By John Matonich
I have thought long and hard about heading down this road, but I find I can no longer just sit back and watch the media twist items into oblivion. I normally leave the controversial writings to others as I like to focus more on humor or good feelings, but I can no longer just read and listen.
Our country has experienced a number of tragic shooting events over the years and it has seemed to be getting worse in the recent past. These are all terrible things to happen and my heart goes out to all who have been involved. Losses of life in these types of incidences are things no one or no family should have to go through.
I have read and watched many media pieces about these tragedies as well as what seems to be the pundits’ views of proper solutions. What continues to amaze me are the amounts of misinformation, twisted information, sensationalized information or now the lack of information (but I will get to that in a bit). Let’s look at the reality of some of these items.
I understand the call for gun control very much, but the reality is no limited gun control alone will hinder these types of tragedies and some type of full elimination of guns doesn’t have a chance of ever becoming a reality. It is evident from the misinformation that banning AR-15s would do the trick. Baloney! I am a gun owner. I am not a collector, but I am a hunter and I also like to target shoot. Over the years I have purchased, won or have been given quite a number of shotguns, rifles and black powder guns. Many of them are semi-automatic and are as deadly when misused as any AR-15. I know this from personal experience as I own an AR-15. I won it at a raffle and don’t use it much and if I do, it is for target shooting only. It is nowhere near as accurate or as fast as many of my other semi-automatic rifles, so I use something else to hunt with.
Notice I said semi-automatic, not “fully” semi-automatic. What kind of crap is this new term? Obviously, it was coined by the media to try to draw a foul distinction between some rifles. If you own any semi-automatic that isn’t “fully semi-automatic, you need to go to a gunsmith and have your rifle fixed.
The latest piece to make my head spin was the recent school shooting in Maryland. I saw the reports of a shooting on the internet and later heard the story on the radio during national news. The report was confusing because it mentioned two wounded students but no mention how it was kept from being worse. I then saw a note from a friend in Maryland who praised an armed school resource officer for the fast action in confronting the shooter and they exchanged fire and the shooter was fatally wounded. While it was certainly bad, I am thankful it wasn’t worse. What was bad, as well, was the time that lapsed before any national reports even made mention of the resource officer and his involvement.
I am not in favor of arming teachers unless they would like to be and submit to a ton of training, but I do think having trained and armed resource officers and the proper detection equipment is the best deterrent to these terrible tragedies in our schools.
Are there gun control measures that would be appropriate? I really don’t believe so unless they are measures to prevent any weapon from being modified to be able to be automatic. I don’t know enough about bump stocks to have much of an opinion on them, but if they move semi-automatic weapon closer to being fully automatic, then they should be closely considered for more control.
I guess I will wait to see what type of poop storm I just stirred up, but I couldn’t sit back anymore and let misinformation rule the day.
And that’s the situation as I survey it …
After a 35-year career downstate livin’ amongst da trolls, during which he built a successful engineering and surveying business, John Matonich is back home in da U.P. His column will appear here occasionally, don’tcha know. His book “Surveyin’ Da Situation” is available on Amazon.com.
“it has seemed to be getting worse in the recent past”
In fact, homicides by firearms have been on a decades long decline. You only see things plastered on the news by dishonest, liberal, agenda driven “journalists” constantly which is in fact a propoganda tactic. Law abiding citizens owning firearms makes us safer. We need more such people to own and carry daily.
My comment was about school shootings, Working Dad. I believe they have gotten far worse in the recent past even if other homicides are decreasing.
You are right about gun homicides being down, but mass shootings are way up.
Nope – The lying liberal, anti gun propogandists qualify a two victim shooting in Chicago, where one gang shoots at rival gang members as a “mass shooting”. They then lump them together with so called “school shooting incidents” to falsely inflate numbers to try and convince low information types that a trillion kids per second are shot at school.
Major BS – Zero credibility
Try gunviolencearchive. Breaks the numbers down accurately.
How about magazine restrictions. I recently made the point that in the Maryland school incident, that shooter had a handgun, which made it a more fair fight when the resource officer comfronted him.
Now imagine if the shooter had an AR-15 or any other rifle with 30 round magazines, The resource officer more likely would had been outmatched in that scenario.
If we can decrease the amount of rounds the shooter can spray before needing to reload we might be able to save lives. How about outlawing all magazines over 6 rounds? Youcan still go to the range, hunt and it will still serve just fine for self defense reasons.
Hard to argue with that, Fred, but I do have a .22 that holds 18 shells in the barrel. Doesn’t have a clip. I use it to hunt squirrels. Don’t typically fully load it.
