I’ve talked about Fudds and my feelings about hunting, guns, and the Second Amendment before, but might as well give it another shot since this article is making the rounds.
First up before we get too far I’m pro-hunting and sporting, and I’d like to get into it myself. Also I’ve fished for sport, food, and did all of my Marine Biology career in the field of food fish. Also I have lapped up with great relish all the game meats people have given me.
Now for further Reading I’ll point you to Miguel who goes the obvious route that the Mauser K98 Bolt action was the foundation of most military rifles around the turn of the 20th Century, as well as the sniper rifles used by Military and Police to current date…also until the AR-15 surpassed the bolt action as game-getting gun, just about every sporting gun in the field.
Thirdpower points out that many of the sporting clubs, training programs, and land grants…not to mention the gun shops where they buy their guns and gear are supported by shooters like myself and my compatriots, as while he owns two guns (and who knows how many are heirlooms) and probably burns through less than a box of rifle ammo in the course of sighting in and fielding his deer rifle, and no more than a few boxes of foul loads when he’s blasting at ducks, while the majority of gun owners own SEVERAL guns (if not several dozen) and burn through several CASES of ammo over a year of shooting. The scales tip pretty far.
What I’d like to address this Fudd’s “Common Sense” rant about gun violence. First I’ll point out that his personal loadout is the buisness end of what Charles Whitman used in his horrendous mass shooting. Of course any gun that can put meat in a freezer can also be used to kill somebody accidentally either from pure negligence or from something like a hunting accident.
I know a few people who have taken their lives with “Hunting guns”, and of course whenever a big city has a gun “buy-back” a shotgun that’s been hacked down with a saw shows up, I also saw an episode of Cops where a crack dealer had his house raided and in the raid him gun was a bolt-action .30-06 that had been cut down to the size of a large pistol.
My point is your two wood-stocked guns pose just as much danger to the public as my black polymer guns. Maybe Thugsley the Crack Dealer would prefer to tuck a Glock in his waistband, or an AR-15 under his bed than a hacked down Remington 870 or a chopped up Winchester Model 70, but I’m sure his clients would rather he free-based his cocaine using and either extraction so the rocks didn’t smell like Amonia, and he didn’t pass the price along to the customers. Criminals are the ultimate beggars not choosers, if its gun gun its better than no gun. (Plus your .30-06 has the added benefit of being able to defeat even the SWAT Hard-plate body armor in the event of a raid!)
So the difference between you with your pair of “Sporting Guns” and my larger collection of “machine guns” (your words not mine) is negligible, no matter how much you claim otherwise.
Now on the other hand I just got back from the grocery store where the wife and I bought a bunch of chicken, beef, and pork products. I was carrying a .45 at the time, but I didn’t even need to draw it, the store was willing to part with its meats with just a swipe of my credit card.
I’ve lived in rural Maine, and have spent time, and have friends and family that live even further in the boonies than I did. It was a bit of a drive, but I still got my food from the local grocery store. Longer drive, and smaller store, but I still didn’t need to shoot anything to keep myself well fed.
You see in America these days nobody NEEDS to hunt. We do it for sport. Its a GAME, not for survival. Your guns are TOYS. Dangerous toys in need of respect, but they hold just as much relevance to your survival as my Nintendo does. Its fun, but take it away and I’ll be just as alive…just bored.
Now meanwhile I have friends who have defended their lives with defensive firearms. I’ve read about hundreds of other cases, and the FBI has documented hundreds of THOUSANDS every year. Its estimated that these numbers are the barest of minimum as many cases no police report is filed either because the defender doesn’t feel the need, or is afraid to call the cops, or the cops see the situation as completed with no prosecutable crime, evidence or harm, and don’t bother to fill out a report.
Compare that to your 17,000 Suicides (which is an arguably irrelevant number when talking about the perils of firearms) and 13,000 homicides (mostly murders but this also includes justifiable homicides by civilians and law enforcement).
While I have nothing against hunting at all, I DO have issues with people like this who keep guns around for adult games, but take no additional steps to also use firearms to protect themselves and others. Their guns will NEVER save a life, as even the biggest deer won’t keep somebody from starving, and he even jokes that a pound of duck meat harvested at the river is vastly more expensive than buying farm-raised chickens.
Still you can have a negligent discharge while handling your gun. You can have a hunting accident where you shoot somebody mistaking them for a animal, or a missed shot can hit somebody you never saw. The gun can still be abused for suicide, or stolen and used by criminals. You or one of your hunting buddies could develop a brain tumor like Mr. Whitman and climb a bell tower with a sack lunch.
Your gun has a vastly greater potential for doing more harm than good than mine.
You need to wise up and notice that you are the problem, not me, and us “Extremists” have the moral high ground covered quite well.
If you want to smarten up and join us you’re welcome…otherwise best sell those guns before somebody gets hurt!
