This poster is part of a two-years-and-running effort by gun dealers and mental health workers in The Granite State called The Gun Shop Project. The NH GSP is a suicide prevention campaign that’s suddenly pinged the national media (and our) radar. They love it! I don’t! What does “HOLD ON TO THEIR GUNS” mean? Should concerned friends and family, suddenly elevated to mental health professionals, literally grab the guns of someone they consider depressed? Is that legal? If worried friends or relatives call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and mention firearms will the Hotline folks call the cops? The GSP gun dealer tip sheet advises dealers to call the cops if they deny someone a firearm suspecting suicide. I don’t know the ideal answer to the question of how to deal with a potentially suicidal gun owner but . . . Protect life. Protect gun rights. Those efforts should not be mutually exclusive.
This issue was debated ad nauseum out here in California when the open carry ban bill was proposed. A little history gives context. In 1968, the Black Panthers descended on the Legislature in Sacramento for a protest…and they brought their guns (which as it so happens was perfectly legal at the time). The immediate result was a proposal to ban the open carrying of loaded weapons (allowing unloaded chunks of steel to be carried openly), and Ronald Reagan, then governor, promptly signed the bill into law. And guns pretty much disappeared from the urban environment. Then, a few years ago, the “open carry” movement began, which was essentially a protest of the fact that in urban areas CCWs were next to impossible to obtain and this was a means of reinforcing the limited right that remand. The public response was immediate and negative. Soccer moms, not used to seeing guns, would make the inevitable “MWG!” call to 911, and a dramatic police response would ensue. Happened in San Diego, LA, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Police would show up in droves, demanding ID, performing what was then known as an “e” check (after a provision in the Penal Code) to make sure that the firearms were unloaded. Some people were arrested. As in 1968, the Legislature was swift to act, proposing a bill to ban open carry of handguns. Not surprisingly, because of the urban outcry and the dyed in the wool anti-gun mentality of the major urban areas, the bill passed and was signed into law. Not long after, when someone had the temerity to openly carry an unloaded rifle, and open carry ban of all firearms in all urban areas and unincorporated areas where hunting was not permitted, was soon signed into law.
Now it is also true that, given a choice, most of us in the gun community would prefer to carry concealed. It not only provides the element of surprise, it prevents the type of hoplophobic hysteria often found in pretty much all large urban areas in this country. Guns have not been the norm among most citizens in the cities for almost a hundred years–and that sort of institutionalized bias and fear about guns is hard to overcome. It doesn’t pay to scare the sheeple. Out of sight, out of mind–a far cry from the way things were in the 1800s when the first concealed carry bans were enacted, when only the eeevile villains carried concealed.
I think the message that if someone close to you is suicidal, you should ask to hold on to their guns for them while they get through it. I don’t think it’s that bad of an idea. People that are set on doing it will still do it, but some people wobble on the brink and can be dissuaded or deterred. Someone is more likely to have a change of heart in the time it takes to rig up a belt to a branch than the time it takes to charge a weapon and pull the trigger.
As Robert said it’s the phone call , not the girl ! , anyway the fight is not over this U.N. treaty can hurt the American gun market, Cheap import ammo and surplus arms has helped the poor guy keep shooting and with a 2A unfriendly government they too see how important that is. think cheap lots stuff, and when a guy gets a better job he too will buy top line American goods… I see young people all the time at the range and they do not have the $1000.00 plus $ guns…
Friendship is a good thing but taking another’s gun is uncool, because you’re doing the controlling- ASK, and understand that NO means NO if they want to retain their right to choose- WTF? kind of subliminal messaging is this shit- This is telling everyone that they should take control of others, like the NWO is doing now to most of you- If something was bothering me that bad, I would consider eliminating the problem first- Why the hell should anyone allow another to drive them to suicide- It’s the mean and nasty of this world that spoils it for the rest of the Earth’s Life- What’s wrong with that picture?
Depressed? Angry? Suffered a recent setback? Loosing hope? Think you’re better off dead?
Congratulations. You’re Dianne Feinstein.
My 590A1 SPX is just fine. If I didn’t have 2 Mossys (also a generic 18.5″ 500) I would consider this seriously. I don’t think it can come close to an A1, though.
Judge Smails. Come into my store…….you get nothing and like it!!!!!
Sorry, movie reference I couldn’t pass up……..
firearms only account for half of suicides. so what about the other half?
or dont they care?
I used to live and work in Hamilton, I know exactly where these 2 locations are ( the clothing store and the cigar shop) It’s sketchy as hell there and I completely agree, any store own who chooses not to be armed is being irresponsible. Luckily, Butler County has a huge number of CCWs and is very 2nd amendment friendly, there are some rough spots, but the criminals are likely wary due to the high amount of armed citizens.
Stupid gimmick. Seriously, how often do you change the stock on your shotgun? Once, twice? Every other week?
A quick disconnect for a shotgun butstock (which is all the FLEX system is) is just silly.
Are you guys kidding me? You agree with this?
