Florida, Guns, and the People Who Love Them

Gun Sales Increase Amid Violent Crime - 3 Citizen Shootings Reported This Year

quote:
Gun sales have increased over the last two years as more Central Floridians are learning to protect themselves amid rising crime rates, Local 6 News reported.
"People are wanting to be prepared. They are tired of being victims," said Larry Anderson of Shoot Straight, a full-service gun shop with three locations that feature indoor gun ranges. "They don't want to be frightened.

Gun Shy has spent a lot of time interviewing people in the last few months, to get a closer perspective on what is going on in Florida and the rest of the country in relation to the firearms frenzy that is sweeping the nation. GST has been noticing the elevated fear and the weapons buying urgency in the general public, so I have been hanging out at ranges and firearms dealers having meaningful discussions with first time gun owners, with some being in their seventies and eighties, as well as expert marksman and all other people who fall somewhere in between to get a handle on this phenomenon. GST started out the earliest years of my life with my first instructor, a dad who was an expert marksman (military) and an NRA instructor. My training went on to develop from there, through a number of twists and turns while learning various combat systems, which also included firearms in those disciplines, so it is safe to say that GST is no stranger to the smell of gunpowder in the morning. Because I have associates that are Range Masters and highly qualified, high level instructors, as well as firearm dealers, I am privy to a lot of the straight talk from people I consider to be quite knowledgeable in the gun game who I know to be solid experienced professionals. As a side note, many of these associates read my blog with amusement or possibly amazement, but many are in agreement. One of the biggest problems I see personally is that some people in the general public who have watched a few Hollywood action films, all of a sudden have mistakenly believed that they are now firearms experts, and I am sure many of my readers have encountered the type that I am referring to. They are the experts who walk around with their finger on the trigger, as they sweep the muzzle of their loaded firearm across the center line of others while waiving it around like some over fed ballet dancer, and who hand a loaded firearm with the safety off across the counter to the range personell barrel first while asking them a question. These experts sadly, are the same people who end up accidentally shooting themselves or others. This kind of carelessness is so foreign to me personally, that I decided to quiz some of my associates who deal with the general gun owning public on a regular basis to see how rampant this behavior is, and so I posed the following question:

“Out of ten people in the general public who operate firearms, how many would you say are unqualified to own/operate a firearm?”

Through various channels of feed back, the final determination was on average about three (some estimated higher). That means that roughly three out of every ten people possessing a firearm, are potentially a firearms related accident waiting for a place to happen. If you multiply that by the number of current gun owners in the State of Florida, coupled with the exponential rise in firearms purchases and concealed carry applications in the last year, I think it is safe to say that we are facing some serious safety issues in the years to come unless this gets addressed. Keep in mind also, that this does not mean that the other seven are skilled firearms handlers possessing a high level of proficiency, because that varies among the shooting public depending upon personal instruction and time spent at the range. It just means that they at least understand how to safely handle a firearm. People need to quit assuming that they know what they are doing, and pay the money to receive qualified instruction first and foremost in firearms safety, and then in the correct operation of their weapon. GST also believes that if anyone is caught carrying a loaded firearm while under the influence of a substance exhibiting unsafe behavior, that their rights to carry a firearm should be revoked immediately while their ownership is also reviewed, and then incidents like the man who was drunk and shot himself fatally with a .357 last week could be reduced. Let me state for the record, that after years of travel, GST is thrilled to be back in a state where the right to possess firearms is still freely allowed for Law abiding citizens, but I believe that the standard of training and testing before someone can qualify to carry concealed needs to be tightened up considerably, because with owning a firearm, the level of personal responsibility increases greatly. If this can be done, then we will once again be a nation of citizen soldiers, instead of just another negligent discharge waiting to make the headlines.