I am not anti gun. I grew up with guns and hunting. I dont currently own any, but no real reason for that other than after my ex wife stole all my guns I never replaced them just because I really didn't miss them. Occasionally I start thinking of purchasing another just for home defense but have never gotten around to it.
I have always supported gun rights, and while I still do to an extent, things in my life have changed my outlook to a degree.
A while back my brother in Alaska shot and killed a man in cold blood. No if ands or butts about it. No self defense. Just a deranged act of violence.
My brother has always had a violent side, a major temper, and mental issues. Over the last five years his issues have gotten much worse, as he fell deeper and deeper into an anti government, survivalist sort. He has always owned many guns but over this time has added to his arsenal in a major way. Purchasing guns that are not designed for shooting, or hunting, but for killing and little else.
I have always been close with my brother. We grew up with a single mother, very poor, and were best friends most of my life. His changes over the last 5 years made us grow apart to a large degree, but let me tell you that receiving the phone call that my brother was arrested for first degree murder, then finding out the details of said murder was possibly the most jarring experience of my life. To say that this has impacted me greatly and turned my life upside down is an understatement. I have not yet begun to figure out how to process this. So many thoughts, so many emotions. There is one less human being on this planet and the direct cause of that is my own flesh and blood.
Now I dont know the answers, and I definitely see both sides of the coin in these discussions. But at this point in time I know one thing very, very well. A man's life was removed simply due to the fact that my brother had a gun on him. Period. Ya he could have ran the guy over with his car or stabbed him with a fork etc etc etc but there is ZERO doubt in my mind that the ONLY reason that man is dead is because my brother owned guns. My brother is simply not the type to pursue violence in other less convenient methods. If something happens at the bar and someone pissed him off, he wasn't going to fight it out. That would risk him losing. He'd simply get a gun because that was guaranteeing him the power and control. He's just that way. Always one to take the easy way out in all walks of life.
My brother was the poster child for someone who should not be allowed to own guns. He'd threatened gun violence several times in his life. He threatened to shoot his wife, his kids, his dogs and himself in more than one violent outburst and loss of his grip on reality. He had been reported to police several times in Alaska. He once pointed a gun at our mother. When he was a freshman in high school he walked into the police station in Port Angeles and told them he was having thoughts of shooting kids at school. Hes had issues his whole life, and anyone who knew him well was aware of this. These issues stemmed from some traumatic events when he was a child. Still, he had no problem owning a large arsenal.
My brother should not have been allowed to own a gun. Period. Others like him should not be allowed to own guns. I dont know how to create a world where law abiding, sound of mind people can own guns while people such as my brother cannot, but I do know that not everyone should own one. I believe this more strongly today, as I look forward at a life without my brother in it, than ever before.
I think of the man he killed often. By all accounts he was far from a saint himself, but that doesn't mean he should be dead. My brother will sit in a cell for a long time, if not the rest of his life. This could have all been avoided. It just wouldn't have happened without a gun in the equation. It just wouldn't have.
I dont know the solution. I dont pretend to know. But I am now 100% in support of anything that could keep guns out of the hands of people like my brother.
I've often enjoyed a good spirited gun control debate, but I find my outlook on things has changed drastically with this recent turn. Its one thing to talk hypothetical but when it hits home like this it has just changed things for me. Guns need to be kept out of the hands of many people. Does Roper owning guns concern me? Absolutely not. He is the type of person who's rights should be steadfastly supported. But if there is something that can be done, including registration, that would keep guns out of the hands of people like my brother, that would keep my life and so many others from being turned so topsy turvy, then I am one hundred percent behind it.