"With the 85-and-older population growing faster than any group in the country, gun ownership among the very old is increasingly a concern of adult children, who worry that elderly parents will commit suicide or shoot someone they mistake for an intruder," Dale Russakoff writes in The New York Times' "The New Old Age" blog.
Which leads us to a ripe-for-exploiting "loophole" (that's what the anti's call anything impeding total control, don't they?) of sorts:
Families find little help in the law when trying to pry guns away from impaired family members.
Except there really is no gap in law. It's just that:
The federal Brady Act bars gun sales to anyone adjudicated mentally “defective,” a legal process few children want to put parents through.
Which leads us to this:
Even if they did, most older people bought their guns years ago, and Dennis Henigan, a vice president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said there is no “systematic way for the authorities to find out if they have guns.”
We all know what Dennis would like to do about that, don't we?
"Many home health agencies," we are told, "have stepped into this vacuum, requiring elderly people to remove guns from their homes as a condition of sending aides to assist them."
That is their right. And it's our right to find out which ones approach the problem rationally, and on an individual basis, instead of with a blanket, knee-jerk refusal. And ditto for exclusionary retirement communities.
I've always and consistently maintained anyone who can't be trusted with a gun can't be trusted without a custodian. But even then, we need to ascertain the ability of the custodians to provide security care in addition to everything else.
We have an aging population. Many of us still have parents, others of us are starting to realize we ourselves aren't getting any younger. The decisions we are or will be faced with aren't easy ones. That means there is no one-size-fits all solution where we can just pass another "gun control" law and consider the problem solved.
We need to have this discussion in the gun community, to develop tools and resources to help us help ourselves and our loved ones.
Or we could just let government take over and make the best decisions for us.
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Trigger Sports RECORDED!
My debriefing on last Wednesday's Trigger Sports LIVE! was delayed, first by a California wildfire that stalled American Trigger Sports Network from posting the program, and then by some things I needed to take care of that precluded new columns since last Thursday.
Speaking of the fire, when I lived in California, I watched aerial containment efforts in person and they are quite awesome. This one happened right near ATSN's studio, and they caught a lot of good footage.
Host James B. Towle and I discuss NRA and Harry Reid. Also in this program: Rachel Parsons-NRA Spokesperson, Barbara Crown - Editor, The Hunting Report, Deb Ferns - Chair - Women's Outdoor Media Assoc., USOPEN-Trailer from Tunica, 19th Annual S&W IRC Shoot Off - Hogue Range, SLO.
Click here to watch.
And if you'd like to see archived shows and other ATSN programs, click here.
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Survey SAYS...
Well, it's still developing.
"It"?
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has some questions. They're looking for input from gun owners.
Click here and give them some.
Comments
Just this morning I heard on the news that a lady of 78 was smacked to the ground and raped by a young thuganimal.
What does age have to do with rational use of a gun for self defense? The aged can not defend themselves physically from attack so the use of a gun for that self defensive objective becomes more critical since a cop cannot arrive in time to porevent the crime. Aged people are more likely to forget where the gun is than shoot someone by mistake. Until a judge declares a person to be impaired to the point they are a danger to themselves and others the person has their second amendment rights regardless of age. To assume that once someone passes a certain age they are no longer trustworthy is wrong. As for help care agencies insisting on the removal of guns from a home before they visit the home check and see how many aides go to jail for robbery and theft of the elderly. These health aides do not coem from the best segments of our population being paid minimum wage most of the time. No elderly person should give up their one source of immediate self protection.
I'm too old to Fight,
And too slow to Run.
But I know what's Right,
So I carry a Gun.
Don't worry... I know exactly where my gun is at all times... right on my hip where it belongs. I'm only 64, but I guess I'll get "old" someday.
Death panels? We don't need to cho you no steenking death panels!
Think of the benefits in reducing federal entitlement expenditures on Obamacare and Social Security by turning the elderly into disarmed sitting ducks. Dead people don't have expensive health problems or draw many benefit checks.
In all honesty suicide should not be a crime, it is after all our life and in the end our ultimate right is to terminate our own life right?
Great article, as usual!
I am too old to take an ass whooping...so you can guess what is next...Norman...anyone who would rape a 78 year old is not worthy of any kind of mercy in my opinion!!!! Also...just to be clear...anyone who would rape anyone is not worthy of mercy!!!
There is an organization for old people. I'm not going to give their name but the first initial is "A". This organization is very much anti-gun. I refuse to jojn this organization no matter how many discounts they offer on motels. I guess they expect all older people to comply with all the bad guy's orders and render no defense at all. That's how many older people are injured or killed. If you can not be trusted with a gun, you should be placed in a retirement home where someone will take care of you.
David the gun grabbers will seek out any and all avenues of gun prohibition.
Your story tells another tell David that I am forced to bring out. You report the following
[The federal Brady Act bars gun sales to anyone adjudicated mentally “defective,” a legal process few children want to put parents through]
David who helped pass the Brady Bill by their support of the NICS?
Who brought us the 68 GCA and the Illinois FOID card?
THE NRA!!!
Will the next gun prohibition be old age?
I don’t know but thanks to NRA compromise and concessions the path has been made.
David, Monday the Gov of Illinois signed HB5832 into law now anyone caught with a loaded firearm without a valid FOID card will now go to prison in Illinois a mandatory 1-3yrs.
thanks to the NRA and their game playing they also saved the FOID card from extinction with their support of SB3421
madashell says:
"Who brought us the 68 GCA and the Illinois FOID card?
THE NRA!!!"
Not to rain on your parade, but GCA68 was brought to us by Sen. Thomas Dodd of Connecticut by way of a 1936 law passed by the National Socialists of Germany. And if the NRA thought FOID's were such a good idea and forced it on you against the will of Illinois' voters, why didn't they cram it down the throats of the other 49 states? Just once I would like to see you post without blaming every evil thing that has happened in the state of Illinois on the NRA. Do you think your knuckleheaded voters might share in some of the blame?
You may want to add another layer of aluminum foil to your hat. It will cut down on the volume of those pesky voices you have been hearing.
I will be 68 in november and from my cold dead hands.
I think that the people pushing for this idiot gun control should be more worried about those other idiots developing atomic weapons in other countries. And about outlaw immigrents along with domestic outlaws that have guns and jeperdize the safety of armed and unarmed Americans! Do oulaws have to corner you idiots before you finaly say "I wish I had a gun at the time to protect may self and my loved ones". Oops to late there gone!
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone because
"When seconds count, the police can be there in minutes"
Gun grabbers, like all totalitarians, are like cancer. They never rest, never reconsider.
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