This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

The Gun Issue: It's time

All credible evidence is that the vast majority of us are sick and tired of the bullying of the gun lobby. But we must act, individually, if we want change.

Sundays Minneapolis Star Tribune had a very powerful full page pictorial editorial on the Gun Issue. Here’s the article, and with this column is a photo of the actual full page spread.

Also, Sunday, CBS 60 Minutes had two segments featuring the Newtown parents, whose children were killed in the massacre on December 14. The segments are accessible here, and are well worth watching.

We have again urged our lawmakers - local, state, national - to do the serious and courageous work of tightening control of firearms in this country. If people wish to own guns, then they need to accept more responsibility, especially if they wish to own weapons that can only be described as war combat weapons.

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If you’re Minnesotan, here’s a current list of lawmaker contact information: Minnesota Lawmakers 2013.

Our Woodbury community legislators are Sen. Susan Kent, Rep. JoAnn Ward, and Rep. Andrea Kieffer.  Their address is simple: State Capitol, St. Paul MN 55155.

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The tiny* - yes, it is tiny - bunch of advocates for "gun freedom" is disproportionately loud. 

All they have is bully-like threats and intimidation.  But they are "on the court". 

The rest of us cannot sit idly by.

Most all the talk I hear from the “Gun” side is “Rights”.

It is within the role of our legislators to talk very seriously about “Responsibility” of gun owners as well. Our society has tons of laws which in one way or another mandate responsibility. Guns have essentially been given a pass and are a major area shamefully under-regulated. Too many in the gun-owner population do not well regulate (take responsibility) for themselves.

Responsibility does not mean having even more guns in more places. (Even the most cursory reading of the 2nd amendment notes the words “well regulated” in the very first sentence.) We should not accept a new “wild west” mentality in the 21st century.

Use your legislator contact list, today, and often. 

* - How large is the pro-gun lobby in Woodbury?  How large is it anywhere?  It seems to be a tiny but very loud minority. 

For example, I was out of town at the time of the well-publicized confrontation by the gun rights group of our Congresswoman and local State Senator on March 9. Helpfully, somebody put up a YouTube segment about it.  Woodbury has about 60,000 population; as of this morning, one month later, less than 500 have clicked on that Woodbury YouTube segment, and I'm sure not all agree with the person who posted the film. (I've clicked on it twice - I thus count as two of the viewers.)

Even the NRA is hard-pressed to claim more than 4 million members (out of a U.S. population of over 300,000,000.  That's about 1 out of 75 or so citizens.  And most gun-owners, and most NRA members, have no problem whatever with responsible regulation of firearms. 

What does responsible and properly regulated gun ownership look like?  Some time ago I did my own survey of people I know.  The link to it is included here.  Scroll to the end for the survey.


We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?