A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Wit and wisdom, some smart assery, and a Mother and Daughter questioning “Are we even related?”
A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Balancing Rights and Safety in Gun Discussions S:1 E:16
Could understanding firearm safety from a young age be the key to protecting our children? Join us, Jane Burt and my daughter Bobbi, as we navigate the emotional landscape of Second Amendment rights after a school shooting impacted our family earlier this year. Sharing our personal experiences, we emphasize the necessity of teaching children about gun safety, even in homes without firearms. Our conversation explores the delicate balance between maintaining personal beliefs in gun rights and ensuring public safety in increasingly urgent times.
We tackle the controversial debate around assault weapons and gun control, cutting through misconceptions and highlighting the importance of responsible gun ownership. Please note, the opinions are ours, yours may differ. This episode offers a heartfelt journey through the complexities of gun rights and personal safety, aiming to shed light on these pressing issues.
email: boomerandgenxer@gmail.com
welcome everyone to today's show. Boomerang and gen x are walking to a bar. My name is jane burt, my co-host is my daughter, bobby, and for the next several minutes we're going to try to entertain you and I just want to tell everybody we appreciate all the comments that we're getting on our Facebook page and the feedback that we're receiving from people and just, we love you guys and we love doing this and we just have a fun time doing it. And, bobby, how are you doing today? I'm cold. A fun time doing it. And Bobby, how are you doing today? I'm cold. She's in Iowa, so we're still on the road. We're not in the rabbit hole studio, otherwise we'd probably have a little bit better audio. But we're on the road and we're going to make it happen, aren't we? Absolutely? What's our topic today, bobbi? Have you thought about what we want to talk about?
Speaker 2:Well, today's topic is going to be something that has been brought up a lot over the last year, especially with our family, and I think what we're going to do is we're going to talk about our Second Amendment right and kind of, you know, maybe dip into, uh, our stance on it nice, I'm ready to rock and roll on that.
Speaker 1:One second amendment rights.
Speaker 2:So do you want to do. You have it in front of you. Do you want to read the exact second, second amendment, right?
Speaker 1:uh, do I have it in front of me um second amendment. Wow, that it's kind of long though.
Speaker 2:Well, let's just break it down. I mean, you know, basically it's a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed Right. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed Right. This means different things to different people.
Speaker 1:There's been a lot of debate over it, that's for sure, and we did a podcast here not long ago about what has happened to our family. We will recap here just for just a minute for those of you who may not have heard that particular podcast. Our family, our grandson, my grandson, bobby's son and daughter were involved in a school shooting in Perry, iowa first first part of January of 2024. My grandson was shot nine times and, uh, well, had nine bullets in him and, uh, he survived. Thank God for that.
Speaker 1:And we're still, um, we're still very raw about that and if you listen to the podcast, there's a two part podcast out there that talks about it and it's very emotional for us and it was really hard for us to do. And so, if you get the opportunity and you haven've got to be questioning why our state's government and school boards are not protecting our children better, and you know we talked about that in that particular podcast. But what resulted from that podcast and the not the podcast, excuse me what resulted from the shooting was a lot of media attention that we chose not to participate in, but we did have people who came up to us later or who contacted us later and said how do you feel about gun control now? How do you feel?
Speaker 2:And they still do, and they still do how do you feel about gun control now?
Speaker 1:And they still do, and they still do. How do you feel about the Second Amendment now? Has your position changed? And for me I will say my position has not, Bobbi has yours.
Speaker 2:I would say that mostly it has not, but in some ways it absolutely has.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about that. In what way? So let's talk about what your position is to begin with, as it relates to, you know, the ability to have a to protect your rights and possess a firearm that is not connected with the service in a militia and to use to protect yourself. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 2:Well, let's go back first. You know a lot of people think that when we talk about a well-regulated militia this day and age it would be something like the National Guard, and that's not exactly what I believe, that it you know that it was to be. You know a well regulated militia is more of a personal safety. So a militia can be five or 10 people from your neighborhood Okay, if they're well-armed. So there's been a lot of back and forth, you know, with that and things like that.
