Hoplophobes are afraid of guns as if firearms had a mind of their own. Hoplophobes are ignorant and we’d like to teach them, but they (mostly) do not want to learn. They are happy in their ignorance. They are only dangerous because they vote . . .
Anticulturalists hate gun culture and wish it to be destroyed. The guns are secondary. We are their target, and they’d hate us even if we were disarmed. The hatred of us is palpable. Listen to their language. They use phrases like “gun nuts” and far worse to deride our culture. They would exterminate us if they could get away with it, but they can’t. Most of the anti-gun crowd are anticulturalists fighting this culture war. It’s positively tribal. [ED: Anyone who doubts this should click here for proof.]
Gungrabbers are statists. Whether they are politicians or servants of politicians, they want all the power and all the control. They do not hate us per se, but they hate the fact that we — or anyone but them — have power. They’ll kill you if you don’t go along with the program, and they have the means at their disposal to do so and get away with it.
We have our own tribe, but it’s peaceful. All we want is to be left alone. If we were violent, we have the means to cause a great deal of destruction. We don’t because our aim isn’t to take anything away from anybody. We just want to hold on to our culture and our guns.
Regarding compromise, it’s a horrible idea when dealing with antis/political types.
For example, Connecticut passed a “flat” 4.5% income tax back in 1991, and lowered the sales tax from ~8% to 6%, with the intent of balancing the budget. Not surprisingly, that didn’t work. Since then, the “flat” tax has been abandoned for a 6-tiered system with a top rate of 6.5%, the sales tax rate is like 6.35%, but it applies to a whole host of things it didn’t apply to 22 years ago.
Moral of the story? Don’t give them an inch, because once you acquiesce to a little bit, be it income tax or “universal” background checks, there is almost no chance of going back. Most likely, they will continue to take more and more.
Ralph,
Didn’t we just have a conversation about this in the comments of another blog? 😉
Yes.
This is the accuracy of perspective that comes only with age and having been around this fight for decades.
This is wholly not my thing. But I do give them props for trying to go beyond the typical crap.
Finally wrote an article huh Ralph? It’s been a long time. it seems.
A good read though. You should write some more often instead of draining the stores of ammunition and not sharing any with us.
All true enough.
How many guns do you see?
Most universities in major cities are like this, especially ones that have been around a long time. My best friend went to Pitt, and he lived only a few blocks from campus, but i swear we were in the worst ghetto of pittsburgh. It was a bit sketchy, i personally wouldn’t feel safe there without something.
I think that’s a pretty good breakdown. There’s some overlap between the groups, but that’s a good way to view the problem.
Funny how the anticulturalists will still line up and pay money to see Matt Damon or Tom Cruise shoot people with a wide variety of handguns and rifles for 140 minutes. I guess they don’t mind, as long as the movie is disparaging military professionals – like “Green Zone”. Or suggesting the US intelligence community is plain evil and corrupt – like every Tom Cruise thriller ever and the Bourne movies.
Do you really mean to say that they’re hypocrites? Wherever did you get that idea? I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!
That doesn’t look like an M16, not even the XM177.
Well-said, Ralph. Thank you.
BTW – did anyone catch the new Miss Universe from Venezuela?
http://www.stltoday.com/gallery/news/national/venezuelan-crowned-miss-universe/collection_86068504-4b21-52bf-b819-22ede3eff991.html#0
Thank you sir!
LOVE that picture of Miss Universe and Trump where the so-called journalist writing the caption felt it was necessary to point out that the person on the left was Miss Universe and the person on the right was Donald Trump! Hilarious.
“There’s a quantitative difference between a newspaper and a gun. A gun kills people.”
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And the pen is mightier than the sword!
Not because the pen is directly more lethal, but because the pen can inflame public passion to lethal ends.
