Can America Be Saved From Guns?

I Am A Gun Owner, And Here’s What I Have To Say About Gun Laws

Addison Ashe

RICHLEGG / GETTY

I’m a gun owner. I have two pistols, a rifle, a shotgun…and a (now-expired) concealed carry permit. I’ve been shooting since I was a kid.
I also support every single gun control measure out there.
Why? Well, because of a number of logical reasons:
1. I go to gun shows, and I’ve witnessed more illegal cash sales than I can count. People bring guns to sell to dealers at the show and end up selling them to buyers in the parking lot who are willing to pay cash. No background check, no bill of sale, no formal transfer of ownership. Yes, this is happening, people! It is a regular occurrence and illegal in many states.
2. Every time I go to the gun range, I witness someone doing something extremely dangerous with a gun. I’ve been swept more than 20 times — this means someone has unintentionally pointed a gun at me. I’ve seen the wrong ammo used (ask my husband about the time he almost lost an eye). I’ve watched people shooting guns that they lack experience with or ones that they can’t handle (take, for example, a child or a smaller adult shooting a Desert Eagle semiautomatic handgun), causing kickback that can injure them and cause them to flail their loaded gun in all directions. I’ve seen guns jam, and people continue to fire them to “clear the jam.” I’ve seen people continue to fire when the range is “cold.” All of these people consider themselves “responsible” gun owners. Nope. And these aren’t exceptions to the rule — every single time I go to the range, I see someone doing something reckless and potentially deadly.
3. I’ve seen people handle guns when they are drunk, tired, hungover, or angry. I would never think of doing these things. It is irresponsible, and again, potentially deadly.
4. A friend of my college boyfriend pointed a loaded gun in my face because he wanted to show me how cool his new toy was. I dropped to the ground. He forgot it was loaded. He’s a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy.
5. The class you take to get a concealed carry permit in North Carolina is easy to pass. You sit through a two-day class, take a simple written test, get a background check and fingerprints through the sheriff’s office, and basically just have to prove that you can hit the broad side of a barn. That’s it.
6. The “hero mentality” is misguided and dangerous. Unless you have combat training, the “good guy/gal with a gun” is more likely to kill another civilian or get mistaken by cops as the shooter. I’m a decent shot with a pistol. I’m a great shot with my rifle. But in a life or death situation, where people are literally being murdered in front of me, it’s completely unrealistic to think that, even with all my training, I could do anything but add to the chaos.
7. The NRA is a terrorist organization. Yup, I said it. I used to be a member because they gave discounts on shooting-range time. I quit after one year because I couldn’t stomach the thought that my money was funding them. Their magazine and mailers are filled with propaganda about people coming to take my guns when there is absolutely zero evidence at all to suggest that is ever going to happen. Their recent ads make me sick and ashamed that I ever supported them.
8. The home protection argument makes sense to me on some level. I had a friend who was killed during a home invasion, so I get it. But an AK-47 (and other assault weapons) is not an ideal weapon for personal defense, and it serves no purpose for “home protection.” It was designed for military use. A a 12-gauge shotgun is a better, more realistic choice for home defense. I’ve never seen any peer-reviewed study/expert/article anywhere that can refute this. Bottom line: Assault-style weapons should never be in the hands of civilians. Period. And going back to point No. 7, in a home-protection or self-defense situation, you’re still more likely to injure yourself or have your own gun used against you.

These are my thoughts on the subject as an experienced, licensed, and trained gun owner. I’m already a member of the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety, and will be joining Moms Demand Action. I find it impossible to understand why other gun owners like myself don’t support these groups. They aren’t trying to take away my guns; they are trying to inject some freaking common sense into the equation — something we desperately need and that every gun owner should support.

We Sold The Red Beast

They came before 10am and they left at around 11:30am. What they took with them was our red beast, the 1972 Ford LTD Convertible we have owned for more than 7 years. 

It had been advertised for sale as the engine had given me some trouble. It had been hard to start and I suspect the compression was weak. Also, I have only been driving it a few times every summer. It goes back to where it came from, northern New Brunswick.
There will be a replacement in a few weeks.

I am still in awe about this year's winter weather. Today we reached beyond 50F and I settled with a cup of coffee and a bite to eat outside in the nook of the rear entry in the sun. I also did a beach walk with Dixie again, a mild southern breeze in my face. My sprained ankle is getting better, but it still hurts a bit on longer walks, so I had to be cautious in the soft sand on the beach.

But this is where the good news ends. The next phone call to the Husky dealer revealed the verdict of my Husquarna chainsaw. It was damaged beyond repair. Cylinder and piston would have to be replaced. I guess I have to find a new chainsaw now.
Well, the good thing served me well for 15 years, so it was worth the $500 I spent in 2002.

