I was five years old and sick with the flu when my grandfather (Bomps) came around the corner with a Daisy BB Gun to call my own.  I was not thrown into the orchard without training and respect however.  On the contraire, I was given detailed instruction on handling, ethics, aiming, responsibility and consequences.  There was never a time in the early training when I was allowed to be alone with the gun but needed Bomps by my side. 

Guns have been a part of my life since a very young age and that remains the same today.  I have been licensed to pack a pistol concealed since I was 21 while investing in pieces for protection, hunting and fun.  Yet, if you were to ask people I work with today they know I hunt but little more.  If you ask my boys where to find them, their response would be, “in the safe with our BB gun but he it hid.”  I may cling to my guns and God but I consider myself a response owner of firearms. 

Friday night I was home with the kids and around 9:15 the windows shook as an explosive sound rocked the neighborhood.  My first reaction was a pipe bomb had just been lit off.  Upon walking outside there was no visible smoke just the distant sounds of police and fire coming to the area.  The nervous dog came in the house and I returned to homework feeling a little uneasy as the football crowd from the highschool was strangely silent.  Later in the evening I found out there had been a drive by shooting a few blocks over from the house.  The sound and window rattling was caused by a shotgun and Russian SKS fired at a house two blocks over as a crow flies.  Two teens were hit but not fatally.  My kids and I were in front of the same house just a few hours early during an evening run/bike ride. 

The nature of a drive by includes – the morons never getting caught – despite the fact everyone knows it was a gang shooting. 

During the next two days I again found myself thankful for the second amendment (remembering the days when I sat on my deck with a loaded pistol watching my neighbors who had just threatened to kill us – it is a long story but it includes them believing we turned them in which resulted in the raiding of their house – they were the ring leaders in a large drug smuggling operation from Canada to Mexico – FBI and local authorities thought me might be in real danger)

If a gun fight would have erupted Friday night there is a real possibility they could have come our direction.  SKS bullets travel nicely through empty space and even buildings at times.

Why do people want to take away my right to protect my kids who were asleep in their bed with nothing to do with the morons involved in the shooting?  Regardless of what some my say – I really don’t think the guns used in this gang shooting where bought through the legal process in the same way I purchased mine.  What makes people think this type of irresponsible behavior will change if my gun ownership privileges are taken away by a group of lawmakers? I don’t really care about “original intent” even though it is in my favor I care about the protection of my family and the providing food for their health.  

That is the power of the 2^nd Amendment – for without it I am left at the mercy of morons, evil doers and the local PD who are already over taxed in coverage.   This is a core value and I vote.