Solution To The "U.S. Gun Problem"
MARLENE DUNCAN LEADING HER
GUN SIGHT EMPOWERMENT CIRCLE,
TEACHING WOMEN HOW TO DETERMINE
GUN SIGHT EMPOWERMENT CIRCLE,
TEACHING WOMEN HOW TO DETERMINE
DOMINATE EYE, DOMINATE HAND
INCLUDED IN THE TEACHING IS
HOW TO RESPONSIBLY USE GUNS
Since the goal of education is to empower thought, I cannot support sex education without reaching the logical conclusion that optional weapons training needs to be included too. Like sex, folks are going to do it anyway, so we might as well help them be as safe and responsible as possible when doing it.
While working with my partner, Sherwood Akuna, on his evolutionary Akuna Brass Catcher, a snap on brass rat that attaches to a pistol, I realized I had to learn something about guns.
Thank you Jack and Marlene Duncan, the Lake Havasu City Sportsman's Club, the NRA and their Women On Target - From The Women of the NRA classes for the trainings that you do.
I was on the sidelines taking pictures when the event's leader, the powerful marksman Marlene Duncan, held the sight empowerment circle pictured at the top of this posting. Notice the daytime moon at the center top of the shot. So many thoughts about guns were rushing through my soul that I didn't even know were there, distracting me from the goal at hand.
I went with Sherwood who had volunteered for the event. Usually when I went with Sherwood to the range, I stayed in the van. A place for women and guns gave me the grace to try again.
A touch of context. I am an old hippie from the 60's, raised in New England and grew up in a house with plenty of guns of all sizes. The parenting style was old school, which I think we need to revisit.
When it was legal for a parent to spank their children, children were not going to school shooting people, and like Michael Moore, engaged in responsible gun use. There is no sin in responsible gun use.
My father use to tell the 10 girls in the family that if we touched his guns he would have to beat us, then kill (shoot) us. My two brothers were taught how to use a gun. I had no problem choosing life. Guns were viewed as a tool for survival rather than an instrument of death. I was not going to mess with my father's tools.
My father use to tell the 10 girls in the family that if we touched his guns he would have to beat us, then kill (shoot) us. My two brothers were taught how to use a gun. I had no problem choosing life. Guns were viewed as a tool for survival rather than an instrument of death. I was not going to mess with my father's tools.
My Dad's bounty from hunting trips yielded a rich wild flavor above my taste grade despite proper field dressing. Sherwood and I have been vegetarians for years by choice, not eating anything that had a face.
Marlene opened a door for me when she said:
"I only shoot paper."
Sherwood has a prayer he says when he buys guns. It is
"Lord, let this gun shoot its entire life piercing only paper."
For my father and his friends, hunting was a sacred male trust and I did not qualify. One day they beat a man for being drunk when he went hunting with them. The man went away from the group, saying he was relieving himself, and came back with alcohol on his breath. My father said that flask almost cost that man his life, because a drunk mind with a gun endangers everyone. The same is true of ignorance. These men were responsible for families and safety was part of their demonstration of manhoood.
As an adult I lived in NYC for 25 years and saw no reason for anyone to have a gun in a populated area. The risk of innocent people being killed out weighted the joy of shooting. What I thought was wisdom not interacting with guns, was in fact hidden fear.
At the training, Jack asked 'is anyone afraid of guns?" I thought initially 'my reluctance to interact with guns is not fear, but wisdom.' I was wrong. It was masked, ancient fear, a failure to solve the problem of peace on earth to people of good will.
Jack put an empty gun on a table and told it to shoot him. Nothing happened. My first thought was 'yeah, what if it fell, misfired and hit someone? What if the police had the wrong address or a thug grabbed the exposed gun, loaded and finished the process?'
For my father and his friends, hunting was a sacred male trust and I did not qualify. One day they beat a man for being drunk when he went hunting with them. The man went away from the group, saying he was relieving himself, and came back with alcohol on his breath. My father said that flask almost cost that man his life, because a drunk mind with a gun endangers everyone. The same is true of ignorance. These men were responsible for families and safety was part of their demonstration of manhoood.
As an adult I lived in NYC for 25 years and saw no reason for anyone to have a gun in a populated area. The risk of innocent people being killed out weighted the joy of shooting. What I thought was wisdom not interacting with guns, was in fact hidden fear.
