So I was looking around the usual suspect for responses to the President’s insipid non-statements on gun control, seems that most of them are staying away from it…tho I did find this video where Paul Helmke manages to complete several full-sentences without swallowing his tongue and choking to death. Good Job Paul!
But I found myself cruising the Huff-Po and I was VERY suprised to find this story.
I really don’t want to like guns. I was raised in a pacifist household — we protested the Vietnam War and worshiped Ghandi.
I can actually empathize with this. I actually felt a bit guilty the first time I went shooting that I liked it as much as I did, and that suddenly I had what would prove to be an insatiable desire for a 1911 .45.
And then there are my neighbors, who are wealthy and conservative. Several take a doomsday, riots-in-the-streets approach to the future. They are interested in stockpiling gold, having a secure food source, and making sure they have plenty of guns….I went with that same neighbor and a friend to a home in suburban Boston, where an old man led us into the basement of his townhouse, closed the door and produced the largest array of handguns I have ever seen in my life. For a full day, he taught us everything we need to know about handling, cleaning, shooting and buying every conceivable type of gun. Then he gave us the test that would allow us to carry a concealed weapon. I passed with flying colors.
I will say that Massachusetts gun laws BREED gun-nuts. In Maine and Texas, and Florida and other states that are not hostile to gun owners you get what I would call “Fair Weather Gun Owners”. The guy that has an old Pump shotgun in his closet, the guy with a S&W Model 10 in his sock drawer. The guy who has his Dad or Grandfather’s deer rifle that he’s never fired, the guy who has a Hi-Point or Glock they bought with some of their money from a summer job and still wonder what the hell they were thinking. Honestly I have nothing against these gun owners…but also given that they are virtually comatose in the battle for gun rights, I also don’t hold them up for much. They really don’t care about their guns or their gun rights, and wouldn’t put up too much of a complaint if their guns were to be confiscated, as its just “Stuff”, the gun in the sock drawer is no different than the box of old comic books in the closet, or Polyester Leisure Suit on the hanger. They own it, but it really doesn’t have any real value to them.
Here in Massachusetts we need a permit to OWN guns. It doesn’t matter if its my Crap-tastic Jennings, or my collection of Mosin Nagants (with the Exception of the 1896 Tula which is technically not a gun under the law), or my 1911s, or my FAL with its collection of pre-ban-magazines, one or all of those guns require me to take the above mentioned safety course, and pay $100 every five years. Sorry, if I just had my Mosin Nagant M44 mix-master (Probably my favorite Mosin Nagant for Range use, but the least valuable in my collection) paying $100 every 5 years to keep an $80 rifle is flat-out retarded, really your only logical choices are #1 Get rid of the gun (which is the reason lawmakers passed these stupid laws in the first place) or #2. Buy shitloads of guns so you get your damn nickle’s worth. I chose option #2, because the people who want me to not own guns are total jerks and fools, AND for this reason.
The truth is that holding a handgun, I felt good. Damn good. I don’t like to admit it. But that’s the truth. And that’s how I ended up on the nationwide NRA talk show talking about manhood and guns.
Yep, guns are fun….LOTS OF FUN. I love owning guns…as a matter of fact in typing the above paragraph I felt the urge to take a break and pull my Tula M1891 out of the vault just because I hadn’t looked at it in a while…and to get that Tula out of the Vault I had to pull out the Izhevsk hex-reciver 91/30. I didn’t even shoot them and I was having fun just manipulating them and looking at them. I’ve actually surprised people at how much they enjoyed looking at old guns showing off my Mosin collection. Like the time I had my wife hold my pair of Izhevsk 91/30s, made 10 years apart, one hex one round, and showing how polished the Hex is, and how rough and hurried the Round is because of the rush to arm up for WWII. You can actually FEEL history, and that’s a powerful feeling.
BTW that Show Interview can be found here. (BTW I think his assessment that guns are linked to masculinity is totally sexist, and bullshit. Leaning to shoot guns makes you more of an ADULT, as you are learning to master a potentially dangerous skill that could save your life. Guns are a tool to self-sufficiency, which I find synonymous with Adulthood, and the reason why I call those who suckle at the tit of the nanny-state “Perpetual Children”)
Fun has a powerful pull as well, go read this post by Robb to read a story about a man who helped 384 women get acquainted with shooting. Robb closes with this money-quote.
Do you think the Brady’s or the VPC got three hundred and eighty four women to give up guns this weekend? Do you think any of the gun control groups were able to put that many smiles on faces in one day?
This is why we win.
Indeed!
Another reason I personally like guns is because, as a mechanical engineer, they are about the only thing out there that uses purely mechanical principles to operate. None of those annoying electrons to get in the way of the springs and levers.
It is neat. I bought my CZ-52 for mechanical reasons only. Its a roller-locked pistol, uses a bottle-necked cartridge. It really doesn’t have much historical significance, and its miserable to shoot. But damn its fun to take apart and look at how the bits and pieces interact!
One of the things that has really captured my imagination about firearms is that these literally are pieces of history, encapsulated in their own sometimes-tiny forms. The Tula I purchased was built in 1934, and may have seen action in WW2. But it may not have, and given its condition, it probably did not. Which makes me wonder why not? What room was it shoved away in and why was it forgotten about? And so on, so forth.
Worse, for me, both as an engineer like BlueSun and someone who enjoys history, are the “buy backs” wherein the firearms are destroyed… The number of GI-issued 1911s that were left in walls in farmhouses that have been destroyed in that fashion is probably mindboggling, and the anti-rights cultists consider this to be a Very Good Thing (TM). Not only are those police departments and agencies destroying a perfectly functional machine that could still be serviceably used for years to come, but they are destroying a veritable piece of American history, and one that could be used to generate all manner of profits for the person who unwittingly agreed to the “buy back”.
That level of disrespect for American people, for American history, and for durable goods is simply disgusting.
Regardless, adversity does tend to bring out the combative nature of people, and making it difficult for them to do what they enjoy will either convince them to stop doing it, or do it with a vengeance… I daresay when it comes to individual rights, the latter seems to be the rule more than the exception.