Can I Say Again That I Remember when the NRA was About Safety, etc.

[dballance]

As I have posted before I remember in the early '80s when the NRA was about gun training and safety. It was a great organization.

I grew up on a farm with guns around of course and had a father who was very intent on teaching us gun safety. How to handle a deadly weapon, make sure you never point it at another person or yourself and so on.

It was the early '80s. So the NRA sponsored gun safety courses at our high school that were taught in gym class. For those kids who'd never seen a rifle, let alone touched one, it was a great thing. We had class work we had to pass and then at the end of the course anyone who passed all the tests got to go to the range. Yep, that's right. Our teachers handed high school kids real rifles with live ammo in them so we could shoot at clay pigeons.

There were at least twenty or thirty kids with rifles in their hands with live ammo. All sponsored by the NRA as I recall. But the whole situation was about how do we safely handle these weapons. Especially when there are more than one of us around in close quarters with a weapon. Yes, they did try to teach us to pay attention to what might be other hunters around us and not shoot them (take a lesson Scalia).

That was back when the NRA was still true to what I think it was founded upon. It was a badge of honor to get a certificate of completion from that gun safety course.

After LePew's paranoid, schizo rant I'm not sure who would want to be associated with the NRA now except the most extreme people now.

[Democracyinkind]

1. Same here.

GC&RKBA as "favorite group" doesn't equal gun nut. I was very surprised to see that it was my fav group. If you don't post much, a couple of posts in the same forum will get you that designation.

I've stopped thinking "gun nut" to myself when I now see that designation in the profile. Now, I reserve the "gun nut" judgement for those that actualy post gunnuttish commments.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. thanks for understanding and growing and learning about how it operates here.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. and yet DU is fascinated with the Man and his Lobby. Give them more press than most of MSM.

Seems like we are always intrigued with the loons. Go figure.

[glowing]

4. I grew up in the country. Gun safety was a norm. We didn't do any special shooting classes

in the late 90's in VT, but we did learn archery. Stringing the bows, pull, safety of letting go, and aiming at targets. I enjoyed it very much. There are still people who go hunting with compound bows over guns (mainly for the purpose of hunting wild turkey - not having bullets ruin the meat of a smaller animal is much nicer for many). For deer, its still a hunting rifle - not some semi-automatic weapon - it would absolutely ruin the meat and the hide and or head for "rack" stuffing.

One thing I do know, the first time these boys go out with their dad's, their first "bag", normally leaves them puking because they just killed a being. They know its feeding their family and its a survivor necessity for many families to make it thru the winter, but its also something to respect. Its not a "game" for them. No one I knew had a hand gun. No one I knew had assault rifles. Only hunting rifles. And if on the first day out, they got a deer, they were normally done (unless they had a bigger family or donated meat to other families in need). I should say, its not just men who hunt (it normally is the men who go hunting), but there are females who hunt as well. And most of them know how to use a rifle if they are on a farm and in the boonies and need to literally keep a fox out of the hen house.

Personally, I don't really like the taste of deer. Its a bit gamey (they aren't a "fatty" type of animal and its not exactly like eating a fat juicy steak from a grass fed cow who's only purpose was to eat and get fat for slaughter). I don't mind it so much if its ground and put into spaghetti sauce alongside sausage and spices (its actually better than using hamburger meat because grease and fat in tomato sauce isn't too apetizing) and I don't mind when its made into different flavors of jerky (that's a better taste than a beef jerky - my friend's mom made some of the best deer jerky ever). Bear, on the other hand, is absolutely disgusting to me. It is completely greasy and fatty. Duck is amazing (as long as the kill shot didn't drop the bullet into a place where it would make the meat taste funny and that the bird was cleaned properly). Wild turkey is ok; but turkey in the oven is rather drying anyway and wild turkey aren't fat farm raised butterballs that most are used to, but they are still good. And then there's fishing; all year long if you like.

We had many "parties" out on the ice in the shanties with the only access being a snowmobile. With all of the access that we had to guns, bow/ arrows, knives, we didn't have a bunch of shooting sprees. We had access to these types of weapons, but we didn't "play" with them. We didn't get them out at parties to "show off". They were simply tools, like a hammer for nailing down a roof, a chainsaw for cutting down a tree, or a hoe for gardening. It wasn't "cool" to get out a gun to show off or use on someone. If there was ever a "fight", it was done with fists... But most of the time, there was no fighting. Small town, most everyone was friends, and half the time people were too baked to bother with a fist fight, however, there was an occasional fight. I'm not sure what the "teen" scene is like now that I've been gone for a bit, but I would think, for the most part, they are still similar. The one thing that is an addition is the internet and knowledge of what kids are doing beyond their own front door. I've seen a few stupid RW FaceBook posts from some of my high school friends. Its like they didn't think before posting, and they think that they don't look like a total ass or racist to the outside world... The dumb one about Food Stamps and welfare before the election was especially disgusting. I shut it down by using some common sense about most people who are broke don't actually have extra money for drugs. Drug testing is just tax payer money being funneled into a private entity to "test" their piss for drugs, all the while politicians, who make more, take bribes, and generally run amok, won't make a law that states all federal employees, including themselves, submit to random drug tests. (There's a more likelyhood of them using drugs or drinking heavily -Boehner anyone- than a poor, single mother of 3 making minimum wage). Most people liked my comments and the original poster of the "shared" comment apologized for being an idiot.

