Pictures!

I finally(!) got around to selecting some pictures to put online.  Man it's been a long time.

Back in January we took a family trip to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  I think the dolphin show was everyone's favorite.

Coming back from the Shedd, we stopped in Milwaukee to pick up Jack's new puppy, Annie.  Jack had her for a trial period before figuring out that he wasn't home with Annie enough time to really take care of her well.  So he doesn't have her anymore.  She was cutie though.

Winter was winter.  It wasn't too bad.  We had a few cold snaps, but mostly the temperature stayed above zero.

Tabby decided the space under our neighbor's pine tree was her snow fort.

On Sam's 19th birthday we met at Jack's place in Sheboygan for games and cake.  Taylor Chadderdon joined us, since she was living in Sheboygan at the time for an internship at Kohler company.

Jack still had Annie at the time and she was still a hit.

We went to Jack's place for Easter, too.  Took a family picture.

Becky went to Michigan to take engagement photos for Amanda and her fiance, Chris.

This picture cracks me up.  I mean I get it.  He's a cop, she's caught him.  But you know, a picture a thousand words, marriage, handcuffs.  The picture makes me laugh.

While Becky was there she got some cool winter lake pictures.

And some fun family pictures, like this one of Amanda's son, Axel, with his great grandma Chadderdon.

Spring finally arrived!  We had some rabbits living in our neighborhood.  Tabby actually got to pet one that was young enough that it hadn't yet figured out it should run from everything.

We took an outing to the Barkhausen water fowl preserve just north of Green Bay.  There were so many turtles out sunning themselves.

Tabby brought one of her best friends, Amber.

Chris is from New York.  Becky and Tabby went out there for the wedding and had a great time in the city.

And at the beach.

And somewhere on the trip back.

Becky has got some great early summer pictures here in Green Bay.

Becky and I spent our anniversary (24 years!) in Chicago.

The Field Museum had a display on the first emperor of China.  There was a special display of his Terracotta Warriors.

We wandered through Chicago's Blues Fest.

We wandered a lot up and down Grant Park and its neighborhood.

We found a flu bug. LOL.

Tabby stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Chadderdon's place in Wisconsin Rapids while we were in Chicago.  When we got back and went to pick her up we had a nice afternoon with them at Lake Wazeecha.

Thoughts on Firearms in the Aftermath of the Pulse Shootings

I have a friend who posted the following on Facebook:

I imagine the conversation would go more like

Liberal: We should ban *assault* weapons.
Conservative: There is no such thing.
End of civil discussion.

That's a problem.  I mean, I think the vast majority of us agree on the extremes.  Like, (1) maybe we can agree it's okay to own a rifle for hunting or recreational shooting, and (2) maybe we can agree private citizens shouldn't be able to purchase machine guns. Between the extremes, it's just a matter of drawing lines.  What level of lethality should be legal?  It's hard to get anywhere in that debate when we can't even agree on what to call the line.  Or even worse, we dig in our heels and think the others stupid for disagreeing with us.

Personally, I think the line should be closer to the less lethal extreme than the more lethal.  As in, I'd like to see more regulations.  I think you should need a license to own a firearm, getting a license should require a background check and when you purchase a firearm you should be required to register it.  You should be required to store it securely and separately from its ammo.

I think we should ban the sale of assault weapons.  I realize that is not a technical firearm term ... but it can be given a legal definition.  Contrary to the NRA bluster about "banning guns because they look scary", the Brady Bill actually did a good job of defining "assault weapon".  It identified parts of a firearm that are designed to help it shoot more targets, more quickly and more accurately.  If any given firearm, no matter what it's marketed as, had a certain number of those qualities, it was an assault weapon as defined by law. Not because it "looked scary", but because it was designed to be more deadly.

I don't like that we can carry firearms around in public.  Accidents happen.  People execute poor judgement.  It's not that I object to someone having a gun on hand when a murderer shows up at the bar.  I object to people bringing guns there every other night.  I mean, look at the context of a bar; patrons are engaged in highly emotional, high stake, alcohol infused mating rituals.  I believe it's perfectly reasonable to ask bar-going folks to leave their guns at home.

But even not talking about bars, I don't feel safer knowing the people around me have guns.  At the store, I don't know most of the people walking through the aisles with me.  Probably they're mentally stable, probably they'll execute sound judgement, probably their firearm will not discharge accidentally.  But if their gun was at home there would be a 0% chance that their mental state or judgement or stupid accident would get someone in the store shot.  It may be that carrying a gun around in public, the chance of an incident is very small, but it's greater than zero.  And greater than zero is significantly different from zero.

I don't actually dislike guns.  I've been shooting.  It was fun.  I didn't enjoy it so much that I'm willing to spend much money on it to buy my own guns or do it very often.  But I understand why someone would enjoy it.  I don't object to gun ownership, but I think it would be reasonable to regulate it more than we do.

However, while I do believe that stricter regulations would decrease the number of killings in the USA, and that's worthwhile, I also believe more regulation just treats the symptoms of our real problem.  The real problem America has with guns is our attitude.  We actually believe they are a legitimate way to deal with crime.  We think it's okay to kill or threaten to kill someone who is stealing our property.  We think showing someone that we have a gun will diffuse a potentially violent situation.  We think there is so much violent crime that we need guns to protect ourselves.  At least, given the state of gun laws in our country, those seem to be the majority opinions.  I think that's a shame.