Speaker 2:My stance is and has always been we own firearms, I own firearms them from a very young age. They were taught firearm safety. They were taught you know that that weapon is loaded, even if you know it's unloaded. They were taught you know you don't aim a weapon at something you don't plan on. You know you don't, you don't plan on taking out. And they know the consequences of having a firearm, of holding a firearm, of discharging a firearm. But they've been taught that from a very, very young age. I think my youngest was three years old when she started learning firearm safety. And that's a big deal to me, not only for my own home, but even if I didn't own firearms, if they're going to go into someone else's home, who's to say that they're not going to find a firearm there? And they need to know what to do and how to stay safe, not only for themselves, but for everyone around them. So I am for firearm you know, proper firearm ownership.
Speaker 1:I am for safe firearm ownership, but more so I am for firearm education. Very few of my grandkids have ever shot a gun, but they have been taught safe practices around firearms. And the reason that I think that's important. And I'll just tell you what my stance is. I support being able to have my own weapons to protect myself and I don't think you or anybody else gets to tell me what that weapon is Period, correct, voluntary turn in or a buyback of assault weapons. You don't get to tell me what I get to own and what I don't get to own. And you know, when we talk about the school shootings which of course we're very concerned with, we're very concerned about the protection of our children how many of those have been done with an assault weapon.
Speaker 2:There have been actually quite a few that have been done with assault style weapons or automatic style weapons. I'd have to look that up.
Speaker 1:I guess I should have done that before we started this, but I didn't. But I would have to contradict you, bobby. I don't think that kids are getting a hold of, or anyone that is going into a school is getting a hold of an assault weapon, a repeating rifle or anything like that. I don't think that they are getting a hold of those. I think they're getting a hold of their, you know, their dad's .22, their dad's handgun or their mom's handgun. And the problem is is people keep these weapons secrets to their kids as opposed to educating them on them. You know, what are they used for, what could happen, what's the end result? Um, that sort of thing. And then, ultimately, how to handle one, because you don't handle a weapon haphazardly and you see some people who definitely
Speaker 1:do. But, uh, getting back to you know what I can own and what I can't own. I am a strong believer that you don't get the right to tell me what I can and can't own. If I want to own a tank, I'm going to own it, right, right, you know. So what's happened now since the shooting is we have had people ask us you know how do you feel now? And you know, I guess I feel the same, other than I do wonder why we don't have more outcry from our parents and grandparents, from the states and the school boards saying, hey, why are you not protecting my
Speaker 1:children? And the Second Amendment gives me the right to own and have a gun or a weapon, and the fact of the matter is I don't have to be in the Army to own one, and I think that's the controversy is. Oh, the Second Amendment was written to to ensure that you know, our militia, our armies, our navies, our air force, whoever it is it's protecting our country, has the right to carry. That's not what that means. That's not what that means. And and so, um, you know, I think I think.
Speaker 1:That's where I think that's where it rubs the wrong way with people.
Speaker 2:Well, let's be honest. You know you look at the military here in the States. Excuse me If you're ever on a military base. The only ones who are qualified to carry weapons on a military base of military personnel are usually military police officers while they're on duty on that base is that correct?
Speaker 1:I have to ask, I have to. I have to defer to dr domain, since he spent a significant amount of time in the military. Is that true, dr domain?
Speaker 3:generally. I mean, if there's, if there's a requirement that someone has to have a weapon to do their job, to carry out their mission. But every soldier is trained to use a firearm and that's your mission, that's your train to kill. That's it. That's the truth of it. The fact we're using this term assault weapon. That's so arbitrary. That's just some term that anti-gun activists had created. There's no real clear definition of what an assault weapon is.
Speaker 1:Right, because some people are very confused with what an AR means. They think it means assault rifle.
Speaker 2:It does not. No, it's the company that makes it actually.
Speaker 1:So I guess.
