What do guns mean to me?
-Guns were a part of growing up. I went deer hunting with my dad from about 10 years old on. I didn't have a gun, but I walked in the woods with him and learned how to walk silently, how to track an animal, how to stalk, how to use the wind to my advantage. I learned how to sit quietly in a deer stand or blind for hours on end, ignoring the cold, watching for deer. I learned how to control my breathing and my heart, point a gun at a deer, and maybe pull the trigger. I also learned that hunting isn't about pulling the trigger. Sometimes it's about not shooting, or deciding that the risk of wounding an animal with less than a clean shot is cruel and despicable. I learned to follow a blood trail, and I can still remember what it felt like to find that deer for the first time. It was a mixture of excitement, respect for how difficult a crafty deer can make a hunt, and a little bit of sadness. But I was also grateful, because my family was poor and we needed the meat, and even at 12, I knew how important that was. So as a kid, guns were an introduction to making adult decisions, and about the responsibility that comes with them. My grandfather gave me that gun I shot my first deer with, right after that hunt at 12. It was a Stevens Savage bolt action .410 with a smooth bore, bought from the Sears catalog in the 50's. I still have that gun, and I hope someday I can teach my son to hunt with it. I kept it in a rack in my bedroom from then on. I even had some shells for it in the rack. My dad trusted me with it, and I respected that.
-I've always been a history buff. I was collecting books from about 7 or 8 years old on the civil war, medieval times, the world wars, etc. I started collecting military arms at about 15 when I bought a German bayonet from WW1 at a flea market. It made the past real to hold a piece of it in my hand, especially something as profound as a weapon designed to kill people like my great grandparents. From there it was collecting Soviet weapons from WW1 and 2 because they are relatively cheap. That morphed into more expensive weapons, and now i'm really proud of my collection. I own bolt action rifles from the late 1890s, and more modern stuff like AK-47s and AR-15s. Do I want to hole up in the woods and wait for the stealth helicopters? Not at all. But these weapons are all pieces of history, and not evil in themselves. My WW2 Nazi rifle is no more or less evil than the revolver that I own that I know someone commited suicide with. Like you said, just tools. Design doesn't change purpose, and the purpose of a gun is to propel a projectile. That's it.
How to disarm people like Houghner and that asian kid? Easy. Enforce the laws that we already have. The Virginia tech shooting never should have happened, but somehow, the right people weren't notified that he had been deemed unstable. Those people should be held accountable. As far as Jared whats his name, that's just tough. My gut tells me that someone in his life should have known how unstable he was, but thats as far as it can go. No one but Jared himself was responsible. That's just a consequence of living in a free society. Tragic, but I don't think there's an easy answer to that.
As far as modifying weapons to fire full auto, I think that sort of thing happens far less than you think. It looks good on tv, but it's generally not nearly as easy as people think. It's also not very reliable in many cases, and often unsafe.
