Reply #225: Firearms and pit bills in the hands of responsible owners ...

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present few problems. I personally have never owned a pit bull but my son in law and daughter have. Their pit bull was extremely gentle and well behaved but was still an excellent watch dog.

Where I currently live in North Florida, pit bull dogs are very common and all that I have encountered are extremely well trained. Yes, just about every person I know here owns firearms as hunting is very common in this area. Deer and wild hog are plentiful and when prepared properly are as tasty as store bought meat and a lot cheaper. When I lived in Tampa before I retired, I encountered a lot of aggressive and poorly trained pit bull dogs when I was walking my Norwegian Elkhound or my Black Labrador on a leash. Far too many people had bought pit bulls to defend their property and lacked the ability to handle one.

It's never a good idea for an irresponsible person who is unwilling to learn gun safety to own a firearm, nor is it a good idea for an irresponsible person who lacks the commonsense or the ability to train a pit bull to own this breed of dog. If you own a firearm you need to know firearm safety and if you lack training, you need to take a firearm safety course. If you can't train your own dog (and a pit bull is a challenging dog to train), you can often take the dog to a trainer or a training school.

Firearms are not for everybody nor are pit bulls. In the hands of the wrong owner, both can be dangerous.

However, just because some people can't handle the responsibility of owning such items is no reason to ban these items from those who are.