Guns are the "tools of the weak"

Cool. I'm weak.

My .40 is not.

So bullies and thugs can leave my family, property, and life alone, and taunt me from a safe distance.

wannabeagunsmith said:

At school people are always saying to me things like "people who own guns are weak" and "if you use guns you are weak and afraid to use your muscle". and it is really hard to reason with them can you folks help me out? I try to tell them that I can't fight other guns and knifes with 'muscle' but they keep saying that guns are for weaklings HELP!!

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Though there's much I'd like to add about numbskulls such as your school chums, I think Ash Williams sums it up best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzZxBUxg0Sg

Well, that said, I'll go ahead and add this: Conflating weapons with weakness is not an argument.

I realize your in school but I would love for someone to tell me guns are for the weak. I would respond (I am weak therefore I carry) turn around and walk off laughing inside knowing I burned that thought into there little minds.

At school people are always saying to me things like "people who own guns are weak" and "if you use guns you are weak and afraid to use your muscle".

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This is one of those stupid sorts of sayings made by folks who don't like guns, maybe detest guns, or don't understand their benefits. It is a way in which they try to make themselves feel superior.

We do the same thing when we categorize bad guys or those we don't like as cowards. It makes us feel superior to those we don't like or detest. baccusboy has already determined that those who make the argument that guns are for the weak are themselves cowards.

Either way, the categorization is based on emotion with a definite insult. The claims are nothing more than self serving emotional justifications. It doesn't matter if there are folks that think you are weak for carrying or using a gun. It does not matter if you think bad guys are cowards.

In my high school years a friend decided to take karate lessons. New class time and the instructor was up front with the " I can do this...i can break this" pep talk. I'd say trying to raise the energy level of the new class.

Then someone in the back of the room asked "can you stop a .38 from here?" Waited a few very quiet seconds, picked up his stuff and exited.

No matter how big and strong you are...there is ALWAYS one bigger and stronger. Muscles, skill, speed are good but they go away. Gun skill lasts longer. By then we are just the old dogs and the young strong dogs are on the street. Make YOUNG friends...it'll help.

Mark

To the people at school that say “people who own guns are weak”

Reply yes, but they can sure put a lot of holes in someone that thinks they are strong.

A criminal assault is not a sporting event and you are under no moral obligation to "fight fair" and give your assailant a "sporting chance". Using a weapon is not cheating because unlike a duel or boxing match, you did not agree to perticipate.

Owen Sparks said:

A criminal assault is not a sporting event and you are under no moral obligation to "fight fair" and give your assailant a "sporting chance". Using a weapon is not cheating because unlike a duel or boxing match, you did not agree to perticipate.

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Well stated.

With firearms, strength matters not.

The gun is the tool of he who is not afraid to take drastic, permanent action in the face of extreme danger. The gun is the tool of one who knows that things might not always be so tranquil and so lives ready for all hell to break loose. The gun is the tool of a person who has made the choice to be ready for a life or death situation.

This is a kids' argument. Eventually, you're going to learn that "strength" has nothing to do with either muscles or guns. It has to do with economic power, and that in turn results from education, hard work, street smarts -- and the right genes and family upbringing. The "nerds" in your school are likely, therefore, to have the last laugh at the expense of the jocks and the ones who sit around arguing about guns. (And, btw, the nerds who make something of themselves will be able to afford all the guns they want.)

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This is at least become somewhat true for me. Out of all the Freshman at my school who aren't on work study, I'm one of the few who managed to land a job. It only pays $8 an hour, but it's so much better than a fixed $25 a week allowance. All sorts of colleges looked for me to attend. I must have had to give at least 20 a good hard look before I chose Goucher (I don't regret it). Carlos Mencia said it best

"And you wake up one day and you don’t have the skills
To get a better job so you’re stuck on the grill
You’re wondering why Julio took your job
But you forget to see, you’re as dumb as a knob
Your ass is too fat to get out of the house
While you’re eating more food trying to figure it out
So they outsource your job to some guy named Habib
Cause he works harder than you and he’s got 5 degrees"

"God made men.
Samuel Colt made them equal."

My addendum: "And Mikhail Kalashnikov made them all warriors."

A gun is mearly a tool. nothing more or less.

It is the insecure mind that tries to project pesonalities or values onto objects. A gun is no more an evil tool of violence than it is a magic talisman of protection. It is a tool and the quality of its use depends on the quality of the user.

People who would pound their chest and proclaim the might of their muscles, fists, knives, or whaterver to solve their problems are exactly the same as thugs who believe their 9mm Gat makes them the toughest G on the block.

It is the mentality of the bully, weather or not the person is a bully. Personally I would not try to explain this to these people because, if they cannot see the illogic of their statement, then their mind is not likely open enough to accept it being pointed out by another.

At school people are always saying to me things like "people who own guns are weak" and "if you use guns you are weak and afraid to use your muscle".

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To which I reply: Well...yea...what's your point?

At school people are always saying to me things like "people who own guns are weak" and "if you use guns you are weak and afraid to use your muscle". and it is really hard to reason with them can you folks help me out?

