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I was re-watching ‘Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life’ for the millionth time last night and with gun control advocates now talking about “safe storage” legislation in the wake of recent school shootings, one scene stuck out. John Cleese is trying to teach his class sex education. While discussing foreplay one of the students suggests rubbing a certain part of the female anatomy. Cleese’s response is classic: “What’s wrong with a kiss, boy? Why not start her off with a kiss before steaming towards the” well, you know the rest. And as he was saying it, in my mind I heard “What’s wrong with education? Why not start off with education before steaming straight towards legislation?” . . .

Gun control advocates always claim that their goal is to reduce “gun violence” while respecting the Second Amendment. Their actions say otherwise. Their solution to every problem is more legislation, whether it’s a national gun registry or universal background checks (with some added restrictive goodies thrown in for fun), requiring safe storage of firearms (with complientary home visits, just to be sure) or mandatory insurance policies. But in proposing new legislation, they always completely skip over the idea of working with groups like the NRA to educate the American gun owner on actual gun safety.

With almost every other cause that’s taken up by the same people who make up the anti-gun left, education is the first thing they try. Mothers Against Drunk Driving decided to make their mark not by legislating stricter laws against handing minors alcohol or making posession of alcohol illegal (well, to be fair, that was tried already). Instead they started an education campaign to get teenagers to understand the effects of alcohol and to be more careful.

When teenage pregnancy was becoming an issue, there was a push not to make sex illegal but to incorporate sex education into the curriculum in schools to make students understand how things work and the consequences of unprotected sex. And it’s the same with drugs, since outlawing drugs didn’t work too well a campaign of “drug awareness” was started which manifested itself in my elementary school as the “D.A.R.E.” program.

For some reason, guns are different. Instead of wanting to educate gun owners about the benefits of safe handling practices and secure firearms storage, they jump straight to increasing the severity of punishment for minor infractions. And, by the way, there’s already a law on the books in Nevada where the kid shot his teacher. And the parents are held responsible if a child gets hold of their gun, a form of “safe storage” law.

The real question: why? Why do the gun control advocates feel that education isn’t the answer when it comes to guns, when it’s their preferred method for solving all of society’s other ills? The answer might be in how they view gun owners. They see us as uneducated idiots and extremists, or (as this blog has been called recently on a gun control forum) “nutters.” It might be that we’re considered unable to be educated, and instead that they need to use the stick instead of the carrot.

Still, that’s my question to groups like Moms Demand Action. What’s wrong with a kiss? Why not start with actual education instead of trying to legislate? Shouldn’t that be something we should try before rushing to violate the Constitution?

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75 COMMENTS

    • Agreed, and education for gun owning parent’s of kids with “sensory integration disorder (SID)”…. so they can learn how to lock their guns up properly.

  1. Education doesnt parallel their agenda. Also, studies have shown that the D.A.R.E. program only made kids want to go try the drugs they were told to stay away from. Prohibition has been a historical failure since Adam and Eve were told to stay away from the apples.. Just a thought.

    • Precisely. Can’t have education because guns are eeevil. Plus it’s sponsored by the NRA, and the NRA is eeevil, too.

    • +1 Also, I believe that anti-gun folks think that talking about guns with kids encourages their interest in guns, which is something they want to avoid. And we all know how well it works to make guns more mysterious.

    • So, when I see their politically expedient and thoroughly false pain and indignation and hear talk of gun owners, believers in the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment and the NRA having blood on their hands this is what I think about. How many young lives might be saved if Gun Safety were compulsory like say SEX EDUCATION is?

      Ultimately I have to shut it off…or I might start gnawing on a piece of metal or something…

  2. MADD did go the legal route which is why a man or woman coming home from war can’t legally go to a bar and putchase a beer. Any group that uses “mom” or “mother” in their title is likely to be a bunch of hysterical, ignorant, loonies.

    • I’ve observed this as well. It’s almost like the minute that child comes out of their body, they start applying that maternal instinct to everybody and everything.

