Unsafe Gun Owners

As a gun owner, it pisses me off to know that there are people out there who don't handle their firearms in a safe manner. As a Libertarian, I know that legislating safety won't work.

Case in point. On New Years Eve this year, I was standing out on my back porch listening to the sounds of ships blowing their foghorns, citizens setting off firecrackers, and idiot gun owners shooting off their guns into the air. Of these three activities, only one is legal in VA.

Firecrackers, mortars, bottle rockets, and roman candles are all already illegal here in VA, so people just drive into the nearest state where they aren't and buy them. Setting them off is illegal, but only marginally enforced.

Then there are the people who fire their guns into the air on NYE or the 4th of July. Now...if you live in the country, and you want to fire your shotgun into the air in a safe direction, then fine. Do so. Your little metal pellets won't go more than 200 yards at most before they come back to the ground. But if you own a pistol, and are firing off those rounds into the air, know that they do infact come back down. A neighbor of mine had a window in her car blown out by a stray bullet this New Years.

Firing a gun in an urban area is generally already illegal unless used in self defense, and I bet that most of these goofballs that do it have been drinking already, which is also a felony offense.

So, I don't have any delusions about being able to prevent this sort of thing except through reasoned argument. So if you must fire off a celebratory magazine, please do so into the ground where it won't hurt anybody.