Assault Weapons, Bullet Buttons & Thumb Holes

What the hell is going on in Harrisburg and this gun show?

Now a huge event for Harrisburg has been cancelled because so many vendors boycotted the gun show.  They boycotted because:

“Initially, the company that stages the annual Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg said it decided to ban the sale of “certain products” (semi-automatic weapons) to avoid attracting attention, given the current debate over gun control and gun safety.” (Harrisburg Patriot)

So people are all fired up at this foreign company for forbidding us American’s to tote whatever gun we choose.  American’s have it in our Constitution that we can bare arms and no one is going to take that from us, especially some British owned company.  How dare they tell us we can’t have assault weapons and huge magazines to load with shells?  Not two bullets, not five bullets, but twenty or thirty or a hundred bullets.

Well, I guess they can because the show is cancelled and may or may not be rescheduled.

When I think about all this, it’s not like the British can say, “Oh we never have someone get trigger happy and take innocent lives.”  There are people all over the world that go off their rocker and shoot-up schools, churches, movie theaters, restaurants, etc.

So I’m a bit wishy-washy.  I know guns don’t kill people, people kill people.  I grew up around guns.  I’ve shot rifles, shot-guns and handguns.  I even owned a handgun at one point.  I’ve never had the urge to shoot anyone my entire life.  And I didn’t even know what a bullet button or thumb hole was.  I do now.

Then, there are those ‘”others” who want to shoot people just for fun or attention or because they are mentally ill.  Sure, they can get a gun illegally, if anyone tries hard enough, they can get a gun too.  It’s the person who kills, not the gun.

Come on, let’s be honest with ourselves.  Do we really want assault weapons available to citizens?  Does anyone not fighting a war or crime need a gun that holds a magazine of shells?  I imagine shooting targets, plastic jugs or if you’re in the Amish Mafia, watermelons, would be a blast with an AK-47 but the reality is we have police and military to carry that type of firearm.

I definitely don’t see a need for assault weapons to be displayed and sold at a giant gun rally held less than an hour from my home.

Wait…it’s cancelled….oh well, I wasn’t attending anyway.

It seems strange to me that vendors would boycott the show, especially companies that didn’t even sell guns to start with.  Yeah, you vendors and speakers were all standing up for our second amendment, I get that.  But now no one is selling anything…not bows, arrows, shotguns, gun cases, scopes, trigger guards, nothing.

I’d give up my second amendment in a heartbeat if it would stop this country from being the most likely place to be killed by a gun.  Think about it.

~P.