Sorry. I have respect for the people who really respect and appreciate guns. I don't hunt any longer, but have no problem with that, and I respect the decision to have a gun in your home for self-defense--even though I am not sure it is a good idea.
But what I don't respect is the "gun culture" where owning guns is about bravado and people buy them just to buy them and out of some tribal loyalty to the right wing hatred of government. I am constantly amazed at the right wing wingnuttery raving about everything from Obama as tyrant or comparing him to Hitler. And owning guns is a part of that (though clearly not the only factor). Lanza's mom owned the guns that killed her in order to protect her from some future dystopic economic failure. A dystopia, I would add, that the entire right wing flogs and markets just as they do buying gold or selling MREs. She then failed to secure her weapons from the son she said was unstable, and Sandy Hook happened.
Because for every reasonable person who takes extra precautions with their weapons, there are people like this who take a loaded fucking gun to a gun show and it accidentally discharges.
These are the people you are asking me to trust when you decide that more guns are better. Just as adult Republicans will have to rescue their party from Michelle Bachmann, grownup and sober gun users need to rescue guns from the NRA and the idiots who run it.
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FWIW, the gun culture thinks this guy is an idiot and violated a basic safety rule that a child should know. He has been thoroughly lambasted on every gun forum I have been on. I know that you like to lump all gun owners together, even the ones that are idiots or criminals.
Can you please direct me to some group that is defensive this guy or maybe a gun group or org that encourages unsafe practices.
BTW, gun accidents are at an all time low. For every guy like this, there are thousands of gun owners that never do this stuff.
Steve, I know you are a bright guy. But when it comes to talking about guns, you are a selective reader. " I know that you like to lump all gun owners together, even the ones that are idiots or criminals." I have explicitly said the opposite, and know very well that there are responsible gun owners. You are the one who wants to lump everyone together. You are the one selectively defending assholes like the NRA and then distancing yourself from people like this.
You lose credibility with me when you ignore what I write about Obama's kids and their security. (Oh, and I just read that their school didn't have armed guards.) And you sure as fuck lose credibility when you accuse me of lumping all gun owners together when any reasonable person reading my posts and comments would know otherwise.
Knock it the fuck off. Stop defending people like the NRA and then accusing me of being the unreasonable person. I have told you time and time again what my stance is on responsible gun owners. Hell, I even SAID IT IN THIS FUCKING POST!
"BTW, gun accidents are at an all time low. For every guy like this, there are thousands of gun owners that never do this stuff."
Seriously. I don't even know why I respond to your posts on gun stuff any longer. I have even said about this kind of thing before about responsible gun owners. I am questioning the gun culture that worships guns--and by the way that you decry. Yet here, you defend them and attack me. You talk about reasonable discussion about guns then defend the NRA repeatedly.
Seriously?
I apologize for my tone last night. I was very frustrated. I still am. I think you confuse my use of the term "gun culture" badly, and I think that when speaking on gun issues, you get very defensive. Perhaps that is understandable. Not only are you philosophically wedded to the second amendment, but you are one of those responsible gun owners who fears (with some justification) that you will be lumped in with the nutjobs when they do bad things.
I get that, but all along, I have tried very hard to distinguish between the two. I grew up shooting. I was a junior member of the NRA, and the discussion in my home and in my NRA newsletters was only peripherally about second amendment rights and was primarily about hunter's safety and gun safety.
My fear (and there is at least some anecdotal evidence to support this) is that the NRA and their type have morphed into a quasi-militia that is threatening violent revolution if anyone dares regulate guns. They, and I think this is clear, flog a dystopic vision of the American state and equate a safety net and healthcare with some kind of Soviet style totalitarian government. That isn't true, and you and I both know that, but we also know that the Glen Beck's of this world use that vision to sell books and radio time. And many of those too dumb to not see that Glen Beck is crazy and stupid will go out and buy guns because they see that as a way to identify with that tribe.
That is exactly what this post was about. Not that responsible gun owners are the threat to us, but that the fringe is being urged to build arsenals to fight against the imposition of the goddamned healthcare act, and possibly even gay marriage. Jesus Christ.
So, by urging every wingnut with a chip on their shoulder to arm themselves, we get more of the irresponsible types. But you can see the problem here. The responsible ones who assert that the second amendment supersedes all other rights are contributing to this. They can't suggest that we filter or address that gun culture, because to do so would be to go against that philosophy.
So to be clear, when I talk gun culture, I am talking about militia types who talk often about armed revolution. I am talking about people who have Rambo fantasies about taking on a whole team of terrorists by themselves. I am talking about people who value guns more than they value people.
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