One things that I particularly appreciate about the Airgun Rendezvous is the fact that the participants here treat each other with a modicum of respect. We use reasonable words and a reasonably moderate tone when communicating with each other, without the flame wars, profanity, and hatefulness that seems to dominate so many other internet forums. The fact that we undoubtedly disagree on many topics is beside the point, it's just not necessary to get ugly with each other to get our points across.

Contrast this to the ongoing nationwide media-fueled diatribe that is currently taking place on the issue of gun control. Regardless of your personal position and opinion as regards the private ownership of so-called "assault weapons", your rights as a gun owner in this country are under attack to a degree that is virtually unprecedented in our nations history. There is a coordinated and deliberate pogrom underway in the media that shows no signs of abating, aimed squarely at eliminating private ownership of semi-automatic firearms of every description and all "hi-capacity ammo clips". No talk of "sunset clause" or "grandfather clauses" this time around; the gun ban crowd is going for the throat. They want prohibition, elimination, and confiscation, and they are ruthlessly exploiting the massacre of innocent children in one of the most cynical and repulsive examples of political theater that I personally have ever witnessed.

No matter than the media itself is totally complicit in creating the problem. Their relentless 24/7 glorification of this atrocity virtually guarantees that the next mass-shooter will attempt to commit an even more shocking crime in order to benefit from the massive volume of public attention. No matter than almost all of the most popular computer "games" today are nothing more or less than mass-murder simulators which systematically encourage and reward horrifically realistic violence towards human figures. No matter that the movies and television are a non-stop 300-channel smorgasbord of violence porn, available to anyone of any age at any time. There is a continual parade of Hollywood "experts" on tap to explain how continually marinating our children's brains in violence cannot possibly do them any harm in any way, it's all just "good fun".

All the media wants to talk about is banning guns, end of story. It doesn't seem to matter that we tried the "assault weapons ban" thing already for over a decade and it did nothing to reduce crime. They also don't want to talk about our own federal gun agency's illegal and immoral "fast and furious" debacle, where they gave hundreds of exactly those same type of guns directly to the Mexican drug cartels with horrifically predictable results. They don't want to talk about the incredibly unlikely coincidence that every mass shooting in recent U.S. history has occurred in a "gun free zone". And they especially don't want to talk about how the average liquor store clerk or jewelry store owner has the right and the means to defend his/her own personal life and safety, but that every schoolteacher in the nation is forbidden by law from having those same tools available to defend the lives of our children from madmen. On TV it's all big-city politicians telling us over and over about how they know best, and how those of us who happen to fundamentally disagree with them are just too stupid and stubborn to "get it". Yeah...I get it all right.

Despite this parade of one-sided hatchet jobs masquerading as news these days it turns out that there are still occasionally (if exceedingly rare) spots where you can partake of well-reasoned and reasonably neutral essays about the gun control issue even outside of the conservative political sphere. Not everyone on the liberal/progressive side of the political spectrum has abandoned reason, common sense, and the concept that ones own personal self-defense is a not only the most basic human right, but a moral obligation. I stumbled on this while wading through a sea of the usual hypocritical liberal outrage, and it was a refreshingly new take on the issue. It's well worth a read.

[kontradictions.wordpress.com]

AGREED!!!!!! Please allow this thought. I am a parent and have two children in school. My thought on this is the mother new her son had issues and allowed this person access to these weapons, in my opinion it is her fault that she let her son murder these innocent people. Another thought is i have been involved with firearms of all type. My wife has a stepfather that has a class three permit and you would need dynamite to access his weapons. If we the people have no way to protect ourselves we will fall prey to the criminal. One more thought. My wife is from Monroe Connecticut.

Funny how the congress just voted armed Secret Service protection for the former presidents kids, while your child at school is left helpless by the GUN FREE ZONE. BTW those SS are carring full auto assault weapons.

Get your carry permit and be a patriot.

The 2nd amendment is not for you to hunt or target shoot, it is to keep all your other individual rights intact.

It is amazing how many liberal minority protectors are all for gun control when gun control schemes are all about denying the civil rights of persons "not like us".
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Liberals don't trust their fellow citizens, they trust the government. Conservatives (and Founding Fathers) trust their fellow citizen to protect them from the government. It is true for all issues, not just gun control.