  3. Because with education, knowledge, and legitimate common sense comes enlightenment. If you educate little Johnny about guns he won’t fear them hell he may even grow up to be the next JMB. Treat him like a mushroom ( keep him in the dark and feed him shit) when it comes to firearms drugs alcohol and sex, then he will be easier to control. That and we are dealing with the Hippy generation in political power…

  4. Because education implicitly supports the existence of a firearm. They don’t want gun safety. The really even don’t want gun control. The truth is they want guns gone. Education toward safe storage, handling, usage, etc. does not progress their agenda.

    • Bingo! We have a winner!
      They don’t want kids thinking that there is a safe way to handle guns, they want them to be deathly afraid of guns. They want the kids to grow up and be like them.

  5. Exactly. What’s wrong with a kiss? I want to ask Shannon Watts that but she would threaten me with a restraining order . . . . i mean, it is only a little tongue and some heavy petting . . . .

    as for education, you will note that MADD blackmailed the liquor/beer industry into paying for MADD’s ads/education slant, not the industry’s (unless you are the AG for MAryland and get caught at a teen party chasing tail or looking for your probably drunken kid). If Shannon Watts is gonna play ball (and would I welcome her taking a spin rubbing mine), then it will be for the NRA and gun/ammo industry to pony up the cash for the ads, and STFU on the content. They don’t like that we have our own messaging, including Eddie Eagle (I even managed a plug for the program today at a kid’s birthday party and the young mom with 3 little ones was receptive and agreed to call a local range to enroll her kids when she heard how my two took it and now not only know the safety rules, but help me clean my guns after a session).

    Shannon – waiting on the call. I am sure we can work out something. 🙂

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hA2M8-csDDg

    • Dirk man I really worry bout you sometimes… you would really trust her to be that close to the staff of life and the orbs of manhood?? You are a braver soul than I, I’d be scared she’d pop em or bite em off. Oh and you couldve told the mom you converted that she can just send off to the NRA for the Eddie Eagle class materials and teach it herself.

      • trying to get the mom to actually start going to the range with my wife and other stay at home moms. Unlike Shannon Watts(TM), they are not afraid of an inanimate object and actually enjoy themselves. there are now 6 moms in their little shooting club that go out every 2-4 weeks, meet for breakfast, shoot, and have fun . . .

        as for Shannon Watts(TM), no I am not worried about her pulling anything. I think more than anything, she would be intrigued and a little curious about it. . . .

        • also – I am working on my Shannon Watts(TM) mix tape. You know, the one you made specifically for a certain conquest with the hope that the increasingly suggestive lyrics (and flowing wine) would help progress into setting the right mood and making your intentions abundantly clear.

          next up: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=COiIC3A0ROM

        • Lol congratulations on the gun club you go goin on I do the same with my girlfriend, her mom, my mom, and the gf’s sister in law and niece. And one more thing you have made it impossible for me to watch Boogie Nights without laughin my ass off when he does the old lady… I just keep thinkin her real name is Shannon Watts.

        • The mix tape is easy take the Titanic and Armageddon sound tracks, add a little T. Pain, a dash of Two Chainz, a dollop of Luke Bryan with some Righteous Brothers to taste and voila instant up tight left wing liberal panty melter. For wine I’d suggest home made strawberry or watermelon better yet a couple gallons of good moonshine. She’ll be good as got if served on a tailgate in the woods by a creek or river.

        • Is here in the south. Guy I work with rolls up bumpin it he also has a confederate flag plate on his car and does civil war re enactments on the southern side… then again he could be the oddball.

        • You’ve got a wife? Somehow with all these suggestive comments I thought you were a bachelor, silly me.

      • Jay – Shannon is from Missouri but lives near Indianapolis (I would publish her corporate registered, I mean, home address again, but that just pisses her off. I haven’t put her phone # up yet though. . . . anyway, I digress. I am sure that although she has some Ozark blood flowing through those ice cold veins, she wants to forget about her trailer park upbringing and migrates more to the musical genres that allow her to claim she is not RACIST when she really is by living in her special gated community and mansion. Of course, her and John probably are also swingers who like trolling over to the rougher part of town and grabbing some young bucks for a night at a cheap motel . . .

        • Lmao damnit boy that one made me swallow my dip… anyway should she be a swinger hang out on the southside of town. There’s a swinger club round there but for the life of me I can’t remember the name. oh and you never outgrow that there trailer house. Get you a black 78 trans am blare Guns N Roses and I guarantee she will find you and rape you in the Wal Mart parkin lot.

