Guns, Guns and More Guns

If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Chicago handgun ban when it rules in June, I'll be overjoyed.

I will also be apprehensive.

I enjoy target shooting and I agree with the folks who believe the Second Amendment gives us the right to own firearms, including handguns. I also agree, however, that there can and should be restrictions on that right.

For example, if one of my neighbors could legally own an automatic rifle, I suspect he would be out shopping for one now. To repel the hordes of whoever from raping and pillaging when the evil red menace takes over the world. Actually have two neighbors who think like that. It's sort of comforting, really. I know I'll be well protected when Mad Max comes calling. Or at least, all the shooting at that end of the street will let me know when he's in the neighborhood.

The problem is that one of those neighbors doesn't believe he needs any training to own a firearm. "I've messed around with guns since I was a kid," he told me a few weeks ago. "So now I got my FOID card, where do I go to buy a pistol?"

Some gun safety is intuitive. Assume it's always loaded. Don't point it at anything you don't intend to shoot. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. Those sorts of things.

As with many activities, however, the problem arises when you don't practice. Practice handling your weapon and practice using your weapon.

If the Supreme Court throws out Chicago's gun ban, many people will buy a handgun without a moment's thought of learning how to appropriately and safely use it. They'll ooh and ahh over it, show their friends, throw it in a drawer and leave it for the next burglar who stops by to take it when they aren't home. Or worse.

Yes, you have a right to own a handgun. Absolutely. With it, however, comes responsibility to know how and when to use it. And how to store it in such a fashion that it will be available to you when necessary and not be the spoils of someone else's looting spree. Or, worse, your child's curiosity.

Serious gun owners know the rules and accept the requirements of ownership.

It's the frivolous ones who make me nervous.

But you go, Justices. Rid Chicago of Daley and the Rev JJ's law. Maybe then some of the bad guys will be a little nervous, too.

I'm Puzzled

This Alabama professor who allegedly shot three of her colleagues to death Friday night apparently went to a shooting range with her husband recently.

That, in itself, really isn't strange.

What's odd is that the husband is quoted as saying he didn't know where the gun came from that she used at the range, nor why she suddenly had an interest in going to the range at all.

Here's the way the Associated Press story sums it up, "Bishop's husband said nothing unusual happened on their trip to the shooting range, and that she didn't reveal why she took an interest in target practice. Nothing in her behavior before the shooting foreshadowed the violence last week, either, he said."

Let's rewind and read a part of that again, shall we? "Nothing in her behavior before the shooting foreshadowed the violence last week, either, he said."

Nothing at all? Really. What about the behavior of acquiring a deadly weapon?

Call me weird but if I was married to someone who, at age 19, shot and killed her brother and she suddenly came home with a pistol and, out of the blue, wanted to go to the shooting range, I think I would at least ask, "Gee honey, where did you get the gun and why?" Or maybe even, "Who are you angry at, sweetheart?"

And I think I might worry. Just a tad.

Foreshadowing of violence is not always labeled. But, in this case, suddenly showing up with a handgun and wanting to go to the range, it is pretty darn clear. I'm not saying the husband could have done anything at all but maybe, just maybe, if he had paid a little better attention, perhaps asked a few questions to determine her state of mind?

Nah. That's asking too much. It's easier to say nothing tipped him off.

And I sure would like to know where the gun came from and how she got it.

Street Crime and Packin' Heat

There's a story in the Chicago Tribune today about a mugging victim who moved from the city to the suburbs because she doesn't feel safe (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-chicago-muggings-24-aug24,0,3762222.story?page=2).

Pretty common theme, actually. Not everyone who gets mugged moves, of course. Some can't, others choose not to give up and let the creeps win. All who have been victimized live with fear, however. It may just be a tiny bit that's hidden way in the back of their minds. A niggling doubt as they pass someone a little sketchy on the street. Or it may develop into full-fledged, weapon-carrying paranoia.

Pistol packin' disturbs me the most. Sure it's fine to tell your bar buddies you're ready to blow away a bad guy. The fact remains, drawing and using a handgun during a street crime requires speed, dexterity, an adamant sense of purpose and a willingness, not just to wound but to kill. If you haven't been trained properly, blowing away that "bad guy" may have catastrophic results.

