Gun Control Issues: What They Mean to Me

I'm Texan. We are supposed to be these gun toting hillbillies that value our rights more than our own lives. Or so outsiders would believe. Well, the hillbilly part anyway. We do love our gun rights.

When the whole gun control issue made its way to the White House, Texas was probably one of the first states to be considered a 'problem' child of this great country.

You see, we are perhaps one of the friendliest breed of humans you'll ever come across until you start messing with our gun rights.

The funny thing is, I am a rare breed of Texan because I have never liked guns and have never wanted to own one. At least not until someone threatened to take away my rights to own one.

So of course, me being me, I needed to find out what the deal was because after my very first ever visit to the shooting range just this month, I found myself wondering if I was just riding the panic train along with most Americans.

Was everyone, including myself, hearing the words gun control and automatically assumed this meant Uncle Sam was going to come knocking on the door to carry away our firearms?

Well after a little bit of digging it would appear the focus of the gun control debate centers around citizens owning such things as semiautomatic weapons or machine guns. Now, maybe it's my fear of guns that makes me raise the question, who needs a semiautomatic gun in their home, but then again who needs the government to take away their right to have one?

So what is all this talk about gun control and what does it mean to you?

Essentially, it has been proposed, by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), that the federal assault weapons ban that was in effect from 1994-2004 be reinstated to include such weaponry as: Belt-fed semiautomatic firearms, Rifles, Shotguns and Pistols. See the full list here.

Even the White House is clearly on board with some kind of gun control but what exactly it will be is anyone's guess at this point.

It's not clear just how far this debate will go but Americans seem to be bracing for the worst. There have been an increase in gun sales and people like myself have been clamoring to the shooting range to learn the basics.

The point is, it all comes down to gun control by the federal government or upholding the gun rights that this country was built upon.

As a mother, I cringe to think of my children's school facing the same tragedy as Newton or one of my family members being caught up in a movie theatre massacre like Aurora. I also cringe to think of a robber entering my home and I am left with a baseball bat to defend myself against their possible weapon.

So the verdict for me on gun control? Well, the jury is still out. But in the meantime, I'll still visit the shooting range and learn what I can before getting my first gun. Which in my opinion, is the point some are trying to make in the gun control debate. Education is first and foremost.