  6. Simple answer, they want to control all of us, and the only way they can do it is through laws. Constitutional or not.

  7. Great question. I think that they reject things like Eddie Eagle for a reason given above. They don’t want to appear to agree with the NRA.
    I think it also shows mental imbalance or instability. After all, why try what seems reasonable and “for the children” tm
    No, they go for the adults. Us. The POTG. They turn it into emotional attack/argument. Again, showing emotional instability.
    The only conclusion one can draw from this evidence is that MDA, et al, are insane.

    • Among “progressives,” there is a pre-existing hatred of the NRA which causes them to jump all over the NRA for anything they do.

      A great example of this is the reaction to Wayne LaPierre’s remarks on violent video games following Sandy Hook (which I agree were very stupid and wrongheaded, just for the record) Progressives were screaming bloody murder, painting the NRA as an organization which wants to “destroy the First Amendment to protect the Second!!!!” This is in spite of the fact that “progressives” have been some of the most staunch opponents of violence in video games. Feinstein said something similar almost immediately after Sandy Hook. So basically, they vilify something that their own politicians have been doing for decades. Not a peep all that time, but as soon as an NRA official says it, all hell breaks loose.

      If the NRA sponsored a program to give teddy bears and cookies to children of veterans killed overseas, the progressives would berate them to no end, JUST BECAUSE it’s the NRA. They’ve been told that the NRA is pure evil incarnate, and they KNOW this in their hearts. So it’s easy to see why they hate the Eddie Eagle program, no matter how much safety it provides.

  8. “Why Do Gun Controllers Jump at Legislation but Skip Education?”

    Well how are they supposed to screw gun owners otherwise?

  9. As a teacher, I was very impressed with the job our JROTC instructors did in both safety and marksmanship. It may not be much, or nearly early enough, but it is a start. The students selected for our air rifle teams were excited and proud. Build on this. Bring Eddie the Eagle back to schools? I’m all for it, but good luck, in our current political situations.

      • Wow. Takes me back to the early 70’s. Walk to the armory, check out my winchester 52D and a brick of ammo. Walk to the parking lot, drive to the range. Practice. Drive back. Walk back across campus with a rifle, no case. Check it back into the armory.
        No one thought a thing about it. This was not in some back country school. This was San Diego, CA.
        I did it because I was a pretty good shot and I got to shoot a rifle and free ammo. Ended up lettering in small bore marksmanship.
        Still have my letter with crossed rifles hanging in my gun room.
        Sad my kids couldn’t do that.

  10. Remember their goal is to make everyone afraid of the big “scary gun”. Their agenda depends on ignorance. It fails in the face of an educated populace.

  11. EDUCATION? How can they control us if they also educate us? You want them to put wings on horses? I do. But they don’t. They want dumbed-baseline-down SERFS, not thinking Americans.

    The American educational system needs to be torn down to the roots and built up again. Many people stand in our way. It is NOT impossible.

  12. see – others follow me (towards the end): http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iQFbUgtsNug

    WHY CAN’T SHANNON WATTS(TM)???? 🙂 Although Kay is way more approachable than Shannon Watts(TM) and likes guns, too. As for the night sights on the Canik Stingray, even Century Arms (the importer) has no clue. I tried the CZ and various clone sights to no avail.

  13. Guns, as always, are different…

    I would say it starts with a lack of respect. People in general are thought to be too stupid to learn to be safe with something so dangerous.

    There is the mystery factor. Guns are too far from their comfort zone; they don’t know why we like them. Atleast drugs release endorphins. Guns are just scary.

    Next is the whole cultural shift idea espoused by Eric Holder. “We know best” and all that. Which generally concludes with “we certainly can’t trust you, so I guess only we have the guns.” Logic.

    It’s never just one thing, black or white. There are not JUST “gun grabbers” or people seeking to control the population. There are plenty of other concerned people from different and varied groups. Just like gun owners. Maybe WE should divide and conquer…

  14. My kids have been shooting for years, currently they are 9 and 10. They have grown up around guns, my oldest daughter won first place in a local rifle competition, and whenever we go out to shoot I still make them recite gun safety rules.

