Basura: An ex-Marine’s take on the gun control issue

Do I need to rethink my ideas about gun control? After the murders of 26 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I was angry. A legally purchased semi-automatic rifle, with high capacity magazines, was employed to massacre the children. I wondered if the idea of having an M-16 clone rifle was a good fit for the general public.

Other events have increased this concern. A recent column in Townbroadcast aroused my interest. The writer – also a Vietnam veteran, I believe – saw the issues from a different perspective. He said he thinks the constitution provides for the right of the individual to keep and bear arms, according to Article 2. Most know the wording, drafted during the days of single shot muskets, and employing the phrase “well-regulated militia.”

That writer was concerned that using phrasing such as “weapons of war” will confuse the folks enacting laws. Correctly, he alluded to the silliness of concerns about weapon color, or stock composition, or pistol vs. conventional grips on rifles and shotguns.

Should we consider broadening our access to military armaments? When I was drawing combat pay, I recall doing my work with quite a complement of military weaponry. Some might say that that makes sense, during the fighting of a war.

In Vietnam, there was the ubiquitous M-16, of course. I liked to carry several high capacity magazines, grenades, maybe a Claymore mine (with Front Toward Enemy stamped right into the body of the device, to help avoid confusion), maybe a bandoleer of machine gun rounds for the gunner. I sometimes would carry a mortar round or a HE or WP round for the 3.5” rocket launcher, later replaced by the LAAW.

I carried a first aid kit, too, in case anyone got hurt, since the enemy also had military weaponry. This was all great for combat. But should the military have all the fun? Shouldn’t civilians get to have all that and more?

Stephan Pastis has been featuring, in his excellent comic strip, Pearls Before Swine, the character “Rat.” Rat has acquired a shipment of military surplus drones. He has enough to have a yard sale, and is asked if he will honor a coupon for Hellfire missiles. Sure, it’s a comic strip, but let’s remember; when Hellfire missiles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Hellfire missiles.

Rat pays a visit to Neighbor Bob, and confronts him about a loud party the night before. Neighbor Bob asks, “What are you gonna do about it?” In the next panel a big drone looms overhead.  It looks like a Predator drone, the kind that carry Hellfires.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.) said on June 17, 2016, that he is 71 years old and never had his home invaded. He said he’d never needed a weapon to defend himself – except in Vietnam. Wilkerson was part of the Bush Administration, in intelligence analysis. He wouldn’t seem to be a New York or Left Coast liberal; indeed, he’s from Gaffney, S.C.

Wilkerson says he owns 14 guns. He hunts. He doesn’t need an AR-15 to shoot a deer. Or a duck.

On June 20, 2016, the Senate again failed to pass any sort of gun control legislation. The No Fly No Buy Act, which would prohibit those on the Terror Watch List from buying a gun, went down. The Gunshow Loophole Tightening Act went down.

Josh Ernest called the failure of the Senate to enact meaningful protections for the American public “an act of enormous cowardice.” I agree.