This coming weekend, another gun show will set up shop in the Ray Clymer Exhibit Hall at the MPEC.  Guns and ammunition and accessories of all sorts will be bought and sold.  It is, in every way, one of the grand expressions of our freedom.  Men and women will gather together, many will leave with weapons and ammo and will kill absolutely no one.  As difficult as it is for some in our nation to grasp, most of these folks will never harm a single person, not even in self-defense.  For a few of them, the very fact that they will be armed will, at some point, save their life, because a potential assailant will think twice.

Over the past month, we’ve seen two horrible tragedies unfold in our nation: the murders that occurred at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin a few days ago.  Both of these acts were carried out by cowards.  These gutless wonders are in a slight minority among the masses in our nation.  While their actions have led to much bloodshed, we have to guard against letting these tragedies wipe out the guiding light of common sense.

We have groups in this country who think that disarming all of us will somehow stop people like this from carrying out their deadly plans.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  If a crazy, spineless lunatic wants to carry out such an act, they will do so.  If it’s not a gun, it will be a knife, or a car, or a truck, or a boat; you get the idea.  Tens of millions of gun owners in our republic today killed absolutely no one.  And that is what we must fight to preserve: the right to remain armed to whatever degree we deem necessary.

For some of us, an armed and protected household may be secured by the simple pump action shotgun, or a revolver, or a semi auto handgun.  Some of us find great fun in target shooting with weapons like the AR-15.  I’ve lost count of how many guys I’ve known who re-load their own ammo.  They buy brass by the barrel and are very good at their craft.  Elements of our own government would have you believe these people are terrorists.  This is beyond stupid and it is scary that we’ve allowed such individuals to rise to any level of power.

The answer is not more gun laws; we have more than enough of those.  We live in a time when we are afraid to assign personal responsibility to those who commit crimes.  We’ll dig and scratch for any excuse, especially if we fear offending someone by placing blame where it belongs.  We are all blessed with common sense and free will.  And there will always be those among us who cannot exercise the former or control the latter.  I don't care what their life experiences were, you have to hold the one with his finger on the trigger responsible.  Who is at fault for these most recent tragedies?  The spineless, cowardly pieces of excrement that pulled the trigger, no one else, nothing else.  Not the gun shows, the dealer, the private collector or your next door neighbor.  Let’s put blame where it belongs.

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