My contention is and always has been that there needs to be some teaching/instruction regarding firearm ownership particularly in regards to carrying handguns, ...
To many here this makes me anti gun???????????????
No one disagrees with you there. Even a little. We are all big training proponents here. But MANDATORY training, that is forced or required by the state becomes exactly the same thing as a poll tax: a barrier to entry for something that is supposed to be a fundamental right of all people. So training is great. Allowing the government to hold it over the people as a barrier to their RKBA is insidious and horrid. Anathema.
Fortunately, many folks do seek training of some kind, and even more fortunately, gun safety is on the rise and gun accidents are on the decline, so the system we have -- absent government forcing -- is working.
and in the keeping of handguns out of the hands of mentally deficient.
Ehhh... we have prohibited persons. Picking and choosing who else is "mentally deficient" enough to be stripped of their RKBA is a terrible thing to dig into. Mental health issues are poorly understood, and many times more "Mentally deficient" people are VICTIMS of violence than ever harm anyone. Fortunately, as scary as psychotic mass murderers are, they are very rare in society and really have no statistical impact on any of our risk levels.
As far as to who is to set these rules and how far they should go, is not for me to say, its much higher than my pay grade.
NO IT IS NOT. You CANNOT abdicate your responsibility like that. If you argue or work for increasing restrictions, YOU bear the guilt for every person stripped of their rights under that scheme. Don't hide your head and pretend that their eyes aren't turned fully ON YOU when the authorities are demanding they turn in their guns.
"Oh, I didn't mean YOU should have to give up your guns...I meant OTHER people...!" Doesn't matter. YOU own it because YOU are working for it.
YOU are "we the people." This is supposed to be a government OF the people. That's you and me. If we don't protect the people from these offenses, who will?
I'm sure we all know individuals out there who have no business carrying a firearm, whether because of legal problems, which folks here think they should still be locked us, no idea who would pay for the increased prison population, or those who are just mindless.
Have they had due process? If not, suck it up. Freedom is messy. You don't get to point at someone and say "that guy" shouldn't have a gun. It is his RIGHT until he actually violates the rights of others with it (i.e.: breaks the law) and has his due process. 'Sides, I thought this was all "above your pay grade."
To all the rest of society teaching would be worthwhile, IMO. Don't think so?
Again, SURE! Great idea! Get on it. Want to put it in the public schools? Fine by me! Want to hand out PSA leaflets that explain gun safety? Great! Want to promote Eddie Eagle? Wonderful. But don't put a government restriction on people's RIGHT to bear arms.
Then quit complaining about the range problems, after all they should be allowed to act as fools, and trash your ranges.
Good grief. I hate this kind of broken logic failure. It doesn't even make sense. There's even a Latin phase for it: "
Non sequitur" -- "It does not follow."
The fact that a person may not have been FORCED to receive some government-mandated course of training doesn't remove their
responsibility to behave appropriately. Hey, my neighbor just cut down a 60' oak tree and dropped it on my house! I can't complain. Have to just smile and accept it because the government didn't force him to get training before he bought that saw! Or, aww shucks, some guy just burned down my house by spilling gasoline while trying to light his cigarette. But that's ok, it isn't his fault and I can't say anything about it because he wasn't forced to pay for gasoline training classes before he bought that fuel.
Why does this make NO sense to anyone alive, except when it comes to firearms?
How are they supposed to know better? Well, how are folks supposed to know better about tree felling safety? Or safely fueling an engine? Or driving a tractor? Or what all else? (And those things harm A LOT more people than guns.)
Whats wrong with teaching? After all Christ spent most of his life doing it!
How's that government-required religious training you have to pay for working out for you?