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Sorry I had to do the spoiler thing in the headline, but it puts the lead to Iowa State volleyball player Madison Ward’s editorial –  New Iowa firearm laws miss the mark – into its proper perspective. Here’s the wind-up: “I very much wish I could see the world as I did when I was a child or that world was the reality. When people were just people, not threats, and the only weapons I knew of were the Nerf kind that would irritate, not harm. Although leaving the mindset of a perfectly peaceful world was a gradual one, it was still rather mind boggling to think that a human could have it out for another. But none the less, with each year it becomes steadily more apparent that there is more danger in the world than I had really known. The one light of hope, I had previously thought, was the government and its obligation to protect the public, but even now, that is starting to fade.” The thing of it is is . . .

This could just as easily be the start of a pro-gun piece. You know; when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. I wanted all the guns to go away. When I became a woman, I put the ways of childhood behind me, picked-out a handgun and get on with the business of protecting myself and my family. But no. But first: the aforementioned admission of ignorance.

I have never owned a gun or shot a gun nor do I have a desire to do so. That was just the way I was brought up and has resulted in my lack of support for firearms with two exceptions. Number one would be a gun specifically for the sport of hunting, which I am not a fan of either, but to each his own, and number two would be for protection in the home. That being said, I should address the fact that guns cannot be proven to be purchased for those two specific reasons. People can totally lie about their motivation for buying the gun at all, which brings me to my current state of dissatisfaction with our government. All of the Republicans and a good chunk of Democrats in the Iowa House have moved to make ridiculously idiotic changes to the gun laws here in Iowa.

As Karen Carpenter sang, calling occupants of interplanetary craft. What human would argue that people with a legitimate need for a firearm should be denied their gun rights because other people lie about their need for a gun? The concept is alien to anyone capable of rational thought.

Ward’s against removing Iowa’s 72-hour “cooling off” period for firearms purchases – because Everytown for Civilian Disarmament says it prevents suicides (no mention of delaying life-saving self-defense). And she wants to name and shame Hawkeye State gun owners.

The other changes include making the list of who owns a firearm private — it is currently public information — and a person under 14 years of age could shoot a gun with adult supervision. I truly believe that the list of firearm owners should remain public strictly for safety reasons. If, for example, you were dealing with regular unwanted attention from someone you would have the ability to see if they owned a gun and know if they were of that kind of threat toward you so you could take appropriate action and seek help from authorities. Owning a gun should not be a secret. After all, if you want to own a gun and you are going about it the proper way, why should you want to hide it? That to me is a clear sign of something being askew.

So Ward doesn’t own a gun, hasn’t shot a gun, and has no understanding of history. Or, generally, the tendency of governments to impose tyranny on its citizens (hence the Second Amendment). Specifically, oh, I dunno, the post-Katrina gun grab? Mexico? The Holocaust?

We live in a violent world, one where we pretty much need to watch our backs at all times as sad as that is to say. And although we live in Iowa, a state with a relatively low crime rate, that does not mean we should be playing fast and loose with weapons. Not now, not ever.

We live in a violent world, one where we pretty much need to watch our backs at all times as sad as that is to say. And although people living in Iowa live in a state with a relatively low crime rate, that does not mean the government should infringe upon citizens’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Not now, not ever. There. Fixed it for you. Sooner or later, you’ll understand.

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71 COMMENTS

  1. Iowa State volleyball player – no need to read past this……… Some unemployed chick free riding daddys checkbook to a +4 year date rape party. I’m willing to bet she’s headed towards a no term-limit career helping us uneducated sheep to pay more taxes and turn our guns in for walmart gift cards – for the children.

    • OK, we all know the 1-in-4 chance of rape in college is one giant bag of horsesheet…….

      …but what is with the cognitive dissonance in the Left not taking the next logical thought……

      ….that hey…. the university systems across the country are generally one big Leftist indoctrination camp of Leftist design. Is there possibly something amiss in out leftist environment that is spawning this “rape culture” (TM)???

      And they leftys claim they are the “deep nuanced thinkers”. Shudder.

  2. Shorter op-ed: “I haven’t the first clue what I’m talking about, including first-hand experience or historical context, but guns = bad, and law-abiding gun owners can’t be trusted.”

    • I was thinking more like, “I never owned or shot a gun, I never had a desire to. So nobody else should be able to.”

    • Chip, you’ve hit on one of the antis’ currently popular talking points: Law-abiding gun owners can’t be trusted. As evidenced by their mantras “He was a law-abiding gun owner until he wasn’t” and “Just another law-abiding gun owner” every time the news gets its panties in a twist over a criminal using a gun.

      The latest expansion on this meme is labeling law-abiding folks as “insurrectionists” just because they own guns or assert their 2A rights. Listen for it; you’ll hear it everywhere.

