Are You a "People of the Gun"?

frankly, i found ms. washington's article to be subtly racist.

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Yup. I see her columns frequently in the Chicago Sun-Times. In addition to being a closet racist she is violently anti-gun. I have written responses to her and to the paper following her articles, but have never received any response. She's right and she KNOWS it!

"almost exclusively of white men from suburban and rural areas"

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Where's BlackManWithAGun? He needs to send her the link to his podcasts.

Which reminds me, I am behind a couple...

Oh and he put up a good blog the other day too, worth the read.


http://kennblanchard.blogspot.com/

Hope he doesn't mind me linking his site.

Yes... Jeff at Alphecca is kinda swamped: didn't expect this much response, is on dial-up, and just started a new job. Here's the original blog: http://www.alphecca.com/

Keep trying to send your pics: he's working on getting 'em all up!

Now the question is, since we are all "People of the Gun", what is the "Gun of the People"?

I'm thinking Winchester Model 94.

Similar to Hillary's plan to hand everyone $5000 at birth, I suggest she save us all a lot of money and buy everyone a 30-30 at birth.

I am a people of the guns. Where do I get my I.D. card?

Wow I'm finally a People. And all this time I thought I was an individual. Geez it must be nice to go through life utterly convinced of your rightness. Putting a big shout out to all of you "People".

Actually I love it. For years her and her People of the New Media dominated the issue. We POG couldn't get anything out there. Ahhh but technology has changed that. And they're not happy about it.

Here's an Idea:

Oleg, are you listening:

1. We need a photograph: Two variants, actually--

the first is the typical melting-pot crowd shot. Big enough to show all ethnics, etc., etc, but small enough to identify the subjects as individuals.

The second is a new melting-pot crowd shot. In this one, the subjects are bearing arms--or not. It has to be subtle, and comprehensive--the really good melting-pot picture. I would NOT make it blatantly obvious that everyone is an RTKBA support, with all long guns, or with all holsters / carry handguns exposed. Just some--and all the types that will fit in the picture.

2. We need a poster, and a T-shirt.

In both, it's a simple package: There's the picture, and simply "POTG" across the bottom. Or, People Of The Gun.

Do it right--make the T-shirt version big, across the whole front of the T-Shirt (for those of us who nearly always wear an overgarment). And maybe even put it on the back of a vest.

The exposure of this symbol would do what the very best of advertising / advocacy promotion does--it would create a powerful subconcious affirmation based on our enduring American ethos.' (ethi?)

I'd buy one--or two. Anybody got a picture we can use?

Jim H.

Check Cafe Press: they've already got People of the Gun merch up...

Y'all are coming to the party late, folks...

People of the Gun: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the "People of the Gun."

Mrs. Roosevelt owned and used a handgun for self defense. The attachment is a photograph of Mrs. Roosevelt at one of her practice sessions in 1934, after her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in as President of the United States of America.

People of the Gun? I'm just an American.

Your shirts are here:

http://www.cafepress.com/brownphilosophy/3746538

People of the Gun: Dorie Miller, Navy cook

Dorie Miller was a cook in the U.S. Navy at a time when black men were assigned only to support positions in the military.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, Miller ran to replace the fallen white shipmate who was a gunner. Miller shot down several Japanese planes, helped save many lives aboard his ship, and risked his life to defend his country with the gun.

Dorie Miller's country, the United States of America, honored him with the Navy Cross.

People of the Gun: Joe Louis, world boxing champ

Soon after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Joe Louis enlisted in the U.S. Army to help defend his country. It is said that Joe Louis turned down an officer's commission to join as an enlisted man.

Joe Louis was the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World when he enlisted.

After his death President Ronald Reagan waived eligibility rules for Joe Louis' burial at Arlington National Cemetery. A quotation attributed to Joe Louis: "Everyone has a plan until they've been hit."

It is doubtful that Joe Louis was a conservative, rural, white man.

Soon after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Joe Louis enlisted in the U.S. Army to help defend his country. It is said that Joe Louis turned down an officer's commission to join as an enlisted man.

Joe Louis was the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World when he enlisted.

After his death President Ronald Reagan waived eligibility rules for Joe Louis' burial at Arlington National Cemetery. A quotation attributed to Joe Louis: "Everyone has a plan until they've been hit."

It is doubtful that Joe Louis was a conservative, rural, white man.

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What, you mean that he wasn't able to suckerpunch the Japanese into submission!? Everyone knows that if you train hard enough, you don't need a gun.

People of the Gun: President John F. Kennedy

Unlike President Bill Clinton or his wife Hillary, or Barack Obama, or other Democratic Presidential candidates of today, President John F. Kennedy fought to defend his country.

And unlike other Liberal Democrats today, President Kennedy supported the National Rifle Association and became an NRA Life Member. Although President Kennedy was white, he was neither poor nor conservative nor rural in background. He is thought to have been reasonably well educated, cultured, and sophisticated.

Note that President Kennedy proclaimed the celebration of Patriot's Day, perhaps because nobody told him that it was wrong to be patriotic.

Cool, RobertHairless! Keep 'em coming! Any possibility you could throw in a plug for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, just to mix up the ethnicity a bit?

Unlike President Bill Clinton or his wife Hillary, or Barack Obama, or other Democratic Presidential candidates of today, President John F. Kennedy fought to defend his country.

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Or Cheney or Bush Junior.

Mike

I find it funny that she says that only white men are "people of the gun". I work at a range where we have a flying truckload of Phillipinos and East Indians who are very active in the shooting sports. One of the shift supervisors is a Phillipino who happens to have a wicked sense of humour and knows more about our products than the people who supply us!

Or Cheney or Bush Junior.

