Are the Anti's winning?

[T Durdin]

I was reading MikeyMac's thread about being fined at the range. I just wanted to tell y'all about this little gem. I went out to the SGL range nearby Friday to get a little trigger time. Nothing uneventful there, had my little shoot, and headed home. I live in a town outside York city, and the town by the range is even more rural.

So, on the way back I stop at a convenience store to grab a drink. I had my 22 marlin 60 in the seat, bolt open, empty for the ride home. Marlin 22 of all things.

I come out the store head to the car and this little one, girl maybe 7 or 8, yells "mom, mom he has a gun."

I'll give the girl points for being cautious, that's cool. So I look back and start to talk to the mother. The mother covers the child's eyes and top of head wrapping her arm around, and pulls her in close. I said, " Ma'am, this may be a good opportunity to teach your child. There are many good reasons somebody may have a gun."

I said my peace just a nice as possible. She snaps back, "Don't you worry what I teach my child."

Naturally I just shook my head. Some people have just been programmed that GUNS = VIOLENCE

[God's Country]

Well they are all being indoctrinated by the media and the school system that guns are bad period. You raise a good point. If the upcoming generations are predisposed to anti and non firearm activities its hard to tell where the future will be. It's the same with hunting. Very few people hunt these days compared to even when I was growing up. If nobody teaches them how can you really blame them. It's really up to us to mentor if you will.

When I was in school there were rifle clubs and you could practice shooting your bow in gym class during bow season. I can't even imagine that today. Of course there was never any related violence either. We were raised to respect such things. I sometimes wonder if the main reason kids shoot people today is because they're so insulated from everything that when they become teenagers it's just something new to rebel against because they weren't taught proper respect for firearms. It wasn't a dirty little secret. I was shown at a young age what a gun could do if improperly handled and it scared me, which later turned to respect.

[mauser]

That's the hysteria created by the misinformation being fed to the uninformed by the media. Unfortunately, that womans paranoia is being passed along to her offspring. Kids in that situatin have very little chance of learning or understanding the truth about many things, not just gun issues. The extreme overreaction of covering her eyes and pulling her in close had to scare the hell out of that poor child and will most likely leave her with a very vivid memory of an "experience with the evils of guns".

[chalmitch]

Yes! Yes, they are.

Since the 70's, after the anti-draft movement {most folks call it anti-war} there was a need to find new enemies. One of which became firearms, firearms of all types. It started with "Saturday Night Specials", moved to handguns, then to assault weapons, then to monsters with big mags, now accurate rifles or sniper guns.

But all that has been sold is fear. Just like when someone proposes a change to Social Security, what comes out is that you paid in but you will forfeit your benefit. With the parent in the example the kid is curious, the parent is appalled and fears some sort of attack to her own nurturing ability.

You would think that a person from a less urban/suburban area like York, PA would be more tolerant of firearms. But this "breeder" is surely the child of a flower child, and has no experience with the outdoors or sports other than what comes from the MSM or her food co-op. Was she driving a Volvo?

Best regards,
chalmitch

[luckyned7]

S! All,

I'd like to see some national civil defense/safety program where if nothing else...everyone learns about firearms. What they will and won't do. Seing that we all might need to defend our country even more than ever. Maybe then the media can't scare everyone with mis-information.

[MrsKitty]

While I was growing up I went to a private school where my brother and cousins used to bring in guns for oral reports and show and tell. Everything was arranged before hand with the principal and it was understood that no ammo was to accompany the weapon to the school, but I can remember guns (multiple guns) being in school and being perfectly safe.

That all changed when a student brought a knife to school and threatened some of the students. The school then started a no weapons policy and the days of kids safely showing other kids about guns and how to handle them and how to respect them and that they were not "bad" were gone.

Those kids suddenly learned that weapons were bad and something to be feared, and now those kids are all grown up and have kids of their own and those kids are learning that guns are bad. Not only from their parents, but from their teachers and from TV.

I really wish that more people would teach their children that guns are not the problem, people are the problem.

I'll start with my own kids and hope you start with yours and maybe our firearm future will start looking a little brighter.

[God's Country]

The problem is that we don't have enough forward thinking women to help sort things out for all of us idiots on this forum.

Such as:

"I know that the Constitution has been interpreted many, many times. In our country the president puts his hand on the Bible and swears to uphold the Constitution. In the United States there is debate over whether or not the right to bear arms includes the lobby organization of the NRA, allowing no rules and no registration and absolutely, sort of, carte blanche, to make guns available to Americans in a way they're not in the rest of the world."

… Don't fear the terrorists. They’re mothers and fathers."

Rosie O’Donnell

We can all rest well tonight.

[N3HCP]

Are they winning? You bet they are. And for all the reasons already given. I know people who are antis and won't even talk about it. They are right, I'm wrong, and that's all there is to it. I believe that complete elimination of gun rights and even the repeal of the Second Amendment is inevitable. We are just too much of a minority anymore and are considered by the majority of people to be misguided gun nuts at best and dangerous people who must be controlled and restrained at worst.

Sooner or later we will join England, Canada, Australia, and a lot of the rest of the world. Gun ownership will be a thing of the past. I, for one, an doing all I can to forestall this inevatability by remaining vigilant and in touch with my representatives. But I'm afraid the best I can hope for is to not live long enough to see it happen.

[TravisBickle]

The tough thing about countering prohibitionist movements is the incrimental nature of their tactics. The just keep making attempt after attempt to get their "common sense regulations" passed as law. It doesn't matter if they fail, they can always try again next year. With each step, what was once considered Draconian becomes the "default reasonable" position.

We have to win EVERY battle EVERY time, they only have to win once. The assault weapons ban sunset was the only exception to this rule in the history of the world.

Yes, they are winning, but I think we're getting stronger with the advent of the interwebnets.

[chemist308]

Yes, we are losing! Here are some reasons as I see it:

1. There are enough privately owned firearms to supply every man, woman and child in the US with more than one 1 gun. I've heard numbers as high as 80 million gun owners. Yet the NRA membership accounts for only 1 - 2% of the total population.

2. Many of us as gun owners think we can pay the NRA or GOA and forget about it. The NRA and GOA send alerts and do grass roots activism. They expect us to use the alerts to significantly raise awareness, write our politicians, encourage others who aren't in the NRA to do the same and get people to the polls to vote out anti-gunners. Yet I suspect many of us just pay the dues.

It's not enough. We need to be embassadors. I've heard it said the antis work harder than we do, and I believe it because there are more gun owners than anti gunners. The anti-gunners have organized campaigns, lobbied, promoted politicians who fit their agenda and appeal to the masses with their other ideas--not everyone votes on gun control--and used everything at their disposal including dishonesty, fear tactics and intimidation such as black listing.

Yet there is still hope. I tend to believe if we organize and even get 1/4 of the gun owners to join up gun control would almost end. Even if PAFOA had 500,000 members--there are currently more CCW permits in the state than that--it would go a long way to ending gun control attempts in this state.