Gun owners have been

[babylonsister]

intimidated by the news they read... I know, 'duh'.

But wanted to share this about a man I know, born and bred in Kentucky, a hunter all his life. He is one of the ones who stockpiled bullets because Obama was going to take away all his rights to bear arms, and that didn't sit well with him. He's also a big fan of the NRA.

My friend works for a gun manufacturer, a well-known one here in GA. He's proud of his job and company. When President Obama won, we had a brief conversation; he told me he might lose his job in 18 months. I asked why and he claimed that the gun he works on (assault weapon) will probably be banned. To be fair, he also bought me a steak dinner because I won 'the bet'; my President won.

This man has two sons; I do wonder what he's thinking tonight. I guess I'll have to ask him.



Edit to add: intimidated isn't the right word. Lied to? Mislead?

[doc03]

1. It seems like the usual crowd from the DU gun lobby are

MIA today. They must be waiting for marching orders from Wayne LaPeire.

[hrmjustin]

2. I noticed that as well.

[Pholus]

3. I've seen several posts tonight about how it isn't guns it's mental illness.

I have to choke back the reply that I consider all that gun-and-ammo buying paranoia over the election to be evidence FOR mental illness.

[Zoeisright]

5. Very right.

Gun nuttery really is a mental illness.

[haikugal]

6. Exactly...

The climate of fear and loathing that has been relentlessly promoted by RWA churches and think tanks, politicians etc. has produced a deep mental disease in many people. They are not rational. There is nothing more frightening to me than this kind of insanity.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. You know...

I was a gun owner (not now that I've moved to the UK). I learned to shoot when I was nine years old; I got a .22 rifle for Christmas that year. My father taught me gun safety ("a gun is ALWAYS loaded; never point it at anyone, even as a joke", etc); took me hunting, and target shooting; those things remain cherished memories of my childhood. But I can look objectively at the level of gun violence in America and say that just maybe something ought to be done; full-auto weapons were banned in 1934 because of their use by organised crime, maybe it's time to consider looking at imposing some reasonable limits on things like magazine capacity, perhaps even restricting ownership of fully automatic weapons and banning civilian ownership of handguns. I don't have a problem with people who hunt, who engage in things like target shooting and sporting clays competitions, and so on; they're not really the problem. It's people who think they need a 100 round magazine (which there's not really any legitimate sporting use for; one of the things I learnt when I learnt to hunt was to make every shot count, wait until you have the game in your sights; if you need a 100-round mag to hunt, you probably shouldn't be hunting).

Of course nothing will happen. There'll be a lot of hand-wringing, and perhaps some feeble efforts at stricter gun control laws, but they won't go anywhere.

[babylonsister]

7. This man

always had a gun nearby, but he was always sober, always safety conscious, and still is. He too learned at his daddy's knee. But I hope he thinks twice about being so adamant about his 'rights' when stuff like this happens. These little children; this is the first where babies are involved. So how many more must this country endure before we say 'enough'? I'd like to hear his explanation.

[haikugal]

8. It's all about the money...

to hell with the country.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Who is making gobs of money over this?

Margins on firearms themselves is not all that high, and its very competitive. Even more so with ammunition.

Yours is a claim I hear often, but the numbers do not seem to back it up.