For those of you who have seen my comments or have read my three postings regarding football, then you at least know of my existence. If not, hello, my name is Brad, and I’ll be your guest blogger while Sebastian is away on vacation.
A good percentage of Seb’s postings have to do with firearms, and I realize that many of you read his blog because of that. Here’s the rub: I’m not a gun guy. I don’t own one. However, I do support your second amendment rights to keep and bear arms, so you’re not going to hear a whit about gun control from me.
The issues that I’m going to write about have more to deal with the “PA politics†part of the blog. In the next week, you’ll see postings about such issues as Philadelphia schools’ problem with assaults by students on teachers, PA transportation infrastructure woes, and the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team looking to leave town to that hockey hotbed of Kansas City, MO.
I hope that you stick with me while Sebastian is on holiday. I’m looking forward to hearing your opinions and ideas.
Gotta ask.
I’m not a gun guy.
I know you said that you don’t own one, but does that mean that you’ve never fired a gun? That you have fired guns but they just don’t interest you? That you are uncomfortable with them? Do you have a deep philosophical personal reason for not being a “gun guy” or is it just something that you have no interest in?
I am not asking in order to belittle or berate, I’m just curious and would like to discuss the issue with you.
He’s fired most of my guns.
Well don’t worry, I can keep up “The Gun Thing” while Sebastian is gallivanting around Texas.
As Sebastian said, I’ve fired several guns from his collection and I do like shooting. I’m not uncomfortable being around them. My lack of practice and infrequent shooting tends to make me a bit jittery though, and I’ll end up doing stupid stuff like putting the rounds into the magazine backwards.
I won’t buy a gun until I take the property safety courses and because I have two small children in the house. I know that many people grew up around guns and have no issue with that. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for me and my family right now. They’re not of the age or the maturity to respect the weapon and what it can do.
Part of the “gun culture” and respect for liberty and adhesion to rights is to realize that rights are exercised or not, at the volition of the individual. I have no problem with how you choose or not to exercise your rights. I admire the fact that you don’t see the need to require me to follow suit in how I exercise those same rights.
I think you’ll do to ride the river with.
My lack of practice and infrequent shooting tends to make me a bit jittery though,
There’s only one cure for lack of experience.
and I’ll end up doing stupid stuff like putting the rounds into the magazine backwards.
I get a bit jittery myself when firing a weapon with which I am unfamiliar and for a simlar reason. I’m always a little afraid I’ll do something to make myself look stupid…like putting the rounds in the magazine backward.
There are always people who conpensate for their own feelings of inadequacy by lording it over or ridiculing those whom they percieve as less knowledgable than themselves. I have an easy solution: stay away from people like that. If for no other reason, their insecurities also often manifest themselves in other ways. People like that are the ones why try to act confident about things that they know nothing about and will steer you in the wrong direction and/or do something dangerous rather than admit that they don’t know what they are doing.
Most people will simply correct your mistake and may even relate to you the story of the time that they did the same thing (which they inevitably have done). There is no reason to be embarrassed about making the same mistakes that we’ve all made at some point or another. Using any tool is a learned skill, it’s not knowledge that we’re born with and, therefore, there is no shame in experiencing the “learning curve”.
I won’t buy a gun until I take the property safety courses and because I have two small children in the house. I know that many people grew up around guns and have no issue with that. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for me and my family right now. They’re not of the age or the maturity to respect the weapon and what it can do.
I can understand that reasoning completely. I was raised with loaded, unlocked guns in the house and that’s how I raised my kids too, but that is a decision that you have to weigh carefully. I would never say that my way is the “right” way and I can definitely see the reasons behind deciding not to take the chance.
In any case, I would say that you ARE a gun guy. You’ve fired them, you enjoyed it and you haven’t ruled out gun ownership at some point. You may not be an avid gun rights activist or a current gun owner, but you’re a “gun guy” in my book. Not that that should really surprise me. Sebastian is very eloquent and intelligent. I can’t imagine that he’d have too many friends that he hasn’t successfully converted.
Did any of you see “Unbreakable” with Bruce Willis? Weird movie with a salient point – shit happens.