Guns – Page 1135 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Some Comment on the Comments

I see the commenters have been busy beavers while I was sleeping. It’s good that we have these kinds of ~~flame wars~~ discussions, though. I have some reactions to some things that were said. I don’t mean to ruffle any feathers here, just to present how I think about these things. We need the dedicated and passionate, badly, but I do worry sometimes that the dedication and passion can overflow a bit too much, and drive away some folks we need in order to help us keep winning politically.

First I want to start by saying it does frustrate me to no end that a lot of hunters could really care less about RKBA issues, but a large percentage of them are sympathetic, but uninvolved. Jym’s father falls into the latter category. These are people who can be helpful to us if we reach them, because they vote.

A lot of hunters, even those who disagreed with what Zumbo said, were nontheless upset that his career was ruined. I don’t apologize for our reaction as a community to his blog post. We needed to react strongly to that kind of statement, because of the kind of damage it can do. I wanted the industry and hunters to pay attention, and they have. It’s how we behave now that will determine whether or not we reconcile the hunting and shooting communities, or drive the wedge further in. Can you guess which outcome the Bradys are hoping for?

I do not, under any circumstances, make apologies for, or regret the reaction to Zumbo’s “terrorist rifles” blog post, but it saddens me that people aren’t willing to give him the benefit of doubt as he tries to reconcile himself with the shooting community. What does driving people away from the movement really accomplish for us? It might make us feel good, but it’s a sure path to take the movement out into the political wilderness.

Many of you folks I think need to understand the difference between someone hostile to the right to arms and someone sympathetic, but not really active within the community. People who are outright hostile and unapologetic, we do have no use for. If I encounter a hunter who rails against my “assault weapon”, and I’m unable to persuade, I’m quite happy to write that person off as as quickly as I would a die hard Brady supporter. But there are a lot of people out there like Jym’s dad, or even my dad, for that matter, who are generally sympathetic to RKBA, but just aren’t active in the issue anymore. We can’t drive those folks away because they might share some sympathy for Zumbo, or because they’ll never be gun nut enough for our liking. A distinction has to be made between people who are hostile, and people who just haven’t been reached. The former we can write off, but the latter we need. The die hard among us do not have the votes or money to win on this issue, and votes and money are everything in politics.

From The Comments

My friend Jym (I didn’t put him up to it, I swear) comments something that I think is worth pointing out in a post:

A good example of the damage youâ€™re doing to yourselves over this is my father. My father was a hunter and NRA member for many years and brought me on several hunting trips when I was a kid, but as he became older and grew apart from his hunting buddies heâ€™s just gradually gotten out of it, let his NRA membership lapse, etc.. When I told him about the Zumbo thing, he was somewhat upset. He read Zumboâ€™s articles for many years, and was disappointed by the way that so many had just completely turned on him. My dad, who when I mentioned Sebastian and Bitterâ€™s upcoming shooting trip with a smirk, was actually really excited. Youâ€™re not going to be luring back any old dogs like him to your cause in this manner.

The shooting community is already facing an uphill battle in many ways. Many people are rather dismissive of gun owners as mostly being wackos. These are not exceptionally liberal people, either, just middle of the road moderate Average Joes that think driving to Texas with a car full of guns and ammo is absolutely terrifying and insane, not a fun vacation. These are the people you need to convince youâ€™re not crazy in order to hold your ground, and incidents like the Zumbo thing are not going to help them think that. There is a time for war and a time for diplomacy, and unfortunately from what Iâ€™ve read in things Sebastian has linked to I think that some of the community does not realize when their interests would better be served by the latter.

Yes. We have to be very careful not to get into the mode of drumming “heretics” out of the movement because “thou art not gun nut enough.” We should never compromise on the fundamental principle that the right to keep and bear arms is our birthright, but we need everyone we can get, and a lot of people, quite honestly, aren’t going to care quite as much about the issue as we do, and that needs to be ok.

Politics is never a neat, tidy game, and it can often make for very odd bedfellows. If you have any doubts as to the effectiveness of a political movement that continually drives away the impure and roots out heretics in its mist, I point you to the Libertarian Party. Do we want to emulate their success?

