This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The morning after the Colorado theater shooting, I took my kids to the Draper Days festival. Among the scores of vendors spread throughout Draper City Park, the booth closest to the inflatable kiddie rides was selling AirSoft BB guns.
The guns are full-size replicas of machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles and shotguns. Some models are fully automatic, with high-capacity clips. With the exception of a small orange tip at the end of the barrel, the only sure-fire way to distinguish an AirSoft gun from the real thing is to get shot by one.
The next day we attended the Draper parade. One of the entries was a tactical weapons dealer. I Googled the company on my phone and the first image that came up on its site was of an ominous face in a gas mask, shrouded in darkness. On a normal day it would have been unsettling; less than 48 hours after Colorado, it was chilling.
Talk about a slippery slope. We have slid all the way down it and into an unseemly relationship with guns. We've turned guns into toys, into official state symbols, and into parade floats that roll down the street behind the marching band. Today you buy a toy machine gun next to the bounce house, tomorrow you pick up a real one down at your friendly neighborhood tactical weapons shop.
You don't have to be in a drum circle to find this appalling. I am a gun owner. I am not anti-gun. I am anti-gun culture. I am anti-gun worship. I'm against peddling guns to kids and using kids to peddle guns. I am against the pervasive view that violence is an innocuous form of children's entertainment. I do not pretend that violent toys, violent games and violent images are totally unrelated to violent acts.
Guns have their place, and there are places that should not have guns. And I'm tired of the lunatic fringe having the only voice in the gun debate. While I hope that rational, moderate gun owners will make themselves heard, I can only speak for myself. My modest declaration:
My guns are not sacred.
The Second Amendment is not scripture.
I don't believe I should have the right to take guns wherever I want, whenever I want.
Many types of guns shouldn't be available to me or anyone else.
I support the Brady Act, a ban on assault weapons and any measure that would make gun storage safer.
The NRA doesn't speak for me.
My cold, dead hands will not have a gun in them.
Brett Hullinger is a freelance writer in Draper.