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When Gun Control Comes Between Brothers

Dan Zimmerman - comments No comments

By MojoRonin

I just finished reading an article published at huffingtonpost.com summarizing the disagreement Ted Nugent and his brother Jeffrey have over expanded background checks. Nuge’s elder brother is for expanding them, while, as you’d guess, younger brother Ted opposes expanding existing law. They posted dueling op-ed articles and are both respectful in their agreement to disagree. Very commendable of them both, and they earn my respect regardless of their conflicting views. I only wish my own don’t-agree-with-you-about-gun-control brotherly conflict was as agreeable . . .

Stanley, as I’ll call him, is a married father with a daughter living in the Twin Cities. He’s a musician, a stay at home dad, and not what anyone would call a conservative. As my half-brother, he has a different mother and wasn’t raised in the same home I was. His mom decided to have an alternate orientation with her partnership, and a different interpretation of religion than my own. After he set out on his own, he discovered he had an appetite for drugs, cafe snobbery (with guitar, of course), and job hopping — 9-to-5s are too mainstream for Stan.

Yeah, you’ve guessed right. . .he’s a bearded hipster liberal and too damned entitled to look past his own ego. There’s some irony in someone who’s a liberal and incapable of viewing other opinions that differ from their own despite the presence of facts.

When the shooting at Aurora, Colorado happened, I put up a silly little Facebook post on my page. You know, the one that says something like, “gun free zones are psycho magnets and only disarm the law abiding.” I then went to work at my job, because, well, I have one.

Stanley the hipster decided to troll the (expletive deleted) out of the post, whilst my friend (a long-time gun owner, collector, and permit to carry holder) countered Stanley’s progressive-ese with factoids. I eventually came home to find an epic of troll-n-flame brawl on my Facebook page, one that would make Dante and the Brothers Grimm sit up and take note. The result of this, though, has been a rift between my brother and me ever since, despite the fact that I wasn’t even there for the argument.

You see, I’m a moron for owning a gun. For believing that my firearm protects my family and me. Since Stanley doesn’t have a gun, no one else should. Don’t argue, if you are on the other side of his opinion, you’re wrong – because you can’t see both sides of the issue (doesn’t that sound…silly?).

Yeah, he’s the Occupy Wall Street supporter whose wife has a degree and works her ass off. He’s employed part time as a bar tender, last I heard; if he’s still working at all. The reasons for his troll attacks was simply to antagonize under the guise of ‘making you think before you talk.’ The result was a different matter – hurt pride, loss of respect and avoiding me (the eldest brother) ever since so I don’t give him a case of the ol’ “I told ya so.”

Since the Aurora and Newtown shooting sprees, facts supporting what we here at TTAG already know have been found, collated, sorted, sifted, and put out in a comprehensible bundle; that more law abiding gun owners – especially ones who carry a firearm – result in lower crime. And that gun free zones are the preferred venues for mass shooters.

I’ve not talked to him since the Newtown tragedy, and no, I haven’t de-friended him. I’m taking a high road by just continuing to do my thing: family, work, having some fun. My phone is always on for him to call, my Facebook page is open to his posts. But to do that, he’d have to eat some crow (big time). I regret the situation, but don’t have much pity for him. I wish him the best, and that will hinge on his commitment to wanting to succeed in life. That double standard thing might be a problem for him, however.

0 thoughts on “When Gun Control Comes Between Brothers”

  1. My Obamabot brother called me a teabagger on my Facebook page and told me that the 2nd amendment doesn’t mean anything. I don’t even allow him to enter the driveway now, I will have him arrested for trespass..

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  2. As a kid I envisioned a similar device in the nose cone of my Estes rockets with the cartridge/primer facing backward and a nail as a firing pin on impact. Good thing the idea scared me just enough to remain an idea. (non-reusable)
    BTW
    What is the required velocity to cause ignition??

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  3. Teach your kids that only idiots stand under a chopper in “flight”. There has not yet been one built that wasn’t looking for a place/time to crash.

