Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 
The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 
The firearms I imagine. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (better known as the Nuclear Police) were the only regularly armed police in the UK until the Met decided to go for the "armed bully boys with shaved heads" look on a regular basis.
Yeah well I just don't get how some can be not scared of electricity yet they are of firearms. 
Arse about IMHO.
Well, the express purpose of firearms is to kill, either for hunting or warfare. That folks like you and me use them as long distance paper punches as a form of peaceful sport has itself evolved from the need to train people to use them in warfare. The British government used to promote target shooting as a sport to have a ready supply of proficient rifleman handy in case of hostilities. Everybody is aware that a firearm is a weapon, and a weapon that one is unlikely to defend oneself from without having one oneself and being proficient in its use. One has an innate understanding that a firearm is more dangerous than a fist, rock, stick, knife or sword.
You have to put this into a context.
You do.
Despite your well written piece with some of it now snipped, to us your view and that of many more including legislating Gubbermints to far to simplistic and to a large degree influenced by all the bad press about firearms and what some nutters get up to with them.
To us they are just tools, nothing more nothing less and like with any tool some of them will give a bad result if used incorrectly.
They let us solve problems in a safe and efficient manner such as the dispatch of some poor injured beast when use of a knife or spear would be dangerous and inhumane.
Dealing with large critters takes somewhat more than a pea shooter such as mercy dispatch of stranded whales where only the larger bores able to be used by man can do such tasks efficiently.
A very good friend wrote a white paper on such dealings decades ago which is still the reference document in use here today.
Such are the decades of bad press we have set up a quite nice private facility where we and invited guests can scratch our itchy forefingers and polish our abilities and expose the community to safe and controlled use of tools used in all manner of legitimate sporting pursuits.
It truly saddens us that firearms get such a bad wrap .............
I'm a little disappointed that you snipped the context, which describes exactly why people like specmaster, faced with a firearm, get all antsy. In the context of where you are, in farming, a shotgun leaning in the corner is normal. If Farmer Giles is also a decent shot (rare) perhaps also a small bore rifle for pest control/rabbit stew and a full bore rifle if there's deer to be managed (In the UK it is illegal to hunt deer or use firearms to euthanise them unless you are using ammunition of a adequately large calibre and power to ensure a clean humane kill) .
I'll bet specmaster doesn't get antsy if he visits Farmer Giles and sees a shotgun in the corner of the kitchen. There's a world of difference between a friendly cuppa with the farmer's wife while a 12 gauge gently does the firearm equivalent of snoring in front of the fireplace and pulling up to a big gate to be eyed up suspiciously by two blokes carrying submachine guns at port-arms while another one says "papers please". Context is everything when it comes to how people react.
Yes, a firearm is just a tool, but whereas a hammer is just a tool and also a very lethal weapon should it be put to that purpose, a firearm is always going to be perceived as a weapon first and a tool second by most people because 'weapon' is a quintessential part of its nature. Don't expect the ignorant to see past that barrier of 'weapon' without a lot of education.
On the politics side, it's just a cynical "easy to get almost everyone on your side" ploy if you make a fuss about firearms, with very little risk of serious political comeback. If you were raised, as I was, by a professional killer trained to recognise the weapons potential of any object (which is a nasty way of saying "former Sergeant in the commandos who had responsibilities for unarmed combat training"), then the humble ballpoint pen is a nasty weapon. Somehow I don't see the politicians going on the warpath again ballpoint pens the next time one is used to seriously injure or kill someone (Until the prison service cottoned on and started issuing floppy ballpoint pens, there were several stabbings a year using one as a weapon in British prisons).
But non criminal idiots don't accidentally kill themselves or others with a ballpoint pen!
I do get "antsy"when I see a shotgun just propped up in the kitchen, just as I do when I see Mains wiring done by someone who has obviously no idea how to do so.
Guns are tools, indeed, but dangerous ones, & deserve respect, just as much as a bandsaw or an oxy-acetylene welding set.
Cops with a sidearm, armoured car guards buying a Lotto ticket or whatever at the Shopping centre, or a farmer using it for necessary work don't bother me at all, as they know what they are about.
When I was a kid, every year or so, we would have stories in the paper about kids shooting themselves, a sibling, or a playmate with 0.22 rifles carelessly put away loaded "on top of the wardrobe".
My Dad was never big on guns, as he spent too much time carrying one in WW1, "shooting at other poor, silly buggers who were shooting at him".
My Uncle & Grandad had guns, & they where reachable, but they were scrupulous in remembering to unload them after use.
I was also told, in no uncertain terms, "hands off!" unless under supervision.
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