Speaker 2:Anyway, getting back, getting back to my point, you know you're not seeing every military member on base carrying a fully loaded weapon all the time, because here in the States most of the jobs they don't require that fully loaded weapon all the time. Now, when you go overseas, yes, you are armed. You know everyone, from IT to logistics to you know the Rangers. They are. They're weaponized because when you're in a combat zone, you have to be. You have to be at all times. So you know a lot of people. You know they want to go back to this.
Speaker 2:The second amendment, right Of. They're saying well, well, well-regulated militia is the only one who needs them. The military is the only one who needs them. That's not what they're saying. That is not what they're saying at all. What they're saying is we have the right to own those weapons so that anytime, we have the right to protect our family, to protect our lives, to protect our property, things like that.
Speaker 2:And too many people want to argue about the fact that, well, you know, we don't need these kinds of weapons in, you know, in regular people's hands. I tend to disagree. You know the Supreme Court back in 2023, they tried. I don't know if they actually passed it, but they tried to make a ruling that the automatic weapons, the assault weapons quote unquote were actually not covered by the Second Amendment for citizens of the United States. And I have to argue that.
Speaker 2:I have to argue that because you're not going to come in and tell me what I need to protect my home. You're not going to come in and tell me what I need. You know if, if I'm out somewhere and I need protection, because I'm telling you right now a 22 handgun isn't going to take down a bear, you know if I'm getting attacked. So you know I kind of take offense to that just because of the fact that, yeah, you're not going to come in and tell me what I can or can't own, if I'm legally allowed to have that weapon, if I, if I'm not discredited from having that weapon because of a felony or whatever. That.
Speaker 1:I think mental illness was one of the other arguments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and most recently they have done the argument of medical marijuana cards. If you have a medical marijuana card, you are not allowed to own firearms anymore. You are not allowed to own firearms anymore. I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that at all, because you're not going to tell me that somebody who has, you know, three DWIs, who got a slap on the wrist, can own a weapon. When I have a medical need for cannabis and you're telling me I can't own a weapon, I don't agree with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I understand that too, Because, I'll be honest with you, I had a medical marijuana card and I was not aware that I could not own, or I guess I. Yeah, I couldn't own a gun or carry a gun, whatever the law says, if I had that card, and so I let that expire, because my second amendment is more important to me than the medical marijuana, so I let that expire and I'm not interested in that anymore. But yeah, so now here's the argument, though how do we control all the shootings? I mean, what are you going to do about all of the shootings that are out there? And you know it's, it's of concern? I mean, it isn't just going into the schools, it isn't just the school board or the state, you know, protecting our kids.
Speaker 1:Somebody could open fire in a Burger King for crying out loud, or somebody could open fire, you know, in a Walmart and probably have. I mean, I didn't look at every single case, but they probably have. And what do you do? You know, how do you control that? Because there's a lot of people who are advocates for saying, hey, let's pull every weapon. You know, off the streets. The problem with that is we have a lot of terrible people out there, and it's the terrible people that are committing the crimes, and they're going to get weapons one way or another, as I say they're not.
Speaker 2:They're not going to the the um gun store and getting it legally. No, that's for sure. No, like you can sit here and outlaw weapons for everybody who obtains them legally, because that's the only way you're going to be able to track them. Let's be honest, the only way you're going to be able to track these weapons is for responsible gun ownership to come up and say I'm buying this weapon, this is my name, this is my. You know criminal history. This weapon has a serial number that is now attached to my name. Um, but when it comes down to it, you're looking at weapons that have no serial numbers because they've been scratched off, because they've been stolen, they've been resold, they have, you know it.
Speaker 1:It's been obtained illegally, possibly out of the country, whether they're in the country or out of the country. But don't we kind of go through that scrutiny anyway? Because I mean, I have a, I have a permit to carry and I have to get that through the sheriff's department and they're checking my background, they're checking everything on me before they give me that permit. So it isn't like I, you know, like I'm, I don't go through the scrutiny because I do. Now, does everybody go and obtain a permit to carry? The answer is no, and in some States you're not even required to have a permit anymore to carry.
Speaker 2:Right, Right, I was one of them. I was one of them.
