Now the criminals know who to target.
Steve Elliott bears responsibility
Daily Mail: A gun lover who has lost two members of his family to shootings has destroyed his own weapon after the deadly rampage carried out by Chris Harper-Mercer, which left nine dead.
Steve Elliott, from Merced in California, posted an emotional blog post on Facebook about how he had used an angle grinder to break up his handgun and admitted that he was left ‘ashamed’ it took this latest gun atrocity for him to act.
Elliot, who is in his 50s and who has owned a gun since he was 12-years old, had previously been by his own admission a vocal supporter of the Second Amendment, but has now changed his mind after last week’s mass shooting.
In the post, Mr Elliott said he bought his first gun, a Browning 12-gauge shotgun, when he was 12. He wrote: ‘In the years before I could legally drive, I’d tie the Browning across the handlebars of my bike and ride to the fields outside town to hunt. ‘I’ve owned several guns since, and own a handgun now. I bought that gun to keep my family safe, and lock it up to keep them safe from it.’
He then explained how his grandmother shot and killed herself with a gun and a few years ago his father shot and almost killed himself with one. His step-brother died in a murder suicide with a gun and the husband of one of his sister’s co-workers was killed in a mass shooting.
He wrote: ‘None of that happened with my gun, of course, but after every new mass shooting, I’m reminded that I bear a portion of the responsibility for our nation’s gun violence. There are too many guns to do anything about it, the gun lobby says. Regulations are a slippery slope that only limit the rights of responsible gun owners, they say.”
“My gun is being used to argue against common-sense laws and policies that could reduce gun violence in America, arguments I find unconscionable. That’s what being a responsible gun owner means today – I’m responsible. I’ve been uneasy about that for a while now, and ashamed to admit it’s taken two more mass shootings for me to do anything about it.”
‘That ended today. Today I disassembled my handgun, a 9mm Ruger, clamped the pieces in a vice and cut them in half with an angle grinder. I’m sending the proper paperwork into the state to report it destroyed. None of us individually can stop gun violence in America, but as a responsible gun owner, I will no longer be used as a justification for doing nothing about it. Today I did what I could. Today there is #onegunless.”
Read the rest here.
DCG