      • Yup, just look at any post on the CSGV. Insurrectionist this, terrorist that. It’s little more that name calling and pants pissing from the Prog. Left.

  3. This is what happens when colleges admit third-graders with second-rate minds. Like, totally.

    • This is what happens when you have an education system that promotes fantasy and world views of unicorns farting sparkle pixie dust.

      This is someone who may have come to her senses about the world but her progressive upbringing has only taught her that somehow government can generate some fancy worded pieces of paper that can protect her. That some how government is always the answer. It is the typical progressive lie fully indoctrinated.

      She will not be broken from this spell until there comes a time when she realizes that the police have no duty to respond and she sits in the dark alone with her attacker. But, even then, surrounded but people with the same indoctrinating she may feel sorry for her attacker and he was just a misguided youth who through fault of society beat a raped her and really it was not his fault.

      It really is sad to see someone so young so indoctrinated in the religion of government saves all.

      • Seems to me she’s pretty well on her way, since she realizes she needs to watch her back! Now it should be a reasonably quick process for her to ask herself, once she detects a serious threat by watching her back, what the flaming hell does she think she can do about it?

  4. If you graduate with a liberal arts degree you’re dumber than the first day you walked into classes.

    • Well, what do you expect from degrees that by their nature have to teach you a way to think that’s totally in contradiction with reality? I bet there is a strong correlation between science degrees: conservative/libertarian political views :: liberal arts degree: progressive head sander.

  5. “Shhhh, dear; talk like that will scare off all of the husbands with muscles and who actually like women. You should probably just go back to playing volleyball in your tight shorts while pursuing your children’s development studies liberal arts degree. And try not to think or talk too much because it makes you wrinkle”.

  6. would she be willing o let strangers go through her smart phone for an hour? If you’re not doing anything wrong it shouldn’t be a problem if it’s public knowledge.

    • “Owning a gun should not be a secret. After all, if you want to own a gun and you are going about it the proper way, why should you want to hide it? That to me is a clear sign of something being askew.”

      Askew?
      Like anti gun extremists trying to label all who keep and bear arms as deranged gun nuts and psychopaths poised to unleash their firearms at any moment to do tragic mayhem?

      Like a government unable to effectively do ANYTHING about natural human violence and gangs of kids and young adults who prey on each other and bring violence to targeted victims and innocent bystanders, despite all the useless anti gun laws obeyed only by law abiding citizen gun owners.

      Like gun owners not wanting every crack head, gangster and burglar to know where to score some valuable firepower?

      Miss Ward, you keep believing that uninformed, inexperienced utopian anti gun owner BS the antis feed you. You’re tall enough and fit. You appear to have at least some brains. With luck you may survive without becoming a victim long enough to realize that the Cool Aid the antis are providing is actually anti-freedom poison for your brain.

      Personally, I’d be very happy not to feel the need to conceal that I keep and bear firearms here in sunny CA. But that’s simply not reality. Not any more.

      • Askew? Like anti gun extremists trying to label all who keep and bear arms as deranged gun nuts and psychopaths poised to unleash their firearms at any moment to do tragic mayhem?

        At a recent school board meeting in Michigan, an Ann Arbor resident said that gun carriers were only law abiding because they hadn’t yet become a criminal.

        • Ann Arbor, a little piece of California right there in southern MI. It’s a University town, so there is an unusual concentration of progressive “government will save us” fools.

  7. Dear Madison,

    Welcome to real life. This is the world that doesn’t go away when you close your eyes and wish real hard, and that stays firmly in place when you stamp your feet.

    We hope you will meet mostly nice people, but please be aware – evil exists. Your parents accepted this inconvenient truth on your behalf, so please if you have an issue with this aspect of reality, take it up with them.

    While we are on the subject, please note that the standard terms of life do not include anything owed to you. In particular, the world does not owe you happiness, safety, security, a job, shelter, clothing, or basic cable. We hope you choose to pursue them to the best of your abilities, but we cannot compel you to do so.

    In closing, we hope you find this life fulfilling and enjoyable, but again remind you that it is mostly up to your own actions to make it so.

    Best regards,

    The Management.

  8. She has never owned or fired guns, yet she wants to give us her opinion on them and tell us what we can and can’t do with ours. I wonder what she would say, then, if a man voiced his opinion on abortion?

    • Heck with abortion, how about just letting me tell her what she can/cannot, and must/must not do with her reproductive system. I mean I have never been a girl, how much more expert could I be?

  9. Kinda lost it right off the bat with that “government’s obligation to protect the public”. And then of course went further down the tubes by quoting Everytown as an authoritative source. And I really think she means “have it in for someone”.

