#ONELESSGUN

[Econoline]

I’m a responsible gun owner, so I destroyed my gun

The gun lobby only has as much power as we give it. It's time for a change.

By Steve Elliott | October 15

I am a responsible gun owner.

I bought my first gun when I was 12. It was a Browning 12-gauge shotgun, and I saved money from my paper route and cleaning a drive-in restaurant to buy it in time for dove season. In the years before I could legally drive, I’d tie the Browning across the handlebars of my bike and ride to the fields outside town to hunt.

I’ve owned several guns since — deer rifles and target rifles, shotguns and a handgun. I bought that gun, a semi-automatic Ruger, to keep my family safe, and locked it up to keep them safe from it. Like I said, responsible.

Although I’d like to believe I’m not party to the gun violence that stains the United States, I can’t. My grandmother shot and killed herself with a gun, and a few years ago my father shot and didn’t quite kill himself with one. A family friend lost a teenage son in an accidental shooting while he and his friends were playing with a gun. My stepbrother died in a murder-suicide with a gun, and the husband of one of my sister’s co-workers was killed in a mass shooting by a guy carrying three of them.

None of that happened with my gun, of course, but after every new mass shooting, I’m reminded that I, as a responsible gun owner, bear a portion of the responsibility for our nation’s gun violence.

After the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon — after every mass shooting on a college campus, movie theater, elementary school or wherever — someone from the National Rifle Association or some other gun-rights group, or someone in Congress or running for president, goes on television and says we can’t fund federal studies on gun violence or have universal background checks of gun buyers or do anything that even hints of gun control because it infringes on the rights of responsible gun owners.

My gun is being used to argue against doing anything to even try to reduce gun violence in our nation. That’s what being a responsible gun owner means now — I’m responsible.

I’m a bit ashamed how slowly I came to that realization. For most of my life, I never thought about guns, and certainly didn’t weigh in on the gun control debate. Until recently, I didn’t even connect the personal tragedies in and around my family to guns.

I was at a restaurant when I first learned about the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., watching news reports on the television over the bar. Like most of America, my reaction was horror and disgust. But I could also overhear a guy talking at the bar, and his first reaction was, “They’re gonna use this as an excuse to come after our guns.”

The authorities were still trying to figure out how many 6- and 7-year-olds had been killed, and he was worried about his guns.

I thought Sandy Hook might prompt a sober discussion about gun control or even legislative action, but that didn’t happen. The NRA’s proposed solution was more guns — arming teachers and guards at every school. The church shooting in Charleston, S.C., happened about a week after I’d visited that city for the first time, and again, the gun lobby opposed any hint of gun control, ostensibly on behalf of responsible gun owners.

I thought about giving up my gun then, but I didn’t. In the face of so much gun violence in our society, disarming is bit frightening (even though I know statistically I’m safer without a gun in the house than with one). I still told myself I wasn’t part of the problem.

That ended a week ago.

After the Umpqua shooting, and the gun lobby’s predictable response, and a visibly angry President Obama admitting there’s no political will to try to solve our country’s gun violence problem, I realized it’s not their problem. It’s mine.

The Monday after the shootings, I disassembled my Ruger, clamped the pieces in a vise and cut them in half with an angle grinder. I sent the proper paperwork in to the state to report it destroyed. And then I wrote about it on Facebook, and included a hashtag: #ONELESSGUN.

I’m not an activist, I’m an angry American. I’m angry about the senseless killings, and the more senseless “stuff happens” response to them. I’m angry that the gun industry’s special-interest spokesmen claim to speak for me, and that politicians believe them.

Mostly, I’m angry about what it says about the United States. The idea that kids getting slaughtered at school is too big a problem for us to solve infuriates me. If there is truly nothing we can do, nothing we can try — if we just have to accept it — then we have failed as a nation and as a culture. I don’t want to believe that.

Instead, I believe that the overwhelming majority of Americans — including American gun owners — want to reduce gun violence and are open to solutions: policing, education, training, technology, mental health, media and yes, gun laws.

