Anarchival explains why she can’t objectively evaluate certain pieces of legislation:
In law school we’re taught to set aside our emotions and weigh such issues dispassionately, and sometimes I’m successful at it, but I’d be lying if I said I can read a Bill like SB 1618 and not see my father sitting with his rifle in our driveway. He had a permit. He had enough money to hire lawyers to plead a convincing case in court. We did not. The idea that Senator Beavers could even consider risking the lives of innocent women and children (and probably even some men) for the mere sake of gun rights sickens me. A full quarter of the Bills she’s filed this Session pertain to the expansion of gun rights in Tennessee, and I’m not necessarily against them. Even on a personal level, I support the ownership of guns and the right to self-defense. When my father tried to shoot me, my mother was of course hysterical and terrified. Luckily, so were the neighbors. Since they’d heard the gunshots too, there were enough calls to get the police to respond that time. The officer listened to our story, saw the damage to the door, and took pity on us. He took my mother out the next day to buy a rifle and taught her how to shoot it. The next time my father visited, it was my mother standing up to him with a loaded gun that made the terrorism stop. I still own that rifle, as well as a few other firearms. To paraphrase the old saying, God made man and woman, but Sam Colt made ‘em equal. I still can’t help but think, though, that she wouldn’t have even had to do that – and I wouldn’t have been placed in the danger of being caught in the crossfire – if my father had never been allowed to have his guns in the first place.