“My only comment would be that the gun industry and its mouthpiece organizations seem to be able to drum up fear endlessly even though, as time passes, none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass. At what point will gun owners realize that they are being duped into artificially boosting gun sales for no valid reason?” – Virginia Center for Public Safety president Andrew Goddard, Virginia gun transactions set record in 2013 [at dailypress.com]
Buying guns is something I do regardless of anyone’s “Fear Mongering.” Mainly because I just like guns.
Agreed I have never run out and purchased a firearm out of fear. I didn’t burn rubber to the LGS and buy a bunch of ammo or 40 lowers after Sandy Hook or the Washington Navy Yard.
I’m getting pretty tired of being lied about and demonized by folks who barely know what end of a gun the bullet comes out of, who have never met me, and who have never even tried to learn about firearms. nothing pisses me off more than ignorance
Willful ignorance, along the lines of “don’t know much about guns or the people who own them” and don’t want to learn about them, doesn’t fit the agenda!
I agree.Given a choice I would buy a gun over say a diamond necklace.
It is just a bonus that I can use a gun for protection given that our ” justice system” just loves to give criminals a second,third,fourth…..chance.
When the civilian disarmament industry stops making every mass shooting an opportunity to make new control laws, then I will stop. It is great when you only have a one sided view.
Otherwise, I am with WRH, I like guns, if I find something I like (that new R51 looks cool) I will purchase it.
Problem is, the civilian disarmament industry is always there to stop my freedom to purchase the guns I want.
For a valid reason, I just need to point to New York and most of the north east. There is no question at all these people want to take away guns. What they consider reasonable is a complete ban on stores that sell guns, a license to buy ammo that takes 18 months and a colonoscopy to get, and a permit system with unlisted requirements that only a handful of people in the entire state (friends of the capo) seem to meet.
Well as they’ll tell you, so long as you’re able to own A gun, your rights aren’t being infringed.
Doesn’t matter to them that you won’t be able to own the types of guns you want to own.
Doesn’t matter to them that you won’t be able to own maybe more than one or two.
Doesn’t matter to them that you won’t be able to afford to shoot it recreationally.
Doesn’t matter to them that you won’t be able to use it to defend your self, home, and family.
Doesn’t matter to them that you won’t be able to pass it down to your children.
Doesn’t matter to them that you won’t be able to own a gun without basically going through a process more stringent than most federal security clearances.
So long as you can own one gun and one bullet, they’ll say your rights haven’t been infringed upon.
This +1000! Well said Jeff!
Because, Mr. Goddard, YOU are not the arbiter of what reason constitutes as valid.
Kthanksbye!
Yet Goddard and his ilk are the primary reason for the buying boom of 2013. The gun manufacturers don’t even have to spend money on advertising when all the anti-gunners are running around like Chicken Little on the major news networks calling for bans on everything that shoots.
Precisely! Goddard has his motivations mixed up.
When I read the line in his statement: ”…gun industry and its mouthpiece organizations seem to be able to drum up fear endlessly…” my first thought was:
No, it’s the antis’ efforts after any tragic shooting event to implicate and disparage all guns and demean lawful gun owners as evil and dangerous simply *because* they like, own and use firearms that drums up fear at all levels.
This irrespective of the fact that all law abiding citizens possess a natural and constitutionally protected right to own, keep and bear arms. Then the grabbers move to create new laws to restrict, prohibit and confiscate the gun owners’ rights and property. That is what motivates the panic buying.
What’s the best way to create a run on anything popular or necessary in life; threaten to make scarce, illegal, or obsolete.
Works every time!
This.
Well said. +1
These guys are just clueless, I believe it was the POTUS and his minions that got the whole run on guns thing started by talks of bans on certain weapons and magazines. They would blame the extinction of the dinosaurs on the NRA if they could pass it off… Oh btw wonder why so many people tooled up last year maybe they realized they basically are own there own for protection Because the police have no duty to respond.
The report of the demise of the dinosaur is grossly exaggerated. There are more dinosaur species currently living than mammals.
Thanks for the info Bill Nye! 😀
The Feinsteinosaurus dates back to the Paleozoic era. Hence, the extinction of species isn’t always a bad thing.
There was confiscation after Katrina…the politicians, when caught off guard, admit they want to confiscate arms… It’s not fear mongering, it’s being prepared against those who would threaten our liberty.
