If there’s an unequivocal opposite to growing up around guns it’s being raised by New York Jews.
I grew up believing guns were bad. That’s what my parents taught me. But they also taught me to read. That was their first mistake.
Andrew Rothman
June 3, 2010
Testing Minnesota’s gun show loophole
[Being able to read isn’t a necessary or sufficient condition to arrive at the conclusion that private firearms ownership is a net benefit to society but it certainly does help.
I agree that ignorance, willful as well as unintentional, are huge problems which enable and create anti-freedom people. But I think reading comprehension and the ability and willingness to determine truth from falsity are the critical items.–Joe]
Put the same quote up on my blog because it essentially speaks volumes about my own transition to the pro-rights side of the issue.
Of course I was raised in Portland Maine by Liberal Yuppies, but same difference, really. Just with me I’d go over to relatives houses and see hunting rifles on the walls, or go off to the family camp in the country and hear gunshots of people having a good time in the local sand pit.
I was raised by a gun owner who was rather indifferent to guns in the pro-gun South. I’d go over to friends houses and see guns on the coffee table and guns in the truck gun racks.
And later in life, I saw some of those people end up in prison due to “dumb gun things” or dead, due to “dumb gun things.” Funny thing though, now that I think about it, almost all of these people ended up where they did due to something involving their relatives. Crazy, eh?
ubu; our society has been carefully trained to see guns as a special case, all alone in the universe. Never mind that some 40 thousand people die in auto accidents every year, for example. “Dumb car things”.
“Dumb swimming pool things” also result in more death than gun accidents. Then there are “dumb ladder things”, “dumb fire things”, “dumb knife things”, “dumb lawnmower things”, “dumb farming things” (you did know that while farming is one of the most dangerous vocations in the world, kids under 18 are exempt from some of the child labor and vehicle laws when doing farm work, right?) et al.
Imagine a gun club shooting range that’s set up so the shooters are pointed in opposite directions– one shooter sitting or standing right next to a target, while a second shooter is also standing right next to the first shooter’s target. They shoot in opposite directions, at targets right next to the other shooter. That’s the analogy for a common, two-lane highway. Vehicles of up to 80,000 pounds or more, travel at up to 70 MPH (often faster as a lot of people exceed the limit) in opposite directions, mere feet apart with nothing in between but a painted line, day or night, in nearly all conditions, no criminal background checks, no anti car show movement, etc.
Hey, I have relatives and friends who are dead or in jail because of “Dumb Alcohol Things”. Its sad and tragic, and we need to do our best to minimize that number (tho also not be complete fools and think we can eliminate it entirely). Just because there are people who’s lives have been ruined by alcohol does NOT mean Prohibition was a good idea, nor needs repeating.
So your test is a bad one, Ubu. Not to mention its failure due to ignoring people’s lives SAVED by guns.