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A weapon ain't dangerous...
I'm going to go out on a limb and say, it's not a weapon until it is used in a manner to be construed as one. To me, they are tools for various applications but, can be turned into a deadly weapon by a person/persons trained and schooled in their use. Even those who are untrained for that matter.:s0112:
 
I've always felt two things when I engage in friendly debates with liberal anti-gun acquaintances (extended family, former co-workers, friends of friends). I do that, by the way, in a peaceful, non-antagonistic manner, hoping to maybe help them reflect upon the real issue - beyond partisan loyalty.

A sense of encouragement:
Hearing them admit, "Well, I'd like to get one for protection." That almost shows me a glimmer of hope - at least on that particular point. Of course, I realize they probably don't know squat about guns, and would require training and practice to become even marginally safe/proficient. And I would happily provide that, at the range, not in paragraph-3 of some CNN-esque anti-gun propaganda (like that douchebag who reported he "got PTSD from firing an AR-15" once). Why? Because the Pollyanna (naïve) misconception that simply having a weapon in the house establishes a magical forcefield of safety around good people who deserve to be protected is RIDICULOUS. Regardless, it's a good to hear them acknowledge the potential usefulness of a tool that might repel an oxygen bandit bent upon destroying their lives/well-being.

A profound sense of sadness over their abject hypocrisy:
Any positive feeling I might get (above) is tempered with the disappointing realization that they will probably never act upon that fleeting notion, and never become - "A Gun Owner." Hell, even if they did, they would still vote to ban everything for everyone else, thinking, "I've got mine. And I'm smart and reasonable, not like those criminals I read about in the Oregonian. So since I have mine, F__ the rest of them because they're not smart and reasonable like I am." Circular, self-serving "I feel good about my civil consciousness" logic that makes me weep in sorrow.

It is my fingers-crossed hope that some of these myopic voters might think twice (or perhaps just once) and realize that guns themselves are not the problem. And they (plus all of their fellow liberal, pro-government, pro-regulations anti-gunners) are not the only "reasonable" people out there.

Like I said, fingers crossed.
 
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I'm going to go out on a limb and say, it's not a weapon until it is used in a manner to be construed as one. To me, they are tools for various applications but, can be turned into a deadly weapon by a person/persons trained and schooled in their use. Even those who are untrained for that matter.:s0112:


^^^THIS IS TRUE^^^

I was once Dad's benchrest when he used a 22lr to shoot a branch up in a tree in order to free my kite.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say, it's not a weapon until it is used in a manner to be construed as one. To me, they are tools for various applications but, can be turned into a deadly weapon by a person/persons trained and schooled in their use. Even those who are untrained for that matter.:s0112:
Maybe Prozanski and Burdick can push "left-gislation" requiring citizens to keep fire extinguishers locked up in safes too.
 
I can sort of understand this; I grew up in a anti-gun lib family with parents who detested guns. After I moved moved out, maybe 10 years later I unwound all of the parenting in this area, and all of the media rhetoric about guns.

I went from an anti-gun upbringing to more of a Libertarian world view. As a side benefit of opening my worldview; I'm much more successful in my professional life, and family life (I actually have one now).

One of the best things (perhaps the number 1) I found out about becoming a firearms owner is meeting plenty of great folks who have guns, and enjoy them. The media would have us to think they are backwards, and dangerous people... certainly my parent(s) painted people in a bad light.

My folks were raised in Yankee country, CT, during the Great Depression. They were used to the utility of firearms. But when I asked Dad about getting a BB gun, he said he didn't want me to have one because I would get into trouble with it. He then mentioned that if I wanted a .22 like my friends, I couldn't have one "because people that live in a suburban S. Calif area don't need them" and that it wouldn't be appropriate since we weren't going to be allowed to hunt rabbits, etc in such an area. His best friend hunted pheasants in Central Calif, but dad only went with him once.

