Our sport, our hobby, and our rights are under attack!

[illtmprdman]

Dear Shooters,

I sent my pistol to Benny Hill of Triangle Shooting Sports for some custom work.

This is related to the thread:

http://www.brianenos.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard...3&topic=527

With respect to this thread, Benny offered to do a bunch of custom work on my pistol for free -- what an awesome guy.  Nevertheless, I will get to the main point of this post:

To ship my pistol, I decided to use FedEx.  While at the shipping counter, I filled out the airbill and declared the value of my pistol at $1000 (pistol + 4 hicap mags).  The box was a little bit larger than a shoebox.  Anyway, the person behind the counter asked me "So, what's in the box that's so expensive."  Because he was the manager, I replied "my gun."  After I said this, he looked at me as if I was a criminal.  As he was rolling his eyes and giving me various dirty looks,  I had an epiphany:  We responsible gun owners are viewed as criminals, racists, nutcases, and just plain weirdoes.

It’s unfortunate, but all of the anti-gun wankers and irresponsible gun owners have managed to convince most of the American population that gun ownership is simply evil.  In addition, it seems that in today’s world, if you own a gun, you are automatically a deviant.  What happened to my 2nd amendment rights?  When I tell people I own a gun, I receive many interesting responses:  “So, what do YOU need a gun for?”  “Killing anything today?”  “”Where’s your swastika tattoo?”  “The cleaners called, they finished starching your hood.”

I am a responsible gun owner.  I never leave my pistol where children can get at it.  I keep my pistol locked when it is not in use.  Whenever I show my gun to a friend, I remove the magazine, open the slide, and check the chamber.  I don’t point my gun at anything I don’t plan on destroying or killing.  I treat my gun as if it were always loaded.  I’m not part of any hate groups.  I don’t hate black people.  I’m a 22yr old college student that enjoys target shooting.  I pride myself in knowing that I have a tool that will help me to protect myself and my family in a home-defense situation.  Nevertheless, I am a deviant because I own a gun.

When I look at pro/anti gun dilemma, I see morons on both sides of the issue.  On one hand, we have crazy politicians and deluded mother’s groups that believe all guns are inherently evil.  By contrast, we also have idiots who leave loaded guns in the vicinity of small children.  Moreover, we also have criminals and gangbangers that will shoot anything that may or may not have a pulse.  When a small child “accidentally” (I don’t believe there is such a thing as a gun accident, more like gun stupidity) shoots another small child, many people blame the gun.  What happened to the parents?  Why don’t we blame the parents for not locking up their gun(s)?  Blaming the gun/gun manufacturer is equivalent to blaming a lumber company because some guy decided to beat his wife with a 2x4!  Guns are to murder as matches are to arson – it IS that simple.  Should we get rid of matches – absolutely not.  Should we get rid of guns – absolutely not.

The politicians have an answer to the “gun problem” – let’s force manufacturers to put stupid, integral internal locking devices in their guns and subsequently raise retail prices.  HELLO!  The idiot who doesn’t take 2sec to put a trigger lock on his gun is the same idiot who won’t bother to use the internal locking device.  Also, there are other brilliant ideas (some are actually laws, too) such as making Illinois residents pay $500 for a FOID card, banning certain weapon calibers, banning high-capacity magazines, making handgun ownership illegal in Chicago, the list never ends...

The anti-gun groups have an answer to the “gun problem” – let’s just get rid of all the guns.  If we make all of the legal gun owners get rid of their guns, that must mean gangbangers and criminals will get rid of their guns, too.  That makes complete sense – umm, not really.  The biggest joke is when various Chicago-based religious leaders had a “mock” funeral to symbolize gun violence.  As part of this “mock” funeral, people were encouraged to turn in their guns so the guns could eventually be melted down.  When I watched this, I wished that I was a reporter in the crowd.  I wanted to ask, “So, when are all the gangbangers and criminals coming to turn their guns in.”  That’s right, folks – the answer is NEVER.  Instead of holding pointless “mock” funerals, why don’t we encourage people to buy trigger locks and gun safes?  But that’s right, I forgot, all guns are EVIL!      