    I purpose we run some test. Take 50 kids like mine and put them in scenarios where they find some nice airsoft replicas and see how they handle the situation. Remember Eddie Eagle says, “If you find a gun don’t touch it.” Which my kids recite after listing off their standard gun handling safety rules.

    Then we take 50 kids who grew up in homes without proper gun education and see how those kids fare.

    With a documented case we can now show how gun education could save lives…..oh wait….gun grabbing was never meant for saving lives. Regardless I still believe in gun education, more than just “stay away” but understanding and respecting guns as well.

    • I have demonstrated this with my own daughters. as a test, I sometimes leave an unloaded gun on the kitchen counter and they come after me and give me an earful about not doing that when kids are in the house. . .. what is that Biblical quote: teach a child up in the way, and they will not soon depart?

  15. It’s not about guns. It’s not about safety. It’s about culture.

    Education enhances gun culture, which is precisely what they wish to destroy. This is a culture war. And it’s to the death.

    • I’ve read this a couple times from you now. After much thought, I believe you are right.
      Culture can be really deep, as this issue clearly is. We must win this.

  16. Where are the safe storage laws for car keys, or your wallet? The next time I see a story about a teen getting in an accident after stealing their parents car, or dying because they stole money from their parents to by crappy drugs, I want to see an outcry from the left for these safe storage laws – but I’ll settle for silence on all manner of safe storage laws instead.

  17. Because they are not interested in education, they are interested in eradication. Plain and simple. Don’t believe what they say, believe what they do.

  18. Why they focus on legislation is because they already control the indoctrination system I mean education system…..

    They are comfortable and believe they will indoctrinate kid in school to even fear the image of guns hence all the ridiculous stories of kids being suspended in the news.

  19. Recall what the DCM once was? When I went to school in the 60 every school had a rifle team with surplus army .22 rim fire rifles with good peep sights and the ammo provided by the director of civilian marksmanship. This once huge and country wide program now seems to have just clung onto the distribution of M1s as its last function… I am sure my local high school is not getting pallats of standard velocity .22 long rifle ammo delivered each year… And the few remaining high schools with a rifle team either depend on donations from local gun clubs etc for funding or if they have not dropped the program entirely ( usually for ” insurance reasons”) they might have gone to using air rifles…

    So we need to get civilian marksmanship programs back. I was once told that they were dropped as ” individual marksmanship, asside from a small number of specialist troops, is no longer a required attribute of a modern high tech war fighter” sad if true

    • The Army teaches “spray and pray” out of necessity, IMO. Ammo is cheaper than training kids to shoot properly. The trouble is the career path: Military => police/DHS.

      • They teach marksmanship still problem is in Basic and AIT due to time frame you only get about 2 maybe 3 weeks to get em up to speed. After that it falls on their unit which because they have their job to do and all those PowerPoint torture sessions they have to show eats up range time.

  20. It’s not about the gun. It’s never been about guns. It’s all about CONTROL. Guns are an obstacle to that control. Remove the guns, and they’ll have their control.

  21. I’ve been saying this for a while. The best way to combat an idea based on lies and misconceptions is with truth and education. Anyone that would like to support a petition to promote such an aim may sign on below!

    U.S. Federal Government and Legislators of the State of New Jersey: Implement universal firearms training and education for Americans invoking 2nd Amendment rights – Sign the Petition!

    Please join this campaign: http://chn.ge/1c1NqJf

  22. Excellent point that I have not thought of yet!

    Page saved to bookmarks, adding it to my “Education” folder in my bookmarks bar in case I need to pull up some nice points.

    Keep up the great work, Nick.

  23. Antis want “Common sense gun legislation”?

    Step 1: They need to realize that firearms, and the 2nd amendment, are not going anywhere.
    Step 2: Since firearms are going nowhere, than education and safety needs to be taught to children outside of “Don’t touch it”
    Step 3: Teach firearm safety in school right alongside sex ed. If kids can be taught sex ed, they can handle a firearm.

    When a liberal starts to throw a hissy fit at this plan, tell them that just teaching kids to keep away from firearms, and not how to use them safely, is akin to just teach abstinence and not safe sex.

    • Bingo!