I believe claiming the NRA speaks for all gun owners is like saying the Westboro Baptist Church speaks for all Christians. It doesn’t. The gun lobby in this country is considered an all-powerful political force, but it is a narrow special-interest group, same as any other. It has exactly the amount of power we give it.

And I believe people are ready for change.

More than 46,000 strangers shared my post and picture of my destroyed handgun with their friends and networks. A few mocked it, but the overwhelming majority of the messages were positive. Some of those comments came from other gun owners. Some came from men and women who had gotten rid of their firearms, or are considering doing so or who support my decision but aren’t going to part with their guns. That’s okay. At least they’re in the conversation.

None of us individually can stop gun violence in America, but responsible gun owners can change the debate, and individuals can act when politicians won’t. I know I will no longer allow myself to be used as a justification for doing nothing.

Maybe cutting up a perfectly good gun is just a symbolic — some say stupid — gesture that will accomplish nothing. Maybe. But at the very least, there is #ONELESSGUN.

[Sue U]

Bravo!

[dales]

Maybe cutting up a perfectly good gun is just a symbolic — some say stupid — gesture that will accomplish nothing. Maybe. But at the very least, there is #ONELESSGUN.

What a jackass.

[Lord Jim]

I believe claiming the NRA speaks for all gun owners is like saying the Westboro Baptist Church speaks for all Christians. It doesn’t.

I completely agree with that. Wayne LaPierre and the rest of the leadership of the NRA and other gun lobbying organizations are total scum; they manipulate paranoia amongst a small percentage of the population in order to serve their masters in the firearms manufacturing industry...

That having been said, I am also a steadfast supporter of the Second Amendment.

As I've said before, anyone who thinks "the right to keep and bear arms" is going to keep you from being taken over by some imagined government attack is licking toad...

If the government wants to get you, you're going to get got; no matter how many semi-automatic weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition you have...

The government has tanks, battalions; Apache helicopters bristling with Hell Fire Missiles...

You've got no shot...(no pun intended)...

What protects us against that sort of thing is our deeply ingrained values...

If a hypothetical "tyrant" were to attempt that kind of "take over" commanders and their troops would refuse to follow their unlawful orders... Governors would call out the National Guard...

A President who sought to do this sort of thing would swiftly find themselves Impeached, removed from Office, and behind bars...

All of that having been said, every person should have the right to defend themselves, their family, and their home against a rational threat... ie, "bad guys"...

Someone breaks into my home I'm not going to discuss their intentions , or whether they had a bad up bringing...

I'm going to use my Walther to stop them from proceeding further....

And I should absolutely have that right...

As should every American.

[wesw]

I pretty much despised the NRA. they were manipulative and I don t like that.

now the left is manipulative and divisive and a threat to our liberties.

the universities are the speech police and brainwashers in chief. (you can t say male or female you sexist , racist pig!!!!)

and the left wants to take away the linchpin of our liberty, our guns.

now the NRA is necessary and I wish them well

I will die for our constitution before I surrender my gun to the govt.

that is what you are facing if you attempt to repeal the 2nd amendment

I am not alone.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I will die for our constitution before I surrender my gun to the govt.

that is what you are facing if you attempt to repeal the 2nd amendment

So if you have to surrender your gun, you're going to die?

I think we can face it.

[wesw]

vote Kasich!!!!

[wesw]

actually , I hope that Hillary continues down the path of gun control. she is blind to how it quietly ruins her campaign.

[wesw]

people are buying guns and ammo as fast as they can be produced. they are doing this because of the left s gun control efforts.

the left is the cause of a massive arming of America

first they say "you re crazy, we don t want to take your guns, you paranoid red necks..."