Keep the faith, stay strong patriots.

"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win
without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure
and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to
fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for
survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is
no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as
slaves." W. Churchill

It's the mind which controls what the hands do.
If the mind becomes deseased, perhaps modern medicine can correct it.
If the mind becomes depraved, perhaps God, thru Godly men can correct it.
Since we've mostly banished God (and Godly men) from the public square, it would stand to reason we'd find more depraved minds there.
No amount of legislation will prevent depraved minds from directing their hands to do evil.
Gary

I suspect that most, if not all, on this forum are strong supporters of our constitution as it was written rather than as some "progressives" would interpret it. This generally means that the rights of the individual are protected above the rights of the state, which the founders manifestly distrusted based on bitter experience as former citizens of the crown. This individual liberty must always be zealously guarded against the creeping intrusion of the state, as the state will always seek to infringe upon those rights based merely on convenience sake if nothing else.

It is painfully apparent that this hard lesson will have to be learned over and over again, and that the sacrifices of previous generations to safeguard this individual liberty are destined to be forgotten over and over again. Perhaps it's just part and parcel of human nature, and perhaps it's symptomatic of a deeper malaise in our society. The quote from Churchill is appropriate, and the time to get involved is now instead of when all hope is lost. I, for one, choose not to let the spineless politicians and the faceless bureaucrats state trample my rights without a fight. I'm writing essays like these to anyone and everyone who will listen and hoping to reach those who won't. I'm writing letters to the editor and to my representatives in congress, telling them to stand fast on the core issue of protecting my individual rights. There's still plenty of improvements that can be made to the existing gun laws without adding any new ones, we've got over 20,000 of them to work with after all.

From what I see on the internet I'm not alone, and I hope that every gun owner is working to talk some sense into their fellow citizens. From the stories I see on TV it would appear that the American public is voting on this issue with their wallets, since every gun store in the nation is selling "assault weapons" as fast as they can move them. There is a considerable amount of irony in that, seeing as the TV talking heads are all convinced that only hoodlums and semi-literate "rednecks" could possibly disagree with their shrill cries for yet another gun ban. All those 'black rifles" flying off the gun store shelves can't possibly be going solely to us "hicks in the red states", there just not enough of us compared to the urban masses.

Could it be that the talking heads in the mainstream media are wrong? Could it be that they just refuse to acknowledge that the average citizen doesn't agree with the liberal/progressive "party line" on gun control? Otherwise, why would they be buying up all those guns? Could it be that there is a relatively small group of extremely vocal advocates who are trying to steer the country in a direction that it just doesn't really want to go? One thing for sure is that the gun banners will never, ever stop trying to take away our rights. The price of maintaining even the status quo on the gun control issue is eternal vigilance. They will never let up, so neither can we.

If anyone has noticed. They only target the helpless and a place where protection is not allowed. Another issue is people are buying body armor for their children Do they realize that a .223 round will defeat body armor and would the seller lie to them? I do not understand their ban on high capacity MAGAZINES. I personally have attended IPSC competition and they shoot so fast that they can empty eight rounds and drop the magazine then reload BEFORE the magazine hits the ground. I speak this because they do not understand what a PROPERLY trained person can do. Sorry about my improper grammar!!!!

Preaching to the choir, I suspect. Anyone who hasn't yet seen the guys who win 3-gun matches will be dumbfounded how quickly a regular shotgun can be reloaded as well.

But with the media types, it's never the people that matter, only the guns that are the problem.

Yes Sean you are preaching to choir but it is a hard fight and i have been having this debate with my wife for many years about gun control. She is very smart and in the health care industry and sees the carnage caused by hand guns do to gang related city life and the lack parenting and her bottom line is less guns less bullets less deaths,But then if they just outlawed liquer, governed all cars to go 30mph made greasy chix against the law look at all the lives we would save. oh ya i forgot to mention smoking which i have to pay an extra 10$ a week to BLUE CROSS cause i am a smoker!!! I do love my wife very much and she is a great marksman loves to hunt fish and and camp ( and i dont mean in those big jayco parking lots) but i think like alot of people misinformed. In my state they issue slaughter permits for deer (does) mainly to farmers but alot of folks think it is driven by big insurance companys to decrease car deer accidents but others think no big game why do you need guns huh???? I truely share your passion for the issues of gun control ( using two hands) but have refocused my enegery towardes my 15yr old son who will eventually pay the big price if someone doesnt change the way people think. I used to think Ted Nugent for president yaaa with Sean as vice president????

