I don't understand gun owners!

This article, which delves into the psyche of gun owners, appeared last week in our weekly "alternative" newspaper. I'd like to include the whole thing here, but you'll have to follow the link if you're interested.

Wisconsin is one of just a handful of states that does not allow the carrying of concealed weapons. There are people working tirelessly to change that. Are we statistically safer/less safe with or without it? I don't know. But the conceal carry advocates quoted in this article? They sound totally paranoid! And in my book, a person with a siege mentality, who sees bad guys everywhere AND who has a gun is dangerous. More dangerous than the perceived thug on the street.

OK, time for some disclosure here about myself. I am an anxious person. I still check my children while they sleep to make sure they're breathing. (They are 11 and almost 18.) In fact I check all the living things in our house frequently to make sure they're breathing: humans, dog, cats, and guinea pigs. Once my vigilance even paid off (see: Potato Chip Story). My kids make fun of me because I worry while they are at camp an hour from home that they will get dragged off into the woods and eaten by a mountain lion. (Hint: There are no mountain lions in southern Wisconsin.) In a bad period I will cycle through a heart attack, pulmonary embolism (which I really had a few years ago,) meningitis, 2 kinds of cancer, and a brain aneurysm, all in a period of a couple of hours, before I realize that maybe I'm having an anxiety attack. I love to camp, but when dark settles in I take anti-anxiety medication or I can't stop worrying about: a) snakes that have crawled into the bottom of my sleeping bag to warm up, b) the aforementioned mountain lions, and c) ax murderers.

BUT I have never felt the need to own or carry a gun! I have no desire to learn to shoot a gun. I do not think possession of a firearm would make me any safer, in my imagination or in reality. The presence of my dog -- even though she did almost die with her head stuck in a potato chip bag-- makes me feel a whole lot safer than any weapon would.

Then there is the question of access: if your firearm is accessible to you in an emergency, to whom else is it accessible? The article quotes a guy named Larry Gleasman -- who just happens to own a gun shop in my neighborhood -- as saying

“Look at the rapes on [the UW-Madison] campus,” he says. “Hell, if you had people out there with guns, you’d think twice about abducting somebody and throwing them in a car. I mean, she might have a gun in her purse.”

What is the likelihood that the gun will be taken away from the woman and used against her? Seems pretty great to me. This guy says he has a recurring nightmare of being in a McDonald's when someone comes in and shoots it up. I have some self-talk he could try to calm those fears. You tell yourself, "It might happen. But it probably won't." And then you pop your controlled substance and go on about your business. Gun free.

Then there are the angry, disturbed kids who get their hands on a gun and take it to school.

Then there are the accidental shootings. Whenever my kids are going to a friend's house for the first time, one of my first questions always is, "Do they keep guns?" and their direction always is, "If a gun comes out, leave. Immediately."

Then there's the fact that having a gun handy makes suicide a whole lot easier if a person is that depressed.

I'm not saying that I believe ALL gun ownership leads to tragedy, or that there are not responsible gun owners. But the possibility of unintended consequences is so great. And when gun owners cite their Constitutional right to bear arms to protect themselves, I become worried.

To me, always, the best protection a person could have is a strong community. No gun can replace that.