Don’t scare white people
I’m a gun nut. And a pretty hardcore one at that. However, I’m about to lose some of my gun nut street cred. I’d like to touch on one of my rules for convincing others why I’m right. I’ve alluded to it before (here and here) but I don’t think I’ve ever written about it specifically. Are you ready? It’s real simple:
Don’t scare white people.
Uncle, you say, What the Hell are you talking about? Well, let me explain. Most people in this country fit a certain demographic. That demographic is the prototypical family with two cars, 2.4 kids, stability, owns a home, is in debt, have no issues with gay people other than they don’t want them to get married, etc., etc. Most decisions in this country in terms of legislation center around what these people think. So, when I say white people, that’s who I mean. Don’t scare them. If you scare them off by appearing excessively gun nutty, then you’re turning the people who politicians almost exclusively pander to against you. So, don’t go get a sign that says:
Rep. Cruz should be hung from the tree of liberty for treasonous acts against the Constitution
And show up at a protest. First of all, it’s hanged. Secondly, it’s not smart. Sure, your heart may be in the right place and all that other hippie tree hugging crap to make you feel better about yourself. But white people think you’re fucking nuts. And you’re not doing gun rights any favors. Don’t get me wrong, I think Rep. Cruz is a moron. His bill would require gun registration and a $10-a-gun annual fee. And, well, that’s probably unconstitutional. But that’s no excuse to out-moron him. See, I’ve come close to saying things like that before and then actually did a blog post about me thinking about saying it and then deciding it’s not something that should be said. And then saying it in a weasel way because I’d done fessed up to thinking it.
And, if it’s any consolation, his supporters don’t quite get the first amendment either when they say:
No one has the right to call for the lynching of another human being — no one
Sure they do. It’s not a smart thing and if they actually incite someone to do it, they should be held accountable. But we can say crazy shit like that. The issue, for me, is that it’s stupid to say stuff like that.
And here’s the other thing: The press loves to show off some right wing nut jobs and gun nuts. If some right winger or gun nut does something stupid, it’s all over the news. However, idiots at left wing protests rarely get press coverage. You’ll never see these photos or significant coverage of them in an AP story.
Others:
The Geek: Fight Hard, Fight Smart
Bitter: Dig Faster
David (who likely doesn’t agree with me – he does): it’s certainly not “just a figure of speech.”
Sebastian: Putting the “C” in Crazy and This is one for the “How Not to Win Column”
April 26th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Uncle, you don’t suppose that this could have been the work of agent provocateurs, do you?
April 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I don’t disagree with you at all Uncle. There’s a context for when I wrote ‘it’s not a figure of speech.’ I was admonishing the banner holders for not knowing where the phrase they misapplied and abused came from–along with noting, as you did, that it’s ‘hanged.’
April 26th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Freeholder, no. they are members of the state’s constitution party.
David, thanks for clarifying.
April 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Add to that the fact that advocating stupid or even unconstitutional statutes has nothing to do with treason, and I’d say we’ve got ourselves a pretty well-rounded idiot.
April 26th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
This has been something I’ve blogged on repeatedly. We gunnies have to do it smarter and cleaner than the other guy, to borrow from that celluloid nightmare Top Gun.
When gun rights activists are linked to people that do all sorts of stupid stuff…it really does boomerang on us pretty nastily.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:54 am
[…] said he was glad he didn’t go to the rally thanks to your idiocy. And Uncle told you to stop scaring people with your crazy lynching […]
April 27th, 2007 at 9:03 am
[…] response to this, AC says: Average white folks are not extreme. They are not as informed. They do not share your […]
April 27th, 2007 at 9:56 am
I see some of that ‘gun-nut fear’ even in my brother-in-law duck hunters, and we all remember the Jim Zumbo fiasco.
I’m definitely a gun nut; my dad was a gunsmith, and at age six or so I was swinging from the barrel of a 20mm Swedish Lhati anti-tank gun he had in place of a living room coffee table (alas, he sold it in ’68, prior to the registration rulez). I learned shooting as second-nature in Arizona, had my first .44 Magnum when I was 15 (a Cattleman that kept extruding it’s base-pin after every shot…)
But that is kept, now, in abeyance, to a degree. I have other crafts, hobbies, and interests, and it’s all part of a well-rounded package. I will make sure that the message and beliefs of our gun rights are properly dispensed, by introducing as many as possible to the ranges and to shooting sports.
It’s a lifetime commitment.
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:34 am
[…] referral logs tell me that two posts of mine (Don’t Scare White People and Mass murderers v. armed citizens) are apparently getting quite a bit of play via email. Anyone […]
June 20th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
[…] opposition to immigration has been painted as racial resentment and this, as Say Uncle would assert, scares the white […]
June 25th, 2007 at 11:06 am
[…] by the utter stupidity of your statement. I’ve referenced this type of rhetoric before (see here and here). You’re not helping. So knock it off. But, Mr. Helmke, here’s the deal: Your […]
July 14th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
[…] but are around the general public, it’s importnat to remember SayUncle’s wisdom, and stay away from the crazy stuff.  From the Brady Blog, I noticed some people linked to […]
August 11th, 2007 at 5:02 am
[…] in how we gun nuts come across when we talk about that sort of stuff. Remember what I said about scaring white people? Well, that’s what I’m talking about. Joking about people getting shot is kinda not […]
August 27th, 2007 at 8:59 am
[…] Bitter discusses writing letters to the editor. And leave some of that crazy gun nut talk out. You don’t want to scare the white people. […]
August 31st, 2007 at 8:37 am
[…] appears that some children in Colorado need to learn to mind their Uncle Say: “On Tuesday in a Spanish-language class at Holy Family High School, a single handful of […]
September 7th, 2007 at 8:51 am
[…] – Second, a lot of the comments there scare white people. The folks scaring the white people don’t appear to have come from here, as I don’t […]
October 25th, 2007 at 9:23 am
[…] reserve, IRS, ATF, DEA, DOE, etc., and other things he wants or implies he’d get rid of scares white people […]
October 26th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
[…] This gets back to what SayUncle says about not scaring the white folk. […]
October 30th, 2007 at 9:00 am
[…] will say this for Thompson: well played. Here’s why. Without saying the stuff that scares white people, he addresses the reasons for the second amendment that often do scare white people. He does so by […]
November 14th, 2007 at 10:04 am
[…] In which I remind casual readers that, yes, I really am a gun nut. Even though I don’t like scaring white people. […]