John Dingell, 86-year-old "dean" of the U.S. House, holds a walking cane far more often than a hunting rifle these days. But experience with long guns since childhood shapes his views on the handgun control debate, shared in a New York Times op-ed commentary.
"No one wants to live in a country where innocent children are killed indiscriminately," the Democrat from Dearborn says in an essay with James Baker, a Republican former secretary of state (1989-92) under the first President Bush. It's headlined "Bipartisan Hunting Buddies."
Since we were boys, some of our best times have come with rifles or shotguns in our hands, especially when hunting with our fathers. . . . As adults, we have hunted together, using our common bond to bridge our differences. . . .
The harsh truth is that too many Americans are dying from gun-related shootings -- more than 30,000 each year and more than one million since 1960. . . . Each of us should look into our own heart to consider what type of nation we want to be.
Dingell and Baker see a need to "let common sense prevail" over reflexive objections to stronger background checks, a ban on armor-piercing bullets and restricting high-capacity magazines.
We must get away from a mind-set that has owners of firearms worried that “they are going to take our guns away.” The Second Amendment guarantees that won’t happen. Our nation has regulated various kinds of arms throughout history, and done so without violating the Second Amendment. We have, for example, restricted ownership of fully automatic weapons and grenade launchers.
Dingell, who recalls hunting "small game along the banks of the Detroit River and Lake Erie," joins his Texas friend in extolling the value for youngsters and teens of family time outdoors rather than "alone playing shoot-’em-up video games."