Migraine Struck Me Down For Most Of The Day

It began like any other morning. Starting the fire in the stove, letting out Dixie having some breakfast....and checking the morning news, which btw. is never good. As we have no snow on the ground the plan was to go in the woods for chopping down trees. But that turned out to be the bummer. My 15yr. old Husquarna was not cooperating. It started then died and so forth. I checked the carb over and over but could not get to the bottom of what was wrong. So finally I announced that I was going to take it to the Husky dealer for service. This saw has never been serviced by anyone but myself and it puzzles me greatly what could be wrong.

So, by 11am I was on my way south through Maine. The town of Machias has a Husky dealer and that's where I was headed. However, halfways there, I noticed what I am always dreading. My vision was flickering and getting blurry - a sure-fire sign of an approaching migraine. And I was right. Before I had reached my destination it got really bad. 

Turning back on the 45minutes drive home, headaches were starting to torment my right side. I tried to ignore it, but it was hard. 

Back home I just told Bea what was going on and disappeared upstairs in my bed. I felt freezing cold. Bea got upstairs and brought me a hot water bottle which I tucked away under the cover. With curtains drawn I slept a while, but then the pain was so bad that I had to throw up. Yes, Bea had brought a bucket as well!

I was fearfull that this was the onset of a flu attack. Didn't people die of this most dangerous strain of a virus? Holy...

Hours went by, Bea came again with a roll and something to drink and finally, daylight faded away. The pain had let up and still woozy in my head, I was able to go downstairs for something more to eat. Slowly I regained control again. I am most gratefull that it was NOT the flu and just one of the migraine attacks that I used to have from time to time, though this one being of the tougher kind.

Since I have no pictures taken today I have added a few of the last big storm just a few days ago. Those waves crashing onto shore at Herring Cove were at least 10-12ft tall! The noise was tremendous. 

NASA And The Dinosaurs

In 2012, amateur paleontologist and dinosaur track aficionado Ray Stanford headed out to lunch with his wife Sheila, an information specialist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. After dropping her off back at work, he noticed a chunk of rock sticking out of a nearby hill that was the exact same color as a piece he had found several years ago that contained a small dinosaur print. As Kenneth Change at The New York Times reports, the tip of the rock led to the discovery of an 8.5-foot long slab of sandstone with roughly 70 tracks from eight different species. 

The rock dates back roughly 100 million years, and includes traces from both mammals and dinosaurs. It is one of the largest such concentrations of tracks ever found. Stanford and researchers from NASA/Goddard, University of Colorado, and Calvert Marine Museum published an analysis of the slab this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

“The concentration of mammal tracks on this site is orders of magnitude higher than any other site in the world,” co-author Martin Lockley, paleontologist with the University of Colorado, Denver, says in a NASA press release. In fact, it’s only one of two known sites where such an array of prints have been found together. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slab this size,” he says of the footprint-covered rock. “This is the mother lode of Cretaceous mammal tracks.”

So why are the remains of what looks like a Cretaceous dance party on this particular slab of stone? As Sarah Kaplan at The Washington Post reports, the area around D.C. was pretty swampy around 100 million years ago. It’s likely that this slab of stone was once part of a muddy riverbank.

Over the course of a few days—and perhaps as short as a few hours—many species crossed the spot. There are tracks of several species of mammals likely hunting worms or grubs, including a new species of squirrel-like mammal that sat on its haunches for a moment, leaving an imprint. There’s also a larger-than expected mammal track, indicating that Cretaceous mammals may have not all been the mousey little critters paleontologists previously thought.

There are four pairs of theropod dinosaur tracks, which may have been left while the crow-sized carnivores were making a coordinated hunting sweep through the area. Then there’s a nodosaur track, accompanied by its baby. A track from a the long-necked sauropod lies nearby. Another mark comes from a flying pterosaur. The slab also includes a coprolite—fossilized poop—and something that is likely a fossilized worm.



“It’s a time machine,” Stanford says in the press release. “We can look across a few days of activity of these animals and we can picture it. We see the interaction of how they pass in relation to each other. This enables us to look deeply into ancient times on Earth. It’s just tremendously exciting.”

As Chang reports, without Stanford’s keen eye, the slab may have never seen the light of day. That particular parking lot and the hill where the prints were found was slated to be torn up for a new office building. Stanford alerted Compton J. Tucker, a NASA climate researcher who had experience with geophysical surveys to his find. Tucker used ground penetrating radar to identify the extent of the slab, which was later excavated by volunteers. The radar found other rocks in the area, but none of them were quite as exciting as the four-ton chunk of sandstone.

As Kaplan reports, this is not Stanford’s first find. Over the years, the 79-year-old fossil hunter has single-handedly tripled the number of dinosaurs found in Maryland. A nodosaur hatchling he found in the area is permanently displayed in the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in the “Dinosaurs in Our Backyard” display.

The irony that this important fossil was found on the doorstep of one of the United States most cutting-edge science institutions isn’t lost on Stanford. “The fact this is found right under their nose,” Mr. Stanford said, “maybe it’s an omen they’re going to start finding fossil and extant life out there.”

Chang reports that a replica of the four-ton slab was recently installed in the atrium of Goddard’s Earth Sciences Center.