Who says talking gun control at Thanksgiving can't be fun?
courtesy recorder.com

If you’re like me, you probably don’t have that many gun-ban advocates in your family. And the ones that lean in that direction likely aren’t quick to bring it up at rare family social occasions.

In fact, with three generations of concealed carry practitioners gathered around the family table for Thanksgiving dinner, my family’s celebration of thanks is likely the most dangerous place a deranged individual could choose to attack. ’Nuff said.

Polite families typically don’t talk politics during holiday meals, especially a holiday set aside to give thanks for our many blessings. But the folks at Everytown for Gun Safety are once again rallying the arguers, encouraging anti-gun advocates to engage in a verbal battle with their pro-gun family members over turkey and dressing (showing what truly crap people they are for wanting to foment discord at a time people should be putting differences aside and trying to get along and show “thanks.”)

In a November 21 post titled “Debunking Gun Myths at the Dinner Table,” the organization claims to have developed a series of graphics to help their supporters “fork over facts” to their redneck family members. In fact, the graphics provide a plethora of lies and misinformation for supporters to make fools out of themselves this Thanksgiving.

Let’s look at a handful of their “myths” and corresponding “facts.”

Myth: Criminals will always find a way to get their hands on a gun.

Everytown (So-Called) Fact: Laws like background checks stop gun sales to criminals every day.

The Real Truth: Most criminals buy their guns on the street, get them from fellow gang members or steal them, not acquire them from a licensed gun dealer. Those who are stopped by background checks should be charged with a federal felony instead of simply going and buying a gun from another criminal.

Myth: Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

Everytown “Fact”: People with guns kill people, and more efficiently than people without guns. 

The Real Truth: A gun is an inanimate object. While people with guns might kill people more efficiently, guns absolutely do not kill people without someone aiming them and pressing the trigger. Guns also save a lot of people who need to defend themselves including the elderly against younger, more able-bodied attackers and domestic violence victims against typically larger and more-able bodied abusers.

Myth: Strong gun laws don’t work, look at Chicago.

Everytown “Fact”: Chicago proves why we must push for strong federal gun laws. 

The Real Truth: Strong gun laws don’t work, look at Chicago.

Myth: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Everytown “Fact”: If more guns everywhere made us safer, America would be the safest country on earth.

The Real Truth: Good guys with privately owned guns stop hundreds of thousands of bad guys with guns every year, saving countless lives. If good guys with guns didn’t stop bad guys with guns, why would police officers be armed?

Myth: Having a gun for self-defense makes individuals and their families safer.

Everytown “Fact”: Guns in the home increase the risk that anyone in the house, including children, will die by firearm suicide or unintentional injuries. 

The Real Truth: Guns in the home save thousands upon thousands of lives every year. If many of those people using guns to protect themselves in their homes would not have had access to a firearm, they and their family members would likely be dead, not celebrating another Thanksgiving.  

Speaking of which, have a Happy Thanksgiving! And try not to find yourself baiting an anti-gun family member into a political conversation—it’s unfair to have a mental battle with an unarmed opponent!

45 COMMENTS

  1. We used to have Thanksgiving at my brothers home where my well off other brother would sometimes come north from Florida. He’s a leftard who lived in Europe(told us he moved back to the US to vote for Obama). But he never preached his left leanings. And gave lavish gift to his nephews & nieces(and us). Now we’re never around weirdo dims save perhaps at the gym. Have a nice Thanksgiving TTAG!

  2. All 40 ish of us voted the same way, and everybody at the table at our family gatherings always ask to see my newest gat, so not much chance for discord about any of this. Now i wont promise therell be no discord lol but it wont be about politics or 2a.

    • Weird generation gap with my family, all the boomer aged are anti gun to some level but everyone under 50 except for one cousin (public school teacher) has some form of firearm if not a moderately sized collection. Seems the inverse should be more common but welcome to failed union towns in the Mid-Atlantic.

  3. The last Thanksgiving family dinner I attended had anti-gun Jerry stabbing pro-gun Tom with a knife.
    Pass the biscuits please.
    Who spilled the Ketchup?

  4. We are going to argue bad. I carry.380 or .45, Uncle Bill carries .357 mag, Uncle Larry carries 9mm, Aunt Sally carries.38 special.

    Not only caliber wars, but semi vs revolver vs 1911

    Going to be lots of fun.

  5. Wait a minute I thought the left was telling people to cut out family that voted for Trump. So, how can they talk about gun control?

    • At this point, I believe the Party of tolerance, acceptance, and understanding is just going through the motions to collect a check.

  6. Thanksgiving has been traditionally held at my parents house. They generally hosted around 20. Dad’s gone. Mom is 95. It’s smaller now. My sister says only ten expected. Anyway, for 25 years, more often than not,
    I showed up in uniform with a 1911 in plain view. If not, I’m in camouflage with a little stag Randall on my belt. The 442 is always in my pocket. The only talk of firearms was in the den after dinner. The conversation generally started with, “I bought a (chose make, model, caliber..) not long ago what do you think? By someone. That’s grounds to mute the game without penalty.