Julius Streicher was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials, it wasn’t because he was a member of the military or helped directly in the planning or execution of the Holocaust, but because he helped lay the foundation of the Holocaust with his words and speeches. As the trial concluded;
“For his 25 years of speaking, writing and preaching hatred of the Jews, Streicher was widely known as ‘Jew-Baiter Number One.’ In his speeches and articles, week after week, month after month, he infected the German mind with the virus of anti-Semitism, and incited the German people to active persecution… Streicher’s incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitutes persecution on political and racial grounds in connection with war crimes, as defined by the Charter, and constitutes a crime against humanity”
Millions of men, women and children, rounded up and executed simply because of who they are, and this slaughter egged on by journalists instilling hatred into the minds of the populace, and Joe Nocera doesn’t think words can be lethal.
Nor, is this an isolated example, all mass slaughters have been proceeded by words designed to dehumanize the group, to harden the hearts of potential murderers so the killing can take place, the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda was proceeded by months of propaganda, in both print and media, to encourage the Hutu population to violence.
Without such words, it’s hard to imagine such slaughters ever taking place, yet Joe Nocera thinks words are harmless.
That’s as good of a way to explain it as any I’ve heard or read. There is one component though, that all of these groups share; the one thing that ties them together in their common cause. FEAR. Fear of the independent individual.
As most will no doubt attest, fear can take on make forms, and many faces, both rational and irrational, but their unrelenting fear is their one uniting force. For the hoplophobes, their irrational fear on inanimate objects is so great that even a picture(or Pop-tart) is enough to send them into a panicked state. The irrational anti-culturists, are, in their own fearful minds, the pro-culuralists. They have assumed that a gun-free society is the natural societal progression to a 1st tier civilization, even though we’re still teetering on the cusp of a 3rd tier civilization. I call these people the Star Trek crowd. They hate the fact that they won’t live to see a 24th century, 1st tier civilization like they see in the Star Trek series/movies. In their minds, we are the ones who are preventing the 24th century from arriving before its time, and before they die. We knuckle-dragging 2nd amendment types are stuck in the hopeless antiquity of an irrelevant, passe document like the US Constitution. The statists are just plain afraid they will lose control of the power they hold over the population. As Mel Brooks said in his movie, “It’s good to be the King.” And the only thing a king fears is a peasant uprising and a date with a Guillotine. Of the three, this is the only one that is actually driven by a rational fear of death, death at the hands of those they have oppressed to remain in power.
When I got to the part where the author said the 783 had a plastic bolt handle, I knew then he / she never even looked at the 783. Entire write up pure BS, author must work for the “other” guys. Another fine example of ” you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
The real question, da fuq is a tlr-1 doing on a nice select fire rifle like that? I mean come on, there are way better choices out there than that, especially when you can obviously afford it.
The only reason for a gun to be this color is to denote that it’s a practice/training reproduction, something used to teach people how to shoulder, and how to stand when firing, a shotgun. Lots of Youtube videos document the power of a shotgun in the hands of the uninformed. Hey, at least they didn’t paint it zombie day-glo green.
The Deaf, The Dumb, The Blind…
Here’s what John Hancock had to say about a “well-regulated militia”. (Line 10)
He uses the word interchangeably with “well-disciplined” in his Boston Massacre Oration March 5th 1774.