Just because the predictions don’t come to pass, doesn’t mean the antis aren’t trying.
well I guess since that automobile accident didn’t come to pass, I will just cancel that insurance then.
The article itself isn’t all that bad, it actually seems fairly middle of the road what with supplying two opposing viewpoints and all. But Goddard’s comments speak to a severe case of cranial-rectal insertion.
“mouthpiece organizations seem to be able to drum up fear endlessly”………so, MDA, MAIG, Brady, none of them drum up fear, right? Never once said “for the children?” The difference would be that when gun rights groups “drum up fear” they have facts supporting their arguments.
“none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass”…..Right. I heard LaPierre mention armed guards in schools. We never needed one of those. I hear other gun rights groups advocate armed self defense, but I’ve never heard of anyone being robbed, raped, or murdered. On the flip side, I’m glad the grabber’s prediction of “the streets will run red with blood” and “it will be like the wild west” were absolutely correct…
Two weeks away from TTAG and I can’t even fake snark…..no more vacations for me, I guess.
This reminds me of an interview I listened to on Air America (when it was on the air). A lefty activist went on for a good three minutes talking about how the republicans want grandma to eat dog food, starve kids, take away rights, light schools on fire, eat unicorns, etc etc. But then the last 30 seconds were spent warning listeners that the republicans might resort to scare tactics to get them to vote for their party…
Someone told me an official name for that tactic once, but I pretty much immediately forgot it and for the life of me can’t find it anywhere….
It’s standard liberal M.O. to predict what their opponents will say about them, before their opponents even get a chance to speak. By doing that they effectively discredit their opponents with “See? I told you they would say that!”
I don’t even know if there’s a one-word name for it, but the tactic is to accuse your opponent of doing exactly what you’re actually doing. ‘Projection’ is close, but I think projection is more of an internal thing.
Maybe the word I’m looking for is ‘lying.’
There is the pot calling the kettle black.
“Projection” is what shrinks call the tendency to attribute to others what you dislike in youself. So when the Progresso-Fascists™ claim gunowners are racist/sexist/control freaks, (fill in your own examples) it says moe about them than the subject.
fear mongering is all the anti’s and their paid hacks like Mr Stoddard and Ms Watts have left.
“Progresso-Fascists” sounds like a very unflattering pasta sauce.
“… none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass.” Ummm, hello? Anybody home? Gun confiscations as we speak, gun registries starting up as we speak? And you’ve got the gall to say that none of these predictions will come to pass? They’re happening now!
“At what point will gun owners realize that they are being duped into artificially boosting gun sales for no valid reason?” See above. That is to say, we’ve obviously got a valid reason, you’ve just chosen to ignore it for your own political agenda, Mr. Goddard..
Those comments aren’t for you… or anyone else that is informed or pays attention. We that do pay attention know that for every “nobody wants to take your guns” comment, there is a police department that is currently doing just that at the behest of those that use the aformentioned quote. Here’s lookin’ at you CA and NYC.
You nailed it.
The facts are clear enough to any impartial observer and Mr. Stoddard is simply resorting to the Big Lie
( http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/goebbelslie.html)
in the Daily Press quote, in either his own cult like belief in his own “narrative”…
….or more likely desperation as I imagine he sees the facts as clearly as any objective person does: and more Americans ( and especially Virginians) are seeing thru the gun-grabbers lies and distortions. He has to resort to lies to hold on to his shrinking base.
But its ultimately futile, as we see in this fair reporting of facts from community papers, and thanks to the innertubes…that you can’t suppress the Truth forever, no matter how the State Run Media™ might collude with this Democratic Administration and corrupt Senate leadership…
Don’t even answer the question. Flip it around from:
At what point will gun owners realize that they are being duped into artificially boosting gun sales for no valid reason?
to
At what point will gun banners realize that they are being duped into artificially depressing gun ownership for no valid reason?
“My only comment would be that the civilian disarmament industry and its mouthpiece organizations seem to be able to drum up fear endlessly even though, as time passes, none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass. At what point will law abiding citizens realize that they are being duped into stripping away their own rights for no valid reason?”
Fixed it.
Like
Yep, nailed it.
When an anti speaks, reality is only 180 degrees away.
My exact thought, hehe.
Perfect!