Surprise!

Well, no, not really. Paul Helmke is full fo shit:

After posting this blog, Zumbo was fired from the magazine, had his television show on the Outdoor Channel cancelled, and lost his sponsors. The NRA suspended their long-term relationship with Zumbo and pointed to the destruction of Zumbo’s career as an example of what happens when somebody crosses them. Some outdoor writers have started to speak up, however.

Sorry Paul, but the NRA mind control rays were off that weekend. We did that all on our own, without any direction from the NRA. As has been pointed out hundreds of times, the NRA didn’t even say a damned thing until it was all over.

We need to be asking what these weapons are used for and whether they need to be regulated in order to promote public safety. If some don’t like the restrictive definitions being proposed, what alternatives do they suggest? Or, should we have no restrictions, even on actual “terrorist rifles”?

Millions of gun owners use these rifles for competitive and recreational shooting. What to you think the annual Camp Perry shooting competition is? Take a look at the rifles most commonly used in that competition. That’s not even speaking of their utility for self-defense.

The restrictions on these rifles needs be no different than any other rifle, because they ARE no different than any other rifle you ignorant twit. They just look scary.

A word of caution to you folks: The Brady’s very much want to keep the Zumbo controversy alive, and drive the wedge deeper between shooters and hunters, because it helps them tremendously. All you folks out there who seem to be unwilling to welcome Jim back to the fold need to understand that. If we drive a wedge between hunters and shooters, Helmke and his friends at AHSA will be popping champaign corks. Now is the time for unity, and we need Mr. Zumbo.

Zumbo’s Sincerity

I have something to say about the sincerity of Zumbo’s conversion that’s being questioned in both Uncle’s comments and mine: quite frankly, I don’t really give a shit whether he’s sincere or not.Â As long as he’s saying and doing the right things, it matters not to me whether he really believes it, or is just trying to salvage his career.

There’s a reason why I think it doesn’t matter, and it has to do with the sheer number of hunters that Jim is capable of reaching.Â We’re not going to do ourselves any favors by being stubborn and obstinate about this.Â We need hunters on our side, and if we’re going to insist on eating our own instead of fighting the anti-gun folks, we’re going to lose.

If Jim wants to spread the word to hunters, either to save his career, or because he’s seen the light on the issue, it’s not of much importance to me. Â The result is the same.

I Second That

Uncle thinks that those of us who were quick to crucify Jim Zumbo ought to write Outdoor Life and tell him that they should give him his job back.Â I heartily agree.Â I would add one thing to that though.Â I’d really like to see Jim use his homecoming article to educate hunters about the importance of gun rights.

I’m still working on my “Gun Control and Hunting Day”, but it’s slow coming with preparing to go on vacation next week, both at home and at work.Â Real life sucks. Â Well, at least until this weekend it will :)

More Crap From Across the Delaware

Jeff Soyer has the digs on New Jersey’s plan to ban 50 caliber rifles. Sadly, this will likely pass; there’s just not enough people left in the Garden State that are willing to fight this stuff. Two hundred people showed up to fight Maryland’s Assault Weapons Ban. I’d be hard pressed to believe we can’t find 200 dedicated gun enthusiasts in New Jersey? Come on folks, show these people who they work for!

Backers of the measure insisted the bill was about public safety rather than gun control. The .50-caliber weapons could fire bullets through a police officer’s protective vest, or could give a terrorist the ability to shoot down an aircraft or touch off a devasting fire at a chemical plant, in an oil tanker or in other settings, Miller said.

Bryan Miller, you are a fucking weasel! Any centerfire rifle cartridge can penetrate police body armor or punch holes through airplanes. Do you want to ban deer rifles too? You say you don’t, but the same thing could be said for any of them. It’s also known that rail car companies test their cars against various small arms, including the fifty. They are impervious to small arms fire.

