As a former
active duty Marine (and Marine for life), David Mauk, 23, has seen both sides
of the issue. He was deployed in Afghanistan from late 2010 to early 2011. By
maintaining a high moral ground, he and his unit were able to earn the trust of
the local Afghans. “We did it by removing the improvised explosive devices
(IEDs) from the path of villagers, even though we risked our lives to do it.”
David had witnessed
an Afghan child who had struck an IED that shattered his legs. He had seen firsthand
the work of cruel men and knew that, whatever the politics and issues, his job
was to try to make the village safe for the teeming children. He and his unit
did it with honor, integrity and respect for the local culture and customs.
The
experience in Afghanistan taught him that saving the lives of children was
among the noblest of callings. That’s why he was so traumatized by the killing
of twenty children in Newtown. At the same time, “guns are an
important part of my life and culture. They have many good uses, such as
hunting, as in my home state of Missouri. Hunting keeps the deer population
from overbreeding and destroying valuable farmland.”
Unfortunately, not everyone has the
character, training, and responsibility to use a gun in its proper context. David
has seen far too many instances where criminals and mentally-disturbed
individuals use them for evil purposes.
His proposal to fix the violent gun culture
in America consists of the following:
-
Completely ban military
style or rapid fire weapons and magazines. No one outside law enforcement or
military needs such power. Assault weapons are NOT effective hunting weapons. They
are meant only to kill people. We don't need them.
-
Require stricter screening before
allowing the purchase of firearms.
-
Require regular training and
evaluation administered by qualified law enforcement personnel.
-
Require a more accurate
system of licensing gun ownership, much the same way that a concealed carry
license works.
-
Require ammunition to be
regulated at least as closely as, say, alcohol. Ammunition is the real key. Different
types of ammunition and quantities of it would indicate what it would be used
for.
-
Finally, require gun owners
affiliate with the militia, as the Second amendment intended, and then rein in
the militias to fulfill the intended purpose of arming and educating citizens
for the good of society. As it stands now, militias are breeding grounds for
conspiracy theorists, anti-government extremists, and other threats to the free
and secure society we seek to create in America.
David has just begun his college career. He is
a student at San Jose City College. In his first semester, he is taking courses
in English, Chemistry and Math. He wants to be a park ranger for the U.S.
Forest Service or the National Parks Service because “I love the outdoors and
want to educate people about the world they live in. People invested their time
in me to develop a love for the outdoors. I want to pass it on.”
David never went hunting in Missouri because
he couldn’t afford all the equipment. He did, however, work with a conservation
department at an animal rehabilitation center, where he learned that much of a
conservationist’s job was to keep the animal population in check. “It is a fact
of nature that animals hunt and kill each other. Sadly, because we hunted the
predators to near extinction, the job now falls upon us. I have never been
comfortable with this cruel fact, but at least I understand it. What I cannot
accept is how easily high-powered guns can be bought in America. In particular, close-range assault
rifles - preferred by criminals and mentally-ill people because they are so obscenely
easy to use - are meant only to kill people. Why we allow people to buy them is
beyond me.”
“I fought for this country so that we could
have peace and freedom, not so I could come home to see people killing each
other. In Afghanistan, my mission was to protect the civilians and neutralize violent
radicals so that the Afghans might have a safe place to bring up their children.
My mission is turned into a mockery when I come home to find disturbed
individuals murdering children with military weapons.”
