Anti-gun gun owners

[History Prof]

OK, it's my last weekday before the spring semester begins, so I take advantage of the day to go to the range with my brother's HK91 and M1A. I'm already annoyed with myself because I forgot my optics and I'm shooting three round groups at 100M, and I've walked about a half mile to check targets when someone shows up at the range. They got out of the car just as I fired another group. I figured they'd have to set up targets, so I took another 200 meter walk (with HK91 in hand to adjust the sights).

When I get back to the firing line, I take a look at the new shooters - a man with a boy about 9 or 10. I've been down range about 3-4 minutes, and they haven't set up any targets.

The man comes over to me with a somewhat concerned look on his face and says "Could you not shoot that here? It's pretty loud."

Huh?!?!?! Ok, so I take a good look at their stuff. They have a .22 rifle and a box with a target. NO hearing protection. Ok, I can be nice, despite his rather OBNOXIOUS and ARROGANT request at a LARGE BORE rifle range. I pointed down the road and said "See that house with the police vehicle? Behind that is the shotgun and pistol range. Keep going down the road past the house and there is a fenced area where the police train. Keep going past that and you'll find the small bore range. You need to go there to shoot .22s. Also, you should always have hearing protection, even with those small bores."

I figured that would take care of it, but then he got REALLY obnoxious. The guy has the nerve to say, "You know, those guns you have are ILLEGAL. You should leave, because you're not supposed to have those things in the first place."

Oh, for pete's sake. "Illegal? Where did you ever get that idea?" I knew what he meant, but I wasn't in the mood to educate some ignorant fool.

"President Clinton BANNED those things," he says. HE looks annoyed that I have the nerve to own EBRs. Or maybe he was scared and full of false bravado - I couldn't really tell.

I just shook my head and said, "If you believe that these things are illegal, go over to the range house over there, and tell the cop that there's someone shooting illegal guns over here. After he arrests me, you'll have the range to yourself. But what's gonna happen is that he'll take one look at what I have, then he'll tell you to go to the small bore range and and get some hearing protection. Now, are you gonna set up targets here? If not, I'm gonna start shooting again."

He just turned and and motioned to the kid to get in the car. Funny thing is they didn't go further down the road to either the cop's house or to the small bore range. They just left. What a friggin annoying morning.:banghead: :banghead:

 

[Prince Yamato]

People like that are one more reason to get a .50 cal. Then the guy can bitch about noise. Also, I think anyone who refers to former President Clinton in a positive light at a gun range, probably has a couple screws loose, hence has a mental illness and thus lied on their Brady Forms.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Also, I think anyone who refers to former President Clinton in a positive light at a gun range, probably has a couple screws loose, hence has a mental illness and thus lied on their Brady Forms.

Perhaps not conclusive, but strong evidence of such.

I always carry a bag of foam ear plugs in my range bag, which is always in my car (I'm not faulting you for not). I would have offered them some and offered to let both of them shoot the EBR, starting with the kid (no matter how big of jerk he was being). The man may be hopeless, but the kid is impressionable and probably would have remembered the day for a long time, even if the man declined to let him have that experience.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

That's not very smart of them to go without hearing protection. I usually bring an extra set of muffs or two.
Hopefully he still decides to become a shooter.
I probably would have offered to let them try out those EBRs. When I was that age I envied the guys at the range with those "totally awesome" AR's and HKs. Never got to shoot one until I was in my mid teens.

 

[buzz_knox]

I've encountered those before. I've also encountered gun owners who are either uncomfortable with people owning firearms or actually working to help eliminate ownership. You can even find some of these on the boards.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

The enemy within... or is that a label for the liberals of the country??

 

[Mr White]

That's not very smart of them to go without hearing protection.

Nor is it smart of them to pick a fight with a guy carrying an EBR.

Myself, I'm always looking for a good fight (with words) with an anti. I live for situations like that and sadly encounter far too few of them. I figure you gotta sieze the moment when you can.

You have to evaluate each situation on its own. Is it a good chance to educate, erase misconceptions and build goodwill, or is the goal just to piss off some closed-minded idiot?

If the guy was alone, I'd have probably gone for the latter but since his kid was there, civilly and rationally exposing the error of dad's mindset and building some goodwill would have been better for the cause.

