Did you see this crazy post?

[traco]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1573962/posts

My god...what are they teaching these kids? How to kill and worship guns?

[bertha katzenengel]

1. Par for the course. But this surprised me:

Eddie Eagle Says:

If you see a gun--
Stop...
Don't touch...
Leave the Area...
Tell an adult!

That's a good thing.

[traco]

2. I was surprised by that too nt

[elshiva]

9. Remember Michael Moore's response to Eddie Eagle:

PISTOL PETE! (A giant purple gun)

Pistol Pete, Pistol Pete
He's a son of a gun
who's really neat

Pistol Pete, Pistol Pete
Pull my trigger
and feel my heat!

[bertha katzenengel]

12. ooo-kay...

:shrug:

[Deep13]

17. Whatever is wrong with the NRA's world view and political agenda,...

...they pretty much wrote the book on firearm safety.

[Stockholm]

33. But this did not (right under the "golden rule")

If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have them.

Republican bedwetters and their offspring...

[TheBaldyMan]

3. apart from the RW loony bits it seems to be about gun safety

very laudable IMO. Of course everybody would be a lot safer if you didn't live in a society where you could find guns lying around the place. Madness, thats the only way I can descrbe the American obsession with firearms.

[traco]

4. Did you see the pictures

of little kids shooting? I can appreciate the idea of gun safety, but little kids shouldn't be shooting.

[realisticphish]

6. why not?

now, I'm not saying that you should toss them a shotgun and say, "go get 'em, tiger" but you respect that which you know. Teach a young(ish) child how to shoot, properly and safely, and they will respect guns far more than saying they're evil. I've been shooting since I was 6. My father was VERY strict on safety; eye protection, ear protection, and all the range rules (gun downrange at all times, do NOT pull the trigger unless you intend to destroy what you're aiming at, etc). And now that has been hammered so much into my head that I can't even carry a paintball gun with the muzzle block on without keeping pointing straight down at all times.

Not that everyone should go teach their guns how to shoot, but if a child is going to be around them a lot, then they should be tought how to use them safely as early as possible.

[benEzra]

13. Under responsible adult supervision, what's the problem?

My kids (7 and 5) shoot BB guns under supervision, and in a year or two they'll be shooting real guns under very tight supervision, with eye and ear protection. They already understand basic gun safety (toy guns treated as real make excellent teaching tools).

There is such a thing as responsible gun ownership, and plenty of us NON-freepers are doing what we can to pass it on.

[aclog]

15. damn straight!

self-protection is not frivolous nor is it a crime to ENJOY shooting firearms in controlled environments

[traco]

5. where is everyone?

:kick:

[tyedyeto]

8. Who give's a shit what is posted at FR? I don't.

Sorry, but that's the way I feel.

[Deep13]

25. Akron, OH

That's just me, not everyone.

[realisticphish]

7. The NRA has always

stressed gun safety above most of their other tenets. The RW psycho bullshit is a relatively recent addition

[SmileyBoy]

10. I'm not clicking on that, sorry.

You can't make me.

[traco]

11. It's a kid posting about the NRA

and there are pictures of little kids, some only 5 years old, shooting handguns

[benEzra]

14. The pictures weren't loading for me

but there is nothing wrong with a child shooting a firearm under careful adult supervision. I'd be within arm's length, though, and the location has to be chosen with safety in mind.

Have you ever gone target shooting with a .22 yourself?

[Burma Jones]

16. I learned Gun Safety early on

Started shooting when I was 7.

We have guns. People from all parts of the political spectrum own guns. I didn't see anything about Gun "worship"

The usual paranoia about Barbara Streisand coming over to their houses and taking away their guns is certainly featured, but that sort of thing sells, the left does it too......

[LynneSin]

18. Will my penis grow 3 inches if I'm allowed to carry a concealed handgun?

Wait, I don't even have a penis - scratch that!

[Deep13]

21. A gun can be a suitable substitute.

:evilgrin:

I have a few and have never thought of it in those terms. It's just a hobby, not a power trip, like stamp collecting except louder and dirtier. I never conceal and carry. Just don't see the point.

[LynneSin]

23. Here's my mentality

I know people own guns, hell I know liberals own guns.

But at least the liberals who I know own guns don't treat them like the lastest & greatest masturbatory objects the way that freepers do. Liberals own guns, lock them away so kids can't get them and probably didn't mind that they had to go through a background check to get one or that they might have had to wait 7 days from time of purchase to get it.

One of the 10 commandments that God gave us was to have no other god before him - meaning that we were not to worship false idols, sometimes just simple objects that we put above everything else. But Freepers worship those damn guns like an idol and it's somewhat annoying. I'm sure you probably do not do that with your guns!

[Deep13]

24. yup, pretty much.

What pisses me off is these hunters who are constantly losing open space to development won't support pro-environmental candidate because of the gun issue and because they are "tree-huggers" whatever that means. What the hell good is a firearm if there is no place to use it?