    At least the Johnie Rambos didn’t fall off their rope.

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  4. I have a lib inlaw family, that odddly we enough own guns. More funds than I ever have…. But they have been cnnbrainwashed to think we don’t “need” assault rifles or 30 round mags, yet their son, owns one also… not to mention more hand guns than I, he has a firearm trust so he has suppressors also.

    The problem is they view 2nd A rights as a “Hobby” and say things like “I hope I never loose my rights but if I do I’ll find snother hobby.”

    I gave him a stern tongue lashing last time I went shooting & I think I may finsly getting through to him. My father & mother in kaws are hopeless obamalovers & think national heathcare as a mandatory scheme is a good thing…

    They also seem to think we are a democracy… I only ask them to site the pleadge of allegiance and tell me where the word “democracy” is present…

    Even when faced with obvious facts and stats that they should stand up for their rights I just get im a crazy extremist, republican… even though I don’t except partisan lables.

    My f-n-law even has a conceal & carry, as does my b-n-law, but thinks if someone open carries they are a nut… I just don’t understand their thought processes.

    I tell them I don’t have a problem with the current background system per se, but in order to make illegal purchases less common, give citizens the OPPORTUNITY to call the system themselves. Done end of story and super easy… but NOOOOOO we need a whole new scheme to subdue us… I’m not buyin it, sorry.

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  5. I’ve been fortunate- my family turned out to be more in-line with my strong beliefs about firearms than I ever would’ve thought.
    See, my mom, as far back as I can remember, was terrified of guns. This is despite growing up in a home where my grandad had plenty of them.
    – and let me just say this publicly, as opposed to murmuring to myself- I really miss my grandad. He was still a young man when we lost him, and I wish like all hell he could’ve finished teaching me how to shoot.
    Anyway, one thing my mom had always said was while she didn’t like guns personally, she absolutely supported the right to own one.
    Just a few short years ago, my dad and I dragged her into the hobby. She now owns some of the most expensive .22s on the planet, and a .38 wheel gun in almost as many flavors as they make. It didn’t take long to even break her of notions that “assault weapons” were bad, to the point of these days where she likes the “classic look” of my AKM, just not the recoil. My sister married a great guy who grew up hunting and shooting, so now when we go to the range, it’s damn near a family reunion.
    I did lose some friends, but I have to tell you something- I don’t miss them much. The people who I would want watching my back- my dad and my best friend- would gladly do so, armed to the teeth. So just the two of them are worth a thousand of those weak-spirited former friends.

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  6. The real action shifted to the state level months ago, anyway. The vigorously organized, well-funded lobbying groups gave up on the Feinstein axis of the Federal push back in (I think) late February or so, once Harry Reid signaled that he’d be structuring the handling of Feinstein-type bills like a free-for-all melee at a Roman Coliseum.

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  7. As we all know, Progressives support the Bill of Right only when it is convenient. they are happy to use the IRS to attack those groups who use the 1st amendment to oppose them. They attack gun owners, yet they walk around with armed security guards. Heck, Senator Feinstein (D) has a CWP even though she is against common serfs like us for having one.

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  8. Even if you made 3D printed guns illegal criminals would still make them. Heck if you banned guns and confiscated them all tomorrow criminals would have them made on CNC machines.

    To “stop” “home made” guns you would need to confiscate every 3D printer, CNC machine and lathe in the country. But that dog won’t hunt. The Genie is out of the bottle.

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  9. Meddling in the affairs of other countries and regions is not morally good or any of our business. A small amount of domestic diversity opens minds and is healthy. Too much domestic diversity divides a country against itself and without a shared vision the country stagnates eventually going down.

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  10. Shots might seem like an unusual way to treat allergies, but they’re effective at decreasing sensitivity to triggers. The substances in the shots are chosen according to the allergens identified from a person’s medical history and by the allergist during the initial testing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the standards used in preparing the materials for allergy shots given in the United States.

    Reply

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