Another day, another school shooting.

I’ve given up on this.

If Sandy Hook doesn’t change things, I can’t imagine what will. It’s like we as a society have decided that children’s lives don’t matter. I mean, how dare we put the life of a child above our god given second amendment right for any lunatic to own a ridiculous cache of high power semi-automatic rifles, without any sort of training, licensing or certification.

We live in a country where operating any sort of equipment or machinery that could possibly kill someone requires a minimum level of training and certification, except for the one piece of equipment that was explicitly designed to kill.

Eh, maybe when they start shooting up the private schools the Senators and Congressmen send their kids to, or the elite boarding schools their high dollar contributors ship their kids off to, then something will change. As long as it’s poor people’s kids and middle class kids being killed, nothing will change.

Personally I’m looking to invest in the first company I find that makes Kevlar in children’s sizes…

Dealer Licensing

Do you know what the state of Florida requires you to do if you want to become an auto dealer?

– get a $25,000 bond
– get $25,000 in liability insurance
– provide proof of lease or ownership of your location
– make sure your location has a permanent structure for an office
– have DMV inspect and approve your location
– complete a 16 hour dealer training seminar
– submit fingerprints
– complete an application
– pay a $300 application fee

Do you know what the state of Florida requires you to do if you want to become a gun dealer?

– nothing
– no really, literally nothing

(In the interest of full disclosure, an ATF license is required for gun dealers in any state. The application fee is $200. It does require fingerprinting and a background check.)

In other news, the my future dream business of “Wiggins World of Wheels” will be changing it’s name slightly… to “Wiggins Weapon Wonderland”.

Gun Control

This is the last thing I will have to say on “gun control”. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves ad-infinitum. I’m out.

When I was a kid, like most kids I had an allowance, and later on a part-time job, and my dad would pretty much let me have anything I could afford to buy for myself, provided…. I was responsible with it.

If I didn’t take care of it, I would not be allowed to keep it. If I left it out in the rain, I would not be allowed to keep it. If it did not use it properly, I would not be allowed to keep it. If it posed a danger and I left it unattended where someone could hurt themselves with it, I would not be allowed to keep it. If it was valuable and I left it out were others might be tempted to steal it, I would not be allowed to keep it. In short, if I were going to own the thing, dad insisted that I be a responsible owner. If I could not be responsible with it, I would have the thing taken away from me. And dad didn’t want to hear any complaining about it – if I had a thing taken away from me, I had no one to blame but myself.

To the “responsible” gun owners out there, you want to keep your guns? Fine. Live up to your responsibility. Be responsible. Don’t just talk about it, do it. See that it’s done. Keep your guns safe, and out of the wrong hands. See that your fellow gun owners do the same. See that your gun dealers do the same. See that law enforcement has the tools they need to deal with those who fail in their responsibility. Make some hard choices about what you do and don’t need, what you can and can’t live with.

You don’t want government to interfere, fine – don’t give them a reason to. Find a way to make it happen, or your government, spurred by the parents of too many murdered children, will find a way for you. Be responsible. Be truly responsible. At this point gun owners, if you get your guns taken away from you, you will have no one to blame but yourselves.

Nancy Lanza (Sandy Hook Elementary)

Nancy Lanza was an avid gun enthusiast. She enjoyed shooting, and she enjoyed collecting. She took her two boys with her to the shooting range, to improve their marksmanship. Turns out at least one of her boys was a pretty good marksman. It’s too bad, that even with all her guns, she was unable to defend herself. Nancy was the first to die, when her son, the one with a history of mental illness, went on a shooting rampage Friday. He took with him two pistols and an “assault-style” rifle. Most of his victims were shot with the rifle, multiple times. All three weapons were registered to Nancy – seems she had quite the collection that she shared with her mentally ill little marksman. Here then is part of the price paid for that collection…

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Daniel Barden, 7

Olivia Engel, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6