A lefty with a gun
5 years ago, I owned no guns and really felt like guns were an anachronism. I felt we’d progressed beyond a world where people needed guns to solve problems. Thinking with your head and not with your fist, as it were.
I was appalled at the disparity of gun violence in other developed countries.
I felt like having a gun was ridiculous because the odds were someone in my house would be hurt with them rather than use them to defend myself.
I had not touched a gun in 15 years, I’d grown out of them and was, frankly, scared of them.
I remember seeing a woman packing a pistol on a backpack trip with some boy scouts a few years back and was furious that she was doing so (open carry on public lands is mostly OK here in WA state).
Then Hurricane Katrina happened.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:57 am
Uncle,I was about the same way, and only had guns for hunting. For me,it was Bosnia. To see what happens to a people who have no means to defend themselves from tyranny and murders. That changed my whole aspect on guns and self-defense. That owning guns and the 2nd Amendment was not about hunting,it was about civil rights to exist as a person.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:24 am
The statist and collectivist mindset of the person whose blog is linked causes me to note the cognitive dissonance he is undergoing.
I hope he can grow out of the rest of his erroneous progressive beliefs.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:18 am
There was no time when I did not have a gun, from on the farm when I was nine; in Chicago, Illinois when I was sixteen.
Yeah, they kind of scare me, too. Especially when they come up to me in the middle of the night, wake me up, and ask me to go out there and just kill anything that moves. (Sarcasm if it needs to be said.)
July 1st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
You stated that “Open Carry on public lands is MOSTLY OK here in WA”. Actually, Open Carry is Legal at almost ALL times here in WA, even on the streets of downtown Seattle, and NO permit is required. The Permit is only required to conceal.
In fact, Open Carry started to become more popular as of late.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I’ve heard more than a few stories like this, but they usually end with “That was before I got raped in the parking lot at work.” or “Until someone broke into my house and when I yelled that I had a baseball bat, I heard them snicker.”
You don’t have to like guns, you just have to own one.
July 1st, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Paul: a way of hedging my bets. The law is a complicated thing.
Matt: yeah happy thing not having that story.
Mikee: Not alot of dissonance. A bit, but I’ll work thru it. And my religious upbringing supports some amount of colletivism, but not statist per se. Unless you consider the big guy the state.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:03 am
While I welcome anyone’s awakening, I’m frankly a bit peeved that someone would support robbing *ME* at the point of a (government – coward!) gun to support whatever the mob thinks is important, but be proud of himself for buying a gun to protect *HIS* property from those who — in the midst of a **TRUE CATASTROPHE** — were REALLY starving and dying.
So… Robbery is OK EXCEPT when the robber REALLY REALLY NEEDS what he’s stealing?
The “Democracy” argument is weak: If 50.0000001% of the people in Seattle decide to take his stuff, will he put down is gun and say “well — this *IS* a democracy…” Of course not.
Hypocrite.
Yeah — I know — “be nice…”
“Nice” got us Dear Leader, and as a result what’s left of my Republic is circling the bowl. “Nice” doesn’t work.
Perhaps calling a cowardly hypocrite a cowardly hypocrite will…
DD
July 4th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Try having a civilized debate with somebody that is beating the shit out of you and let me know how that works out.