“Ask Amy,” a syndicated advice column for the dead tree press, gained a degree of infamy among gun owners last month. A father who was distraught over his hard-working, responsible adult daughter’s gun ownership wrote to column author Amy Dickinson [not pictured above] asking for her help in dealing with the dire situation.
The advice maven didn’t urge empathy, tolerance or understanding, though, as she so commonly does with other issues in her columns. Instead, Dickinson recommended that dear old dad give his daughter an ultimatum before administering the heave-ho and kicking her out of the house.
Dickinson’s advice to the father featured plenty of misinformation about firearms, not to mention outright bigotry against gun owners. We covered it when it happened.
Since then, Ask Amy and Dickinson have suffered weeks of pounding on social media. Now the author has returned to “explain” things to her readers and critics.
Once more, instead of graciously urging tolerance and understanding of people who choose to avail themselves of their Second Amendment rights, Dickinson has her shovel out and digs furiously, doubling down on the bigotry.
From The Mercury News (but it’s available in plenty of other outlets as well):
DEAR READERS: I recently ran a question from “Dumbfounded Father” in my column. This man had a 24-year-old daughter who was living with him. She had recently disclosed that she possessed a .40-caliber semi-automatic weapon, with hollow-point bullets. This father did not want to have guns in his home.
In my response, I incorrectly stated that hollow point bullets “explode.” I stated that this ammunition is illegal in 11 states.
I take responsibility for this error and apologize to readers who were misinformed, confused or furious about it…
Many angry readers also suggested that my ignorance of firearms and ammunition disqualifies me from commenting on gun ownership or gun violence.
Obviously, I disagree. I don’t have to know the intricacies of a car engine to advocate for commonsense driving and licensing laws.
In other words, Dickinson feels perfectly fine giving advice regarding and advocating for “commonsense” laws regulating something about which she admits she knows virtually nothing.
In fact, she doesn’t have to know about guns. All she really knows is that she hates them. Just as racial bigots in times past have discriminated against black people. Or other hated the Irish, Italians, Chinese or gays.
And then Dickinson dug deeper.
I definitely have a bias against the people who use guns to terrorize and kill one another. I also have a bias against the gun lobby that gaslights Americans into believing that gun ownership is not only a right, but also — these days — a necessity, as many readers have suggested.
Gaslighting Americans about their right to keep and bear arms and the proven benefits of firearm ownership? Reading is fundamental, Amy. Twenty-seven words. You should read them sometime.
Dear Amy,
Put down the shovel and go back to offering advice to men who can’t get a date or women whose husbands leave the seat up. You’re far better suited to writing about things you know and have first-hand experience with than those yucky guns you won’t allow in your house.
Thanks,
America’s Lawful, Responsible Gun Owners