 

[James T Thomas]

paranoia obfuscans

Professor:

Your experience is very revealing of the mindset of those who would control all others; opression, in our society. The father owned a firearm himself, but he is determined that yours should be illegal!

Firearms, taxes, school curriculum; "what ever," the student council types intend to control those who have what it takes to stand up to them and live life on their own, by rules and regulations. That is, Big Government.

Notice that the man would not respond to reason nor the rule of law, but was angered that hecould not dominate you.

Isn't the former Pres. Clinton the one who cut back our military so much that today when we are engaged in the war on terrorism, that it requires the National Guard and Reserve troops to do three or more tours of duty?
When ever the United States of America is weak in this reguard, our nation is vunerable to attack such as "911."

Our fellow citizens who are so dangerously mistaken, as that man was, only contribute to the perception held by aggressors that they may attack us with impunity.

 

[History Prof]

civilly and rationally exposing the error of dad's mindset and building some goodwill would have been better for the cause.

I view this as a live-n-learn situation. For example, my first semester as a professor, I had a student walk out of an exam and come back in after a few minutes (it was cold/flu season, and EVERYBODY had kleenex in hand). I had assumed everyone knew you didn't do that and was so suprised that he did, I just ignored it. But then, having learned from it, I made sure to announce before every exam, and then add to my syllabus, that leaving in the middle of a test was a no-no.

I live in a small conservative town and teach at a small conservative college. I would have expected this when I was living in the city working on my PhD, but not here. IOW, it completely took me by surpise to run into that attitude here. BUT, since Phelps-Dodge has opened a copper mine here (the first new one in 30 years) the growth here has been phenomenal. Good for our economy, but it is changing the local culture that made this place so attractive when I was job searching......

Since this morning, I've been wondering how I could have handled the situation better. You guys have a lot of good advice. Thx.

 

[crunker]

If someone complains about the noise then you should get them to buy you a suppressor.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

People like that are one more reason to get a .50 cal. Then the guy can bitch about noise

Hehehehehehe

 

[Wedge]

What a weird situation.

First, who in their right mind would go to a rifle range without hearing protection? Many won't even let you on without any! When I was 9 the only guns we didn't wear hearing protection for were BB guns.

Unfortunately we may have lost a shooter here. The kid was probably excited to shoot, yet his father was ignorant taking him to a centerfire rifle range with no hearing protection. Then asking you to not shoot your guns...that is just downright rude.

A sort of compromise that could have been reached was that you shoot while they are resting and you rest while they shoot. The first time I took my wife to an actual range the guy 2 lanes over was shooting a fairly loud .40 S&W. He noticed that my wife did not like the noise and only shot when I shot and didn't shoot whenever my wife shot. My wife's ears are small so she only had muffs on...can't fit plugs and muffs though I will be looking for some smaller child sized plugs...I digress. Anyways, this would have given the folks a chance to cover their ears while you shot. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but better than nothing.

You gave him every chance, you directed him to the .22LR range and he just got all in your face about it. Probably wanted to look like a big man in front of his kid who will likely grow up to be a jerk as well. It sounds to me that any offer you made other than caving to his demands would be answered with some obnoxious comment so that he would look big to his son.

I do not carry extra hearing protection with me, my range bag is pretty small since I only shoot at the pistol range. I doubt that offering him some hearing protection would have solved the situation...

 

[doubleg]

Man whats up with all this jerks showing up at these ranges. I'm sick of it.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Maybe he was just feeling inadequate with your .308 thumping away. "Dad why is his so much bigger than yours?"

 

[jrou111]

Some people have their mind made up already.

 

[Thefabulousfink]

I would have gone to my car and pulled out a SA battle pack and said "Sure I'll quit shooting, I just gotta burn through these last 140 rounds."

...or I would have jumpped on his case about teaching his kid irresponsible and unsafe gun handleing, as well as going shooting without proper safety equipment.


If the guy hadn't been such a jerk, I would be inclined to take turns shooting, or even lend them my hearing protection and let them get a few rounds on my EBR. That way they could see that there are no evil spirits hinding in it.

