I try to use gender neutral language when possible. English is a flexible language and often, not always, allows gender neutral terms and usage. Gender neutral languge is common these days and I think this is a good thing. I think the original poster could have used gender neutral language, and it would have been more polite and not distracted from his argument.
Answers when somebody ask you why you carry
- Thread starter Redtail
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I try to use gender neutral language when possible. English is a flexible language and often, not always, allows gender neutral terms and usage. Gender neutral languge is common these days and I think this is a good thing. I think the original poster could have used gender neutral language, and it would have been more polite and not distracted from his argument.
Tried to fix that quote for ya for everyone to better understand.
Carrying a gun and using it in self defense might takes something more than a nuetered person has so to better explain why a gun is carried maybe the question is can you use the gun you carry in self defense.There has always been a crowd around that thinks being a man is all testosterone and tools. They are the same crowd that wants to take away our guns. But first they have to demonize men so they can take the guns away. Alot of people fall prey to political correctness.
Geez:banghead:
jj
Joe Demko
Member
Maybe you were trying to be cute when you wrote that. If so, you failed. If not, it's one of the more asinine things I've read here in a while. Please try to mentally separate from that idea that your genitals and use of weapons are somehow connected.
Personally I don't believe I can protect my ears too much when shooting any more than I could protect my head too much when on a bike. But since you asked, lets look some numbers.
OSHA says I can be exposed to a maximum of 100 sound impulses at 140db a day. Lets say I take my 18" shotgun out to the range, its putting out 161.5db with each shot. The guy next to me is shooting his .357 magnum at 164.3dB, and the guy on the other side is shooting his 9mm at 160dB. I'm wearing some 27 dB nrr muffs from walmart and my safety glasses. My safety glasses break the seal on the muffs and OSHA says I have to deduct 5dB from their rating for that, but you know got to protect my eyes. So every shot I take exposes me to 139.5 dB, and I'm getting 142.3 dB, and 138dB from each side of me. Presumably more if its a busy day on the range. How long can I shoot before I'm exposed to 100 sound impulses and start to risk my hearing?
Guns are really really loud. A jet engine at 30m rates at 150dB, and even a lowly .25acp rates in at 155dB. Hearing protection is great but adding a suppressor is even better, you can't be too careful with your hearing.
ArfinGreebly
Moderator Emeritus
Offense
I try not to live my life such that I am constantly in fear of giving offense.
When someone makes a point of being offended at what I say -- either on his own behalf or on behalf of some arbitrary "interest group" -- I ask if he understood what I meant. If he says yes, then I invite him to join in the spirit of the discussion and leave off trying to attack the presentation.
I have little patience with someone who appoints himself the arbiter of how I shall compose the presentation of ideas.
Many people do.
I try not to live my life such that I am constantly in fear of giving offense.
When someone makes a point of being offended at what I say -- either on his own behalf or on behalf of some arbitrary "interest group" -- I ask if he understood what I meant. If he says yes, then I invite him to join in the spirit of the discussion and leave off trying to attack the presentation.
I have little patience with someone who appoints himself the arbiter of how I shall compose the presentation of ideas.
pharmer
Member
I just explain that I have been doing it for 30 years. In fact, 20 years ago, the state gave me a proper license to do just that. Seems comforting to most. Joe
The educated could separate the two and understand. I am sorry I put you in the position I did. The facts are the men in general have been nuetered by the PC crowd that wants to talk gender rather than courage. Those who would take the "man" out of being men. They are the same ones that want to take away our gun or make it so you go to jail even in your own defense.
Too bad the country has gone so feminized that they can no longer say it takes some "stones" to fight back. You won't find that courage or stones being gender specific with the bad guys. They don't care who or what you are as they rob,rape and kill you.
jj
Joe Demko
Member
You still don't get it. Fighting back has nothing to do with masculine or feminine.
The Annoyed Man
Member
While I can appreciate the wry humor in the answers in that link, I do not think that most of them are remotely appropriate to use in an actual situation.
My goal would be to have as few people as possible actually know that I'm carrying in the first place. But if asked, I think that whatever answer I gave, it would be tailored to how much I knew about the person doing the asking. But whatever answer I gave, I would begin it with, "Would you like the short answer, or the long answer?" If they indicated the former, then I would answer with one of those handy, but non-insulting quips like, "because I can, and because when seconds count, the police are only minutes away." If they indicated the latter, or asked follow up questions, then I would give a more detailed explanation, outlining my rights and duties as a citizen, pointing out along the way that armed criminals don't give two figs for the politically correct or the lawful, and that your government prefers you disarmed because it makes you easier to manage as a commodity.
I think I would also encourage, during the discussion, a full exploration of what it means to be a gun owner, what the RKBA is, etc., etc., hoping to bring them around to my point of view. Here's why I would take the trouble: I have not always been a gun owner, nor have I always been a supporter of gun ownership.
I did not grow up around guns. I never fired a .22 LR until I was 18. I never fired a centerfire anything until I inherited my dead father's 1911-A1 at age 38, which he had kept as a WW2 souvenir. I have mentioned on other threads that I spent 6 years working in a major ER, and with the 2 lone exceptions, all I ever saw of guns were the results of their criminal misuse - hundreds of times over. The prevailing view in the medical community, and most particularly in the Emergency Medicine community, is that guns have no place in our society, and I was very much a part of that world.
When I inherited my dad's .45, I figured that, if I was going to have a gun in the house, I should know how to handle it safely. So I called up a couple of buddies of mine who were at the time both sergeants in the California NG, and I asked them to teach me how to properly handle and shoot this thing. They were more than glad to induct me into the ranks of gun owners by both teaching me the hows, AND the whys. They were patient and respectful. In the process, they converted me from being a guy who was scared of the gun he owned into a guy who has started amassing a collection, loves to shoot, is waiting for his CHL to come in the mail, and who is now an enthusiastic supporter of our 2nd Amendment rights.