I have a 22 that holds 14 rounds in the tube. It was my grandfather’s. I am certainly not implying we should confiscate already owned firearms. We can certainly apply new rules to all yet to be made firearms and remove hi-cap magazines from the shelves.
Makes sense as one thing that could be done. I don’t think it would stop anyone that wants to kill though. They will still find a way to obtain or alter a gun to their liking. People will hoard every type of weapon that they change a law on. Black Market would thrive.
But those on the black market can then be charged and imprisoned, whereas now, owning 30, 40 and 100 round magazines is perfectly legal in most states.
Sure, they can always find ways to kill, but we don’t have to make it so easy to kill so many. I believe a compromise is in order. Don’t outlaw more guns, just restrict how much lead can fly through it per minute. Every time the shooter has to pause and reload, there is a window of opportunity to neutralize him. I think that is a reasonable compromise.
Misinformation or not, these school shooting really do happen. Our kids are scared, and they can’t do anything about it. Us adults who are supposed to be protecting them, aren’t doing anything either. We should be ashamed of ourselves. I know I am.
And I agree with you 100%. But as some people that post here will not compromise. It’s they’re way or the highway.
Their. Not they’re
Stock Glock pistols come with three 10 round magazines. Most magazines of any size are quickly and easily changed out, so size of one magazine is a non-issue.
It boils down to one thing John. It is about control. I think that it was adolf hitler who may have said words to this effect: No ruler of any country that allowed that country’s citizens to keep their guns did not last long if the citizens did not like him. It is not the exact quote but it is close.
chairman mao said “that power comes from the barrel of a gun”. All dictators in the past 300 years or so who wanted to remain in power first took away all the guns from the citizens, thereby deprived them of freedom and turned them into slaves.
A lot of the liberal/democrats that are pushing an anti-gun agenda (m.bloomberg, deblasio(mayor of NYC), gabby gifford and her husband who now own guns, along with a long list of rich liberals) along with gun confiscation all have armed body guards. They believe that they are only ones who have a need to have guns. But, we the basket of deplorables the ones clinging bitterly to their guns and Bibles do not need them. Those are words that hilliary clinton and obama used to describe those of us who live in flyover country.
I saw an interview on, I am not sure if it was on ABC or one the other other news channels, where they were interviewing David Hogg. He was complaining that the school district was enacting a new rule that students could no longer use backpacks that you cannot see into. The students had to have either a mesh backpack or one that was transparent. He was complaining that it was a violation of his civil rights. He was rather upset about the new rule, because no one needed to know what students had in their backpacks.
When Obama was elected gun sales went through the roof. He was suppose to take and ban every weapon from you. So how many guns were confiscated from law abiding citizens? Not one thing was done to take anyone’s guns.
“When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” We could have a gazillion pages of legislation on “Guns A to Z”, but if someone is on a mission to kill, they will get whatever they need somewhere, somehow.
No truth comes out of Washington anymore, and the media cannot be trusted-at all.
I agree that teachers should not be armed. They should not have that responsibility hanging over their heads; (and besides, their pay and benefits would never compensate for the responsibility to face an Eric Harris, or Dylan Kleibold, and all the other devils in disguise, roaming the school halls with rifles in each arm, and enough guns and ammo in their rooms at home to fight a war all by themselves.)
With respect to all religions, prayer can be with families or in a place of worship outside of school. But maybe if students were required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, to respect the Flag, to respect Teachers, staff and other students, it would be a start to getting back to being civil once again. In other words, let’s go back and start this over; we were civilized at some point. It’s very obvious what happens when kids’ “rights” give way to learning respect
John, you can “stir up the storm” as much as you want, and what I have written here is my contribution!
Meh.
I consider it to be an honor and privilege to instruct young people in the proper usage and care of firearms. I have instructed young people for some years and will continue to do so. The more responsible firearms owners we have in our country, the safer we are as a nation. If we had all children involved in learning the proper usage and care for firearms, we would see a dramatic drop in youth homicides and accidents as related to firearms. Bringing firearms instruction back into public schools (common in the 50s/60s/70s) would be an enormous step in the right direction.
I would do the job, free of charge.
You can teach all you want but somebody that wants to kill will kill for sure. Do you believe teaching the safe way would be better? We aren’t talking about accidental shootings. The intended ones are what you should be concerned about.
Working Dad, I agree with you. When I was an American kid, a million years ago, my dad taught me to shoot, and then I had great instruction at the YMCA, and at summer camp. As far as I know, kids no longer can shoot at the Y or at camp.
Where do you teach?