[Deep13]

19. So much for being nonpartisan.

"...to protect and defend freedom in the United States of America, the Progressive Liberal Democrats, Hollywood Elitists and the American history revisionist crowd will eventually will this battle."

Where's that copy editor? "Will eventually will?"

Speaking of revisionists, how about the fact that the Federal judiciary has never, ever found that there is an individual right to own a gun in the Second Amendment. But, I guess you have to instill paranoia while they are your.

[underpants]

20. Great DU thread see post #16 specifically

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x121042#121046

[benEzra]

29. Hardly an unbiased source there...

you just cited one of the most bitterly anti-gun partisans I've ever met, so you ought to at least consider that he's citing only one side of a two-sided argument. And he's from New Jersey, where almost no one owns guns (except for the criminals, they have plenty). Read a few threads and see how often he calls gun owners sexual deviants, insane, KKK, etc. etc. He hates Dems and independents who own guns, and hatred makes one less than objective. I'll tell you up-front where I'm coming from--I'm a gun owner, married to a gun owner from Massachusetts, my parents are gun owners, my coworkers are gun owners, and I live in a state where guns are 100 times more common than iPods. Gun hatred may fly in NJ, but guns matter here.


Other side of the argument, if you're interested: www.guncite.com. Lots of links to Federal court cases there, and no, they are NOT all on the side of the prohibitionists. Not to mention the fact that the constitutions of 40+ states explicitly recognize the right of the individual to own and use guns.


One could also cite the DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM:

We will protect Americans' Second Amendment right to own firearms...

http://www.democrats.org/pdfs/2004platform.pdf

The party's problems on the gun issue are mainly the result of a few gun-404 urban elitists (chiefly Dianne Feinstein, but there are others) who grab the spotlight and presume to speak for the party on the issue, and are constantly falling for anti-gun-lobby bait-and-switches. Between 1/4 and 1/3 of Dems, and at least that many independents, own guns, and only a small minority are hunters. What do you want to do, tell us to get the hell out of your party so the gun-haters can have it all to themselves?

Dems and the Gun Issue--Now What?

[coolhandlulu]

22. I just don't get it...

Maybe it's because I'm a girl, but I just don't see the need for guns. I live on the east side of Cleveland in the hood with shabby locks, no safety lights, and no alarm system. Never needed a gun for protection. Now I do like venison, but I would never kill an animal myself. I guess guns were made for men.

[benEzra]

31. My wife owns guns, and has been licensed to carry...

I guess guns were made for men.

My wife owns guns, and has been licensed to carry...her choice, not mine. FWIW, she's a brilliant woman and poet originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who grew up in Maine, has a B.A. in literature, enjoys fencing, and studies medieval Russian history for fun. She owns guns because she chooses to, not because she's "compensating"--and FWIW, she can shoot the center out of a playing card with a compact 9mm at 21 feet.

I believe around 1 in 3 women nationwide own guns; it's more an urban/nonurban thing than a male/female thing.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. You think gun safety is crazy? Shit, I don't want to be around you, then.

I take my gun safety VERY seriously, as does my whole family. We were all taught how to use guns as children, and how to use them safely.

But, what the hell.

If you think being unsafe with guns is somehow the "uncrazy" option, then have at it.

[traco]

27. I don't think gun safety is crazy

I think getting kids involved in shooting and also letting kids be involved in posting on a political forum is crazy.

[benEzra]

30. Why is teaching responsible gun ownership crazy?

You can't start that at age 18, anymore than you can sit a kid in front of a TV until they're 18 and then suddenly teach them to think. Responsible gun ownership involves a culture of safety, and those habits are best ingrained young.


You and I may certainly disagree on the topic (I'm sure I won't change your mind, and you won't change mine), but I am not "crazy" for disagreeing with you. And the kids you should worry about are the ones that have parents who aren't involved with their lives.


If you have time, you may find the following study very interesting: Alan J. Lizotte et al., "Patterns of Adolescent Firearms Ownership and Use," 11 Just. Q. 51 (1994), cited here. A summary of the findings follows (emphasis added):

Socialization for Responsible Firearms Attitudes

The most important factor affecting how young people deal with guns is how they are taught about them. A study of 675 Rochester, New York ninth and tenth graders contrasted children who had been socialized into gun use by their family with children who had been socialized into gun use by peers. For the children whose families had taught them about lawful gun use, the children were at no greater risk of becoming involved in crime, gangs, or drugs than were children with no exposure to guns. These youths tended to own rifles and shotguns. But the children who were taught about guns by their peers were at high risk of all types of crime and improper behavior, including gun crime. These youths tended to own handguns, sawed-off rifles, and sawed-off shotguns. The latter two types of weapons are generally illegal, even for adults. Notably, the first group of youths, who owned firearms legally for participation in the shooting sports with their parents, were less likely to commit delinquent acts than youths who did not have any firearms at all.

[NoSheep]

28. sick.

[Redstone]

32. Hey, people start taking their kids to church when they're young; why not

get 'em started on the Holy Fetish Cult of Firearms too?

Redstone