Sam, thanks.
My skin is thicker than my poorly articulated points may suggest. I, like you and Taliv, have devoted much to RKBA. We share the same goal of preserving it for our children and generations who may follow. Within this family, we recognize a range of political views. Nevertheless, as you noted previously, the results have been impressive since the Clinton era. Our current circumstances remain difficult, but we read of successes across the country daily. We continue to confront all issues head on.
Now, as servants are want to do, we sometimes debate among one another who's ideas are better. Fundamentalists in our house have in my view a large claim to the successes we've seen and will see. They have a place here, and play an important role, and deserve support and respect
Too, those who can see shades of gray, who can empathize with how the world may perceive, negatively, views from the base also have an important place and role here and in the battle.
We as a family waste some resource, time and third party credibility -- perhaps -- airing
dirty family laundry here or elsewhere. Fud, nut job, whatever -- are the labels that divide us, not unite us, in purpose. You get all that, I know.
Here's a last thought. In the family, it is quite easy for offense to arise when anyone advances
their brand of RBKA by figuratively standing on the shoulders of other family members and wetting on them. Metcalf did that. He will get strong response -- not to whether we need training (equal to food and water, IMO) -- to his tactic marginalizing fundamentalist RKBA. It is easy to perceive him as an apostate or traitor. Indeed, at the end of the day, our enemies and Metcalf hold hands in advancing more government regulation between citizens and firearm ownership, possession and use.
As I said earlier, that's what the OP seemed to focus on, linking Metcalf to my pal Jim Zumbo.
If this were a thread on whether we think it is good for firearms owners to get training, I suspect we'd see unanimous support. If we focused on self defense, preached the doctrine and experiences of enlightened teachers, like Jeff Cooper, Mas Ayoob and others, we would again all likely agree. In the last resort, when our pulse rates climb past 160, when tunnel vision presents and our motor skills diminish to 30 or 40 percent of their norm, we will default to our level of training. If it was a single two day course over 16 hours, with only 300 rounds fired from concealed draw to target, the reality is firearms consumers may not survive a gun fight with a pair sporting half a dozen tear drop tattoos.
Buying a pistol does not make you a wise, dependable civilian shooter any more than buying a guitar makes you a musician, according to the Colonel. He's right. And there are plenty of stories and metrics to back this up. That would be a high road discussion on the why's of training, as opposed to low road criticism of a large if not majority segment of the RKBA family.
