Popular Mechanics Pro-Gun Editorial

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This Editor is a real standup guy. I am going to get a new subscription to PM just because I enjoy someone who doesn't mince words.

Here is the story.

popularmechanics.jpg
 
I will be purchasing a subscription today and letting Joe Oldham know that I have done so as a direct result of this editorial.
 
Popular Mechanics has had two or three strongly pro-gun articles/editorials over the past couple years. I wonder how long this tone will last, since I don't know the ownership or politics behind the rag and am too lazy to look. Is this a core sentiment or merely that of an editor who is here today and (may be) gone tomorrow?
 
As well as I can remember, PM has always supported the gun rights of Americans. without delving into the politics, the magazine has reported notable technology and trends involving firearms use.

Does anyone know where the other tech/science magazines stand?
 
I remember having a subscription to PM when I was a kid, and they did a writeup on the Medusa revolver. IIRC, it had some really well done photos and images showing how the thing worked and describing its ability to shoot .38 Spl. .357 Mag, and 9mm.

Good on PM for not bowing to a noisy minority. :)
 
I've seen letters complaining about "pro-gun" articles in "Home Shop Machinist" and "Machinists Workshop" magazines.

Claiming that gunsmithing was something of no relevence to people interested in metalworking.

I can't quite figure it out.

FWIW, HSM and MW magazines don't carry ads from gun manufacturers, but they carry ads from people who sell videos and books for the DIY crowd.
 
Jim Scouten once said on TFL that guys on the Car and Driver staff like to relax and shoot a bit when out in the field doing car and truck tests. He felt that who are really into mechanical things are generally pro gun. I tend to agree. Guns are interesting and powerful machines, just like engines.

I've seen many articles in car and truck magazines make off hand references to shooting. One Jeep mag recently did a tounge in cheek article on "bulletproof" drivelines. They took the ridiculous literal definition of the term and shot some components with various calibers to see how they held up. :D


One important point about PM. They not only support the second amendment with great articles (they completely shot holes in the "smart gun" technology recently), they also commonly have advertisements from gun manufacturers in their magazines.

It is a very good magazine! It has much better research and writing than any gun mag I've ever read. If you don't read it, pick one up at your local news stand and give it a try. I'd have to be desperately hard up for cash before I terminated my subscription.
 
The Car and Driver guys even write editorials comparing attempts to regulate cars with guns and documenting how little is accomplished with either and how negligible the threat to the public is.

I may just subscribe to PM (though I usually just read it for free at the store).
 
out standing


I love to tinker with my rifle(unloaded of course)

I love to strip it apart and watch all the fine details that go into making my firearm operate. I love to build computers. I love watching construction of buildings and looking at the structral engineering schematics.


In short, I like to tinker with stuff. I like to see how things work. Firearms are a great mechanical invention and the evolution of them has always interested me.

Its not because I'm a gun nut, but because I am a thinker and I desire and seek out knowledge. I'll look into getting a subscription for PM. Popular Science and Popular Mechanics are always the few mags I read before I hit the gun mag section.
 
I've noticed the gun articles in PM, but to see the editor that forcefully support them really is awsome.

atek3
 
Guess I'll have to get the money together to take out a subscription. Outstanding!

Edit to add: from what I remember, Car and Driver was pretty pro-freedom if not outright pro-gun. I'm not saying they didn't publish directly pro-gun stuff, just that I don't remember anything.
 
A publication like this that supports my right to own a firearm so vocally will receive my full financial support now and in the future. Hats off to the editor for this, he deserves it.
 
I think PM is just sick and tired of the anti-gun letters they get whenever they run a gun article and sometimes just an advertisement, even though PM's typical gun article is usually pretty PC, like the one in this issue (replica cowboy coach shotguns for crying out loud!)

They get the same kind of crap when they publish their yearly boating issue about showing pretty girls in bathing suits in the pictures of the boats. Balderdash I say! Have you ever seen a cigarette boat that did not have a pretty girl in a bathing suit on it? I have not. Why else do ya think those rich guys buy them long noisy very expensive boats - to go fishing?

Regardless PM gets a lot of that sort of thing because they have a pretty wide audience, but I do applaud the pre-emptive letter from the editor.
 
Magazines of my youth...its why I am the way I am I guess..

Popular Mechanics
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Analog
National Geographic
The American Rifleman
Mad Magazine


WildandlotsofbachAlaska
 
I will be getting a subscription after reading what the editor in chief had to say. I also plan on writing him a letter commending his attitude and telling him that he is appreciated among the online gun communities.
 
I can tell you categorically that no ammount of irate letters or whining or protesting will scare me into forcing gun articles out of these pages.
Click to expand...

Oh HELL yeah!

PM has always been not a staunch supporter, just an aknlwleger, of guns in america. Just that simple. They're there, they do what they do, and some of them are interesting (and here's why...)

They even poke fun at Popular Science, who dosen't run articles on guns or military technology as policy. How can a magazine be regarded as objective if it refuses to report on and discuss an entire cateagory of science?

I'm going to wrige Mr Oldham a little Thank You note... (i bet he'll be astonished how many of these he gets from 'the woodwork' so to speak.)
 
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