Thank you, Chuck, for posting this on Facebook and allowing me to use it here. Your words of wisdom are appreciated.
by Charles Leggett
Compassion,
common sense and compromise are the qualities we use and call upon
every day as we carry out our routine endeavors. Faced with a national
imperative to address a problem that seemingly has no limits to the
grief, despair and destruction it causes, we must employ those qualities
well beyond our normal limits. Americans know when something needs to
be fixed. A Universal system for background checks and registration is a
common sense move. Limiting or banning assault weapons is a common
sense move. Closing the gun show loopholes is a common sense move. NO
right of mine has been infringed if any of these steps become the law,
BUT, my family might be a bit safer for them.
I am a gun owner.
I am a former NRA member. I dropped my membership when the NRA stopped
being a fully responsible partner in our society and unwisely tethered
to the rhetoric of their most extreme element. As a gun owner I know I
do not need an assault weapon to defend my family or to hunt with. When I
aim at something, I seldom need more than one round to hit it. I do not
plan on or foresee the need to go to war with my country or the enemies
of my country. For those who say - these things have been tried before
and didn't work and we don't need to try again - I say - tell that to
our men and women who are serving in war zones - They might try and they
might fail - but they don't stop trying - they keep at it until
successful.
National polls seem to agree that a majority of gun
owners (including NRA members) believe that steps should be taken to
ban assault weapons and employ a universal background check and
registration system. That lends me some hope even as I see that most of
the do-nothings in congress would vote against each common sense step.
In order to curb gun violence the people that were tracked in the
national polls will have to convert their survey responses into action.
It will require a congress willing to act above and beyond their
respective best interests to get re-elected. It will require a national
organization like the NRA to speak and act responsibly and be a willing
partner in a common sense compromise. It will require our entire country
to look past the issue of guns and see the other contributing aspects
of the problem.
