Much has already been said about the need for more gun control in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting of Rep. Giffords. I am in complete agreement that we need much tighter controls, especially for assault weapons (which should encompass semi-automatics). One point I have not seen is the need for pro-active education about guns. In the absence of such, people will form their views of guns based on their depictions in movies and games, which are utterly misleading. The two grossest misrepresentations are: historic guns shooting straight and modern blazes of gunfire leaving people unscratched.
The Second Amendment was adopted in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. To give some idea of the weapons commonly available then, it is useful to keep in mind that Samuel Colt did not patent the Revolver until 1836! Everything back then was handmade and often only slightly more dangerous for the person being shot at than the shooter. Some more education on this point might get slightly fewer people to support the idea that the framers could have even conceivably thought about giving people the right to carry a concealed semi-automatic weapon with a 30-round clip (if they had, there might also have been a provision for mobile phone number portability in the Bill of Rights).
More importantly though is education about just how dangerous modern guns actually are. They tend to fire reliably and in the case of a cocked weapon all too easily (especially semi-automatics). Bullets will go through a lot. The standard movie scene these days of some hero driving a car through a hail of automatic weapons fire and emerging without a scratch is completely ludicrous. I am not against movies showing it per se - I don’t think censorship is the answer here - and Mr. and Mrs Smith was kind of fun. But kids need to know that this has no bearing on reality.
Growing up I used to shoot pistol competitively and belonged to a gun club in my hometown in Germany. I believe that I have much greater respect for guns as a result. While I have not figured out exactly how, I intend for our own kids to have some exposure to guns, both to avoid unguided curiosity and to show first hand how dangerous guns can be. In the meantime, I have been telling them that if a friend should as much as mention that there is a gun to look at, they should leave immediately.
