Prescat
OK first things first.
The assertion that I make is gun ownership comes with responsibility and many truckers are cowboys and are not mature enough to handle a truck let alone a firearm – God what’s so hard to see the connection?
If you are observant at all, you may notice that some of these guys are aggressive and dangerous while on the road, they take more chances and are very arrogant. Do you think for a moment that this would not extend to outside of that truck if there was an absolute freedom to carry a weapon (firearm)? It would and you can’t say otherwise because that is human nature.
Second this is not a second amendment issue for me, it is a regulated industry issue and a ‘let’s take a serous look at this profession and find ways to improve it’ issue – NOT A SECOND AMENDMENT ISSUE. I am not saying we need gun control laws, I am saying that because I have and you have to operate under different rules, lets first enforce the laws we have and get these idiots off the road and put people behind the wheel who is not going to lose his/her temper because someone cut them off or take their parking space or get upset because someone touch their precious truck. You can not sit there and say that some of these people don’t act childish, they do. I said the companies out there are reaching the dregs of society to put people in the driver seat because of the high turn over, this means that person behind the wheel needs to act like a human not a grade school kid before they are allowed to have the responsibility of portable weapon. Knife, tire iron or what ever, again these are weapons but these are weapons that need to be used up close and personal, you can’t kill someone standing at one end of the line of trucks, while you are at the other end with a knife or tire iron, can you?
I bet if studies were performed, they would show that there are LESS actually violent acts between truck drivers, as opposed to the general population, and other large groups of co-workers.
Ok let’s start with the study that shows that we need strict regulations on sleep and changes of hours of service. I didn’t see the need to change the HOS or start requiring a sleep study or where truckers are falling asleep in mass do you?
It is not between the truck drivers I really worry about, it is about the truck driver who can’t handle things and go off on people. Again it is about the people who these companies hire, it is about the idiots in this profession, it is not about the weapon itself.
Again how many times do you see a trucker on someone’s a** with their truck going down the road speeding?
Where is the maturity there?
Where is the professionalism?
Third is training that you all speak of DOES NOT prepare one to be able to defend themselves. I am sorry, but the training you all get for a CCW is not enough. I am not a cop, I am not someone who has a CCW but I am one who has gone though defensive firearm training and it was not something that many can get through their head – some situations you are not able to pullout a gun and just shoot someone and being robbed in many cases, you are dealing many times with someone who is unstable to begin with. Many cops will agree with this, or at least every one I know does; they want to see people to practice with their firearm, they want people to expand their knowledge of how and when to defend themselves and they want to make sure that people know that a firearm is a responsibility as a 80,000lb vehicle is. But some people forget that they are driving 80,000lb thing that can kill.
The same with qualified, what the h*ll does that mean?
Do you take a psychological profile test to determine your ability to not lose your temper under pressure or be able to function under pressure? Not!
For the record most states say ‘Qualified’ is not being a felon, not being someone who has a record of mental problems or someone who is too young. But I don’t think this is a real issue about trained or qualified. You all brought this up as a qualifier to have a weapon because to you it is not about the driver, it is not about the profession and it is not about the people who are not mature enough to drive to begin with but it is about rights.
Forth, for the record I am pro-gun to put it simply.
- I do not believe in the cities right to restrict guns
- I do not believe in ‘gun free zones’ any where
- I do not believe in any weapon type ban
- I do not believe in zero tolerance policies for schools, where I feel
However
- I do that there needs to be a solid purchasing system that is accessible to all with the names of people who are not allowed to purchase nor have a firearm – not the people who have one
- I do believe that committing a crime with a fire arm should have mandatory sentences and if you kill someone, you lose your life
- I do believe that the three day waiting period does work and for those exceptions, something can be setup to expedite a purchase
Most of all I believe that a fire arm is a crime deterrent.
AND
I have been robbed, I have been beaten and I have had a gun held to my head on more then one occasion – I was scared to death but I knew in a few of the cases, I would not have been able to use the S&W I carried at that time without getting seriously hurt or killed. In those cases, the people were not stable, they were not smart but they had confidence that they needed to do rob me.