  10. Hmmm… lets go over this step by step:

    Sheltered/childlike Disney mindset…Check
    Mistaken belief that GOVT/Police are obligated to protect someone…Check (Warren vs DC 1986? I think)
    No education/training/experience with guns…Check
    Citing “everytown” as a reliablesource for facts…Check

    All these reasons make her MORE than qualified to opine about guns…(sarcasm in case you didnt catch it)

    * Also about the instructor killed by the 9yr old girl mentioned in her article…the truth is a bullet no matter how badly aimed, can still kill.

  11. I’m not sure what 72-hour waiting period he is talking about. I live in Iowa and for my entire life, but a short 4 year period, and I have never had to wait 72-hours to wait for a gun of any type. Otherwise, a very spot on critique of the article.

    • Yes, Iowa does NOT have a 72 hour waiting period to purchase a firearm. What Iowa does have is a requirement of a ‘pistol purchase permit’ or a ‘weapons carry permit’ in order to purchase a handgun and I’m assuming neither of those can be applied for and granted in less than 72 hours since you have to wait for the sheriff’s department to call you back to pick it up. Once you have either permit you can purchase as many handguns as you’d like on the spot without a NICS check (since one is performed when you apply) for the duration of the permit (1 year for pistol purchase permits and 5 years for weapons carry permits).

      If there’s any basis in reality to her claim then I’m guessing there’s an elimination of that requirement on the purchase of handguns, but I had not heard anything about that being in the bill.

      • There’s no statutory 72-hour waiting period for either the Permit to Acquire or concealed carry in Iowa.

        • Technically you’re right, but the weapons carry permit can take up to thirty days (if your sheriff is a douche). I think both mine and my wife’s took about a week and our sheriff is an anti-gun Democrat.

          IA Chapter 724.11 Issuance of permit to carry weapons.

          4. The sheriff or commissioner of public safety shall approve or deny an initial or renewal
          application submitted under this section within thirty days of receipt of the application.

          IA Chapter 724.19 Issuance of annual permit to acquire.

          The annual permit to acquire pistols or revolvers shall be issued to the applicant
          immediately upon completion of the application unless the applicant is disqualified under
          the provisions of section 724.15

        • BTW, I was incorrect on the permit to purchase. I haven’t had one of those for a while and I think there used to be a waiting period. That probably changed when they rewrote the law for ‘shall issue’.

    • I bought a Beretta M9A1 yesterday in Anthon, Iowa. I walked in, examined it, paid for it, and walked out with the weapon. Took about 30 minutes, but hey, perhaps time flies.

      I suspect someone wrote this for her in NY or someplace like that, where they confuse Iowa with Idaho or Ohio. You know, all those vowels, geography is so difficult.

  12. “We live in a violent world, one where we pretty much need to watch our backs at all times as sad as that is to say.”

    Why is this flawed line of prevalent Proggie thinking always followed by one or a combination of:

    A) So I want to make it as hard as possible for anyone to choose firearms as a method of self-defense.
    B) Why are you gun owners so paranoid?
    C) Nothing is going to ever happen to you.

    /Rhetorical

  13. What? An anti rights azz clown that has appositely no idea what he’s talking about? Well THAT’S never happened before… Says no one ever.

  14. In the image she about to assault an innocent volleyball that did nothing but want to live it’s life like Wilson did on a deserted island free from abuse. Not be slapped with an open hand, an abused ball, living in fear. It has every right to live without fear of physical abuse at the hand of a bunch of women, the government should step in and protect it from crazed ball busters. Look at the group behind her, they can’t wait to be in the ball abuse game. Such horror is frightening.

  15. I haven’t played volleyball since high school and wasn’t very good at it then. Want that I should give you some pointers on your game?

  16. So you start off your article by proudly claiming that you’re willfully ignorant about the subject in which you’re about to opine…

    What could possibly go wrong?

  17. What’s up with TTAG suddenly tearing up opinion pieces by college co-eds? Since when does anyone care what unemployed communications majors think?

    • At Iowa State my best guess is she’s going after her fashion design major. She doesn’t have the brains to get an engineering or veterinary degree. I doubt she’s all that interested in ag or economics, so that leaves architecture or fashion design. Or maybe just a generic liberal arts degree. Anyway, she should really stop listening to her poly-sci professor. They’re all extra stupid.

  18. “I very much wish I could see the world as I did when I was a child or that world was the reality. When people were just people, not threats, and the only weapons I knew of were the Nerf kind that would irritate, not harm. Although leaving the mindset of a perfectly peaceful world was a gradual one, it was still rather mind boggling to think that a human could have it out for another.”

    I think this what I hate most about the Progressive left. They long for ignorance, for someone else to worry about the stuff they don’t like to worry about. They want little more than to exist in a state of uninformed numbness from cradle to grave, instead of having to accept any form of responsibility, and that includes protection. They want bread and circuses, but real life has shown that that will only end in self destruction.