I bought my first firearm as soon as I could. My parents left me in our trailer home to go back to work in NE when I was 17, but I couldn't legally buy one on my own until I was 18. My first was a Remington Model 31 Trap pump shotgun that I bought because I saw it in the window of a pawn shop. I went back the next paycheck and bought an Ithaca Model 37 Deerslayer. Great first guns


Let me know if you come across small pistol primers :)

I have an entire case of them. And large pistol primers. And small rifle primers. And so on...

You can't have them!!! :p;):D
 
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833 word essay about why he believes guns are dangerous and the justification for changing his mind, and not one word about how he intends to ensure his firearm is safe and not one word about how he intends to train himself. Nothing about buying a safe or how he intends to store it, nothing about discussing gun safety with family, nothing about training. Michigan closed ranges on March 18th. This was published April 4, but hard to say when this was written, and with background check times the origin date becomes grayer. Arguably, the author - concerned about murder and suicide rates - purchased the firearm readily knowing he would not be able to properly train or legally fire the gun (within reason).

Sometimes I wonder about the "converts" and how they actually intend to utilize the firearm. They focus so heavily on death statistics and completely negate the relationship they personally have with pulling the trigger and the consequence it will have. Many hunters learn this as a youngster with the first kill. I am an empath at heart, but I question how likely these people will be to actually utilize the gun as murder rate statistic flash before their eyes. I know I'm conflating two separate issues, but it seems to me the anti-gun people I know (a lot of them in Portland) and the converts I know regularly contradict themselves on the "danger" of the weapon and what owning a weapon for "self defense" actually means.
 
I read this article yesterday. Much like everyone else, I didn't care for it. The guy does sound like a future "I'm a gun a owner, but..." type of dude.

That said... A LOT of people have been buying guns lately. Last article I'd seen (would've been a week or two ago) said background checks were up by something like 85%. Anecdotally, I'd heard from gun shop proprietors that the vast majority of this is first-time gun owners because most "gun people" pretty much already got what they needed when prices and availability were good.

Many will no doubt be like the guy who wrote the article. Many will be quick to sell once a sense of normalcy returns and act like nothing ever happened. Maybe they'll even virtue-signal by taking their gun to the police station for destruction for brownie points from the like-minded.

But I suspect, at least a few maybe will have learned their lesson and learned to think about the issue in a way that couldn't have been achieved by discussion or debate.

These buyers might be of a different sort than previous panic buyers. Before, gun panic buying has been "better buy this before it gets banned" ...but most anti-gunners would not have done that. They would not have cared if AR's got banned; it's what they wanted. Their thinking was, "I don't have one, and hopefully soon you won't be able to either!" It was mostly the "gun people" doing the panic buying.

This time, we have people that were never interested in guns or actually against gun ownership. Maybe some will get the hint. It's not like gun rights supporters are born that way, people's minds do change. Maybe not the guy who wrote the article but likely others.
 
We've had panics before, we've all lived through them. This one is entirely unique though, due to the volume of first-timers and, more specifically, antis.

I'll not enumerate the looong list of various psychoses and character defects that I believe are possessed by the most virulent opponents of civilian gun ownership... this is not an insult-post (also, the list is LONG).

But I do wonder how that smug superiority and pontificating self-satisfaction will figure into the number of non-criminal deaths and injuries. I also wonder how it will play in criminal cases...?

Being the smartest cat in the room means there is no one who can tell you anything you don't already know. If a bunch of hillbillies and rednecks can figure this out, surely those who sport a more evolved intellect will have no problem at all...
right...?
 
"I live a pretty privileged existence. My family lives in one of the most affluent communities in Michigan. Everyone in the neighborhood leaves their doors open with bikes on the front lawn. Rarely do we worry about anything being stolen, let alone violent crime. I wasn't born with this privilege, but worked really hard to get where I am.

