A coworker of mine has a 10-year-old son. She told me he’s recently taken a fascination with firearms and has been drawing them a lot. I instinctively offered to take him shooting. Much to my surprise she had assumed that I wouldn’t mind taking him to the range to WATCH me shoot. When I told her I’d take him and her to them to the range and watch THEM shoot, she seemed ecstatic.
The little bugger’s Birthday is in January, looks like I’ll be getting him a present. And this is why the anti-gun side will never win. Shooting guns is fun, its interesting, and its educational. The best the antis can do is gin up fear, and do their best to confuse and lie to people who don’t know any better.
I like being on the right side of the issue.
she had assumed that I wouldn’t mind taking him to the range to WATCH me shoot.
And what does the fact she thought you would share your hobby say about you as a person and your principles?
In my opinion we have to emphasize this aspect more — a mom was willing to take a 10 year old boy around an armed man – so much for gun owners being mean and scary eh?
Most Gun owners are the people next door, criminals are the thugs people see on television and in the paper.
The simple math (even if Joan Peterson can’t understand it) shows this to be true 13,000 homicides divided by 50 Million gun owners (giving the antis every break again) times 100 to express as a percentage = 0.026%
The best the antis can do is gin up fear,
In order to gin up that fear, they have to demonize “Uncle Buck” or Grandpa or Mr. Beard. I think that is the shift in focus toward “the flow of guns”. They have to make someone who likes to shoot on the weekend as bad as the criminal.
Too bad for them most people don’t buy it.
Please ask the mom if you can take pics and post them….the grin is worth it.
And note that your 0.026% assumes that every homicide was committed by a single, and different person, and that they are all counted among the 50mil lawful gun owners….and that there are ONLY 50million of us.
Those are all pretty dubious numbers to sell, even for that statistically insignificant number.
And yep, its pretty hard to have your bigoted stereotypes when you can see first hand that it isn’t true. Pretty hard to call hunters ignorant rednecks when my Uncle would take off his hunting boots and put on a coat, tie and a pair of $300 dress shoes to go to work on Monday.
In the 80s anti-smoking propaganda was so bad I felt anybody who would smoke was stupid and bad….then I’d go see my grandmother…who still smokes at 85! and have some serious conflict of thought.
Also didn’t stop me from putting the butts to my lips when I turned 18….
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics…
I don’t know about watching people shoot. I’ve gone to high power matches and it’s about on par with watching paint dry. Yay! The paper got a few more holes! Oh look – Chris’s head is up his own ass again because he got a bad shot, it’s all downhill from there! Even the shooters say that about watching it. (If I have to go, I’ll bring a book, and an iPod for under the noise canceling headphones.) So I usually don’t go anymore, and just meet the guys afterward.
Don’t mind me, I was just disappointed when they started with the old and broken rule so they cut out some of the other positions. The best stare at the guys’ butts doesn’t happen as much. 🙁
Oh God, people like Caleb are always posting videos from the latest practical shooting matches. Those are HANDS DOWN the most interesting shooting sports to watch and even watching those videos are eye-crossingly boring.
Yeah I quickly told them that I’d put a few rounds down range just because many new shooters aren’t sure what to expect when you pull the trigger. But after that I’m just there to make sure everybody is safe, and everybody is happy. And that makes me Happy! 🙂
“But after that I’m just there to make sure everybody is safe, and everybody is happy.”
Yep. I’m looking at taking a group of new shooters out next month (after classes are out), and I’m actually looking forward to just standing around, giving out tips and taking pictures.
I’m fond of pointing out that very few people get dragged along to anti-gun ranges and find out how fun not shooting is.
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