Puzzled

This weekend I read that over 60% of gun owners surveyed in a recent study think the new administration wants to take away their firearms. I have to say this puzzles me. As far as I can tell, there's been no evidence of any actions that support this. Maybe I've missed something, but it seems like I'd have heard about it. I suppose it's just party stereotypes in action.

And these same folks are clamoring about how "black arms" (military-style rifles) will be banned. Yet in the past week, I've seen Colt, Smith & Wesson, and Ruger have all introduced new .22LR variants on the AR platform. If black arms were going to be banned would these large companies be investing in the engineering and manufacturing resources to build more of them? I doubt it very much.

It's this kind of paranoid "gun nut" behavior that gets firearms owners such a negative reputation. The reality is that most of us are responsible, regular folks. No arsenals of fully automatic weapons in the basement. No pallets of .223 ammo stockpiled. The reality is that I know a number of people with concealed carry permits who seldom carry (me included). We own guns to hunt, target shoot, or as collectors of antiques.

Seems to me that with the economy, health care, the war in Iraq, and so much more that President Obama's got FAR bigger fish to fry for now and a long time coming. Let's all spend out time worrying about something else.

-Sean-