Educating anti-gun journalists

[Carlos]

In response to an article at cbsnews.com questioning whether women taking hunting or shooting lessons was actually advancing the cause of women in general, I sent the author the following reply including an offer to take him shooting with me next time he is in town. (will wine their hearts and minds, thus winning the war someday):

Hi Lloyd! Enjoyed your recent articles regarding the mis-guided attempt to ban competition among children - a phenomenon I helped thwart when working for the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth summer program during the 90s.

I also appreciated your story regarding the Kerkorian child support case. Excellent work.

My girlfriend and I are avid target shooters and thus, I must take issue with your most recent piece for CBSnews.com (no pun intended). I see the safe and prudent practice with firearms to be an issue of woman's empowerment as well as family/children's safety. I think that women's traditional and archaic fear of firearms often comes from their lack of familiarity with them. Fear borne of ignorance helps no one - least of all women.  It is to a woman's benefit to have the basic understanding required to unload a gun and make it safe should the need arise; that knowledge alone could save the life of a woman or a child. To that end, I have instructed several woman family members and past girlfriends on how to render different types of guns safe, and how to safely store firearms. Often, that information was as much as they wanted to know; I am certain that those women are better off with that knowledge than without.

Other women I know have sought to obtain knowledge of firearms to show their children the pontential danger of mis-using firearms and to instill wary respect for firearms. This sort of real-world training helps to un-do the irresponsible portrayal of firearm use in movies and ultra-violent video games. Again, knowledge can save lives.

As a further example, tn my capacity as an employee of a training facility owned by a Capitol Hill Police officer, I have instructed families that held the firm view that only the Government should have guns and that we, the people, should submit to being disarmed as is the case for British subjects in England. Their political view aside, these parents sought to rent a firearm from me for an hour and, under  careful supervision, demonstrate to their children that guns are powerful tools that can be very dangerous if used as portrayed in video games and in popular movies/TV. I doubt we swayed the opinions of those families as to civilian ownership, but we nonetheless provided a valuable service to the community by increasing the families knowledge and ability to avoid accidents borne of firearms ignorance.

I also think that if more women sought training and then purchased firearms, the incidents of spousal manslaughter would dramatically decrease. Notice I used the term manslaughter; if more women were trained to use firearms I imagine there would be an increase in the rates of justifiable homicides by abused wives defending themselves against their husbands - does that sound draconian, horrible, barbaric? The Dixie Chicks did not seem to think so when they wrote their chart topping song and accompanying video "Earl Had to Die" where an abused woman chooses to kill her abusive husband - albeit with poison rather than a firearm. Was there a societal back-lash by abusers in fear of their abused wives? Did the men's movement protest the glorification of killing an abusive male? No, rather we celebrated it with chart-topping sales and the Dixie Chicks took it on tour. It would be preferable if spouses - particularly men - would just stop resorting to physical violence. Hoping for something will not make it so and I expect domestic violence to exist for eons to come. Female firearm ownership can level the playing field; it is equality at its best; it is the essence of women's empowerment.    

I do not expect to change your mind on issues of women and guns,  civilian firearms ownership, or hunting with a single e-mail. However, I value your consideration of my thoughts and I make the following sincere offer to you: the next time you and/or family members are in the Washington D.C. area, you are welcome as my guests for a day or two of safety instruction followed by (if you wish) recreational shooting sports practice with safety equipment, firearms, ammunition, and transportation provided - my treat. Let me know in advance and I will make time for you - weekend or during the week. I own several types of sporting firearms and I would be happy to show you and your family how to unload them and render them safe - valuable knowledge to have should you ever encounter a firearm in the future. I am willing to demonstrate how firearms are used in competition and sport. I can tell you what sports-people in the US are choosing to buy and why they would choose to take on the awesome responsibility of owning a firearm.

I feel strongly about the issue of firearms ownership rights in the U.S. and I am willing to offer you my time so that you might gain a greater understanding of the issue; of course it is my hope that you will gain an appreciation of my point of view even if you do not adopt it.

Thanks again for your fine journalism to date. I look forward to your reply.  Sincerely,

Douglas C. Johnson

[tightloop]

Great post...

I hope he takes you up on you offer.  I also hope that he is more open minded than the owner of the Tennessee Titans, formerly Houston Oilers was,  when I made him an offer to help him understand why the Astrodome was still a good place to play NFL football and that he shouldn't move to Tennessee.  He politely declined both my offers, the first one to help him understand why the citizens shouldn't spend our money to build another stadium for him and his over paid players, and my second offer to help him load the bus for the trip to Tennessee.

Closed mindedness...who'd a thought it?

[jkmccoy]

Excellent letter Carlos. I cannot help but think that it may have some (however slight) effect. Complaining about the stupidity of the anti-gunners and the anti-gun media may be amusing, but it doesn't really help. Our only real hope is to try to educate people calmly and rationally.

[SiG Lady]

Carlos--

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

[Shipster]

Well said Carlos.  I hope he replys, and if he does please post it here.

[Carlos]

Sig Lady: you are welcome.

Shipster: as of 4 PM Friday (D.C. time) there was no reply. Will let you know on Tuesday if anything comes in. Have a great weekend! D.

[Carlos]

Low and behold, I got the following reply last week:

"""Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to

 my column.  It's always great to hear from readers.

 There's no reason why we can't agree on some issues

 and disagree on others.  Maybe we will really take you

 up on your offer if we are ever in the area.  Have a

 good weekend.

Lloyd"""

Will send a short reply to let him know I got the response and my offer still stands. Now if I could only get "Somebody that we don't need to talk about on the SHOOTING forum" to be 1/2 as reasonable as Lloyde seems to be!

Douglas

[SiG Lady]

A  somewhat safe and non-commital response but a response nonetheless. Frame it and hang it. Then hold him to his word! (..."if we are ever in the area"...)  

(Edited by SiG Lady at 11:35 am on Oct. 21, 2002)

[John Thompson]

CBS:

our

Coverage

is

Bull

Sh*t

Not to be confused with ABC:

All

Biased

Crap

(Edited by John Thompson at 4:31 am on Oct. 30, 2002)