Another One Gone – Mayor Wolf

Mary B. Wolf, Mayor of Williamsport, PA (North/Central PA) has resigned from Mayor Bloomberg’s coalition of gun haters.Â I guess folks in Williamsport have some good sense, which is a lot more than I can say for John Street and the other Philadelphia politicians:

I have learned that the Coalition may be working on issues that conflict with legal gun ownership and that some action on your behalf are dubious.Â I have also learned that other mayors from cities large and small across the country have withdrawn their names as supporters of the Coalition.Â This letter informs you that I too, am withdrawing from the Mayors Coalition Against Illegal Guns.

Thanks Mayor Wolf, for choosing to no longer associate with this group.Â You do your city and our state a good service.

Sometimes I Regret My Suburban Upbringing

One of the things Carrie’s family likes to do when they go to their ranch is shoot one of the wild pigs and have a pig roast. Unfortunatly for me, I was born and raised about 5 miles south of Philadelphia, and I’ve never cleaned and butchered an animal in my life. The idea does not repulse me, in fact, I think it’s something people should know how to do, but no one ever taught me, and none of the other women I’m going with have actually done this with a pig either, just watched it being done by other guys in the family.

I like the idea of the pig roast, but I’m afraid my suburban upbringing has never equipped me to deal with this circumstance, so it’s probably not going to go beyond the idea stage. I’d have to use one of my “terrorist rifles”, probably the PSL, since apparently these wild pigs are rather large, and I don’t have any non-military patterned rifles. But shooting it I can handle, it’s the turning it into dinner part I’m not familiar with. So for those of you who hunt, what’s the basic process once you have a dead animal?

Mowing the Astroturf

The other Sebastian exposes one of the “concerned citizens” appearing before the Maryland Generally Assembly to testify in favor of SB43, the assault weapons ban in that state:

Sue Peschin is trying to sell the idea that sheâ€™s just a concerned member of the voting public. Donâ€™t be fooled! In the comments below, Norton has the goods on our friend Sue.

Pretty clearly sheâ€™s NOT just a worried Marylander, but a paid, professional anti-liberty lobbyist.

It’s my sincere hope that if we keep exposing their astroturf campaigns and outright deceptions, it’ll really damage their credibility, and fewer political bodies will be willing to listen to them.Â But it’s just a hope.Â Do you think this little bit will be covered by the Baltimore Sun or other Maryland media?Â Not on your life.

A Bit Too Much Credit

Old Blind Dog makes an interesting comment:

â€œâ€¦.what the left of today fails to understandâ€¦â€

They most certainly do understand it. They are deathly afraid of the threat to power that it implies. It stands in the way of their power over this country and the citizens of this country that they would subjugate under the mantle of socialism. That is why they must destroy it.

I know a fair number of people who support gun control, and I can tell you for none of them is this really true. In fact, I think it’s giving them a bit too much credit. What many on the left want does have the ancillary effect of making us easier to subjugate as a people, but most of them don’t really think that strategically about gun control. There are surely some die hard commies out there who wake up every day and think “We really need to disarm the proletariat before we can seize power and establish our workers paradise!”, but I would be hard pressed to say that even the most left leaning folks think that way. In fact, I generally find the radical left more open to RKBA arguments than much of the mainstream left, at least until the revolution against the bourgeois is over. There are also your basic hoplophobes, who are just afraid of guns, and don’t want anyone else to have them because of that. But the commies and true hoplophobes I think are a minority.

Gun control, for much of the left, is a form of cultural chauvinism. They look down in rural people and rural culture, and would like to “introduce them” to a better way to live, namely the way they live. To them, arms are barbaric, and by allowing them, we corrupt our national culture with an odor of incivility. They see themselves as above that kind of thing, and don’t see disarming as a way to subjugate, but as a way to make the country as a whole reflect their cultural values. One could argue this is still subjugation, and you’d be right, but the motivations are different, and it’s important to understand the mindset properly in order to discredit it. They don’t see gun control is a precursor to ruling, but as a package of values that are counter to our own.

That doesn’t diminish the importance of defending our rights as Americans, but it’s important to understand the many reasons that people support gun control in order to bring fourth good arguments to defeat it in the public debate over the right to keep and bear arms.