This may make me wildly unpopular, but I will say it anyway.
This story has zero to do with the 2nd amendment. It has to do with falsifying documents.
The NRA, in an attempt to remove fear and stigma of gun ownership/public carry developed a minimum safety course. It is the NRA's own standard.
Having made no bones about the facts as they exist for me - that until I took that course last month, I never even held a gun before that class.
And here is where I am going to be unpopular. I don't think it was enough. I would like to see it be a 16 hour class. The NRA gave me a certificate that says I am qualified to own, carry, and shoot a gun. I think the first 8 hours of the course should cover the laws, the basics - etc. The second 8 hours should be proper handling, and actual handling.
Despite the fact that I took that class, I still feel wholly inept as far as proper loading, unloading, clearing the chamber - etc. But according to the safety guidelines set by the NRA itself, I still qualify for a CCW.
Some places already have that 16 hour course set and those are places who statistically have lower and less serious "accidental shootings". I think everyone can agree a great number of instances where someone has been shot comes two ways----criminals and in experienced gun owners making big mistakes.
I think that everyone can agree that if there were less of the inexperienced owners, we will see a lot less accidental shootings. I'm not talking about the people who operate outside the law and have a gun to protect their drug stash or to exact a turf war. I'm talking about the guy who thought that he had to do nothing else but slip the magazine out of his gun, but didn't clear the chamber and ended up shooting a member of his family.
The worst parts of this story is that this guy was trusted by the NRA, by the State, and by the Federal government to perform certain duties. He was trusted by every day, normal citizens who wanted to do things the correct way - to learn how to be safe and competent. He defrauded everyone. The duties which he was entrusted to do, he did not do. People who thought they were doing it right are now faced with the fact that they didn't, that they handed over their hard earned money to a huckster. And they certainly did not get what they paid for.
It is things like this that weaken the 2nd amendment arguments and strengthen the gun control lobbyists because it paints all gun owners in a bad way.
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