  19. Translation: spoiled, naive, entitled, white girl leaves bubble enclosed suburban enclave and encounters real world that clashes with her childlike perceptions. Is especially shocked to learn that people dare to have different opinions from her and that the world is sometimes full of meanies.

    Does not like.

    Wants government to step in, like daddy used to do, and make it better.

    Yawn.

  20. “If, for example, you were dealing with regular unwanted attention from someone you would have the ability to see if they owned a gun and know if they were of that kind of threat toward you so you could take appropriate action and seek help from authorities.”

    Soooo… if you look it up and don’t see the someone’s name in the database, you are going to wipe your forehead, go “phew… don’t have to dodge THAT bullet (so to speak)”, and feel perfectly safe again? *head-desk*

    Why… WHY does these, um, people, assume that a) a law-abiding citizen (the only ones that would be on such a list) is someone they should be concerned about, and b) the NON-law-abiding ones would NOT be on such a list (and actually may have demonstrated being dangerous) and could easily have a firearm ANYWAYS (illegally)?!

    It is similar to those that advocate police have access to CCW records “to make the officers safer”… any officer that relaxes while approaching someone just because they don’t get a hit on a database probably won’t last too long.

    GAH.

  21. Money well spent Mom and Dad….when I call the hogie shop to order, she should be answering the phone….

  22. This is college-level writing? This was published? Without [sic] at the end of every sentence?

    Jesus.

    • The long tradition of far left wing radicalism is eclipsed only by the long tradition of utterly incompetent writing.

    • I could not get through that. Do de term “vacuous” strike a familiar note? I wonder if she was that stupid before college?

  23. The Iowa State Daily is locally known to be a pathetic joke with terrible, terrible writing.

  24. As of this writing 16 of 16 comments on the piece are negative. While we’re on the topic of writing, if you gave me this piece and made me gauge the age of the writer I would not place the author in college. Not even close.

  25. C’mon Robert, we need to be better than the antis when it comes to fact-checking. Madison Ward doesn’t play volleyball for ISU. The Madison Ward shown in the photo does play volleyball, for Oklahoma. I don’t know what her opinions are on gun control.

  26. “When I was a kid Nintendo was awesome and Oreos were free. Its mean that it is not so any longer so the government should make it so.” Seriously though college is beyond reasonable now with the ultra leftist indoctrination. Even the NYT is pointing it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html?_r=0

    “The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma.”

    I read that and was astounded that people who are supposed to be serious minded students are reverting at such a degree. Yet these same people will passionately support any progressive candidate that blows enough rainbows and fairy dust up their ass. Scary.

  27. Maybe if she concentrated on volleyball instead of my God given rights, Iowa State might be ranked.

  28. She’s 6’1″ and drop dead gorgeous. It gives her a forum whether she knows anything about the subject or not. Why else is she being talked about here?

  29. “But none the less, with each year it becomes steadily more apparent that there is more danger in the world than I had really known. The one light of hope, I had previously thought, was the government and its obligation to protect the public, but even now, that is starting to fade.”

    Ironically, he just made the case for being armed. I wonder if he gets that?

  30. Her reasoning sounds as though she’s still suffering from the effects of that concussion she experienced four months ago; reportedly resulting from an automobile accident in which she was not wearing a seatbelt. (An injury which caused her to miss some volleyball competition, that her team lost in her absence.) Poor young lady, but heeeyyyyyy….doesn’t Iowa have a mandatory seatbelt law, like 33 other states do, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association? I think they just might. Huh.

    Tell you what, sweetheart, how about you take care of yourself, taking advantage of common, everyday safety devices like seatbelts? Perhaps later on, when you’re fully recovered and more focused on securing your own safety, rather than relying on nameless, faceless “authorities”, then we can discuss your busybody notions about other people and their self-defense firearms. Good day, madam.

    • Different Madison Ward. The volleyball player that had the accident (and is the the picture) goes to Oklahoma. The person that wrote the article goes to Iowa State and is not a member of the volleyball team. And yes, Iowa has had a seatbelt law for many years.

  31. Wait there’s a 72 hour cooling off period? B.S. I can buy a gun in 15 minutes any where that’s selling…

  32. “The one light of hope, I had previously thought, was the government and its obligation to protect the public, but even now, that is starting to fade.”

    Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha.

    So close and yet so far. She recognizes that government cannot protect her. And then she sputters off into the weeds.

  33. “People can totally lie about their motivation for buying the gun at all, which brings me to my current state of dissatisfaction with our government. ”

    And people can totally lie about their reasons for buying cold and flu medication so they can crank out meth or latest illicit drugs. IMAGINE THAT PEOPLE LYING!

    (/sarcasm)

  34. Someone named Madison is anti-gun? Clearly she needs to learn a little bit more about her namesake.

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