I own a gun. *A broken, obsolete gun.* I encourage everyone to do the same. (It's a mid 1800's cap & ball rifle of British manufacture, with the hammer broken off. Even if I were to have it repaired, and loaded it with any commercially available gunpowder, I'm told by people in-the-know that the barrel would very likely blow up in my face, due to it's crude method of manufacture.
That being said, I've never owned a gun, and probably never will. But I know several gun owners that are totally responsible, as well as one scumbag that actually shot his neighbor's dog, since he wanted to sleep until 10 or 11AM every day, and the neighbor would put the (barking) dog out every day at about 8AM. Gun Nut True Story: as told by Jeff "Insanity" Bates (aka Jeff Space) of Insanity and the Killers. Jeff told me he was always impressed that Johnny "Swat Team" Sausage (ItK bass player) always brought 2 instruments with him. One night, setting up at a place called the Phantasy Nite Club, Johnny was on stage, Jeff was in the dressing room, and accidentally knocked over the backup bass (still in it's case). When Jeff went out, he told Johnny what happened & apologized, and Johnny said; "Did it go off!?!" Turns out it wasn't a spare bass at all, it was an automatic machine gun, Johnny's explanation for bringing it to *every* gig being: "Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it." Actually a real nice guy...but apparently paranoid, if that statement is any indication. I also once saw Johnny with a sawed off shotgun "pistol" (stock sawed off, too) during an ItK road trip to Athens Ohio. Do these folks just go through life choosing to be scared? Because I don't get the mindset.
