“Good Guys with Guns are One Step Away from Becoming Bad Guys, Or Dead Ones.”             I have long maintained that the private defensive use of firearms in most situations is a dangerous idea at best. A large percentage of people who carry firearms do so in the interest of personal protection. That in itself is fine. I believe that the minimal training most people are willing to devote themselves to, whether it is for a lack of time or money to go further, is woefully insufficient to prepare for the possibility of actually using a firearm for personal protection.             Carrying a firearm requires continued practice for proficiency. Hitting the target consistently only scratches the surface of being a responsible gun owner. I have addressed the responsibility of safe storage and retention of a firearm in an earlier post. If you have not already, I recommend starting this s...

       We continue the series “Gun Violence in Our Schools” with “Gun Control and Controlling Your Guns”      Gun control advocates point to areas where guns can be easily acquired by those who cannot or will not use them responsibly. Unfortunately, this is a broad-brush statement that is easily agreed with on the surface. In order to stand up to scrutiny, individual factors from mental fitness to emotional maturity to education among others have to be addressed. In my experience, a primary risk factor ignored by gun rights advocates is the responsibility to safely own and use a firearm.           Premise: The key to controlling your firearms starts with safe storage and handling. How many times do children find an improperly stored firearm and fail to make the connection of what it can do? All they know is what they have seen, and at early ages cannot make the mental decision that guns are not toys unless they ar...