Gun owners fear new legislation could tread on their rights

By Halimah Abdullah and Allison Brennan, CNN

December 21, 2012 -- Updated 1303 GMT (2103 HKT)

NRA promises 'meaningful contribution'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Gun owners have walked a careful line in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings
• Gun sales are up across the country in anticipation of possible gun-control legislation
• Some gun owners part with the NRA on policies, calling its recent announcement "garbage"
• Taking away Second Amendment rights, some gun owners say, can lead to tyranny

Washington (CNN) -- Lou Klein, 64, shot his first gun when he was 11.

"My dad bought me a single-shot .22 rifle at an Ace Hardware store in Chicago for $19.95," Klein remembered. "I used to take that gun on the bus when I was 11 years old and go down to the shooting range. You couldn't do that now; you would have the FBI on you."

Those bus trips to the firing range started a lifelong passion for the Vietnam veteran and lifetime National Rifle Association member and recruiter who owns Lou's Sporting Goods in Bowie, Maryland.

His shop sells everything from handguns to AR-15 semi-automatic rifles -- the military-style weapon used in several mass shootings, including the one last week in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed 28 lives, including 20 children, their principal, the shooter's mother and gunman Adam Lanza, who took his own life.

Klein's business is booming. And like many gun owners, he said he doesn't think limiting firearms will prevent another massacre.

"Gun control is not the answer; it's about education and about responsibility," said Klein, who supports background checks, a waiting period, gun safety courses and mental health screening.

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Klein and millions of other small-town gun shop owners, hunters, housewives, former police officers and just plain everyday folks who proudly defend their right to bear arms have walked a tenuous line in the week following the Newtown shootings.

They've tried to balance responding to the nation's grief and horror at a crime that ended so many young lives, while worrying about what gun rights advocates see as a threat of knee-jerk legislation that could tread on their constitutional rights.Florida

"I believe the Second Amendment provided that the average American citizen should have the same rights to armaments as the military. But do I want my next-door nut job neighbor to have a bazooka? No," said Noel Flasterstein, a Florida attorney and gun rights advocate.

Mike Zammitti, a young gun owner in New England, agrees.

Zammitti, 22, lives in Boylston, Massachusetts, and has three guns -- a .22 rifle, a .25-caliber pocket pistol and a .22 Luger handgun. He also is a Class-A license holder, which allows him to "conceal and carry" his guns with him. But that doesn't mean that he does it.