    • “Dad’s gone. Mom is 95.”

      Mom passed about 4 years back, dad just turned 90 and still plays golf 2X a week and does Habitat for Humanity house-building one day a week.

      Men in my family tend to last until their mid-90s, in excellent health.

      Doing the bird with my sister in Orlando tomorrow, with my piece-of-shit nephew of hers. I’m planning on royally pissing off his arrogant ass any way that I can, maybe I’ll make the central Florida news if he motivates me to cap his ass with the LCR in .357… 😉

    • My mom use to bake a big chicken hen. She said turkey was too dry for her liking.
      I dressed in camouflage once and I was ignored as if nobody could see me.

  7. “Could I have more dressing please? But do you really need a Barret? And what for? You are scaring the hell out of the whole family.””

    “I just like it. If it makes you feel better, it’s too expensive to shoot much. Here’s your turkey.”

    “Thanks. That’s good, the new neighbors would have a cow. Did you forget my dressing?”

    “No.”

    “Mom!!!”

  8. The only arguments about guns at our Thanksgiving are about 9mm as 45, 223 vs 308, and the virtues of 338 N9rma is 50 BMG

  9. LOL, there is no argument. Nothing trump’s my civil rights. Guns are not the issue, single parent families are, kids on medication are, and mental illness are all the causes. Address these issues and the rest should fall into place.

  10. Since introducing my 20+ nephew to target shooting, Can’t get a world in edgewise. He talks all about this weekly shooting scores. Talks about his next gun purchase. I feel great for introducing him to the world of guns. My life is complete. Great turkey day conversation.

  11. One of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving is that none of the relatives are anti-gun. While I am a patient man, I would never put up with someone being rude and obnoxious at my dining room table. That would generate an immediate and likely permanent ban from my home. Life is too short to put up with that kind of behavior.

    • Of course Everytown want emotional arguments at Thanksgiving. Because they are joyless individuals who can’t stand the thought of people enjoying themselves. To them your purpose in life is to serve THE STATE in whatever capacity it wants.

      In past lives they were probably performing self-flagellation, and probably do in this life too.

  12. There are far more criminal attacks with other non-firearm ‘weapons’, outnumbering firearms use 1,000:0.5.

    Across the United States daily:

    ~1,200 victims of criminal attacks daily very seriously injured, and some die, because they were attacked and beaten/kicked with hands/feet.

    ~1,800 victims of criminal attacks daily very seriously injured, and some die, because they were attacked and stabbed/slashed with a knife or some other sharpened/pointed ‘weapon’

    ~3,200 victims of criminal attacks daily very seriously injured, and some die, because they were attacked and beaten with a ‘blunt object’ weapon.

    In 2023 (into May 2024), 39% of the women attacked for purposes of sexual assault, were armed with a firearm and successfully employed DGU to defend against the attackers and escaped injury. Of the rest with no firearm, only 2% were able to escape and flee their attackers some with injury but most with no injury, the rest were raped or otherwise seriously injured in the attack and some were killed no matter what other non-firearm weapons or defense strategy they employed (i.e hand/feet, taser, pepper spray, ‘edged/pointed’ weapon, calling 911, barricading, etc…). The most used weapons used by the attackers to subdue their victims were hand/feet (and physical strength), knives/axes, garden tools, blunt objects, chemicals (e.g. pepper spray), less than 3% used a firearm. 12% of the attackers were transgender (both men-to-woman trans and woman-to-men trans) and also used that ‘trans status’ as a weaponized method to get close to their intended victim, thus also using ‘trans’ as a weapon.

    Overall, the most frequently used weapons for criminal attack in 2023 were hand/feet, blunt objects, knives/axes/garden-tools

    The two top weapons used in ~1,100 domestic abuse attacks daily across the United States are hand/feet and blunt objects then followed by other non-firearms weapons (e.g. sharpened/edged/pointed, ligatures, smothering, chemicals, hot/burning objects, drugs). On a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being the least likely and most improbable to be used in a domestic violence incident guns are a 10.

    The top weapons used in “crime and violence in America”:

    1. Knives
    2. Other sharpened/edged weapons (i.e. ‘spear’ type, honed edged material for example a piece of hard plastic)
    3. Blunt objects (i.e. crowbars, bats, clubs, other handy object)
    4. Fire
    5. Chemicals (i.g. pepper spray, ammonia, poisons such as bleach and drain cleaner, acids).
    6. Hand/feet
    7. Blunt force trauma (i.e. thrown/dropped large/heavy objects, impact by car or motor-cycle or even bicycle)
    8. Over-whelming physical force (i.e. group/gang attack, much larger/stronger then victim like frequently used in rapes)
    9. Garden/lawn tools
    10. Drugs
    11. Ligature

    • correction for : “domestic abuse attacks”

      should have been …

      “domestic abuse and violence attacks”

      correction for : “On a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being the least likely and most improbable to be used in a domestic violence incident guns are a 10.”

      should have been…

      “On a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being the least likely and most improbable to be used in a domestic abuse and violence attack incident, guns are a 10.”