For those liars who try to claim that “nobody is coming for your firearms”, Oregon is moving right now to confiscate firearms from law abiding citizens.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/03/22/confiscation-oregon-initiative-bans-so-called-assault-weapons-mandates-current-n2463470
Your ult right rag you post is a propaganda fueled paranoid publication. No credibility whatsoever. Here is part of the problem with fake news. Weak minded people can’t think logically on their own so they believe everything that they are afraid of. Ya know like the boogeyman.
Can’t think logically because critical thinking is a lost skill. In school they were very good bubble students, only able to scratch in the oval, thus they became very narrow and oval minded. After all, just look at all of their ostentatious communication skills.
Horsefrokkey.
This horsefrokky was meant for Working Dad, not for Native.
Amen, John Matonich! I agree with everything you said. All you guys who still believe limiting all the law-abiding citizens is the correct thing to do are wrong. Maybe we should say you can only drive your car a couple blocks from home, so you don’t hurt anyone. It is the person who commits these crimes that is the problem. Thanks for the courage to make your comments, John.
To drive a car you must; pass a drivers safety course; pass a vision exam; maintain a valid drivers license; renew your plates periodically; maintain a car insurance policy. If you have too many points on your license, you lose your right to drive. If you are found to be mentally unstable, you lose your right to drive. You can not drive any kind of of vehicle you want. You must acquire the appropriate endorsement to drive many vehicles. How many of these strict regulations are applied to firearm ownership?
Yup and I bet if Ann bs neighbor was violating any of these laws she would be the first to call the police. But don’t you dare infringe on my rights.
That’s right what you say about a car. But since the beginning of this country, the great majority of people have had and handled guns properly. It’s only been since the 1960’s when we let our kids lose respect for anybody and everything that we have had these kinds of problems with guns. And remember they can easily make a bomb which can kill. It is still the hatred and lack of morality from little on that is creating these demons.
Geez lady how old are you. Get with reality would you. The sixties? Good god those days are gone.
Since we can’t go back in time and fix whatever went wrong with human morality in the 60’s, would applying some of the same rules and regulations we use on drivers to gun owners be a reasonable start at a solution?
We already have 30,000 firearm regulations. The Michigan firearms laws book is 260 pages. But yes, we surely could use more firearms and hunter safety training.
And driving a car is not a constitutional civil right.
John Mantonich, We know you are a country-boy backwoods hunter and outdoor expert, and also a decent smart person. Thank you for addressing this important topic. I myself believe we should repeal the 2nd Amendment, but I will be happy to deal with people such as you, in the debate.
Thank you. Tom… I would look forward to the discussion about the second amendment … … we all learn for debate…
Repeal the 2nd Amendment and the 1st will follow immediately if not sooner.
The 2nd Amendment protects the 1st Amendment, not the other way around.
You are under the mistaken belief that the liberals/socialists,communistic/democrats
will turn peaceful all of a sudden and that rainbows will appear all of a sudden. That
peace will reign in this country? That everyone will join hands and stand in a circle and
start singing kum-by-ya?
That criminals will stop using guns to commit murder and mayhem? That they also will turn
all their weapons over to the police?
You must live on a ivory tower while wearing rose colored glasses and smoking some wacky
tobacco.
In Australia The government has ordered some bolt action rifles to be turned into the police
because they look scary. They ,in their minds, think that because they look scary they need to be turned in. When gun confiscation started said that they would not order their citizens to turn in those type of rifles. Now the citizens/slaves have to turn in those rifles because they look scary.
Ya-da-ya-da -ya-da. Kook-a-monga. Silly dorky dopey. No sense, no connection to reality or logic. We can talk and write without shooting, you twit.
Good article.
Paranoia reigns.
Our current situation is Not Right Anymore.
Love the Not Rate Anymore!!!
Right!!! Not rate.
“School shootings” are not on the rise. All such claims are BS.
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/15/593831564/the-disconnect-between-perceived-danger-in-u-s-schools-and-reality?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180316
Oy, you silly ding-dong: So, you say school shootings are not rising… So you think, as long as they are not going up, they are acceptable????? Fool! Twit! Gun-Lover! Ninny!T
John- Your comments are sensible and correct, and non-controversial, really. They won’t start the storm you thought.
The only issue I have with the AR-15 is that it’s the same basic rifle as others, except it has been “sexed up” and macho-ized to sell better. It’s that kind of salesmanship that got Joe Camel in trouble for appealing to youngsters.
If the AR-15 is the exact same rifle as another model, except for the look of it, then why not just stop making the AR-15 and keep selling the other? I think we all know the answer. Money.
So maybe it’s not all about the 2nd amendment and maybe it’s more about the profit margin.