Speaking of fear mongering, shall we discuss how violent crime is down by half since the mid 90s? Speaking of dire predictions that never came true, shall we discuss the proliferation of concealed carry and “stand your ground” laws and the notable lack of blood in the streets?
I know this may seem like an absurd concept to some, but only when anti-gun folks stop attempting to regulate and restrict access to guns will the panic buying ever really stop.
During the last craze people who probably never would have thought about owning an AR, 20 pmags, and thousands of rounds of 5.56 ran out and bought just that. And, that wasn’t because of the NRA, that was because of congress and the president.
The NRA and gun manufactures don’t have to drum up gun sales, the gun grabbers are doing it for them. The anti-gun crowd, whether knowing or unknowing, is creating a modern day firearms renaissance.
It’s not panic buying when you are acquiring a firearm which will be illegal to purchase after an arbitrary date for an arbitrary reason
Yea one has to only look at Maryland. Before 10/1/2013 I could get the same type of freedom rifle with the same features like someone in Texas, Nevada, Washington, and a whole slew of others states could get on their AR, AK, etc.
Now AK’s are banned except Saigas as imported, anything but a heavy barreled AR-15 is banned, we can only have a flashider or folding stock on any new nontraditional freedom rifle, 10 rounds is our new maximum capacity to buy but not possess, and you need a license that most would go through to just obtain a CHL license now to buy.
Our may issue is no issue.
Crime and gun Violence is not done by law abiding gun owners,the key words are Law Abiding ! It’s done by criminals and repeat offenders who steal not buy and do background checks,guns after they have been let out of prisonTWELVE PLUS TIMES.
So don’t blame gun owners or the NRA cause we want to exercise our RIGHTS for self protection or sporting or hunting or whatever we wish to LEGALLY do under our Constitution .You need a checkup from the neck up !Your organization is doing Zero to stop gun violence,you are enhancing it by trying to unarmed society,but you are too STUPID to see that.
Let me pose this question too you; who knows more about firearms and their use? yOU? Or the NRA?I rest my case your Honor.
I think I see the error, it SHOULD read: “My only comment would be that the anti-gun establishment and its mouthpiece organizations seem to be able to drum up fear endlessly even though, as time passes, none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass. At what point will gun control advocates realize that they are being duped into artificially boosting gun sales for no valid reason?”
Another Communist organization like MDA and MAIG.” Oh…you don’t need guns!… Just get slaughtered like the rest of us and be happy about it”
If it’s anyone fear mongering it’s the gun control advocates. Telling us we need to pass a laws (don’t do a damn thing) an order to be safe. Just look at how Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy acts when it comes to CCW in Illinois.
Is he implying that Obama and his friends did not “TRY” to ban large capacity magazines, AR-15 and Ak-47’s.
They tried and failed… that does not change the fact that they tried.
The REASON they failed is because of VERY aggressive actions by ProGun Rights Groups.
Even Kennedy hoarded Cuban cigars before signing the embargo – why wouldn’t people buy guns in the face of proposed legislation that would outlaw future purchases?
Thou doth project too much, methinks.
Apparently the new laws that were passed in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, California and other states don’t count.
It’s not the gun manufacturers that are stirring up the business. It’s the gun prohibitionists.
I live in one of the statistically safest metropolitan areas in the country. I buy guns because they are interesting to me and I have a ton of fun with them.
// none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass //
Actually, if one looks at what NJ, MA, CA, NY, NYC, etc., gun laws have been evolving into, it is clear that the gun owner’s worst fears do come to pass, one step at a time, one State at a time. Furthermore, in some instances the reality has even managed to exceed my worst expectations.
His main fallacy is that we’re not the ones making the dire predictions of gun bans and restrictions – Obama, Biden, Pelosi and Feinstien are. The reasons these predictions don’t come to pass is that, in addition to buying up what the politicians predict they’ll be banning, we put pressure on our Congressmen to defeat those ban efforts. We’re the ones who cause the predictions to fail.
1. Fear is not the reason I’m about to by ANOTHER .22lr… FUN is the reason!
2. I have very strong “sales resistance,” including all methods of persuasion.
3. Yes, some have been using the “get them while you can” line, but they are in this thing called “business” where the goal is to make something called a “profit” and last time I checked a free market was cool with that ideology.
4. When does the government NOT use fear to rationalize their decisions?!? At least consumers are making decisions for themselves.
