The biggest picture isn't in your camera
I am a retired naval bomb disposal officer with tours in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan - I qualified expert on both rifles and pistols
I own 1 rifle, 3 pistols - they are all in safes and will stay there unless needed to kill a rabid animal or the likes.
I used to hunt but do not anymore - although I still eat game when someone else brings it to the table
More important to this conversation and thread on the forum and nationally - I have two children, a son and a daughter in their 40's, with 3 grandchildren in elementary school
I work in a health care related field with people on the "edge" or Verge" and often times in chronic pain...... mental health issues abound in this country yet our mental health care systems and pain management methods are deplorable - gutted - is a good term.
If you had a daughter or son of legal age or spouse with mental health problems, and they already owned a gun - you COULD NOT have it taken away from them. Here in Alabama as I was told "unless there is an incident there is no problem". Very hard to have someone legally declared a danger to themselves or others.
Depression and schizophrenia and other forms of metal illness like PTSD don't always advertise themselves in a way that gets folks locked up or gets them mandated help.
Even folks with professional help - go off their meds - and the issues return.
We live at a time when info streams so fast and our little peoples are exposed to sooooo damn much violence on the t.v., the video games, 23 years of endless war and military conflicts and endless terrorist attacks that our most delicate minds, our children and those with mental illness are being ravaged by fear and warped by repetitive images of violence.... many in single parent homes.
We sit behind our little computer screens and type how important the 2nd amendment is to our rights. To our safety our security our happiness and rights of self determination but none of us (that I know of) has a child or loved one that has bleed out at school or a concert, because the mental health system failed to inform the judicial system (due to someone's privacy rights) THAT DANGER WAS AT HAND.
YOUR LOVED ones are in DANGER!! We worry so much about the rights of the individual (and criminal) without being more concerned with the rights of the masses (victims).
Lots of analogies are available from fertilizer bombs, to drinking and smoking to texting and driving and so on..... but nothing can inflict so much pain and suffering on so many people (families) churches (people) communities AS SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN LOST IN THE SYSTEM WHICH HAS FAILED THEM and they snap....and a very lethal weapon is conveniently close at hand. Maybe they were bullied, maybe rejected, maybe just lost in the darkness of despair after loosing the only person that they ever loved, even if it was a pet - it doesn't matter why, when you go over the edge you go over the edge and finding bottom is never pleasant.
Will reducing the # of rounds a weapon can hold to 6 stop the deaths? NO - but it will help
Will removing weapons capable of inflicting mass destruction stop the deaths? NO - but it will help
Will improving the mental health care affordability and access and referral system in this country stop the deaths? NO - but it will help
Will computerized and anonymous reporting of potentially dangerous people (on the verge) or whatever by a family member stop the deaths? NO but it will help.
Will temporarily removing the guns from a home where firearm security (safes and trigger locks) are not available stop the deaths? NO but it will help
Will putting the lives of people in mass before the enjoyment of single right to bear arms gun ownership stop the deaths? NO but it will help
Will getting the entertainment industry like Hollywood and video game producers to minimize violent content stop the deaths? No but it will help
Will politicians stop taking monies from the firearm industry stop the deaths? NO but it will help
These are just a few things that, IMO, would help, and each of them comes with many pro's and con's; but together, collectively, they could make a huge difference.
If one of these things could stop your most loved one from dying tomorrow - what would that be worth to you?