Circumstances shape people's understanding of the world, and my situation highly influenced my views on gun ownership. There was no argument, be it constitutional, personal protection, safety, hunting, or anything else that would change my mind and stop me from logically deconstructing your argument."


This tells everything one needs to know about this precious little snowflake.
 
Who knows if this is a made up BS story. I do hope if it is true the guy gets properly trained and has proper storage so his or his neighbors kids cant get hold of the gun.

The guy probably thinks all he has to do is hold it up and kinda point it at the bad guy and the bad guy will run away.

People like this guy are the kind of people who might should not be gun owners?

After my doubts have been expressed above, at least there seems to be a crack forming in his lib-tardian views . Remember cracks usually do get larger over time.

Also remember libtards like this do convert, there are many thousands every year. I listen to Limbaugh and many of these people call his show and confess how, over time, their views have changed specially after they leave the "nest" and experience the real world.

My sister is a perfect example of this. My mom never talked to me about politics and she was dumbfounded gobsmaked etc that I told her I was a republican about the time I learned to drive. We had many arguments after that resulting in not talking to one another for weeks, even months. So mom decided she was not going to make the same mistake with little sis that she did with me and she pounded those dem views into my sister because she was still living at home and mom could tell her what ever she wanted.

Jump ahead 30 + years, little sister went to school, became a doctor and found out what the real world is/was all about and left the libtard BS far behind. She has been a solid republican for the last 20 yrs or so. Married a conservative guy and yes they have plenty of guns.

So this guy in this story could be true and maybe he has started his conversion and the mindset necessary to start the transformation started with the realization he was actually responsible for his and his families security. When you need a cop they are always minutes away via 911 but the bad guy is right there standing in front of you so the cops, they are just the clean up crew.

True lib thinking ALWAYS finds ways to rationalize this away. When logic finally finds a way into that lib brain, like a virus, it's not going away and indeed often results in further logical thinking. This is how the transformation starts.

Never met a TRUE lib/lefty that would have an argument based on logic, logic is the true enemy of the left. Once any human truly accepts that logic rules the world and also rules his/her existence the leftist views slowly drain away because they are truly based on lies and fallacy.

All this stuff is why I never shy away from talking to libs and interacting with them in every way possible.

Just like women are ruled by emotion and once you figure that out, you can make a lot of ground on why they act like they do, same applies to libs. So you can unravel their views if you can get them to accept some truth/logic, then accept some more your on your way to a conversion.

The true enemies are the leaders of the left, they are confirmed lairs and worse. The rank and file libs are just clueless rubs waiting for an infusion of logic. I give that to them every chance I get. So should you. Maybe the guy in the story just got his first taste of truth and logic and his first knee jerk reaction was GUN!, I gotta get me a GUN..... I just hope his friends take him all the way and properly prepare him for the realities and steps needed next.

We know what those are, libs like this guy have no clue. He is now MORE dangerous if he don't get trained and schooled on how to handle the situation when he needs that gun.
 
Circumstances shape people's understanding of the world,
Yeah, if you're a sequestered closet-case.
Some people actually take the time to seek out other people's opinions, consider history, and view the world from other points of view instead of just assuming that the entire world is as cloistered and safe as you are.

Penthouse Bolshevik.

Nerf your own world...
 
The first step in a conversion is to admit three simple words: "I Was Wrong." There's not a lick of that humility here; and I started from a similar position as this guy has.

It's like that thing about "confess your sins and be forgiven," you cannot make right if you cannot or will not first recognize that you have done wrong.
 
damnit. I read it again so I could tell my wife about while get re-irritated again. Holy crap, that's the most frustrating thing I've read in a bit.
 
In light of my recent rant in the SB941 thread, I have extraordinaily little patience for these people right now.

Yeah, yeah... be nice to the noobs, I know.

Just stay away from me, nimrod... Im not in the mood to be magnanimous.
I hear you buddy but don't worry he'll be easy to spot, I'm sure he's still sporting the "man bun" and drinks his coffe with two hands.
 

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