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I have an honest question for the several posters thus far who have had firearms in their lives since childhood, respect them as powerful tools, and feel that their right and responsibility is to be able to protect themselves and their families with deadly force, if needs be.
Obviously, in your particular cases, the chances of accidental firearm deaths/drunken games of russian roulette/unsupervised kids getting at the weapons and ammo is very low. It is perhaps not *obvious*, but I think a case could be easily made for the position that many of the accidental deaths, suicides of adolescents, etc., which take place in this country via firearm are in fact the result of firearm owners who lack this basic respect for their tools, for whatever reason.
To what degree do you feel that the exercise of the 2nd Amendment rights are predicated upon demonstrating responsibility and respect for firearms? Is there an analogy which can be drawn between the 1st Amendment and the responsibility to not yell 'Fire!' in a crowded theater? Or does the 2nd Amendment mean that everyone has the right to keep and bear arms however they wish, leaving the 'responsibility' portion of the equation for after some tragic misuse of their tools?
This question comes from someone who does not himself keep firearms in his home. I do have many firearm owners in my family, though, and I've never felt uncomfortable or fearful being in their homes, because I understand the respect they hold for, and care they take with, their weapons and ammunition.
I find my personal experience of firearm ownership to be very much at odds with the statistics on accidental deaths and misuse of weapons by unsupervised kids, and I am very interested to know what you all think.
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