Joan Peterson has a post up on the recent termination of Guns and Ammo editor Dick Metcalf. In it she drops this statement.
The thing is, the majority of gun owners are not afraid of changes to gun laws that will strengthen them and lead to safer communities. It is this minority of folks on the fringe who are uncompromising and paranoid about all kinds of things that aren’t true. So recently the Editor and a member of the editorial staff of the popular Guns & Ammo magazine got themselves into trouble for suggesting that common sense should prevail about guns and gun regulations. The writer, Dick Metcalf, was actually questioning the worldview of the gun rights extremists. For that, he suffered the consequences.
Joan has an interesting theory. We know from American Politics that gun owners are a large demographic that indeed can steer elections. Yet if her assessment is both honest and correct (two traits Joan has been proven in the past to be deeply lacking) this HUGE demographic block can’t be bothered to vote, lobby the NRA, vote in NRA elections, or even write letters to the Guns and Ammo editorial board.
My own theory is that this alleged Majority was invented from a flawed study. Still even if it IS true, a “Majority” unwilling and unable to actually stand and be counted deserves exactly what they get.
As for Metcalf, if the various paid lobbyists from both Brady, Joyce, and MAIG (of which Joan counts as two of those) are singing Metcalf’s praises, and meanwhile those organizations have called for bans of EVERYTHING on that magazine’s cover for the past few decades, that’s reason enough to issue Metcalf his walking papers.
Oh and might as well close on some Irony. Joan is quoted as saying first:
The thing is, their echo chamber of paranoid rhetoric that ramps up fear amongst themselves is potentially dangerous. The things they say, they say to each other and themselves.
And then later:
A few days ago I received a comment to my blog post that I did not publish. Why? Because it reflected the insanity and hatred of the gun rights extremists. Their “reasoning” has gone off the rails.
Pot, meet kettle!
