Guns and Stuff

I’ve been seeing a lot about gun laws in the news recently.  Just a few days ago, Illinois ruled that the courts banning the right to carry arms is “unconstitutional,” and they are going to be drafting new laws to permit people to carry firearms.  I know that has been a hot topic recently in Illinois, too, who had strict gun laws, and I think handguns were illegal in Chicago: something which was done to try and prevent crime.  The main opposition to that was, “if guns are illegal, why do criminals still have them?”  Opponents said that banning handguns meant that the criminals were the only people who would be armed, and people wouldn’t be able to defend themselves.

It’s actually a valid point.

All of this controversy recently has made me realize that I don’t really know anything about guns.  I mean, I’ve used Super Soakers, played Laser Tag, and used paintball guns, but I’ve never actually used a real one.

I seem to recall hearing that states with more liberal firearm laws had less crime.  I think that pro-gun people would use that as a reason why the laws don’t work.  I suppose if there’s a chance that everyone might be armed, you might be less likely to try and attack someone, right?

I wonder if this will change the number of people who own guns, though.  Hopefully people will be responsible about it.  I’m all for the right to bear arms (provided people go through a background check), but don’t just leave them laying about.   Keep your gun in a handgun safe so nothing bad happens.

Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go take a firearms class somewhere.  Not that I necessarily plan on carrying a firearm around, but it would still probably be a good idea to learn how to use one.  I’m kind of already interested in them… I’ve watched every season of that show “Top Shot” on History Channel.  I don’t know a single thing about any of the guns they’re talking about, but I really like watching that show regardless.

I don’t even know how much they cost.  Although another guilty pleasure of mine is “Pawn Stars” (also on history channel) and I’ve seen some guns go for quite a high price on that show, but I think that’s because they’re rare or historic models.  Actually, now that I think about it, I think the guy who runs the shop said they can’t even buy any firearms made after 1895 or something, so I guess they’re only antiques and not representative of what current models would cost.