"but why do you have guns?"

[ARV]

"Why do you own guns?"

*GASP* You DONT?!

Back to what ever I was doing previous.

 

[MichaelJR]

Road rage defense.

 

[45collector]

^ Love that gif. Wish I knew the story behind it. I'm guessing it's staged.

 

[mike1960]

To answer the original question:

I own firearms because they're they're fun. They present a complicated marvel of mechanical presision. Shooting quickly, smoothly and accurately presents an issue of balance that requires concentration, relaxation, focus and practice. A personal challenge. I own several firearms because each is different, mechanically, astestically, funcatinoally and in the feeling they provide while shooting.

I carry a firearm because, shoot a situation arise where no other options are available to protect myself, my family or even a complete stranger from physical bodily harm and or death, I feel it is better to be able to make a choice to help them or not based on the situation rather than capability. Because we live in a world where people hurt each other, and sometimes deadly force is the only thing that will protect the lives of good people.

Shade,
Awesome, well thought out and well written argument. Not bad for being a Tech grad.
WPI'82

 

[MichaelJR]

^ Love that gif. Wish I knew the story behind it. I'm guessing it's staged.

If it's in Russia or the Caucasus, it's probably 100% real haha.

 

[cekim]

If it's in Russia or the Caucasus, it's probably 100% real haha.

nice trigger discipline too...

 

[swampy]

Because it takes perhaps 10 seconds to dial 911, 1-4 minutes for dispatch to answer, at least 2 minutes to explain the situation and give your address, 10-45 minutes for police to respond, and less than 30 seconds for the guy kicking your back door in at 2am to locate you in your house. Is the telephone still the first thing you'd want to reach for in that situation?

 

[rudiewhitebwoy]

I agree completely, and I'm also a college grad. What I see and hear from one of my older boys who recently graduated from UMASS/Amherst is that there is a lot of anti-gun sentiment being taught in various classes, as well as just a general belief in a highly liberal school like UMASS that guns are icky, bad, and only rednecks and bad guys have them. Some of the crap I have heard just makes my head spin.

My oldest daughter also graduated from UMass Amherst, back in 2007. She said the views were very liberal and anti-gun, yet she owns a Bushie AR, 30-30 lever, Benelli 12Ga M190, Walther PPK 380 etc. I've taken some of her teammates ( Softball ) shooting and more that a few of them had their own guns back home. Not every student drinks the Kool-Aid, Thank God.

 

[jkommelb]

I did not attack higher education, at all. I appreciate higher education, very much; I'm the first college graduate in my family, and my firstborn is currently a junior at a "Kudzu League" (Southern Ivy League) school that consistently ranks among the very top of private liberal arts colleges.

There is a high degree of correlation between immersion in traditional higher education, especially at the graduate level, and anti-gun PC stereotypes. Acknowledging this is not an attack against higher education as a means for career advancement.

My apologies for misreading that, then, and assuming that you were criticizing.

 

[Bill Nance]

Angel,

Understanding your audience is critical for this kind of discussion.

Some people are curious and don't have strong convictions either way, they're asking out of genuine curiosity.

Others are asking because they're fearful. they're asking in the hopes of challenging and changing your own beliefs.

This.

It really does depend on the person. I can take a roomful of skeptical semi-antis and change their minds in 20 minutes of lecture and demonstration. For someone who is simply horrified at the thought of a citizen using lethal force in self defense, there's no hope. You can talk to them all day and no minds will be changed.

I tend to put my discussions in the first person.
E.G.:

ANTI: "You carry a gun? Are you really going to kill someone over property?
ME: Lets suppose I'm a rapist. I am stronger and meaner than you and with no weapon whatever I can forcibly rape you. RIGHT NOW. -Don't you wish you had a gun at this point? Case made. CCW holders are culpable in fewer crimes than police officers taken as a whole. That's a fact. Why do you fear the person who's taken a background check six ways to Sunday to get a permit but you don't fear the random criminal who bought his stolen gun from some dude he knows?"

Every single firearms education course I teach I have a mini-14, a 10/22 and a AR-15 side by side. I describe why some people want to ban the AR-15 but have no problem with the Mini, even though they are functionally identical in all significant respects. At the end of that, EVERYONE, including some genuine antis I've had in class, start asking some pertinent questions. If you can get them to look at their own beliefs, without being hyper-critical or threatening, it tends to work out well. Others you need to make it personal. Honestly the person you talked to sounded like she may have been open to new information. Just get it from someplace other than the NRA so you don't push that button.

 

[crazymjb]

We were able to start up the Umass gun club which has generated a LOT of interest. I've also never heard anything anti-gun directly from a professor. In fact in a woman and gender studies course (requirement) the professor told me there had been faculty discussion in her department about students and concealed carry and it was a predominately in favor of looking further into the issue. My physics professor started both semesters expressing his love for guns, and my second semester in his course told us he had bought his 10 year old son his first rifle. He recieved sporatic applause.

Mike


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

 

[CosmicIrony]

Or "ecological fallacy"---the misconception that your experiences are the norm of the rest of the population. Seems to infect liberals more so because they think the universe revolves around them and their views.

Have to disagree there - conservatives are equally sure that they have unique insight. I think that it i simply human nature, not a matter of left or right.

 

[hminsky]

One issue is that violent crime is relatively rare ( less than 1/1000 per year per person on average), so 99% of people who live in safe places never experience it in their lives, hence generalize that 100% of people never will experience it.

 

[jefftk]

I say something outlandish.. " I am preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse. Seriously. "

I bet that works too, doesn't it? [sad2] I find it very annoying that "The Zombie Apocalypse! Derp!" is a more socially acceptable answer to have a bunch of guns that any other real reason. Self defense? You're paranoid. Sport/Hunting? Redneck. Zombie Apocalypse? Oh, you're just trying to be cool like you saw on TV.

Once I took one of those conversations seriously and eventually the Anti got to : " Well , If I had a gun I'd probably kill people in anger " ( or something close enough to that .)

And there you have it: projection of their own insecurities. At least this person came right out and said it.
http://jpfo.org/filegen-n-z/ragingagainstselfdefense.htm

I responded with the question : " Have you ever murdered anyone with a kitchen knife ? A Hammer ? Your car ? Of course not. Because you're a good person. So am I. And I wear a hammer all day at work , I drive a truck sometimes when I am angry , .. and I am a black belt ... , and I haven't flipped out and gone on a killing spree either. But sometimes people do. Which is why it's nice if at least a few of us are armed."

I doubt I changed his opinion but he backed away from his posture and changed the subject.

Thats what bothers me the most about all those blood-in-the-streets arguments, or blood-in-the-classroom for CCW on college campuses. I'm not aware of any significant number of incidents where students have shoved/punched/stabbed their professors over some grade because of all that midterm stress...

 

[sig2009]

Tell him. Why do you eat? Why do you drink? Why do you have sex?