      One of the first things that came to mind with the sex ed analogy was all the outcry about “abstinence only” being the only morally acceptable way to teach it.

      Sex=bad. Pretend you don’t even want to do it. Don’t even be curious about it.
      Guns=bad. Pretend they’re evil. Don’t admit that you’re curious about them.

      Never mind that it can be done safely with only a little bit of basic information. The anti-gun folks aren’t the only ones who’d rather pretend that simply telling people not to do something that they naturally want to do will prevent accidents and dangerous behavior.

  24. “I was re-watching ‘Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life’ for the millionth time last night and with gun control advocates now talking about “safe storage” legislation in the wake of recent school shootings, one scene stuck out. John Cleese is trying to teach his class sex education. While discussing foreplay one of the students suggests rubbing a certain part of the female anatomy. Cleese’s response is classic: “What’s wrong with a kiss, boy? Why not start her off with a kiss before steaming towards the” well, you know the rest. And as he was saying it, in my mind I heard “What’s wrong with education? Why not start off with education before steaming straight towards legislation?” . . .”

    Seriously, you’re watching some Python, and you just start thinking about gun politics? Switch to decaf. 😛

  25. Actually, they don’t skip education when it comes to guns. They ARE educating kids about guns. That’s what all the zero-tolerance policies and punishments for even thinking about guns are all about.

    They move on to legislation because their education isn’t working. Clearly, when so many people are so completely unable to learn that guns are Bad Things and must not be touched or even thought of, legislation is the only reasonable course left.

    • It’s not education, it’s indoctrination. Education infers an ability to think afterwards. Indoctrination has no thought or analysis associated with it.

  26. Because they don’t own guns and don’t want to. With the examples you mentioned,:

    Teen pregos make more people dependent on the system and it just makes children which they likely have and enjoy. also the potential that if there were legislation they might have to suffer from it.

    Alcohol, same. They use it, so they don’t want to be without it, and they think they can handle it.

    Drugs, same as alcohol.

    To them they believe legislation can fix it the quickest with least effort since none of it effects them. They place no value on gun ownership for any if its reasons.

    If we started talking about legislation for pools (I’ve seen my BIL’s pool nearly legitimately drown his children twice and he’s not move to fill it in, but somehow gun ownership is bad in his mind) and on greater legislation on children with mental issues, you’d see the education flag waved like mad.

  27. And now for something completely different!

    Did anyone ever stop to think that all the antigunners’ hysterics and antics are actually a National Security risk?

    The way things are headed (pushed by the antis and their corporate and legislative stooges), in a few decades or so the only places that teach firearms safety and operation will be the Military and Police Academies. Which means that the only way a young adult will be able to even touch a gun in ordinary life is to join the military or the police. With that comes the rise of the “Professional Warrior Class.” And also real-life, to the wall “Police Militarization.”

    Recall that the now defunct DoD DCM Program was set up to train and provide the military with civilian recruits that knew how to use and handle a gun. This resource is now gone. And the Army is beginning to notice that recruits are taking longer to train to shoot real (as opposed to video game) guns. And the police? I give you the NYPD in Times Square. Or the Dallas PD, who gunned down the schizophrenic by missing more than hitting the mark. And on and on.

    Just a thought, no tinfoil hat necessary…

  28. Education and knowledge are the enemy of fear and prejudice, they need those things to support their emotional response.

  29. I’m going to point out that teens are still killed by drunk driving and teens still (increasingly, even) get pregnant. Education has little to do with reducing deaths via gun violence. Responsibility on the other hand, does. If anyone in your house could be irresponsible with a firearm, you have a duty to secure it against their access. I don’t see how anyone could own a firearm and NOT realize that they are responsible for ensuring it is secured. Responsibility is unfortunately not something you can “educate” people into. You either get it or you don’t.

  30. Acknowledging that firearm safety could benefit from an education program validates the concept of individual ownership, which is what they are trying to end in the first place. The more people who are educated that firearms are safe and sane to have in your home, the more people are likely to have firearms. And everybody knows that more guns equals more gun violence.

  31. You are making way too much sense here Nick.
    That alone will make you a target for the Alinskyite gun-grabbers of the Progressive Elite.

    If it were about education, that would imply they trust the little people to make up their own minds.
    Can’t have that.

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