(March 27, 2013) -- More on the issue of the NRA and current proposed or pending legislation.

I always find it interesting but not surprising that most people who defend the NRA’s position on any sort of gun control legislation do so by never really addressing the pertinent issues and questions and re extremely quick to change the subject and play the blame game. "What we really need are more police or better enforcement of the EXISTING laws."

Of course most of these people are sick and tired of paying taxes, believe that they already pay too many taxes, and really don’t like government at all and prefer to view government as the problem not the solution. Needless to say most of them are totally unwilling to pay the costs to hire the additional law enforcement personnel. Also needless to say that is not a long term solution to solving the problems associated with assault weapons, background checks, and large capacity ammunition magazines.

I spent time with a relative this morning who lives in Colorado. He is a gun owner, hunter, shooter, and of course an NRA member, like I USED TO BE. We have spent significant time together hunting and enjoying the outdoors. When the subject of the gun issue came up in our morning conversation he immediately began to complain about the newly enacted Colorado legislation.

Not being familiar with it, and not really caring too much about what they did, I inquired and found out that the Governor of Colorado just signed into law legislation similar to what we have had on the books in California for a number of years. Of course he now believes that he has been labeled a criminal. I got the usual "guns don’t kill people, people kill people" verbiage from the NRA handbook and talking points from him as well.

When I asked him about why the NRA is opposed to gun registration and high capacity magazines and clips he just kind of agreed and then changed to subject blaming it all on either Obama or the liberals in the world. My repeated questioning about what is wrong with keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill people and limiting the amount of rounds in a clip or magazine still met with no response and the automatic verbiage about people being the problem and not guns.

John F. Kennedy wrote a book talking about how much courage it took for elected officials to do things that may not be politically correct but were the right thing to do anyway. I have always felt that this was the single most difficult thing about holding public office. Knowing the difference between the two and being able to actually do the right thing even if it may not be the most politically correct thing is what separates true leaders from everyone else. Followers are a dime a dozen but true leaders are hard to find especially in today's political world.

To me it is a no-brainer to pass federal laws limiting gun access to those who are mentally ill or who have criminal records. To me it is a no-brainer to set limits on how many rounds any private citizen, sportsman, etc. can have access to in their handgun, shotgun, or rifle.

I would agree that guns don't kill people. What I do KNOW from my 32 years of law enforcement experience is that PEOPLE with GUNS kill people, and people with semi-automatic, automatic, or guns with extremely high capacity clips and magazines can do a whole lot more damage before being subdued than can people who are using more conventional type weaponry. I also know, from first-hand experience that in far too many instances law enforcement professionals are completely outgunned by some of the nuts out there who have legal access (under currents laws) to weaponry that far exceeds what they have.

I fully understand the NRA's position with respect to "opening the door" by passing any kind of gun control laws whatsoever. But, I totally disagree with their logic and according to virtually every single credible poll out there today so does the average American as well as the average NRA member.

The NRA needs to wake up and smell the coffee here and realize that tempering their position on just a few of the issues is not the end of the 2nd Amendment. It might even restore some of their credibility that they seem to be losing with the average American.

The 2nd Amendment is on pretty solid footing and polls show that the average American does respect and support the right to keep and bear arms....what they don’t support is the right to keep and bear weapons with massive killing abilities (except for law enforcement and the military) and the right of criminals and the mentally ill to have legal access to weapons of any kind.