Are we tilting at windmills re: national gun laws?

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82. That's in today's world. I come from a long line of Democrats who worked in the ...

iron and steel mills in Pennsylvania. Most owned firearms and most owned them for hunting and home defense. Several used their firearms in legitimate self defense and to stand up to company thugs when the union movement was first starting.

Over the years the Democratic Praty has morphed into the Gun Control Party. While many gun owners do indeed support reasonable improvements to our NICS background check system and even for proper secure storage of firearms they do not support legislation such as gun bans and limits on the number of rounds a magazine can hold. Attempts to pass a new Federal Assualt Weapons Ban have caused a lot of gun owners to desert the Democratic Party.

I've enjoyed target shooting at a number of pistol ranges over the years. I find I am considered somewhat unique as I am a registered Democrat. You don't find many of us at gun ranges. The sad part is that many gun owners that I have met at the range said they could no longer vote for any Democrat at the local, state or national levels and while they don't always agree with the Republican Party they have become one issue voters.

Obviously continuing the effort to eventually pass gun laws like those in Great Britian is a lot like tilting at windmills. Unfortunately I fear not enough people at the highest levels of our party are willing to face the fact that when we push gun bans we effectively are shooting our party in the foot. It looks like the effort to pass draconian gun legislation will continue to cost us many close elections in the future. It may work great in the more liberal big cities but we need to pick up seats in the House and Senate from the more conservative areas of our nation.

I've lived in both urban and rural areas. Once an intruder set off the burglar alarm in our house in Tampa by trying the force a sliding glass door open. He continued the effort and was half way through the door when my daughter confronted him. He ran when she pointed a large caliber revolver at him and said, "If you go any further and enter this house I will shoot you." He ran. She then called the police and they arrived just a couple of minutes later but were unable to catch the man. If our home would have been in a rural area she would have had at least a half hour wait. Perhaps that is why people in the more rural areas of our nation value their gun rights.