For the love of guns

I find little so tantalizing as the sulfuric gunpowder aroma that wafts up the barrel of a freshly-fired rifle. When coupled with downing a peephole-sized silhouette 400-plus meters downrange, it is positively electrifying.

Chest-bumping an M60 as it rapid-fires a spray of 7.62 mike-mikes over an impact area is as mesmerizing as flipping grenades into a foxhole or watching a Claymore's Front Toward Enemy pepper-spray a target to pieces.

Image of soldier live-firing Colt M4 carbine

Yup, I love guns, weaponry, actually, and not merely the firing of them. I lovingly clean them, practice disassembly and assembly of them blind-folded then use them to down targets in an impact area. Yeah, I'm kind of a gun freak in my way. Much of that was born during my time in the military, as I had only sort of fired a shotgun or two prior to signing up.

Having a passion for firearms, however, doesn't mean I believe every American should have access to a tricked out assault weapon with a muzzle velocity of 3,200 fps, a muzzle energy of 2,400 ft lbs. capable of firing 50 rounds a minute.

RIP Chris Kyle: A cautionary tale

In this April 6, 2012, photo, former Navy SEAL and author of the book "American Sniper"
Chris Kyle poses in Midlothian, Texas. (AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Paul Moseley)

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” 

 -- NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre

Via ABC World News, a man is under arrest in connection with the killing of two men at an Erath County, Texas, gun range, police said.

One of the victims is former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle.

Inbound reports from the scene are muddy at the moment, but this much is known: Kyle, a highly-decorated military veteran, was with a neighbor at a Texas shooting range when a gunman with a documented case of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) allegedly gunned down the two men, both presumably among LaPierre's class of "good guys with guns."

It is neither too early to mourn the loss of a fallen brother-in-arms nor too early to start the fight to ensure no others fall at the hands of an armed broken man who should be neither.

In Memoriam: Remembering Hadiya Pendleton, 15

The girl in the video denouncing gun violence is 11. A short four years later, she was gunned down just a week after performing in the inaugural ceremonies for President Obama in Washington, D.C. In a

 Hadiya had just finished her final exams at King Prep High School, where she was a sophomore, and was hanging out with friends from the school's volleyball team when she was gunned down in a park in the 4400 block of South Oakenwald Avenue. Thursday afternoon, police announced the reward for information leading to an arrest in the shooting had increased to $24,000, up from $11,000 announced Wednesday.

As the face of Hadiya joins the list of children massacred by gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary, the National Rifle Association (NRA) led by the clueless and tone-deaf Wayne LaPierre, is assembling its own rogue's gallery of poster children in the defense of massacres.

Meet Christian Philip Oberender (pictured to the right). The NRA wants him to have access to guns. All types of guns. As many as he'd like. At 14, Oberender murdered his mother in a shotgun ambush in the family rec room in 1995.