Speaker 1:You don't have to have a permit to open carry Right, and so you know there is some scrutiny. Let's not act like there isn't. There is some scrutiny, you know, and anybody who opens fire on a group of people, or even a single person for that matter, has to have something wrong with them. Right, and people go. Well, you know. How do you get the guns out of the hands of people who are mentally ill. How do you assess that? Because it's hard to assess whether somebody is mentally ill.
Speaker 1:Let's look at what's happened over the last three years in the political agenda, you know I would say there was a lot of people who were crazy on both sides, Right and acting crazy and acting like they were mentally ill and still are. But I'm not going to assess them because that's that's not what an assessment of mental illness is. And you know we could. We could probably do another podcast on health care, because I'm a firm believer. We don't have a health care system in the United States.
Speaker 1:We have a health response system in the United States. That's it. You know, if you're really sick, we'll give you a pill. That's about it, and so we don't really have a good mental health system in the US in my opinion, this is my opinion, this whole thing is nothing but our opinions.
Speaker 2:Right, but we both have personal experience in that. You know, we me with my children personally happened to drive six hours to get one of my children mental health care because in the state of Iowa there's not enough, there's not enough and there's not enough options, there's not enough coverage, there's not enough care providers, things that you know. But when it comes to people who want to hurt other people, let's be honest, it's not just guns, right? Okay, it's not just guns. Everybody wants to come back to the gun debate.
Speaker 2:Okay, how are we going to keep guns out of there? How are we going to keep knives out of their hands? Right? How are we going to keep acid attacks from happening? Right? How are we going to keep these people from getting behind the wheel of a car and running into a crowd of people? How? You know it right, there are multiple ways that people hurt other people. So when it all comes back to the gun debate, you know it kind of rubs me raw because it's like why are you nitpick, nitpicking one out of all these ways that people are hurting other people and not getting to the core of why they're hurting?
Speaker 1:other people. If we really look at the root cause and keep tracking it back, it does boil back to Um, and again, this is my opinion, I I am not a doctor, I'm not a psychologist Uh, but it really does get back to um, you know, some of their mental wellness. It gets back to their experiences. It gets back to there's so much anger right now. I mean, look at how much road rage we have right now and people are getting killed with vehicles for crying out loud. Road rage is crazy. And I've been seeing a lot more reels on social media where people are brake checking people just to get insurance claims. They're killing people on these highways and just to get a claim and just to get a claim. And so you know, if you go back to what the root cause of it is, you know we're not doing a good job with ensuring that we have some support for our children that are growing up, our young adults and then the adults that actually need the help.
Speaker 1:It's hard to get help. It's hard to get mental help.
Speaker 2:It's very hard and I'm going to call it out right now. I see too many times that there are too many signs, you know, in these young adults and these children leading up to you know what's going to happen or what they're planning, and too many times they're ignored. These parents aren't parenting, these schools aren't intervening, you know, and it's just kind of swept to the wayside by. Oh well, you know we can't deal with that right now, or I don't want to deal with that, or kids will be kids, or you know things like that and we need to step up. We need to step up. You know there's been a lot of instances where report after report and I'll say it, it's out. You know, the report is out right now the our school shooter.
Speaker 2:There were years upon years upon years of reports of this kid and his disturbances, his mental health issues, his, you know, dark thoughts, his obsession with school shootings, things like that, and nothing was done, not a damn thing was done to to correct this kid, to see what they could do for this kid. It just kept getting, you know, pushed to the side, pushed to the side and pushed to the side, and this happened. And so we really need to step up and we really need to look at our kids and say you know, if there's problems on social media, guess what, social media is gone. Right. If there's problems at school, guess what? I'm going to sit my ass in that chair next to you for every class until you start acting right. Because until parents actually put their foot in these kids butts and start saying, look, I'm here for you, but I'm not going to let this slide. Yeah, these kids are going to continue to get away with whatever they're going to get away with, right.