  13. Invite someone to your home to celebrate a holiday and they come spoiling for a fight, kindly show them the door.

    • Epstein,

      Hear, hear!!! I have family members (including offspring (how did I fail them so badly??)) who are anti-gun (but, then, I have my younger son, who has a larger collection of firearms than do I). Do we argue about various things on Thanksgiving?? Well, we TRY not to, but . . . you are welcome to guess how that works out.

      But we are smart enough NOT to discuss politics or politically-fraught issues (like gun control) – and we are a VERY opinionated family, on both sides of the political divide. Thanksgiving is about being with family, and being grateful for the blessings you enjoy. Politics doesn’t enter into it.

  14. My extended family has two libtards who live in the Seattle area, but will be at the house for TG dinner. I don’t talk to them but I will be bringing up Trumps Crushing win and how great we felt about defeating communists. I call them communists to their face. If they don’t like it, they are free to leave. Fox news on in the background. I don’t give in to TDS. .

  15. Taking a break right now…busy since mid-night involved in preparing Thanksgiving dinner for about 3,000.

    Our local gun people get together each year to make sure the less able (i.e. needy, elderly, homeless, etc) have a Thanksgiving meal. Lots of food, all different kinds of dishes and deserts with turkey and ham and goose and venison. About 140 of us gun people involved this year and this year we have some extra help with 25 high school students pitching in. Commercial ovens in several places are cooking away, a few restaurants closed for Thanksgiving have donated their kitchen areas and some of their employees are pitching in also as well as some of their chefs. Transport is lined up ready to go.

    We will have Thanksgiving dinner at our home for about 12, around 5 PM.

  16. Wally 1
    I don’t acquiesce to their TDS/BS either; however, I do try to be nice.
    Even though I am speaking nicely they still get ticked. There just doesn’t seem to be a nice way to tell someone to pucker up..
    Being nice is the best policy, but it ain’t always easy.

  17. My wife and I go to her cousins for Thanksgiving. All male attendees are expected to participate in preventative maintenance cleaning some of his extensive collection of firearms. The drool flows freely and there are guns for every taste………knives too. I like it more than Christmas.

  18. “Firearms Allowed”

    – Sign at my nest.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    And yes, Osprey eat turkey. We also eat chicken, steak, buffalo, moo-cow, lamb, gator, oinkers, and just about any fish that’s worth carrying in our talons.

    Which reminds me, what happened to our friend the marsupial? I haven’t seen him around these parts lately. It wasn’t me or my clan, honest! All the Osprey in my area know that manatee are too big and possum are too small!

  19. I have driven my family crazy by voting conservative. Not just republican. And finally some of them have started to understand, why I criticize liberals so much.

  20. I remember a Thanksgiving at a close friend of ours place years ago. The boy friend of one of the daughters of the person hosting the dinner was there, and he happened to be a canine trainer for the border patrol.

    Back in those days, I wasn’t quite as ‘undercover’ as I am now, and had a Bianchi fanny pack. He decided to ask me what I was ‘packing,’ and I told him. Then, we went around the table to ask if anyone else was carrying. Turns out that out of 13 people, we had roughly six weapons at the table.

    The BP guy was a bit surprised, but not nearly as much as when my 85 year old dad asked him why wasn’t HE being asked about carrying?

    Well, ok, dad had no obvious accoutrements that would lend anyone to thing he was armed all, but…

    He had on a nice button down front shirt on, and you could see a stainless ball type chain around his neck and going down into the front of his shirt, much like people with medic alert tags wear.

    Dad tugs on the chain, and up from behind the front of his shirt comes a five shot Freedom Arms .22 cal revolver.

    The BP guys eyes got REALLY big, he almost fell off the stool at the table and then he stammered out something like Dad was the LAST person he expected to be armed at that table.

    I thought to myself, ya know dipshit, the ones that you least expect it from are the people that could bring your career to a screeching halt. (I found out several weeks later daughter had finally dumped him after he became ‘very possessive’ and started acting up. Earned him a letter in his BP personnel file, too..)

    Anyway, what dad had done was to leave one cylinder empty and had then taken a .22 cal cleaning brush, soldered it to an adapter and clipped that on the ball chain.

    He then stuffed that brush into the barrel and on into the empty cylinder.

    To draw the weapon, all he had to do was reach up under his untucked shirt, grab the revolver and give it a good tug. Of course, that limited you to four rounds, but that is still better than none…

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