[Vision2020] toys of carnage

[rhayes at frontier.com]

As a youth I was a hunter. While I was not terribly
successful in that, I did love the forests, the cold mornings, tracking and
observing wildlife, and the feel of my old, but well cared for gun in my hands.  As part of hunter licensing
requirements, I enrolled in an NRA hunter safety course.  My instructor was also my boy- scout leader.  He was a noble, quiet man who walked with a
limp. Years later my father told me the reason he limped was because as a tank
commander in the Battle of the Bulge during WWII, he had his tank blown out
from under him.  After recovering from
his wounds he returned to the peaceful United States and took up the cause on
inspiring young boys, such as I, with good values, patriotism, courage, and of
course, the joy of the outdoors and hunting.  The hunter safety course filled me with an understanding of being
responsible with my weapon.  It was not a
toy.  I was taught never to aim at something
I did not intend to kill, and never to kill something I did not intend to eat.
Of course, there was an element of self-defense involved, but it was unspoken. 
Now, I bring the above to attention because I want to
comment on the current “gun control” debate. In a historic perspective, and a
very personal manner, I find the arguments for allowing all sorts of weapons to
flood our society a grievous and flagrant wrong.  How would my father’s generation view our
citizenry arming themselves against each other? How would they view militias of
men and women preparing to do battle with our own government?  How would they respond to mass killings of innocent
children in an elementary school, or to the machine gun killings of folks who
wanted nothing more than to see a movie or to go shopping? Would they arm
themselves and stand in defiance of common sense and peaceful reason, or would
they expect government and the citizens of this nation, for which they gave
their best measure, to address these horrific acts?
In war weapons of mass destruction such as automatic and
semi-automatic rifles are necessary and possibly necessary evils. In peace time
such weapons are nothing more than toys; toys capable of awful carnage, but
toys all the same. The argument that these toys should be covered and protected
by the second amendment to our constitution is nothing less than insane. 
Roger Hayes
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