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Somebody needs to watch Indianna Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Somebody needs to watch Indianna Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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I am a firm believer in the Indianna Jones school of swordfighting.

Opposable thumbs and the knowledge of use of tools separate man from the apes.

Guns are tools.

I will use my tools, and care not if an ape thinks less of me for it.

Opposable thumbs and the knowledge of use of tools separate man from the apes.

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Sorry, but this statement could not be further from the truth. Apes have opposable thumbs and use tools. Not only do some apes have opposable thumbs, but some have opposable toes as well!

http://srfoundation.blogspot.com/2009/01/other-animals-with-opposable-thumbs.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0930_050930_gorilla_tool.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1006_041006_chimps.html

Statement wasn't meant to be taken to the extreme literal. If you can loosen up on the nitpick, I'm sure you can see the gist of the idea intended to be expressed.

A stick and a rock by themselves are too crude to meet my definition of a tool. Now, fasten the rock on the end of the stick to make a hammer, and that's the beginnings of a crude tool.

I agree with the OP's schoolmates.


I also think that cars are for the lazy and slow.

Sport45 said:

Somebody needs to watch Indianna Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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A bit of movie history: Harrison Ford had a bout of stomach flu the day the scene was to be shot. It called for a swordfight between him and the man with the scimitar, but he felt too ill for the physicality of a hand to hand engagement. The idea to have him simply shoot his opponent saved him the effort of all of that fight choreography, kept the film on schedule, and gave us one of those really resonant bits of cinema that makes Indy such a legendary character.

those who beat their swords into plowshares will soon be plowing for those who did not.
and to be brutally honest , your school buddies are 100% correct , I am weak , scared and absolutely useless in hand to hand combat , your honour and that is why I carry a fire-arm and used it to protect myself against the individuals who ganged up on me intending to do grievious bodily harm
that is the problem with the gun community these days , we are afraid to admit we are actually the victims here , it is time we stood up and admitted our fear of where society has been dragging us , all the violence and knife wielding gangs of thugs , what else is an honest peace loving man supposed to do ? seeing as we are usually outnumbered by bigger and more violent thugs meaning to do us harm ?

Statement wasn't meant to be taken to the extreme literal. If you can loosen up on the nitpick, I'm sure you can see the gist of the idea intended to be expressed.

A stick and a rock by themselves are too crude to meet my definition of a tool. Now, fasten the rock on the end of the stick to make a hammer, and that's the beginnings of a crude tool.

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Okay, so not only do you not understand what apes are, but you don't have a proper understanding of what a tool is.

Tool - A device or implement, esp. one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function.

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A device or implement used to carry out a particular function need not be made of multiple components.

It is hard to understand your point when you don't understand the terms and topics you are using and hence use them incorrectly.

In the end, the only result that counts is survival. If I am attacked, I will try to inflict so much pain and physical suffering on my attacker that they will stop the attack. I will use any means at my disposal,wheather it be a fire arm, meat ax, sharp stick, or boiling oil. If some one tells you that guns are for weak people, they're really saying they have never been attacked and forced to defend themselves.

they keep saying that guns are for weaklings .... afraid to use your muscle

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Sounds like adolescents with a immature sense of macho. Unfortunately they might grow up with that attitude.

From an adult, that would sound like the attitude of someone who gets a feeling of status using muscle against someone weaker than they, or think the 240 lb home invader versus the 70 year old retiree should restricted to fisticuffs.

There's an interesting western with Richard Harris called the Deadly Trackers. He plays a sort of offbeat sheriff supposedly far more "enlightened" and "educated" than your typical rural chief LEO. The film opens with an attempt on the town bank by a group of horsemounted armed robbers.
Harris is clearly a "thinking" man - he has a surprisingly disciplined bunch of deputized citizens whom he has clearly drilled ahead of time to spring a series of nonlethal traps for possible bandits. His crafty tactics come close to working perfectly when the leader of the desperados changes the game plan by scooping up the Sheriff's wife and child and absconding with them. Still unwilling to deal out lethal force, his family serves the bad man's purpose as a means of escape and are coldly executed outside of town limits.
The movie is fiction, but the lesson is clear; purposely decrementing your response to aggression and/or disarming are foolish in the face of those who equip themselves as they see fit, and have no compunction against using those tools in the course of committing a crime. The sheriff tried to play the "I am really stronger by not resorting to the gun" card and ended up paying the price.

At school people are always saying to me things like "people who own guns are weak" and "if you use guns you are weak and afraid to use your muscle".

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I presume that you're talking about high school.

That is something which comes from the "thought" processes of a 12 year old boy... or a forty year old man with the "thought" processes of a 12 year old boy.

My response to such juvenile richard waving is:

"Gun control: The theory that 110lb. women have the right to fistfight with 210lb. rapists."

Normal, intelligent people eventually grow up and learn that fighting (especially with strangers) isn't "fun". People get hurt, maimed and killed.

A 12 year old bully wants to win fights. A 30 year old adult wants to go through life unmolested.