And here we go again.

I presume that you are aware that some crazy fool walked into an elementary school in Newtown, CT today and shot 27 people, 18 of them being children.

I have been attacked on Twitter for responding too quickly and being disrespectful to the dead.  Really?  If we don't discuss this NOW, we will forget about it and another tragedy will occur, and then another.  If you want to prevent further tragedies, NOW is the time to think about it.  If you can't discuss this now, then WHEN?

The vast majority of gun owners (at least 99%, any way) are responsible citizens who would never do anything like this (and I am one of them).  However, the idea that we are powerless as a society to prevent mentally unstable people from owning weapons is ridiculous, and will at some point result in the loss of our rights to keep and bear arms.

Don't think so?  Let me ask you a question: if we can license people who own cars so that they may operate them, and require them to be familiar with their proper usage, why can we not do this for weapons, which are normally intentionally lethal?  We, as a society, refuse to allow people to drive if they insist on driving while impaired or are no longer able to properly operate their vehicles.  Why, then, can we not do the same thing for weapons?

While the licensing procedure doesn't eliminate DUIs or Grandpa driving onto the sidewalk and accidentally killing someone, it greatly reduces the occurrences.  There is no rational reason that we as a society cannot set up licensing requirements for weapons owners.  I, as a weapons owner since the age of ELEVEN, do not see how my right to possess a weapon would be infringed.

The National Rifle Association, dear readers, is NOT in business to protect the rights of weapons owners.  It is in the business to remove any and all obstacles to weapons manufacturers being able to sell their wares to everyone, no matter what age.  This is why they have gone far beyond what they once did, just to promote shooting sports and gun safety, which in and of itself is not a bad thing.  My father, who was a part-time gunsmith when we lived in Northeast Arkansas, was a member until he noticed how crazy they were getting.

We MUST, as a society, take more steps to insure that mentally ill people get the help they need, no matter the cost, and we must take steps to insure that they do NOT have access to weaponry.  While we will never completely eliminate this problem, there is no rational reason we cannot reduce the likelihood of re-occurrence.

Tennesseans look like backwards hillbillies today

Later, I will go after members of my OWN party who voted for the override of the Governor's veto of the guns in bars bill. First, I want to talk about guns and their place in American society.

I am just five months over the age of fifty, and I have been around weapons, particularly guns, for the entirety of my life. My father loaded his own shells and bullets, was a part-time gunsmith when I grew up in Weiner, and taught the gun safety course for their Boy Scouts. I have been hunting on numerous occasions, and received a .20-gauge shotgun for my 10th birthday, which made me the envy of the 4th grade. In short, I don't fear weapons and I understand them.

There are two types of people who own weapons, other than those who must keep one for the purposes of their employment: responsible gun owners, and the new breed, whom I will call gun FETISHISTS.

Gun owners teach their children at a young age how to handle a weapon, and never to touch it without their parent around. They use every piece of any animal they kill, and make sure their neighbors get any meat they can't use. Gun owners understand the incredible number of responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with owning weapons, including knowing the legalities involved, and understanding how to handle their weapons safely. They never worry that their weapons will be taken from them because they know that Americans would rise as one if any body, governmental or otherwise, tried to forcibly disarm. They used to belong to the NRA, but left as they watched it degenerate into fear-mongering shills for the arms manufacturers, trying to convince people that if they couldn't own an automatic weapon, that Clinton or Obama would take their guns away.

Then, there are what I call gun FETISHISTS, the Barney Fife types who live in fear that if they can't take their gun into a restaurant or a bar, they will be murdered by a Muslim/Commie/Homo/Liberal/Black/fill-in-the-blank just waiting to kill them. These are the type of people who have fallen hook, line, sinker for the NRA line. They scream that they have the RIGHT to carry whenever and wherever they want, and they inevitably trot out that same old video from the woman who survived the Luby's Cafeteria massacre. That's what, one out of a million?f

The truth is, unless they're idiots, robbers won't rob you unless they have the jump on you, which means, if you DO get to your gun, you will likely be killed. Ask a policeman or deputy.

Simply put, unless your employment requires that you carry at ALL times, you have NO business bringing a weapon into a restaurant, and ESPECIALLY a bar.

The FETISHISTS retort that "the law says you can't drink and carry". Um, the law says you're not supposed to drink and DRIVE, either; how's that working for you?

The truth is that one is most likely to be killed by someone you KNOW, and if you're in a bar, with a gun, and you think, "gee, one beer or whiskey won't hurt" and then the next thing you know, you've just shot you best friend for no real good reason (and this HAPPENS in Memphis, you know that) and your life, not to mention THEIRS, is irreparably destroyed.

So, my plan is work on developing a list of restaurants and bars locally that will NOT allow weapons in their establishments. Early word says Neely's BBQ and the P&H Cafe, among others, already have signs up. Great, because come July 14, I will REFUSE to enter any restaurant or bar that does not have such a sign.

This is made more idiotic when one considers that the top ten counties in Tennessee make up 55% of the populace of the state, so the "this is a rural state" comment is BULLSHIT. we are an urban and suburban state now, and we need to start acting like it.

I fully expect the gun FETISHISTS (Fifers?) will be prompted by the NRA to flood the site and call me every kind of name in the book. So be it.

I'll still be right, and they'll still be wrong. Who's with me?

More about our heroes in the legislature and the non-heroes, later.