A look, by a reporter who feels the need to explain his qualifications:
I am not exactly a gun virgin – I have been to a shooting range, and I have a brother who hunts. I’ve never gone hunting with him, though I’ve politely inspected his three guns and his crossbow. That’s about it for my exposure to actual guns. I am well-versed, however, in the concept of guns. I’ve written for years about the corrosive, violent gun crime that plagues the city.
The concept of guns – the arguments, the fretting, the hand-wringing over the havoc they cause, the arguments over the Second Amendment – has nothing to do with confronting real guns, especially in the Gun Room.
You’ve been to a shooting range once? This my friend, means you have no business or knowledge to be opining on this topic, and should stop right here, any more than I have knowledge to have an informed opinion on proper veterinary care because I once dissected a frog in biology class in high school. The author goes on to call us uncaring liars, who don’t give a damn about gun violence. If you have a subscription to the Daily News, cancel is now. Starve the beast!
One time I sat down to pee. I am qualified to speak to women’s issues.
Nice airsoft filled drawer. But, someone who has only been to the range once wouldn’t catch that.
“The volume is so overwhelming that I’m not really thinking at all.”
Truer words were never written.
Seeing how they treat confiscated firearms I’d almost resort to carrying a Hi-Point.
I did say almost.
The room is a dense, overgrown forest of rifles, AK-47s, AR15s, Uzis, Mossberg 12-gauge pump rifles and even a few rocket-launchers.
Is there any chance at all that if there was even a single Uzi or rocket launcher in that room, the photographer wouldn’t have made it the focus of at least one of the pictures? And 12-gauge pump rifles? They fire bullets carved from unicorn horns, right?
Nitpicking over the reporter’s (and I use that term lightly – this is obviously a op-ed) ignorance of firearms aside, the piece does highlight a real problem: How does the city of Philadelphia find evidence in that chaotic mass when they want to put someone on trial? You can’t tell me there’s a functional cataloging system that makes it possible for whoever runs that place to field a request from the courts and deliver the requested weapon with any kind of efficiency. No wonder we have so many repeat offenders walking the streets.
And it doesn’t have to be that way. She says that 100-200 weapons a week come in. At the outside, that’s less than 30 a day or 40 if they don’t process on weekends. If you can’t process 5 new pieces of inventory per hour and store them so that they’re secure and easy to locate, you’re not qualified for a minimum wage retail job, much less a job handling guns in any capacity for the criminal justice system. Somebody needs to lose their job over that op-ed, and the whole system needs to be reorganized.
I saw one AWB-Compliant AR15 and one SKS with attached grenade launcher.
Where the rocket launcher and forest of uzis was is still unknown to me.
They’re all “crime guns”, I’m sure. Most of them were probably confiscated unnecessarily from petty domestic disturbance calls and the like. Confiscate first, ask questions later! And I doubt very seiously that there is a single “rocket launcher” in that room.
He’s been “to” a range once? Not “at the range,” but “to a range.”
And he knows someone who has three frigging guns?! THREE GUNS?
Is he kidding? My daughter had three firearms by the time she was 12 years old. How the blank can someone consider himself a “hunter” with THREE GUNS? Imagine a golfer with three clubs.
Absurd. And he doesn’t even realize it. Thanks for my laugh for the day, Sebastian, and the above posters.
I’ve known several gents who had merely one, and hunted successfully. Safari? No, but deer, fowl or squirrel were not a problem, nor varmint.
I assume that “one” you mention is a shotgun? As it is the only firearm capable of taking the 4 different game you mentioned. Altho it sucks at deer and varmint hunting it ‘could’ be used for them. As no rifle or handgun made is a good choice for Birds of any sort.
Certainly.
And don’t forget that this article was plastered on the front page of today’s (physical) Daily Times as a news article.
My favorite quote
“I’m not really thinking at all. It’s my lizard brain that’s processing this sight – that ancient, preverbal part of the brain that is incapable of higher reasoning”
Sort of sums up the whole article.
I am not exactly a free speech virgin – I have been to a library, and I have a brother who reads. I’ve never read with him, though I’ve politely inspected his three books and his Archie Comic; mostly for the pictures. That’s about it for my exposure to actual books. I am well-versed, however, in the concept of books and free speech.
PMain wins the internets!
This passes as journalism today, I am afraid to say.
I once wrote a book report in grade school. Am I qualified to be an authorized journalist?
I went dinghy sailing in Cub Scouts, now let me race the America’s Cup!
What about all those ex-virgins who’ve merely seen genitalia? Do they have to go back to saying they’re virgins again?
I can’t be a racist, I’ve got a black friend!
Wow. That’s the best expression of adolescent, emotionally-driven phobia that I’ve read in a long time. That’s a letter to her shrink, not a piece of journalism!
I’ve seen a pair of boobs once; I am gonna write about women’s health.
Looking at that evidence locker, I have to say that there is no way they could easily produce the evidence for a given case at a given time.
That is disgraceful and would most likely fail even the most liberal of audits.
I love this moronic line:
“In a room with this many guns – dull, ugly man-made objects that exist only to extinguish life – there’s just one thing to think about: death.”
So, in essence, this guy is saying that cops are all murderers.
They must be because they carry guns, those things “that exist only to extinguish life”.
So anyone who sees a cop should kill him on sight, right? Since they are only there to kill people, right?
Makes as much sense as this Bozo.
Would these people be happier if we went back to hacking each other apart with swords or bludgeoning each other with clubs?
The problem is not the weapon, the problem is human nature and criminals. Until someone figures out a foolproof way to PREVENT crime, not just find and sometimes punish it’s perpetrators after the fact, I’d like to keep my means to defend myself from the miscreants of society. Of at least try to defend myself instead of just trying to hide and hope they don’t find me…..