[dballance]

5. Exactly!

Guns, bows, etc. weren't anything special. They were just there where I grew up too. Like you said. Just another tool.

[SecularMotion]

7. Why guns shouldn't be treated as tools

A 50-year-old Howell man was killed last week when he accidentally shot himself while turning off a radio at his Livingston County employer's barn.

Bezotte said Kehres, a 1979 graduate of Monroe High School, was preparing to leave work at Epley Excavating & Geo Thermal at 5080 W. Allen Road near Fleming Road in Cohoctah Township when he reached above a workbench to turn off a radio. When he did this, he "somehow triggered" a loaded shotgun that was lying on a workbench, the sheriff said.

The shot struck Kehres in the lower chest and upper abdomen area, killing him, Bezotte noted.

Bezotte said the shotgun was long forgotten by the employees as it lay beneath a layer of tools.

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20120814/NEWS01/208140302/Death-shooting-accident

[dballance]

9. Respectfully, I have to disagree

The link doesn't work but reading what is posted here it seems like the problem is not the gun, but rather the people who should have done a better job securing it. This is unfortunately no different than all those sad news articles I read about toddlers killing themselves with the guns they find and discharge. An adult should have made sure this gun was secured from having something like this happen. I don't care if it was yesterday or 20 years ago the gun was placed where it was. The gun should have been secured. Gun safety is not a new concept.

Yes, they are tools. Just like the chain saw, table saw or drill I've used. All can be deadly weapons to other humans if not used properly. Just like a gun if not used properly. For many people in the past guns were nothing more than a tool to put food on the table. They were a necessity.

[SecularMotion]

15. So guns are more like power tools?

[bobclark86]

17. No...

this is why dumb-asses shouldn't leave loaded guns lying on their workbench. Pick up your tools and you knock a circular saw on your foot, get your tie stuck in a table saw or shoot yourself.

[PavePusher]

13. Sigh.....

For deer, its still a hunting rifle - not some semi-automatic weapon - it would absolutely ruin the meat and the hide and or head for "rack" stuffing.

Semi-auto rifles have been used in hunting for over 100 years. They shoot the same bullets as their bolt- and lever- and pump-action cousins. They do not "ruin the meat". You use them exactly as you would any other rifle: carefully aimed single shots, not spray-n-pray. They are under exactly the same magazine restrictions for hunting as any other rifle, generally 3-5 rounds in most states.

I'm not sure how you think they are used or where you got such erroneous information from, but please do some more research, or just ask questions. I'll be happy to answer.

[PavePusher]

14. All the below items are legitimate hunting rifles. If you don't think one is, tell me which one and

1. http://www.remington.com/en/product-families/firearms/centerfire-families/bolt-action-model-700.aspx

2. http://www.remington.com/en/product-families/firearms/centerfire-families/pump-action-model-7600.aspx

3. http://www.remington.com/product-families/firearms/centerfire-families/autoloading-model-750.aspx

4. http://www.remington.com/product-families/firearms/centerfire-families/autoloading-model-r-25.aspx

5. http://www.remington.com/product-families/firearms/centerfire-families/autoloading-model-r-15.aspx

[GreenStormCloud]

6. It was the gun controllers that made the modern NRA what it is today.

With the rise of the modern gun control movement, who are perceived as wanting to ban all civilian owneship of guns, gun owners started looking for someone to represent them. They moved into the NRA and took it over.

[spin]

11. Yup. (n/t)

[Berserker]

12. That is one kick ass post

Hit the nail on the head.

[oldhippie]

16. ^^ This ^^ nt

nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. Actually the gun safety, marksmanship, and other training programs are still there

They are effectively self sustaining and still operating at a high level. We don't hear about them since there is no salacious value.

[dballance]

10. Yep, The Lack of Blood and Guts Doesn't Sell

I'd bet you are right. Calm courses that teach our kids gun safety are not nearly as "sexy" as mass murders. Stories about good works just don't get the ratings. Or do they?