...and now we see the calls for the repeal of the 2nd amendment....

the left is breeding massive civil unrest.

they are dividing race against race, urban against rural.

religion against religion

speech is infringed, the right to bear arms is infringed, liberty is infringed

meanwhile lawlessness is encouraged.

our border is undefended

the drug gangs and cartels run rampant

the islamists are on the march, worldwide.

the left says shut up about it, you stupid Christian Neanderthal gun huggers....

things look bad for America.

rome redux

[Crackpot]

Actually it's the rights hysteria

[wesw]

I know you are , but what am I?

great argument there, crackpot......

[Econoline]

...and now we see the calls for the repeal of the 2nd amendment....

Where? Where have you seen, anywhere, any legislator or government official in any position to do anything toward repeal of the 2nd Amendment, actually calling for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment. Come on now. Let's have some names...and not names of newspaper columnists or posters on the internet. And before you say "Hillary Clinton" let me point out that she called for gun owners to take back the 2nd Amendment--from the NRA. The NRA does not own the 2nd Amendment, or the Bill of Rights; we all do.

the left is breeding massive civil unrest.

And yet it's the right who are calling for armed rebellion.

they are dividing race against race, urban against rural.

religion against religion

Again, it's the right wing blogosphere, the right wing news media, right wing talk radio, right wing Tea Partiers, right wing religious groups, and right wing politicians have been doing much much *MUCH* more of this than anyone on the left.

speech is infringed,

Where?

the right to bear arms is infringed,

Where?

liberty is infringed

Where?

meanwhile lawlessness is encouraged.

...by the armed and UNregulated "militias".

our border is undefended

Except for 20,824 Border Patrol agents (more than double the number in 2004), 47,492 active and reserve Coast Guard personnel, and the largest military of any nation on the planet.

the drug gangs and cartels run rampant

Okay, I'll give you this one. (But of course it's mostly because of the War on Drugs, which predates the present administration by many many years.)

the islamists are on the march, worldwide.

Because of the previous administration's challenge to "Bring it on!"

the left says shut up about it, you stupid Christian Neanderthal gun huggers....

More like "Get a grip! Look at the actual facts and not just your paranoid imagination...you stupid Christian Neanderthal gun huggers.

things look bad for America.

If you say so...

[wesw]

(eye rolling emoticon)

[Lord Jim]

Maybe cutting up a perfectly good gun is just a symbolic — some say stupid — gesture that will accomplish nothing. Maybe. But at the very least, there is #ONELESSGUN.

What a jackass.

Yes, that is perfect jackassery...

a symbolic — some say stupid — gesture that will accomplish nothing.

You can certainly count me among those "some"...

Disabling your own gun, that you would never have used for an evil purpose, is the height of meaningless idiocy...

It doesn't even rise to the level of "futile gesture"...

If you really want to destroy a gun in a way that will have meaning and a positive social impact, go destroy the gun of a gang banger...

Good luck with that....

[rubato]

Good story econoline. I can see why some are so threatened by it.

People can learn and even sacrifice things that they used to want on behalf of a better world.

1 Corinthians 13:11King James Version (KJV)

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

An avowed atheist quotes the Bible (completely out of context, btw).

THAT'S RICH!

[Lord Jim]

completely out of context,

rube took something out of context?

[Crackpot]

[Joe Guy]

Good article, Econoline.

Like my father used to say while smoking his Pall Malls, "In hoc signo vinces".

yrs,

nonsequiturato

[Lord Jim]

People can learn and even sacrifice things that they used to want on behalf of a better world.

How does a law abiding citizen dismantling a gun that represents a threat to no innocent person make for a "better world"? (Well except of course, it's a "better world" for anyone who would choose burglarize his home) You are speaking gibberish.

I can see why some are so threatened by it.

Why would anyone feel "threatened" by an article about some nincompoop who's decided that the way to strike a blow against "senseless killings" is to dismantle his own gun? (The disconnect is so absurd that the article really should have been posted in "Laffs")

Maybe next in order to try to "do something" about hit -and-run accidents, he can dismantle his car...

I don't find stupidity frightening rube. If I did, I could never read your posts...