Firearms are facing more heat right now than ever before in the history of the United States of America. Over the next few days, we are jumping face first into the fire and taking a serious look at this hot topic.
Every single thing produced by mankind has been biased in some way or another. Every scientific study completed, every article written, and every documentary filmed has been riddled with subjectivity. It is in our nature to express our personal beliefs and reservations in our work. This partisanship is not necessarily a bad thing. It is one of the many imperfections that contribute to the beauty of life; it is the beauty of being human.
Beautiful as it may be, a world full of biased content is difficult to navigate. The best we can do is gather all available facts and deduce our own conclusions (which, of course, are also biased). That is why I feel it necessary to reveal a little bit about myself before we dive into such a controversial issue. Readers deserve to understand what biases and precursors I have coming into this argument.
I was born in the Texan city of Houston, Texas. Before I started school, my father up and moved the entire family to the New Mexican boondocks. And when I say boondocks, I mean boondocks. The town barely had a population of 80. I grew up in a town of eighty people.
There are neighboring towns with higher populations, though not even those towns peak ten thousand. The populaces consist mainly of country folk who have either grown up on a ranch, worked on a ranch, or at least set foot on a ranch. The surrounding countryside opens up the door for daily hikes, long drives, gun ranges, and the like. I can honestly say that I have more friends with guns than friends without. I can also honestly say that those friends use their guns at least once a week.
My paternal grandparents, who lived a few hours away on a ranch, had guns on display everywhere in their house. When I went to visit, my grandfather would take all of the children out to the pastures at the butt-crack of dawn and teach them to shoot. He taught us about gun safety, shooting rocks, and shooting birds.
Not falling too far from the apple tree, my father took my younger brother and I to the local NRA shooting range several times throughout our lives. He is not the ultimate gun enthusiast, but he owns a few and knows how to use them.
I spent my high school years out running wild with ranch kids. We routinely went hunting, fishing, horse riding, you name it. We would go out in the middle of the night and shoot bullfrogs with shotguns. We practiced archery with long bows, with my best friend getting so good that he was able shoot a bottle off the top of his father’s head. Any chance to go out and shoot something up in the fields, we took it. The whole group had access to AR-15s, rifles, handguns, revolvers, and a shit ton of bunnies.
When I went to spend a summer with my maternal grandparents, my obsession for guns was furthered by my Papa. We routinely went to the gun range, reloaded our own ammo, and attended multiple gun shows. He even introduced me to the world of Cowboy Fast Draw competitions, in which I competed numerous times. I even purchased my own revolver that year. Needless to say, the entire experience was a blast.
To top things off, I have had a gun pulled on me. The only thing that scared off the perpetrator was my best friend pulling out a shotgun. Having a gun ready may be the only reason I am alive today. I was also less than 25 feet away from my best friend when he was shot at by someone snooping around the ranch. The gunman was scared off when he encountered returning fire.
It may also be important to mention that several people close to me are walking around in public schools daily. My mother is an elementary grade school teacher, working in a school with children in grades 3 through 6. The infamous younger brother Noah Schoonover is a Senior in high school. A younger cousin of mine who used to live with my family and was literally like a brother to me is walking around in that same school my mother is. There are several other youngsters I know personally still attending school.
To sum things up: I know a thing or two about guns, including how dangerous they can be, and how safe than be. I have held many and I have shot many. I have family and friends to lose in a school shooting.