Happiness is a Warm Gun

When I was a kid, I had an impressive array of toy guns. Pistols, rifles, and sub-machine guns. We played war constantly – I was the yellow peril, I played many Germans, and I was a good guy. We literally spent hours and hours with toy guns in our hand.

I lived in rural Maine all my life. Many people (mostly male, but some female) were hunters. They hunted birds, deer, and other game generally during hunting season, but some throughout the year, so they would have some meat to eat during the year. The men in my family hunted as well – all but me. I went through the NRA Safe Hunter program, and learned how to shoot handguns and rifles. Like many others, I enjoyed my time shooting. But I do not hunt.

There was another shooting this week in Oregon, and this is another plea to do something about the number of guns that we have in the U.S. Hunters should have guns, and they should have proper hunting guns appropriate to what is being hunted. I do not believe that people should have guns to protect themselves against others, and do not believe that the 2nd Amendment gives carte blanche to allow anyone to have an arsenal like the one I had as a child (Well-regulated militia – most of the gun nuts are not regulated at all). This won’t stop the senseless killing that is going on, as most of these shooters attained these guns legally and would have passed any background checks put in place. But if we can lose our fetish this society has with guns, perhaps we can cut back on these gun-obsessed mass shooters.

Let’s look for solutions this week with The Db’s, R.E.M., The Connells, Low, Elvis Presley, Dwight Yoakam, Ronnie Dawson, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Fleshtones, Outkast, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, The Jackson Five, The Staple Singers, Howard Tate, Aretha Franklin, Alison Moyet, and Sam Cooke. Sam was killed in a shooting (ruled justifiable homicide).

This podcast is available to stream or download at brennick.net. All previous podcasts are still available on the website as well. Listen, download, leave comments and suggestions, and share with others. Thank you.