Edit:

"President Clinton BANNED those things,"

Well sir, aren't you aware that if a president is impeached, all the laws that he singed get repealed?

 

[El Tejon]

History Prof., have you read Unintended Consequences by John Ross?

Go back and read the section where Ray Johnson has just graduated law school and is buying the H&H .600 with the money his uncle has given him as a graduation gift. Remember what the skeet shooter said to him and Ray's explanation to the gun store owner why he told the guy off?

Same "logic" at work at your gun range.

 

[landon74]

I always keep a bunch of disposable ear plugs in my range bag (mostly for when I do something boneheaded like leave my muffs at home) and usually an extra pair of safety glasses as well (just in case). I can't fault you for what you did, that guy was way out of line, but as someone else pointed out it sucks for the kid, as he didn't get to shoot today....

The gun range is one of those places where I always run into somebody who 1. Knows tons more about guns and everything than me and 2. Is more than willing to tell me all about it....

 

[History Prof]

First, who in their right mind would go to a rifle range without hearing protection? Many won't even let you on without any!

It is an unsupervised public range. The police officer *lives* at the range, but I've never seen him *patrol* the range. I think the city put the house there just for effect. Not dissing the cop - I don't think he is even responsible for range safety.

Well sir, aren't you aware that if a president is impeached, all the laws that he singed get repealed?

You just gave me an awsome T/F question for my PoliSci Class (yea, I'm a history prof, but this college is so small, I do double duty).

History Prof., have you read Unintended Consequences by John Ross?

It's been a while. I will have to go back and look that up.
BTW, that book was one SCARY read. I enjoyed it so much that some of the parts that I have been able to confirm through other sources have been added to my modern US History lectures.... It would be great if Ross released an abridged, cleaned up and referenced edition that I could use in my classes..

 

[Jim K]

In my experience, the gun owners most likely to be anti-gun are small bore target shooters and shotgun shooters. Both consider themselves "true sportsmen" whose guns are not threatened (that is what they think) and who feel free to advocate controls/bans on all other types of guns.

Hunters come in a close third - they too believe that no one will ever ban hunting, and they are safe in their sport. I have news for them, too.

In perusing the net, I came across this rant on a "liberal" site:

"The real terrorists are the NRA gun crazies and the animal murdering hunters - when we take over, our first order of business will be to exterminate them."

While no one expects the Democratic leadership to jump on THAT bandwagon, there is a real threat out there to ALL guns, not just handguns or "assault rifles." The lunatic fringe wants to ban all guns, and kill outright or put in death camps, EVERYONE who ever owned a gun. And they are the ones who call gun owners "crazy."

Just as an aside, it is exactly that kind of leftist nuttiness that will be a real burden for the Democratic Party in Congress. Even if the leaders try to pass reasonable and necessary legislation, they will be continually reminded that they owe their jobs in part to people who are radical to the point of total insanity.

Jim

 

[SSN Vet]

I just bet....

Mr. .22 isn't even a member at your rage/club.....

He was probably tresspassing in the first place....

and with the egotistical, nose up in the air, liberal, I'm better than you and should therefore tell you what's best for you, attitude.

Wouldn't any one who had even the quickest range orientation already know everything you told him.

Does your range require membership cards to be openly displayed?

 

[cbsbyte]

Pretty stuiped not to have hearing protection at a firearm range, even for a .22LR. About the incident, the guy is obiviosly not well informed about gun laws. Being ignornat of gun laws does not make him an anti. Many gun owners even ones that are supportive of RKBA are not always up to date on current gun laws. There are plenty of NRA members in this state that believe that all Assualt weapons, and .50BMGs are banned. Even though they are not. And I always get a kick when gun owners only believe Liberals are anti-gun, there are plenty of Conservatives, such as the Brady's, that also want to ban all firearms.

 

[Henry Bowman]

there are plenty of Conservatives, such as the Brady's,

I'd say they've jumped off that wagon for good.

 

[Blackfork]

Lost the kid

While it's not the obligation of any of us to suffer fools gladly, I hate that the kid walked away without getting to watch you shoot, shooting your rifle or having a good day at the range. Those impressionable kids are the future.

 

[MountainPeak]

You treated him better than I would have!