Speaker 2:And you know, and it's seen, it's not just in the family thing, it's not just these kids acting out within the families. This is a wider problem. They're bringing it to the schools, they're bringing it to the malls, they're bringing it to birthday parties, where these kids are getting shot up because of their crap talking or whatever it's like. That needs to stop happening. That needs to stop happening. People need to start stepping in. They need to start growing up. You know, okay, granted, the parents might've had a crappy childhood. Okay, deal with it. You're an adult Now you have children. Stop pushing that generational trauma onto them and start fixing it because, that's your job, right.
Speaker 1:And you know, I just want to reiterate that, you know, this whole topic that came up again was because we were kind of, I will say, badgered. We've been badgered about this a little bit since the shooting and people are, you know, really trying to say and it's been, it's been kind of negative. You know well, what do you think now? And, uh, what you know, we, we just feel very fortunate that our, that uh, corey is alive and Joey's alive and and no other children were, were hurt. Um, but we, we want action to protect them in the future is what we want, and it isn't taking a gun away. Let's focus on the people and let's be honest.
Speaker 2:I mean we're gonna carry, we continue to carry, I will carry, you will carry, um, you know, and when it comes down to it I feel bad. You know, I have a lot of regrets that day because I went running for that school, I went to go running into that school and that morning I was in my pajamas, I wasn wasn't carrying. And that is one of my biggest regrets because I'm, like you know, going through my mind. I'm like I wasn't carrying that day. What if I would have gotten into that school and come face to face with that shooter, right, right you know, and it's like it.
Speaker 2:It. It solidifies the fact that, as a responsible gun owner, as someone who knows her mental health and things like that, I will continue to carry. I will carry when I need to. I will carry when I don't think I need to. I will carry. If it makes you uncomfortable, I don't give a shit because when it comes down to it, the difference between stopping a bad guy with a gun is it's a good guy with a gun, whether it be police, whether it be a law-abiding citizen that you know is carrying and knows what they're doing. But I'm asking people if you're going to carry, know what you're doing right because I don't want some you know john wayne to come in and go.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll get this partner and start shooting into people. You know a crowd of people trying to get the bad guy when they don't know what the hell they're doing. Right, and then carry.
Speaker 1:Be responsible, know what you're doing, take the classes, take the time you know, go to the gun range, be comfortable with it and if you're not, don't carry, yeah, and, and we're running out of time now and we're we're going to end this podcast here in just a few minutes, but, uh, I just want to reiterate we are not experts in this field. We were asked our opinion. We're giving you our opinion and telling you how we feel. Um, I've always said, just because you carry doesn't mean you ever shoot. I have never pulled my gun. Uh, I would only pull my gun in a life and death situation. I would never fling it around just to scare somebody. You know that's irresponsible and that just shows the lack of you know training as it relates to weapons.
Speaker 1:But, that's a whole different show, that's a whole different discussion. But we just we really wanted to talk about this because it was brought to our attention. Now you know how we feel. You know we would never advocate. You know, even though we do carry, we would never advocate pulling that gun, because we know that if we're going to pull it, we're going to use it.
Speaker 2:And so, therefore, we don't advocate violence.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not. Look how much we tried to avoid it. After this whole thing happened, and we tried to avoid the hate, all we said was we feel grateful, we feel, you know, we love our kids and grandkids and we love the kids in the community and we want them protected. That's all we want. And so, anyway, bobby, I think we've probably bled that one dry.
Speaker 2:I think we have, and that's all the insanity that we do have for today. So we appreciate you joining us, not here at the Rabbit Hole Studios. We'll call it the Rabbit Run Studios. There we go, be sure you joining us, not here at the Rabbit Hole Studios.
Speaker 1:We'll call it the Rabbit Run.
Speaker 2:Studios. There we go. Be sure to follow us. We look forward to spending time with you each and every week. Please like us, and if you have positive feedback for us or if there's a topic that you want us to talk about, drop us an email at boomerangenexor at gmailcom. If you have hate mail, well you know where you can put that. So until next week, I'm bobby joy and I'm jane burke and you're stuck with us hey, that was a little off.
Speaker 1:Let's try that again bobby and you're stuck with us.
Speaker 3:Oh, we can't even get it right, bye-bye for now.
Speaker 1:Later.