We're talking about a window of opportunity that opens for mere seconds. Identifying the threat may occur when it's already on top of you. How far away is your attacker? Is he armed? What with? Who's in the shadows behind you? For that matter, who is in range of your bullets behind your attacker? Are you being attacked at all or is it your overactive imagination? In some places, merely reaching for your weapon may be construed as a crime so you'd better be absolutely certain your life is at risk.

Have you practiced with that pistol in simulated tactical situations or just on the vanilla pistol range? Do you have any idea of the legal labyrinth you enter when you take someone's life? What if it happens by accident?

I believe in the right to carry a concealed weapon and would like to see Illinois adopt a progressive new statute to allow it. I believe even more strongly in common sense.

That may be the best weapon we own . . . and one that should never be kept concealed.

How To Get Into Trouble With Just Two Blogs/ Part Deaux

I don't know who looks goofier. Me or that silly target behind me. At an outdoor range with only one other person around, with all weapons/magazines empty and checked by two people, I don't mind acting a little goofy and posing with a couple of guns. You'll notice, however, my finger is off the trigger and the weapon is pointed in a safe direction.

The subject of carrying a concealed firearm isn't goofy, although some people's opinions about it are.

The concealed-carry class I took, which allows me to legally tote a gun under my coat in thirty-five states, was six hours long. The classroom stuff was good, taught by a retired attorney and professional handgunner who really knew his stuff. The "range qualification" was a joke.

When I left that concealed carry, or CCW, class, I had some good information in my head but had been offered no instruction in, nor time whatsoever to practice, the skills necessary to defend myself in a crisis. What kind of holster to buy. How to conceal the holster. How to draw from a holster. How to deploy the handgun from holster to target safely. The tactics to use in a shootout.

There are excellent classes available for people who want to learn how to protect themselves with a concealed weapon but the required-to-get-Florida/Utah-permits CCW class I took, which is generally what's required across the country, wasn't one of them. And that's scary. What's scarier are the folks who believe they should be allowed to carry their concealed weapon on their college campus "just in case" a nutjob attacks, as happened at Northern Illinois University and elsewhere.

Just establishing the proper mindset to carry a concealed weapon takes specialized training. Hundreds of hours have gone into preparing the courses offered to law-enforcement. While civilians could do with less, there still must be attention paid to the psychological, as well as physiological, factors. Reality-based tactical drills need to be practiced until they are second-nature. CCW students need to know when they should shoot, but also when to back down and run if they have even the slightest option to do so. They need to know how to conceal their weapon so that it comes to hand easily and safely yet isn't visible at any other time.

To say anyone with a concealed weapons permit should be allowed to carry their gun into a classroom on the infinitesimal chance that they would happen to be in the right place at the right time to confront a killer is nuts. First of all, even SWAT- trained operatives know that the worst time to draw a gun is when someone already has the drop on you. And second, the vast majority of CCW permit holders probably aren't aware of the first point and don't have the tactical skills necessary to respond anyway.

My suggestions: You should be required to have sixteen to twenty hours of training before you are allowed to buy a handgun and a minimum of twenty-four hours of specific additional training, at least half of it spent with a professional on the range, before you are allowed to receive a concealed weapons permit. If you still want to carry your gun into a classroom, more training and professional certification should be required.

If I were king, I'd also require anyone with a family who wants to purchase a handgun be required to show that family members, even the little kids, have had at least enough professional training to keep them away from the weapons.

And, again if I were king, I would encourage everyone to at least know how to safely handle all sorts of firearms, even if they had no interest in shooting them.

For safety's sake. Just in case.

A Few Days in the North Woods Part Deaux

Just so you don't think I spent all of my time up north in/on the water.

In addition to working on my next book while reclining lakeside, I put in about five hours at the range.

Unlike the indoor ranges in the Chicago area, these are outside and, most of the time, we're alone. Occasionally, hunters arrive to keep up their skills in the off-season, but the pistol range is never crowded.

Here's a question to test your handgunning knowledge. The first person to get the right answer wins one of the very popular Every Secret Crime t-shirts.

What about this picture tells you I'm posed for the camera instead of ready to take a shot?

A clue...what's missing? Hint...it has nothing to do with my finger being outside the trigger guard.