Images of the Antis: Need

The “Progressives” SURE love to tell others what they NEED and DON’T NEED

First let’s pick off the easy ones. The 2012 figure is saying “Nobody Needs a Gun”? Sorry, but 2012 was a heavy year of losses in the anti-gun political movement, and a year where gun shops couldn’t keep guns in stock and police departments struggled to keep up with demand for concealed carry permits. That image just doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Next we have some good-old anti-gun blackface. A dude loaded down with guns and ammo, floppy cowboy boots, some gross baggy sweater…and a sauce pot? Wait, I’ve been using mine for making tea and cooking food…you mean as somebody who owns more than 10 guns I should be WEARING that?

Also what’s the story with TEN guns? Like I said, I own more than that, but that’s because I’m a gun dude, and I enjoy collecting them. The freak in the picture only has 5. Plus what’s the issue with the AMOUNT of guns a person has? Most Police officers are issued two guns (duty gun, and rifle) and may have 4 or more for department use (backup gun, shotgun, possibly smaller duty gun for plainclothes work). I generally only carry one, occasionally two, and I have several carry guns that I keep simply because if there’s a problem with one of the guns I usually carry it might take weeks before it’s fixed again, so I can rotate in another gun. Plus I have a rifle and a shotgun that I bought for the sole purpose of being defensive guns. Then rest are for training, collection, sentimental reasons, or just because I wanted them. Where’s the issue?

Reminds me of this scene:

Even spree killers with mass-murder as their #1 intention rarely had more than 3 guns. So yeah I don’t get it at all.

Still let’s get deeper in the minutiae. OK so the old-west cowboy NEEDED his guns. Not only did they protect him from rustlers, thieves, and the generally violent people that have always, and will always exist, but in the time before cellphones, they were the best signaling device for long distances. Say the cowboy’s horse steps in a prairie dog hole and breaks it’s leg, or is bit by a rattlesnake, maybe even when the horse falls the rider is injured. It was customary for him to shoot his gun at regular intervals to let others know to come looking for him.

But what about the 1970s dude:

Now the 1970s was really when the anti-gun movement started to take off. In most of the country concealed carry was 100% illegal. The Gun Control Act had been passed in 1968 creating the FFL system, and banning free interstate commerce of firearms. Chicago started their gun ban in the late 60s, DC in the mid 70s. This trend would peak in the 1990s with the passage of the Brady Bill and the Federal Assault Weapons ban. Really if the artist did a little bit of research, the lady in green should have “1994” under her, and that would make more sense, as the 90s where also the time when gun owners REALLY started fighting back hard. This was the start of the modern concealed carry movement, and birth of what is frequently called “Gun Culture 2.0” where gun owners stopped looking at guns as the tool of the hunter and target shooter, and more as a defensive tool.

Still crime in the 1970s was on a steady rise. It didn’t start to fall until the 90s. Now the antis will point out that in the 90s their new wave of national gun control hit the scene…but locally gun control was failing. Further, in 1998 the National Instant Criminal Background Check System came into effect allowing people to once again walk into a gun store and walk out with a gun, rather than having the gun sit in probation until the background check could be conducted via post mail, and in 2004 the Federal Assault Weapons ban was allowed to sunset.

Now recently we have what could probably be called “Gun Culture 3.0”, where people are not only thinking of defensive guns over target and hunting guns, but now with 50 states of concealed carry, people are starting to actually CARRY guns. Further until recently gun ownership was heavily weighted by white males. That’s still the majority demographic, but females and minorities are rapidly being represented in gun culture 3.0 at similar rates to the white population. This in turn also shows the rise of the urban and suburban gun owner, rather than just people who live in the rural areas, where gun ownership has always been high.

Yet still crime falls. I don’t know what Ms. 2012 is talking about, as she isn’t terribly representative to the population of that time, but the 70s dude probably would have been a LOT better off with a gun.

While the artist portrays Mr. 2014 as a lunatic with his bulky carry garb and his interesting choice of headgear, it’s not like we’re living in some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie as we enter 2015. We’re safer than the unarmed dude in the 70s, and because we don’t have “Progressive” busy-bodies telling us what we need or don’t need, I’d say we’re happier.

Maybe that’s what they hate so much…