MY OPINION: I Don’t Need a Gun and Neither Do You

Please tell me again how important it is that you have a right to own a gun. I can't wait to hear.

I will admit that I was born, raised, and still live as a "city boy." I've never hunted and, other than a BB Gun, I've never fired a gun.I don't own a gun and I don't want to own one. I don't want a gun in my home.

Oh, wait, you want a gun for protection? You want to own a gun to protect your family? Don't you think the parents of at least a couple of those young children who died in that school owned a gun or two? Exactly how did it protect them?

Maybe you want a gun in your home, safely locked away to protect your family. I understand that - if the robbers phone you and give you five minutes warning before they arrive. Picture this: you're sitting at the kitchen table with your family, when someone waving a gun opens your front door and rushes in. Do you think you'll have time to bolt out of the room, down the hall or up the stairs, get to your secured gun box, unlock it, get your gun out, load it and protect your family?

If someone breaks in while you're sleeping are you going to be able to go to your secured cabinet, unlock it, and be ready by the time the bad guys are trying to walk out the front door with your TV?

My daughter goes to college in a different state. Luckily, she was home here in New Jersey when someone broke into her apartment there and made off with TVs and laptops belonging to her and her roomate. The time the robbers were on the front porch until the time they violently kicked the front door off the hinges and busted into her living room was probably two or three seconds. If my daughter or her roomate were home at the time, sitting in the living room, would three seconds have been enough time to arm themselves - if they had guns?

Tell me about the constitution and how it's your right as an American to bear arms. I'll tell you maybe it's time that the Contitution was changed and updated. Maybe our forefathers were as good as looking into the future as the Mayans were. Maybe we need to admit that they couldn't forsee the future - that they couldn't forsee that high impact assault weapons would be readily available. We got rid of slavery and we gave women and people of color the right to vote. We changed those "rights", maybe it's time to change gun rights too.

Speaking of assault weapons, there is absolutely no need that you need a weapon that can fire dozens of rounds in moments - unless the need is to kill a lot of people.

Yes, you say, but if we take the guns away, the criminals will still have guns. My answer: maybe, or at least maybe for awhile.

We're hearing that the guns used by this killer were legally purchased. The bottom line is that people who are desperate for a gun are going to be able to obtain one, just as people desperate for cocaine and heroin will obtain them. We need to start somewhere, we need to take a first step and get them out of the aisles of stores. Maybe outlawing guns aren't going to stop senseless killings, but they might eventually slow them down. Perhaps the impact won't be felt today.... maybe it will take 10, 20, or even 50 years for the impact to be felt - but, isn't that a gift we can give to our children and grandchildren?

An idea off the top of my head is to start an assualt gun buy back program with some big rewards. Let the federal government give out $10,000 payments for assault weapons. Yes, this will cost millions and millions of dollars, but aren't we teedering on a fiscal cliff as it is? Would this really matter? Aren't the lives of little kids worth the money? (Maybe putting that much cash on the streets would even give a boost to our economy.)

"Well, if you take away guns, people will just find another weapon to use." I understand that. But, tell me another way that someone is going to burst into a school and take the lives of 20 small children in minutes before someone slows them down. Again, we have to start somewhere.

Now, I readily admit that people want to hunt and people want to use guns for target practice and such. I can understand the sport of it --- but, again, maybe losing those "rights" are worth saving the lives of twenty small children who will never have a chance to grow up.

I don't have all the answers and I don't pretend to. I just know that I don't need to have a gun. You don't need one either.

(Please note that this is certainly only my opinion. I certainly respect you to have your own. Feel free to comment below, or, if you would like to write more than the space allows, email me at joe.kelly@townsquaremedia.com. We may use your submissions in a future story. If you don't want your words published, please make mention of that.)