Mike

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Mike, I just didn't know that Richard Cheney and George Bush were Democrats or that either of them is a Democratic candidate for President in the next election. In case they don't know it either they might be happy if you told them.

Dear Ms Washington,

I would like to thank you for your "In These Times" article "Lets Pry Open Those Cold, Dead Hands".

The phrase you coined, "People of the Gun", is really catching on. The Internet firearms community is going nuts over this new name. We love it!! Thank you!! It just might be the cohesive force, the common bond we need to bring out many of the politically inactive, non-voting gun owners for the 08 elections if we can keep it going.

Also, your call to action for the anti-gun movement to get more involved via the Internet would be a huge help for gun rights activists. You see, the anti-gun movement has only gotten as far as it has because of lies and misinformation. The truth that guns are not the problem will be more easily exposed if the anti movement becomes more Internet-savvy.

Perhaps if the antis' 'facts' are viewed alongside the People of the Guns' facts and both judged solely on their merits, people will begin to wonder why the majority of gun-related murders are committed against young black men by young black men when the majority of guns are owned, as you say, by middle-aged white men. If we middle aged white men own all the guns, shouldn't we be the ones killing each other? Perhaps people will begin to wake up and realize that the problem is a cultural one and that the quick band aid of more gun control won't stop the bleeding. Perhaps people will wake up and realize that disarming law-abiding citizens doesn't deter, but rather enboldens criminals and isn't an effective means to keep us safe from the crime that is so prevalent in our society today. If an armed attacker shows up at your door, which would you rather have, the means to protect yourself, or a nice sign on the door that says "This House is a Gun Free Zone"?

Again, thank you for helping our cause.

Sincerely,
Xxxxxxx Xxx

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Sent to Ms Washington.

StickJockey: "Go for Broke," huh? Those men earned the right to be proud. So did the 332nd Fighter Group (the "Tuskegee Airmen") of the Air Corps and many, many others.

If the moderators will give me a pass on this one, I'd like to say that this is one hell of a great country. Here is where the cream rises to the top. It's not a myth.

Women are much more vocal. I believe partly because of their sensitivity to the murder of children

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Not just racist, sexist as well.

Am I somehow INsensitive to the murder of children due to the fact that I possess male genetalia instead of female? Please.

Ms. Know it all here also fails to mention the three largest (and inter-related) factors involved: Gang activity, poverty, and the drug trade. Somehow those aren't the problem. It must be the guns. /sarcasm off/

fireflyfather, since you opened the door that needed opening, Ms. Washington is ageist as well.

I am old and my children are adults but I am still their father, still love them dearly, and still would protect them with my life.

Ms. Washington might have more than a few loose screws rattling around in her head. I don't think any of us, most assuredly none of us who is a parent, would advocate for individual ownership of guns if we believed that to do so would endanger either children or ourselves.

Some powerful evidence for my statement is in message threads posted in this and other gun forums. People do make stupid mistakes and careless blunders with guns--as with unlocked cars, liquor, matches, knives, household cleaning supplies, ladders, pets, and many other potentially hazardous aspects of daily life in a complex world--but look at the responses to such incidents here and elsewhere when kids are hurt as a result.

Gun owners respond savagely when any kid is hurt because of a careless gun owner. No anti gun group could respond with greater anger or less tolerance, probably because gun owners as a whole are much more knowledgeable about firearms and much more concerned with their safety. We don't imagine the harm that a careless or irrational gun owner can do. We know. And as a group we are tougher on ourselves and each other than Ms. Washington could know or be.

For example, I don't know a parallel among car owners to Jeff Cooper's rules of gun safety, or the NRA rules of gun safety, or the additional rules of gun safety posted at every range I've used. The NRA especially is so concerned with gun safety in general and particularly with respect to children that it has the Eddie Eagle program, the Firearm Safety in the Home course, and a section on safety in every NRA course I know.

Contrast that real concern for children's safety with whatever it is that's rattling around in Ms. Washington's brain cavity. For her, as for The Brady Campaign and its affiliated Million Moms and their friends, what they think of as preventing harm to children is denial.

Anyone would be lynched for telling those same people--including Ms. Washington--that the way to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancies among teenagers is never to teach them about sex and just keep them away from it. Ms. Washington, I hope, would be among the first to laugh in the face of someone who suggested that kids would grow into adults and retire without ever being curious about sex if we all just keep quiet about it and don't let them near anything sexual.

Worldwide enforced denial as an approach to real or potential problems sounds nutty even as I type it. But Ms. Washington wants it with firearms. It sounds sane to her. She perhaps is the one living human being who has never seen a little boy put his thumb up and his second finger out while he says "Bang!" That genie was out of the bottle long before I was born, and that was a very long time ago.

Because responsible gun owners want kids (and ourselves) safe--even old guys like me--we want to teach them right from wrong where guns are concerned, how to use them and how they must not be used, when they are fun and when not, and all the things we know. Interesting thing about gun owners that sets them apart from many other people is that they love to teach what they know. It's the darndest thing. I've never met a gun owner who didn't try to teach something or other about guns. Put two of them in a room together and even if they're strangers they begin telling each other what they know. Entrust them with a child, leave them alone or keep your mouth shut, and the kid comes out almost an expert in whatever it is that was discussed. Gun owners are the teachingest people around, and where kids are concerned they invariably start with gun safety.

But Ms. Washington and her friends think that's wrong and want kids to know as little as possible. For them ignorance is good and denial is best of all. This is not rational thinking. Neither are such thoughts about women or men. There's something wrong there. We can't fix it.

post removed owing to failure to learn "readin" in school

If they are we better do something about that

Meanwhile, its opponents are languishing in the wee-hours of late-night local cable.

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