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Health & Fitness

Towards a Rational Conversation on Guns, Continued

Senate hearings on the gun issue are Feb 21 and 22. Here's some grist for what I feel is an essential conversation.

February 3 I published a post about Guns. You can find the original here, with an important update on February 11.

Last night, February 18, came an e-mail announcing hearings at the Minnesota State Capitol Room 15 February 21 and 22. Here are details.

Earlier February 18 I had been at a community meeting in St. Paul’s Frogtown (the issue was simple school-community relationships, not guns). Most of us there were strangers to each other. One older man and I struck up a conversation. He had been at the earlier House hearings on Guns, and he was struck by how many angry men were in the hearing room.

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He felt intimidated. But the experience made him ever more committed to make a difference on this most critical issue. (Frogtown has its own reputation relating to violence, and our meeting was multi-cultural and multi-racial. But the issues that came up were all about building better relationships generally, and not guns at all. I found that interesting.)

Guns in our society do not make for a simple rational conversation. Indeed, after the Feb 3 post, someone named Alex wrote an on-line comment suggesting I wasn’t capable of a rational conversation. I have no idea who “Alex” is – on-line comments are anonymous – so I can’t even engage in conversation with him – or her. I know nothing more than the comment.

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So be it.

But I did decide after the post to try to get an idea of what people I know think about the gun issue, and I drafted a brief questionaire to try to find out. Half of the 46 people who received the questions answered the survey – a high percentage return. I bill myself as a “moderate pragmatic Democrat” so that can be a clue as to the people surveyed might be.

The results are at the aforementioned blogpost.

Before you look, I’d suggest you answer, for yourself, the same questions I asked my friends. The questions are below.

And then, get into more conversations with people you know.

We don’t need gun policy to be made by angry men sitting in a hearing room. But that is how it will be if we do not get into action.

The survey questions:

1. Do you (and/or someone else in your own home or dwelling) own a firearm(s) (“guns”)? Yes or No

A. If you answered “Yes”

1. How many firearms are in your home or dwelling?

a. What kind(s)?

b. Where are weapons kept?

c. If you needed the gun for defense right now, how accessible and/oruseful would it be to you?

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PERSONALLY USED A FIREARM?

a. For what purpose?

2. For everyone:

If you could decide, what would “reasonable regulation” of firearms look like?

3. Have you ever used a gun for self-defense (against a person), and in what manner? Or do you personally know of someone who has (other than in war – or one of those stories heard from your cousin about his neighbor’s dentist’s brother or the like)? Versus, how many people have you been personally acquainted with who were killed by guns (except for war); how many were due to domestic violence?

The group answers are in the Update, accessible here.

They are just opinions of good people.

What is your opinion?

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