Stirring stuff. Read the whole speech here:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/hancockoration.html
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“….But since standing armies are so hurtful to a State, perhaps my countrymen may demand some substitute, some other means of rendering us secure against the incursions of a foreign enemy. But can you be one moment at a loss? Will not a well-disciplined militia afford you ample security against foreign foes? We want not courage; it is discipline alone in which we are exceeded by the most formidable troops that ever trod the earth. Surely our hearts flutter no more at the sound of war than did those of the immortal band of Persia, the Macedonian phalanx, the invincible Roman legions, the Turkish janissaries, the gens d’armes of France, or the well-known grenadiers of Britain. A well-disciplined militia is a safe, an honorable guard to a community like this, whose inhabitants are by nature brave, and are laudably tenacious of that freedom in which they were born. From a well-regulated militia we have nothing to fear; their interest is the same with that of the State. When a country is invaded, the militia are ready to appear in its defense; they march into the field with that fortitude which a consciousness of the justice of their cause inspires; they do not jeopard their lives for a master who considers them only as the instruments of his ambition, and whom they regard only as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance of bread and water. No; they fight for their houses, their lands, for their wives, their children; for all who claim the tenderest names, and are held dearest in their hearts; they fight pro aris et focis, for their liberty, and for themselves, and for their God. And let it not offend if I say that no militia ever appeared in more flourishing condition than that of this province now cloth; and pardon me if I say, of this town in particular. I mean not to boast; I would not excite envy, but manly emulation. We have all one common cause; let it, therefore, be our only contest, who shall most contribute to the security of the liberties of America. And may the same kind Providence which has watched over this country from her infant state still enable us to defeat our enemies!…
[snip] …Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a den of thieves. Remember, my friends, from whom you sprang. “
Ya know……if I lived in MA I’d probably try to really pound the drum about the inherent unfairness of this 10/10 law and use this incident as the drumstick. Even idiot leftist MAssholes can understand the wrongness of selective enforcement.
As Americans, we have a long history with free speech. We also have a government built on compromise, so here is the compromise I propose: ban blogs and non traditional media, for everyone except recognized journalistic entities. These mediums are made to spread disinformation and should be strictly limited. At the same time, allow responsible citizens to express themselves through approved means. Protests would be limited to approved First Amendment Zones. Citizens can also continue writing to recognized entities and have their thoughts expressed through them. This will ensure that people still have the ability to exercise their first Amendment rights, but will be prevented from causing disorder.
Send him a note at runners world. I left a comment a few days ago. Of the 500 or so comments at the time, all but a few took Symmonds to the woodshed for a spanking. The other few just called him a dipshit. Apparently some runners CCW.
I have run 10 marathons and I USED to subscribe to both Runner’s World and Running Times, both Roadale Press publications. Runner’s World has previously ventured into the political arena recently and slobber lovingly all over Wendy Davis who filibustered in her “pink Mizunos” (a running shoe) to block killing babies during partial birth abortions. Then this guy comes out and speaks against 2A rights. All in a friggin’ running magazine. I sent them an e mail informing them I cancelled my subscriptions. Screw ’em.
RF … I hear a baritone George Takei “oh my” echoing in my ears….these are both evil ASSAULT WEAPONS in NY state! Shame on you!
I wrote a review of my jogging-CCW fanny pack on the Free Fire Zone, which the editors made into a full post:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/08/daniel-zimmerman/gear-review-ka-bar-tdi-fanny-pack/
I carry a CZ-75 Compact in there. That’s an all-steel pistol; definitely not lightweight, but that fanny pack makes it easy to carry when running.
Can’t access the roster today to see if California will allow me to have either one, but of the two I’d grab the HK. I have a Sig Mosquito, which has the same grip, dimensionally, as many of their other firearms, and it really doesn’t fit my hand well. I picked up an HK45 at a LGS and it felt wonderful. On the other hand, both of these are DA/SA with decockers–I like the idea but not the reality. Now maybe I’m prejudiced because the Mosquito has one of these triggers and a decocker too–but I find it impossible to pull the trigger in DA mode, and the SA mode is numb.
I reread the review here of the HK–and I don’t understand the complaint about the price. Most 1911s are as much or A LOT more. Kahrs in the P series retail for $800, so what’s the big deal of a street price of $850 for a HK?
I’d choose the gun made by the Swiss. The Swiss were only half-Nazis. (Also, the Sig is more balanced, has less recoil, and has buttons/levers in more logical places.)
I am a veteran. I would massage my gums with an AR-15 before I would disgrace the constitution by joining such a group.
Veterans Day sucks. Why not Veterans MONTH?
Cops are not supposed to “serve and protect”. This has been decided in many court cases. They are there to enforce the will of the politicians.