by Derek Farwell
Columnist

During my time in the military I became very proficient with guns of all kinds. I qualified as an expert with rifles, pistols and machine guns. Being in the infantry, we trained with our weapons more frequently and spent an incredible amount of time at the shooting ranges and shoot houses. I am comfortable with handling guns and I know how to safely use them. I have three guns at home; an AK-47 assault rifle, a 45 caliber pistol and a high powered hunting rifle. I don’t consider myself a gun fanatic and I don’t have nor do I ever want a conceal and carry permit, but I like having them and enjoy shooting them from time to time. I also don’t keep a gun in every room and wait for bandits or cat burglars to sneak into my house. Overall, I would consider myself a sensible and responsible gun owner.

I’ve noticed a growing trend recently, and that is for people to post their thoughts about the on-going gun control debates on Facebook. I’ve never really been a person to share most of my thoughts with people and I’ve adopted a policy of not exposing my stupidity to the world via Facebook, which unfortunately can’t be said for some who have taken pretty extreme stances on the gun issue.

It seems that many people have replaced common sense with extremism. It would also seem that half of the population thinks guns come out of their hiding places at night and shoot people while the other half thinks we should all walk around town with machine guns and have cannons in our front yards for ‘self-defense’.

I certainly hope I haven’t upset anyone to the point that I need to have a machine gun turret on my roof.

I personally didn’t buy any of my guns for self-defense. I bought them because I like having them. Somewhere in this mess there has to a viable solution and I think a good starting place would be to improve the screening process for buying weapons. A prime example of both this concept and my earlier idea that some people really showcase their lack of intelligence on Facebook is that I recently saw an old Army acquaintance had posted a picture online of a letter to a veteran from the VA hospital. It stated that psychiatrists at the VA had found him to be mentally incompetent due to the severity of his post-traumatic stress disorder. He was rated at 100% disabled with a finding of permanence and totality by a psychiatrist, which means a couple of things. First, it means that his PTSD was so severe that it has been deemed completely disabling to the point that he is incapable of ever getting or holding a job or social life. To be rated at 100% for a mental health disorder, one has to have expressed either suicidal or homicidal indications. And a finding of permanence and totality of the disorder means that it’s so severe that mental health professionals have stated there is no hope that his condition will improve at any point.

The reason for telling you this is because on that picture of the letter that was posted stated that the veteran is legally not allowed to purchase or own a firearm, and that if he is found to own or try to purchase one it is a criminal offense. My acquaintance said this was ridiculous and that if anyone told him he couldn’t own guns that he’d…. well, he wouldn’t respond kindly. I personally don’t think that a man that has openly expressed suicidal and/or homicidal fantasies should be able to buy an assault rifle, but I suppose I could be the crazy one.

The point that I’m trying to make with this is that I think people need to take advantage of the gift of common sense. It is a wonderful thing.