“Til’ then you cannot come out of your pens, or we will punish you”
Ok, the lockdown was VOLUNTARY. Moreover, police officers have resources and training that the average citizen does not. It was a recommendation for the citizen’s own safety. We pay these people for a reason. How dare the government recommend that I stay in my home until the crazy bomber is captured. The nerve of some people.
you are full of crap there is no reason for 22 ammo to be short the military doesnt use 22 ammo so why is there a 22 ammo shortage
I think most pot is grown in America or Canada actually…or at least the good stuff is.
Which is why the Mexican cartels lobby – by proxy – against legalization. Bad for their business model.
As to a shooting at a pot Fest, who cares where it was? Pot was no more causal than were the Batman movie, kindergarten books or Nike running shoes.
Shootings happen. In an ideal world, they wouldn’t. In a better world than this, the shooter wouldn’t get ten arshins before being taken down. In this world, well…
It’s peculiar that when thousands of people get together and commit illegal acts, someone ups the ante and starts shooting.
Oh, wait. No it’s not.
When I lived in NYC, we had more people in our elevator — at 3AM. But it does underscore what the NRA told us earlier this week. The gungrabbers are still coming for our guns. And they won’t stop until we kill their movement dead.
We will punish them at every election until the Democrats either see the light or are reduced to a minority party.
In the last 5 years there were more than 700 children under the age of 10 that were killed or injured from a car backing over them because the driver didn’t see them. They passed a law that requires car manufactures to install back up cameras in all cars starting in 2013. Well, sad to say that has not happen yet. Compare to the tragic incident happen at Sandy Hook which law would be more effective in saving our children. A law banning all assault rifles or the camera law… Any sane person would be able to figure it out. We need to stop having our constitutional rights violated!
Let’s vote in the right people to run our country.
I wish the NRA were half as powerful as most of these people claimed. If so, my last firearm purchase would have probably been tax deductible.
That’s good!
Liberals are the most racist people on earth. They simply can’t judge a man by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin. White (racist) conservatives love Alan West, Herman Cain, Mia Love, and Dr. Benjamin Carson but hate BO. Of course that only proves how racist we are(?).
Playing the racial card is annoying. A person’s character, and qualities of integrity, honesty, and plain speaking are way more important then the color of their skin.
Border states with strict laws on marijuana and no medical marijuana programs, that’s where you’ll find cartel weed. States like CA, OR, WA, and CO are not fueling that fire, their more than self sufficient with their weed supply.
#4 cash crop here in Oregon is Marijuana. More money is made by Oregonians growing pot, than growing potatoes. That’s saying something.
btw, I’m not a pot head, and I’m not a liberal Democrat, but I think your heads up your back side if you don’t think the solution to our nations drug problem is legalization. As advocates of the the gun, I would think you of all people should realize that making something illegal only empowers criminals, just like alcohol prohibition demonstrated.
Of course they do. Their entire cause is one devoted to ensuring people are helpless victims in the face of crime and tyranny, thus ensuring thousands more deaths, and also a cause devoted to oppressing people and eliminating basic human rights. What on Earth could make anyone think such soulless monsters wouldn’t be thrilled to have more dead children to parade around for their own benefit?
When a 19yr old punk can shut down a city, we lose. Yes, there may have been some tactical advantages to doing so. But at what cost?
“The Sociopath Next Door” is a great book that everyone should read. it is has an awakening type of effect on the the other 96% that are normal. In the book she says that is conceivable to imagine great success or even hitting the lottery, but it is not even possible to imagine what it is like to live without a conscience. This is the bottom to these people, the other 4%, they don’t possess a conscience. They can fade it real well as they have done so all their lives to get by and they know how to read and manipulate people. But they have no regret and no heart to those lives that they have devastated.
We must uphold our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms just to have some form of protection against the Nathan Burris’ of this world…
I guess this sort of disproves the “90% of all Americans support…” argument, as does the failure to pass any legislation. If that were true laws would have been passed and there’d be huge rallies celebrating.
Back in my school days the only problem with a shirt like that would have been the lack of sleeves. We also had JROTC on campus and had occasional drill practice with de-militarized M1903 rifles. Add to that the existence of an indoor firing range on the other high school campus in the district which was used by students from both schools.
“… and for the life of me, I need one sane explanation on what is wrong with thoroughly checking the background of someone who walks into a store to buy a potential weapon of mass murder…”
So – Mr. Idiot King wants federal background checks on everyone who buys a pressure cooker? Hey, nobody needs a high-capacity pressure cooker, right? Pressure cookers are the weapon of choice for “Islamic Jihadists” (can’t say “Muslim terrorists”). I mean, those home-canning types are all a bunch of “prepper” nutcases, right? Time to crack down on the Amish!
“… say something to the parents of the murdered Newtown children…”
How about: “It’s a tragedy that you let your state-run schools declare themselves Victim Disarmament Zones, which provide a guarantee of easy targets to nutcase killers on psychotropic drugs. Your tragedy could have been prevented or stopped sooner by an armed citizen on the site, but your school and your leftist Legislature did not provide that option.”