Thanks
Kurt

I'd take that job, comes with some pretty good bennies after all, and you never have to fly coach.

I can just see a Ted Nugent presidency: congress would be shut down for hunting season, and the white house lawn would have archery targets hidden throughout the rose garden. There'd be no deer safe at Camp David, and the neighbors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would constantly complain about the shotgun noise since we'd be out on the helipad busting clay birds after work. Yeah, I think I could live with that.

That said, the job I really want is Emperor of the United States (oops, I mean president). Although that job position is currently filled (by a foreigner, no less) I still think I could do a better job even if all I did was sit on my hands the entire time and do nothing. At least then we wouldn't have an emperor (oops, I mean president) who is actively trying to ruin our country. If all I did was sit there and veto every bill that congress introduced so that the criminal class in DC enacted no new legislation whatsoever, it would still be better than what we have now.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt that my extensive program of rooting out corruption would have half of those un-indicted co-conspirators in jail halfway through my first term. If our senators and representatives spent even a fraction of their time actively working for the public good instead of just enriching themselves personally they could probably get a lot done for a change.

Rotorhead,

Thanks for the post. I to agree that this is one of the few forums that has remained "family friendly" with a positive atmosphere. Joined another forum awhile ago but never posted, to much profanity and explicit pics as avatars. Even the moderators are in on it.

Gary makes a good point, depravity of man is leading our nations to a lower state of morality and ethics. God has been taken out and replaced with self-will. It is scary to think what the next generation will allow. I kind of see this at work with the young guys, they don't care about learning, taking responsibility, at least that is what it feels like. Some are better than others, but video games and drinking seem to be the common interest, and these guys are 20-23. One is 40, no house, single, lives with a buddy and his wife, and their kids. He acts like a teenager. Lost his license due to causing an accident while drunk, so sad....

Enjoyed the two week shut down and not having to worry about the stress of work. Caught a show on Discovery, Mountain Men. I had seen it before but never a complete episode. I was really surprised with the warning when the show started "THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM CONTAINS MATURE SUBJECT MATTER AND DISTURBING SCENES. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED". Had me wondering what the show was about due to the warning. Worst I saw was a beaver caught in a trap, and a deer being shot!

Now flip to some TV shows, cops shows, people being shot, swearing, and sexual innuendoes with little or no warning. Hmmm... Something wrong here.

On Mountain Men, it was interesting, a young man wanted to learn to live off the land. He was given chores and tasks to do around the yard, house and got mad because he wasn't learning anything. He got mad at the mentor and was asked to leave his home. You cannot always do the job you feel like, there are things we have to do that aren't always fun. Such is life...


It is a tragedy that young boys are walking into schools and shooting children, let alone adults. They play violent video games and are loners, add the two together and some lose touch with reality. I played "call of duty" years ago when my brother lent me his Play station as I recovered from surgery. I had dreams of killing people for weeks. Glad that was the last I ever played video games.

A lot more could be said by all of us with our independent view points, so I will leave it at that and not throw more personal beliefs into an airgun forum

Thanks again for starting this thread....

Pedro G.

Thanks for your posts.

There are going to be differing opinions about just WHERE WE ARE in that Churchill quote. Clearly; many folks don't see a problem at all. Other people feel like quite a few ships have already sailed. And ringing a bell on the beach as the masts of those ships are getting shorter and shorter on the horizon isn't gonna bring them back. Of course, I'm sure others are in between.

We live in an electronic age. And, I keep being reminded that it is usually "the swarm" that brings things down. It's the wave of barbarians screaming out of the woods. It's a thousand regulations that you seem to become the focus of. It's being flagged by anonymous web crawlers. We have the NRA with its professionals at every level. Please support their efforts if they carry your code. It is only people who are placed at strategic places at strategic times with strategic powers who can effect anything as complicated as our legal system. I think we have had some sterling examples of this concept over the last couple of years.

Thank you again for participating. I hope you all have a blessed New Year.

Gary