Throughout my childhood, my father never owned any guns.  However, I was raised with a healthy respect for guns and weaponry.  I never played with toy guns – my father always told me that guns were not toys.  However, when I was eight, my father signed me up for air-rifle shooting class.  In this class, I learned a great deal about gun safety.  Also, I learned the possible consequences of incorrectly using a gun.  If I have children, I will never let them play with toy guns.  However, I will buy my son/daughter a real gun and teach him/her how to use it RESPONSIBLY.  However, in today’s world, “responsibility” seems to be a word that isn’t in most peoples’ vocabulary.

We shooters are under attack.  Our sport is under attack.  Our 2nd amendment rights are under attack.  These crazy politicians and irresponsible gun owners have managed to convince most of the general public that gun ownership is either wrong, evil, or simply deviant.  I long to live in a place where I won’t receive any strange looks because I own a gun.  I am afraid that one day, guns will be illegal and my cherished hobby will be gone.

This is my rant.

Sincerely,

Anthony J. Monteleone

(Edited by illtmprdman at 11:58 pm on Jan. 30, 2003)

[Ron Ankeny]

Anthony:

It is good for me to read posts like yours. I live in rural Wyoming where anti-gun sentiment is virtually unheard of. I need to be reminded that my situation is not the norm.

BTW, I shoot Benny's pistols and they darn sure run. He will have it going in no time.

[davecutts]

I'm not going to start, but I agree we are under attack all the time.

[George D]

In Australia the existing laws in place since 1927 compel all handgun owners to be licenced. Each new purchase requires a permit and a 28 day cooling off period and both processes requiring police checks. All guns must be locked in a safe at home at all times with the ammunition locked in a separate safe. When transporting handguns to the range, separate car safes are required for guns and ammo and the vehicle cannot deviate from the direct route between home and range. There is no allowed use of any gun for self defence.

In November a Chinese student shot a group of other students, killing 2 of them. While there has been an outbreak of crime involving illegal handguns since the 1996 gun confiscations, this was the first instance in 10 years of a licenced shooter being involved. The anti-gun lobby, who had already been blaming legal gun owners for the activities of criminals, were perched like vultures just waiting for such an incident. The media swung into action and the Prime Minister declared a “crack down” on handguns. A conference of the Police Ministers from every state produced a report that indicated that the increase in handgun crime was due to borders porous to smuggling and was not related to legal ownership. The Prime Minister publicly cursed them and overruled both their report and the recommendations of his Attorney General.

In July it will be illegal to own any Auto with a barrel less than 5”, any revolver with a barrel less than 4”, any mag of capacity higher than 10, and calibres over 38 will be restricted to “accredited disciplines” which are yet to be decided by the PM. There will be a requirement that each shooter must participate in 4 competition matches for each pistol they own and there are to be 6 month probationary periods for new shooters before they can purchase a pistol. These new restrictions are being hailed by the government as "making Australia a safer place". I will be interested to see how many criminals will hand in their illegal weapons.

Despite these new draconian restrictions, the anti’s are labelling the new laws a failure and calling for total bans on all handguns.

Have no doubt. If you are not under attack already, it is only a matter of time.

(Edited by George D at 9:26 am on Feb. 1, 2003)

[SiG Lady]

We responsible and respectable gun owners are in danger of being something akin to an endangered species. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm seriously concerned there won't be a generation coming up behind us to carry on the sport and the tradition--enough to support both the concept and the industry itself.

It still amazes me how little many ordinary people (AND the anti-gun people) actually KNOW about firearms! Jeez! It's an issue of ignorance, for pete's sake! Ignorance and goofy, unfounded, utterly stupid and uninformed attitudes.

Like some states (in the U.S.)--and, yet, unlike others--the gun laws in Oregon are mellow. I appreciate that fact literally every day... that I can carry this thing all the time if I wish, and can drive around with it if I wish, can zoop off to the range and shoot as much as I want/whenever with as many guns as I can carry into the place, and can go buy as many handguns (and ammo and accessories) as I can scrape the money together for at any one of about three respectable shops that sell them--one within walking distance, for god's sake.

Don't think I take any of it for granted, however. I live each day knowing the Great Ignorance Brotherhood in somewhere, USA, could change all this at any moment with just the swipe of an ignorant pen.