At the training, Jack asked 'is anyone afraid of guns?" I thought initially 'my reluctance to interact with guns is not fear, but wisdom.' I was wrong. It was masked, ancient fear, a failure to solve the problem of peace on earth to people of good will.
Jack put an empty gun on a table and told it to shoot him. Nothing happened. My first thought was 'yeah, what if it fell, misfired and hit someone? What if the police had the wrong address or a thug grabbed the exposed gun, loaded and finished the process?'
Jack said:
The problem is not the guns, it's the knuckleheads behind the guns.
Both my partner and my father, two other marksmen, said
Ignornance is the greatest danger in gun use.
The fault in my logic was that even a gun falling and/or mis-firing is still not the gun killing people. The reaction of a gun shooting is traced back to the person responsible, a knucklehead who left a loaded gun unsecured.
The national conversation about guns should really listen to what smart gun users say.
Since the best way to solve a problem is at the level of cause and effect, as our nation deals with the cause of gun violence, folks being knuckleheads in the presence of guns (or any other power), the effect, the death of innocent people, can be dramatically reduced.
I've always thought there should be a class called 'thinking.' Henry Hamblin wrote a book called Dynamic Thought: Harmony, Health, Success, Achievement, Self Mastery, Optimism, Prosperity and Peace of Mind Through the Power of Right Thinking 1923 and Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking would be good foundation texts. There are many others to consider.
For the same reasons we have sex education, responsible gun training needs to be in the schools and other NRA affiliated organizations, like our local ranges, to balance what folks learn in the streets. An alert gun trainer in the schools could have seen Columbine coming and taken appropriate action before there was a crisis.
Gun use is a sacred responsibility written into the constitution for a reason. Since both Washington and Jefferson were hemp farmers, they didn't see a need to write a plant into the constitution...but they did see a need to write in weapons for self defense.
Responsibility, safety and wisdom need to continue being stressed in training at the same time the mechanics of shooting are taught. Alternative conflict resolution techniques should be taught too.
I still don't believe the constitution gives someone right to bring a loaded weapon into a public place who is not certified and easily traceable.
However, the key to solving gun violence is found on the sight, the person responsible for the gun, and not the trigger.
I urge responsible gun training be re-instituted in schools and funded on local ranges so even the poor can attend.
The national conversation about guns should really listen to what smart gun users say.
Since the best way to solve a problem is at the level of cause and effect, as our nation deals with the cause of gun violence, folks being knuckleheads in the presence of guns (or any other power), the effect, the death of innocent people, can be dramatically reduced.
I've always thought there should be a class called 'thinking.' Henry Hamblin wrote a book called Dynamic Thought: Harmony, Health, Success, Achievement, Self Mastery, Optimism, Prosperity and Peace of Mind Through the Power of Right Thinking 1923 and Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking would be good foundation texts. There are many others to consider.
For the same reasons we have sex education, responsible gun training needs to be in the schools and other NRA affiliated organizations, like our local ranges, to balance what folks learn in the streets. An alert gun trainer in the schools could have seen Columbine coming and taken appropriate action before there was a crisis.
Gun use is a sacred responsibility written into the constitution for a reason. Since both Washington and Jefferson were hemp farmers, they didn't see a need to write a plant into the constitution...but they did see a need to write in weapons for self defense.
Responsibility, safety and wisdom need to continue being stressed in training at the same time the mechanics of shooting are taught. Alternative conflict resolution techniques should be taught too.
I still don't believe the constitution gives someone right to bring a loaded weapon into a public place who is not certified and easily traceable.
However, the key to solving gun violence is found on the sight, the person responsible for the gun, and not the trigger.
I urge responsible gun training be re-instituted in schools and funded on local ranges so even the poor can attend.
Carolyn Myss, author of Anatomy of Spirit, talks about Wisdom Erases Karma. Let's be wise and encourage the responsible teaching of gun use.
The Lord and common sense can handle the rest.
Labels: Akuna Brass Catcher, Arizona, constitution, empowerment, gun training, guns, Jack Duncan, Lake Havasu City, Lake Havasu City Sportsman's Club, Marlene Duncan, Michael Moore, NRA, women
posted by Nayer @ 11:49 AM
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