It never ends with these pick-your-ploy, dial-a-scam civilian disarmers. If it’s not the Big Lie, repeat a blatant lie often enough until people finally start believing it, then it’s something else. If it’s not a Jedi Mind Trick, these are not the gun grabbers you’re looking for, then it’s something else.
There’s something not only unwise, but wicked, about setting permanent policy based on fleeting emotions.
Those predictions never come to pass (although in some cases have) because we stop them from happening. The anti-gun side makes a push, the Pro-gun groups “rally the troops” by spreading information, and the people stop it from happening through legitimate political process. That is just another comment made out of frustration because the anti-gun side loses the majority of the time through completely legitimate means and because people on the other side of this issue as them are too smart and see through their lines and taglines. There is nothing they can do about it, and as per their usual MO they can’t look inwardly to their own failings and obviously weaker position and instead blame the NRA as some evil phantom puppetmaster.
As said above by many others, the anti-gun side is the one that pushes sales. The NRA didn’t write and propose anti-gun legislation in 2013. The GOA didn’t co-write the SAFE act. We didn’t fly symbols of fear and tragedy to the Superbowl through an unknown benefactor. Fear-mongering is their main tool.
The only reason for spikes in gun sales is because people fear they will be banned. And they fear that because groups are trying to ban them.
Obama is the greatest salesman ever. Record sales, record profits, record donations, & record high prices. Truly a corporate Democrat. The Gun Industry loves him. That is why they said and did nothing except take your money.
And still, no reporting on how the people where screwed with high prices, gouging, and other things the industry to the LGS did during this crisis. All we saw as readers was the bashing of CTD, then months later you guys supported them by having links on your gear reviews. But everything else was swept under the rug. How much money did the NRA bring in? How much actually went to protecting our rights? How much did the execs get paid? Come on TTAG, do some in-depth reporting.
If they had not raised prices, you would not have seen any ammo for a year. The places that didn’t raise prices were forced to ration(academy, cabelas etc). Price is just the point at which supply and demand meet at equilibrium. gouging is not a real thing.
“…none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass.”
Tell that to the residents of California, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, and Maryland. Maybe Goddard can explain why Magpul is leaving Colorado.
“even though, as time passes, none of the predictions on which they base their fear mongering come to pass”
Because gun owners put in lots of time and donations to beat SOB’s like you back every year.
….Riiiiiiiight
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/6/gun-sales-2013-break-all-records-due-obamas-gun-co/
Ask the people of New York, Connecticut, and Colorado if the “fear mongering” predictions never come to pass… And that’s just in 2013.
So the pro-gun people are fear mongering and the gun-haters are calm, rational and principled?
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Crazy. And here I was, thinking the reason I keep buying guns is because I like them and I’m just getting started on my collection. Thanks for setting me straight, Mr. Public Safety Dickwad.
NO VALID REASON? Well, they’re one of the few things that keep their value, and can even increase in value. IT’S AN INVESTMENT. So STFU.
I’m about to be artificially duped into buying a Remington R51. As soon as it hits my local gun store!
I make this comment because “freedom rifles” (you know what they are) are the whipping boy of the anti-gun movement. The one firearm that scares them the most as well as the other useful idiots.
Before 1986, owning machine guns was a rarity in this country. Even gun owners called those who owned them “gun nuts.” That sure changed when word got out they were going to be banned . More machine guns were bought in history at one time because of Ronald Reagan signing that law which still reverberates to this day with the high demand, low supply, and extremely high costs for only the super wealthy to afford.
Before 1989 owning a freedom rifle from overseas was a rarity. There were tons of types like AK’s, FAL’s, Galil’s, G3’s, AUG’s, FNC’s, 550/551 series; even a few FAMAS and Chinese Type 81’s made it over. You were considered a gun nut or un-patriotic for owning one. That all changed when an executive order was signed by George Bush banning their import unless severely neutered. Prices are now up to 5 times as much just on Chinese AK’s alone because we can no longer get them.
Then it came for the domestic freedom rifles’ turn like the AR-15, AR-18, and M14 (with Bill Ruger selling us out to protect his Mini-14). They got thrown under the bus too with the 1994 AWB. That alone was IMO the turning point for the freedom rifle to gain the ever increasing popularity it does today further enhanced by just the threat alone of another one a year ago because of Sandy Hook.
If the antigunners stopped giving a shit then maybe there would be less of them on the market to begin with. They are their own worst enemy.