I just found out Saturday (May 5, 2001) at the Million Mislead Moms party in Raleigh NC that there were no guns in the 30s. This information came from NC Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird 2115 LB (919) 733-5804 [email protected]. Of course, I can't remember for sure that she said the 1930s but that certainly seemed to be what she was referring to. I don't think she is old enough to remember the 1830s. Wait a minute, there were guns in the 1930s and the 1830s also.

The audience seemed to believe what Kinnaird said. Perhaps no one at the MMM rally knows that there were machine guns in Al Capone's day. There have been semi automatic firearms for a hundred years. Guns were in every western I ever remember seeing. Minute men who fought in the war that made this nation possible used guns. Guns have been around for hundreds of years.

Someone said she probably meant they did not take guns to school back then. Actually, hunters (students) often went directly to school from the field and all leaned their guns on one wall, unloaded. Then they picked up their own guns before leaving school. Schools in the past often had some kind of shooting program. Where are those school shooting programs now?

Kinnaird says that children have easier access to guns than in years past. I know several men that remember buying their first .22 rifle from their local hardware store when they were 12 to 14 years old. Considering the cultural and political climate of those years I would guess that fewer people locked up their guns, even sporting guns.

Perhaps we should contact Senator Kinnaird to give her a chance to explain what she said. I know I intend to give her a chance to explain it to me;-). Her contact info is above.

Representative Jennifer Weiss also talked yesterday. Weiss introduced HB 320. She blamed gun manufacturers and the NRA for the defeat of HB 320. She said that the reason the bill was defeated was because NC representatives received literally hundreds of contacts by phone, fax and email calling HB 320 the "rapist protection act."

Well folks, with all due respect to the NRA, they were not responsible for those hundreds of emails. It was Grass Roots North Carolina. With the efforts of volunteers speaking directly to lawmakers being supported by those hundreds of emails, GRNC (peasants with pitchforks) routed the professional lobbying team of Parker, Poe, Adams, and Bernstein and HB 320 was defeated 33 to 83. That is about two and a half to one.

I hardly heard a peep from the NRA on my email alerts. If anyone from North Carolina feels they heard more from the NRA than I did on HB 320 please email me and let me know. I REALLY want to know if the NRA did more than I think they did to defeat HB 320.

Weiss went on to say that legislators should not be influenced by special interest groups. Perhaps she does not know that the Million Mom March is a special interest group. You can contact Rep. Weiss at 2221 LB 919-733-5781 [email protected] to inform her that she helped a special interest group on May 5, 2001 known as the Million Mom March (AKA Million Mom Foundation).

One of the speakers made a point of stating that over half of firearm related death in children is suicide. She believes if all the people would get the guns out of their homes there would be fewer suicides with guns. She did not say she believes there would be fewer suicides, just fewer gun suicides. It sounds as if the Moms don't think suicide by means other than guns is all that bad. Perhaps they will change their mind if they or someone they love dies because someone who jumped off a building lands on them.

Of course all the required safety devices, training, licensing, etc. of cars and drivers has not infringed on our constitutional right to drive a car. We have no constitutional right to drive a car that I can find in the U. S. Constitution or the NC Constitution. I know of no cases of registration of cars has led to their confiscation. I do know cases of registering guns that led to the confiscation of those same guns.

The Moms also kept repeating the term "gun violence." We must end "gun violence." They seem unconcerned about other types of violence.

If we can really get rid of all the guns and unlearn the technology to make more guns, then the Moms can go home because knife violence, baseball bat violence, rape, strangulation or other types of violence are not something the gun control lobby seems to care about.

I shall end this article with a quote:

"When Pa was at home the gun always lay across those two wooden hooks above the door. ... The gun was always loaded, and always above the door so that Pa could get it quickly and easily, any time he needed a gun."

~~ Laura Ingalls Wilder