Interestingly, the acquisition of this pistol also started me along the path of conversion from being a political liberal to being a political conservative - but that is another story.
The point of of all this is that my fear and loathing of firearms was based in literal ignorance. I was not stupid - just uninformed. If my friends had been dismissive or impatient with me, I might have remained that way, and to this day, I might have been voting to disarm YOU. Instead, they created a convert to the cause.
My goal would be to do that each and every time the issue comes up. Flippant and disrespectful answers will do nothing but alienate people who might otherwise be similarly converted. It helps if you start from the presumption that antis aren't stupid - they're just uninformed. At that point, it becomes our duty to inform them in way that brings them around to our understanding. If you deliberately insult them, then you drive them further into the anti camp; and at that point, you have become as much a threat to the RKBA as the antis.
Balance in all things.
My goal would be to have as few people as possible actually know that I'm carrying in the first place. But if asked, I think that whatever answer I gave, it would be tailored to how much I knew about the person doing the asking. But whatever answer I gave, I would begin it with, "Would you like the short answer, or the long answer?" If they indicated the former, then I would answer with one of those handy, but non-insulting quips like, "because I can, and because when seconds count, the police are only minutes away." If they indicated the latter, or asked follow up questions, then I would give a more detailed explanation, outlining my rights and duties as a citizen, pointing out along the way that armed criminals don't give two figs for the politically correct or the lawful, and that your government prefers you disarmed because it makes you easier to manage as a commodity.
I think I would also encourage, during the discussion, a full exploration of what it means to be a gun owner, what the RKBA is, etc., etc., hoping to bring them around to my point of view. Here's why I would take the trouble: I have not always been a gun owner, nor have I always been a supporter of gun ownership.
I did not grow up around guns. I never fired a .22 LR until I was 18. I never fired a centerfire anything until I inherited my dead father's 1911-A1 at age 38, which he had kept as a WW2 souvenir. I have mentioned on other threads that I spent 6 years working in a major ER, and with the 2 lone exceptions, all I ever saw of guns were the results of their criminal misuse - hundreds of times over. The prevailing view in the medical community, and most particularly in the Emergency Medicine community, is that guns have no place in our society, and I was very much a part of that world.
When I inherited my dad's .45, I figured that, if I was going to have a gun in the house, I should know how to handle it safely. So I called up a couple of buddies of mine who were at the time both sergeants in the California NG, and I asked them to teach me how to properly handle and shoot this thing. They were more than glad to induct me into the ranks of gun owners by both teaching me the hows, AND the whys. They were patient and respectful. In the process, they converted me from being a guy who was scared of the gun he owned into a guy who has started amassing a collection, loves to shoot, is waiting for his CHL to come in the mail, and who is now an enthusiastic supporter of our 2nd Amendment rights.
Interestingly, the acquisition of this pistol also started me along the path of conversion from being a political liberal to being a political conservative - but that is another story.
The point of of all this is that my fear and loathing of firearms was based in literal ignorance. I was not stupid - just uninformed. If my friends had been dismissive or impatient with me, I might have remained that way, and to this day, I might have been voting to disarm YOU. Instead, they created a convert to the cause.
My goal would be to do that each and every time the issue comes up. Flippant and disrespectful answers will do nothing but alienate people who might otherwise be similarly converted. It helps if you start from the presumption that antis aren't stupid - they're just uninformed. At that point, it becomes our duty to inform them in way that brings them around to our understanding. If you deliberately insult them, then you drive them further into the anti camp; and at that point, you have become as much a threat to the RKBA as the antis.
Balance in all things.
The_Shootist
Member
Can You Say Katrina?
Sure you can...
Sure you can...
-terry
Member
Annoyed
Good post, but there is a lot of bluster and puffery on this thread. Reason may lose in the signal-to-noise ratio.
I have no idea why "being a man" is important at all in self defense. Women have as much courage as men and are sometimes smarter about when they display it. I'm also no sure why you can lose your "being a man" so simply...just deciding not to carry and you are no longer a "man." I guess it's just the quote marks.
Good post, but there is a lot of bluster and puffery on this thread. Reason may lose in the signal-to-noise ratio.
I have no idea why "being a man" is important at all in self defense. Women have as much courage as men and are sometimes smarter about when they display it. I'm also no sure why you can lose your "being a man" so simply...just deciding not to carry and you are no longer a "man." I guess it's just the quote marks.
Yep that is why they draft women in war time. That is why in the most hostile of times when they need Navy Seals they pick the women to go. That is why when men are violent women step in and stop it. That is why our laws are bent to protect women from men.
The feminization of America takes away the ability of Americans to save themselves from being victims. Could you tell me how many women have won the congressional medal of honor, how many men?????
jj
Joe Demko
Member
That has nothing whatsoever to do with self-defense or use of weapons, but I will dignify it with a response anyway. Why don't you do a little research on women such as Ludmilla Pavlichenko or Lilya Litvyak before you take it upon yourself to assign any more gender roles? Unless you are something really special, I daresay either one of them personally killed a whole lot more men in combat than you. There were more female snipers than Ludmilla and more female fighter pilots than Lilya. We won't even go into the female partisans in numerous countries and numerous wars. There is more to the world than the US and more to history than who won the Medal of Honor.
One more time: Self-defense is gender neutral. Deal with it.
Well, I'm not insulted by Jim's post, and I didn't think it rude. While I appreciate the concern for women shooters and have occasionally made a noisy fuss at people on the board who WERE being rude, this actually isn't.
My answer would mirror his, perhaps: Because I am a free woman and I choose to walk unafraid. No woman should walk in fear because she cannot protect herself.
Springmom
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