And, of course, many perfectly reasonable people are free to disagree with you.
1. The legal door you walk through to play with a weapon of lethal force is the same door that Paddock walked through to kill and wound the people in Las Vegas. To participate in gun culture is to validate and endorse it.
2. Gun culture is racist. And I"ll break that down into two parts. First, it's a grotesque expression of white privilege that is not allowed to other races. A black man who picks up a toy gun in a department store will (and has been) shot and killed. A black man who is legally licensed to own a gun in an open carry state will (and has been) shot and killed in his car. Second, stoking racist fears is the chief marketing strategy of manufacturers. In fact, it's pretty clear that the chief tool of white supremacists to enforce their terror is guns.
3. Guns are the primary tool of violence against women. How do women get murdered? In their own home, usually by their husband. Or their ex-husband. Or their boyfriend or ex-boyfriend. By a vast multiplicative factor, women are killed by men that they know. At home. By a gun. And that doesn't even begin to talk about living under the threat of a gun-owning partner.
4. Massacres are highly profitable. There is nothing false or misleading in the following statement: When you buy ammunition you fund the industry that profited from the murder of children at Sandy Hook. Gun sales go UP after massacres. There is not only NO incentive to stop massacres, the gun industry actively opposes limiting gun access to people with mental illness.
5. When you buy ammunition, guns, go to gun shows, join gun clubs - you are supporting the NRA. You don't have to be a member of the NRA to fund it. The NRA gets plenty of lobby support from the industry.
6. Gun culture and gun ownership are anti-democratic. The NRA has stoked the racist fears of its base so there's a highly militarized, authoritarian gun ownership culture eager to suppress black votership, oppose federally elected powers, take it to the streets if Trump is impeached.
You cannot own a gun, go shooting at a range, keep it in your home without supporting these things. And I mean that in the literal sense that you are funding them.
I get all of that and I personally won't own a gun. That said I also was brought up in a hunting environment. I don't eat meat myself, but many of my family and friends hunt for food. My niece barely goes to a grocery store between her gardening and hunting efforts.
My big thing is the hunters have to get a license, but don't have to demonstrate the ability to hit a target, or know the safety rules or even how to clean their weapons. Common sense says you can't drive a car without showing you can stay in a lane. I can't see why you can own a gun without demonstrating competency.
I can also see, but don't endorse, the need for personal safety. But again, the owner should have to demonstrate competency so they don't shoot their neighbor.
I agree Laura, that people don't have to show competency in terms of skills or knowledge of gun safety seems madness to me. It seems like such a basic and reasonable ask in a country that has enshrined the right to own guns. But ALL the gun owners in my family, every single last one of them, would disagree with me on that one, and they live that belief by not keeping their guns and ammo in a locked safe, instead they keep loaded guns in various insecure places like by their nightstand and in their cars or on a rack by the door, etc.
That is really horrifying, Burrell.
I remember well my dad always cleaning his rifles outside, and we never had a clue where he hid the ammo. There was one time when he was alone at our Otter Lake house on a hunting trip and he cleaned his rifle inside because the weather was awful. He ended up putting a shot through the wall and bed headboard. We mocked him about it for years because he was always so diligent about safety.
they live that belief by not keeping their guns and ammo in a locked safe, instead they keep loaded guns in various insecure places like by their nightstand and in their cars or on a rack by the door, etc.
This makes me so very angry. Like, you may be fine but your're putting everyone around you in danger!
Yeah, people need to treat guns like dangerous things and not like lifestyle accessories. If nothing else, if you have kids in your house at all, your guns need to be locked away.
I own a pistol. It is secure. I'm a demonstrated good shot, and I trained with my husband, former military and cop and forest ranger. I think a lot of gun owners are idiots. I learned to shoot because I wanted to be competent with something that was terrifying and dangerous and ubiquitous in the area I live. I'm not going to be a good guy with a gun who's going to save the day, but I know what a gun can do and can't do. I didn't want a gun to be a mystery.
If a gun ban went into effect, I'd turn my pistol in. Until then, I'll keep practicing.
 If nothing else, if you have kids in your house at all, your guns need to be locked away.
It's not just that, though. Guns are stolen and used in crimes all the time!
I would also like to say that I know a lot of gun owners who take safety and responsibility very seriously.
> my husband, former military and cop and forest ranger
I didn't know this, Connie. I've always thought Forest Ranger sounded like the coolest job, but I've read quite a few articles lately about how deadly / scary it can be dealing with people who bring violence / crime / guns with them to the parks.
