Learning about guns properly is lesson in responsibility

My father gave me my first rifle when I was 8 years old, and along with the rifle came a lot of lessons in safety with firearms. The rifle was a .22-cal. single shot. Ammunition was handed to me for target practice, six rounds at a time. The rifle was mine, the ammunition belonged to my father. He set a target at about 25 yards, all shots were taken from a standing position. As one might imagine, as an 8-year-old boy I looked forward to the target practice with a lot of enthusiasm. When he became satisfied with my marksmanship, the ammunition supply was my responsibility. At 50 cents a box for .22 cartridges, that translates to a penny a round and frugality set in here because in 1939 a penny was a large part of a dollar.

All of this rhetoric points to responsible firearm ownership. Education at an early age teaches young people a lot very quickly. In Montana anyway, before you can hunt with a firearm, a hunter education certification is required. Our own Pat McVay here in the Flathead Valley has taught hunter safety for more years than I can remember, and I might add with astonishing results.

Education begins at home but our school systems need to rethink their responsibilities to their benefactors, that is the American taxpayers. We, the taxpayers need to pressure our school systems and legislators into teaching firearms responsibility. Our schools were not intended to be a platform for political leanings. Just because a teacher has liberal or conservative leanings doesn’t mean they have license to pass it on to their students. Our teachers’ primary duty is to teach the three R’s and to teach American government, as it was written by our Founders. They need to teach the Constitution as it was written and amended — anything else is unacceptable. Our government as it was formed and founded is the best in the entire world. Those who prefer another form of government might well consider another country to dwell in. Barbara Streisand said “if Donald Trump is elected she was off to Canada,” but she hasn’t left yet.

There are those out there who say we should raise the age to purchase a firearm to 21. Are they nuts? We have young military veterans who enlisted in different branches of the military at a very young age. Many of our vets were trained to defend our country with firearms. Many young people 17 and 18 years of age were killed and wounded fighting in wars so that we can live in a free country and enjoy the advantages of a free nation. A lot of these dead veterans were my friends. They can’t be here to defend the Second Amendment, so I’m going to speak for them.

Don’t ever let our elected government get close to amending the Second Amendment. To say a young person can’t purchase a firearm until age 21 would just become another rule that would be broken. Wouldn’t it be great if the criminals would read the law before they committed a crime? Law-abiding citizens don’t commit crimes; criminals however do! We have a lot of young people out there bouncing up and down in protest of our Second Amendment. These young people mean well; they are however in their formative years and they will someday, be our leaders. This is the time in their lives when they desperately need guidance. That’s why they are in school in the first place. There are many failures in the home where education begins. However, it seems there is a breakdown in our education system as well. This is where young people learn a lot about life.

The school shooters all have one thing in common: They are all a product of our educational system. I don’t think it would be fair to blame any one single facet of our system for the school shootings in Florida. So OK, lets make a list, start with No. 1: The home, No. 2 primary school, No. 3 middle school, No. 4 high school, No. 5 college, No. 6 human error, No. 7 Hollywood and violent movies and videos! In a perfect world there would be no problems but as we all know, there is no perfect world. Those of you who would change the Second Amendment and require registration of all firearms are well meaning folks who for sure don’t understand the logistics or ramifications thereof.

Our neighbors in Canada had a registration bill passed that went on for several years. The logistics and politics involved, not to mention the piles of paperwork, coupled with the fact that the people of Canada would not register their firearms, regardless of the new rule, proved that registration simply did not work in Canada. In 2012 Prime Minister Harper rescinded the law. However, getting the law in place cost the taxpayers of Canada over $1 billion.

Jerry Fisher is a resident of Bigfork.