Understanding both sides of the gun control debate

‘ ‘ ‘ I’ve never been well acquainted with this nation’s gun culture. Like all Americans, I’m… ‘ ‘ ‘ I’ve never been well acquainted with this nation’s gun culture. Like all Americans, I’m familiar with the Second Amendment, and I’ve studied it as a history major, but it’s never been a personal issue for me. ‘ ‘ ‘ For me, it’s always been an ancillary political issue that I really only think about during election years or when a tragedy occurs and the news is swamped with the reactions of both pro- and anti-gun pundits.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Up until last month, I hadn’t even fired a gun before. ‘ ‘ ‘ That changed when I went to a shooting range at the Wexford State Game Lands with two members of Pitt’s Student’s for Concealed Carry on Campus.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ This event, in my mind, stripped away all of the rhetoric, controversy and political posturing associated with gun ownership. ‘ ‘ ‘ The people around me at the shooting range were responsible men and women, owning guns for personal protection, hunting or recreation. They exuded an enthusiasm for their hobby similar to the enthusiasm any golfer would display at the driving range on a weekend afternoon. ‘ ‘ ‘ But unlike golfers, these people and their hobby are at the center of a national debate in this country, a debate that ignores the motivations of the people that I met at the range last month and instead focuses on extremes. ‘ ‘ ‘ Extreme rhetoric such as former president of the National Rifle Association Charlton Heston’s famous exclamation at the 2000 NRA convention that a potential Al Gore presidency would take away his gun rights ‘from [his] cold, dead hands’ does nothing to advance the debate over gun control. Instead, it makes it easier for opponents of gun ownership to stereotype the other side as a collection of militia members chomping at the bit to get their hands on the newest, most destructive military hardware. ‘ ‘ ‘ I know that when I used to support strict gun control, I did so with the belief that guns were only meant to kill people and that those who owned them were relics of a past we had best leave behind. ‘ ‘ ‘ I was wrong. ‘ ‘ ‘ There was nothing antiquated about the attitudes of the gun owners at that shooting range in Wexford. Instead, the attitude of today’s gun owner strikes me as more realistic than that of any gun control advocates. ‘ ‘ ‘ Think about it, the idea behind gun control is that making it harder to legally purchase a gun and banning the sale of certain weapons entirely will reduce gun violence in this country. It is idealistic rather than realistic because it assumes that eventually the more than 250 million privately owned firearms in this nation will disappear. ‘ ‘ ‘ Time, it appears, has been on the side of gun owners in this country. ‘ ‘ ‘ There are more states with right-to-carry laws today than at any other time in our history, and rates of gun ownership have been increasing annually as well. Such statistics would have only unsettled me in years past, but now that I have faces to attach to gun ownership, such facts are much easier to accept. ‘ ‘ ‘ Don’t get me wrong, I still have some mixed feelings about the availability of guns in this country. I think that they’re too easy to buy and that the licensing process for concealed carry should be more rigorous. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ However, understanding both sides of the issue better now than I did before, I am much more comfortable with gun ownership in general and with concealed carry on this campus in particular. E-mail Giles at gbh4@pitt.edu.