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Doesn't it drive you crazy when someone posts something on FB or blogger (or wherever) and after the first few positive comments it begins to turn into a "word brawl". Calling people stupid, moronic, etc., and suggesting that they should educate themselves before they comment are all the norm. I don't typically insert myself into those discussions because they're fruitless. It usually continues to go downhill, especially if you reply to one. There are times when it gets downright nasty.
Why do people do this? We can't have a conversation? And why are we surprised that kids bully each other in school when they have the example adults are presenting? Sadly, bullying on the internet is common. Probably because it's easy when you don't have to look in the eyes of someone standing right across from you. That makes it easy to call you/me/them stupid, crazy, uneducated, etc.
Yeah, you guessed it. I asked a simple question on one of the blogs I sometimes read. I did sort of ask for it I guess, as the topic was guns, and tempers flare pretty high whenever we pose a question that insinuates that just maybe you don't need a semi-automatic weapon. Just so you know, I posed a simple question "Why do you need one?". The answer from many was disturbing. "Because I can".
I was called many names. I was told I should educate myself before I shoot off my mouth (even though it was just a question, it appears many thought my question was a commentary). Some thought I was jumping on the Parkland HS bandwagon ~ which I wasn't. I think it's within their rights to demonstrate, although I don't think in the long run any guns will be banned. Take a gun away from an American? Please.
Guess I learned a lesson there: don't ask for clarification when the answer is "because I can".
Love, 365
We need semi-automatic weapons to check the government from trampling on our rights, cause when those tanks come rumbling down the street and the Warthogs strafe our homes, we can beat them back with our semi-automatic rifles. That and in case we need to kill a lot of deer very quickly.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense to me as I have been educated.
Actually, I think gun owners are just afraid of the slippery slope argument and any concession to sensible gun legislation is aimed at eventually taking away all guns. I don't think that is a legitimate fear, although I understand it, and there are people who would advocate the abolishing of all guns.
I usually try to stay away for those arguments you speak of as zero minds are never changed and I have lost friends. Sometimes I can't help myself. I do hate the name calling.
Yeah, I've gone over those scenarios in my head, where the government goes beyond their rights. I hope we never see that day......as for the rest of your comment, I think your spot on. I don't normally involve myself. I took a shot (haha) and got a little scorched.
Deleteever changed.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the gun debate is a misnomer. There is no debate, only screaming rhetoric and anger. I guess it's a good thing that it's mostly online, people would probably be shooting each other over the disagreement.. seems to be a very hot issue.
ReplyDeleteNo, we can't have a straight up conversation about guns. It seems to be one of those issues that brings out passion instead of common sense. On both sides.
And people on Facebook are *exactly* like kids on the playground. I should know, I spend a lot of time with kids on the playground. I bet you know the phrase guaranteed to end the discussion and make a child cry, too.
"You're not my friend anymore."
I'm pretty sure we never grow up.
Haha, I've been unfriended, and unfriended others. Some of them are just so freaking self absorbed that I can't imagine that FB doesn't just feed into their obsession, ~it's their own face, their own vacations, their pet's every move. So, I unfriend. Or sometimes just set it so I don't see their posts anymore.
DeleteBut in my experience, people who are scared something they fear will happen are the ones that lash out the loudest. Just like a kid. But I bet the conversation would be different face to face.......at least until they begin to lose. *sigh*
I don't know if it really matters or not, but I would like to toss my .02 cents in this discussion about the gun part. The reason that someone might need a semi automatic gun is because it is an easy way to shoot a second or third shot, without having to either reload, or rack the bolt on a bolt action rifle. It has nothing to do with anything else. It is simply a more efficient way of doing something mechanical.
ReplyDeleteNow, as far as the real part of this discussion, about people having guns that are similar to military guns, that is actually the way that it has always been. Ever since the revolutionary war, the common civilian man has wanted to own the most modern weapon that is available to him. Forgive me if I seem to be chauvinistic, I use the male as a means of keeping it all one gender, but females are also certainly able to own and use guns. With the civil war, gun makers made many advances in design, and when the war was over, the soldiers who went home took the modern designs with them, wanting the sharps and springfield rifles. The same thing when the first and second world wars happened, after the wars, the civilians at home wanted the guns that armed the soldiers, and so you saw modern bolt action rifles used for deer hunting and such, copies of the guns used in the war. After the second world war, the semi auto rifle came to the front, and that is when the civilians started to desire them. Then after the Vietnam war, and the M16, the civilians wanted to own them as well, but there was a problem. The M16 is a fully automatic gun and to own one requires a lot of red tape and a long wait of up to a year. Plus a couple hundred dollars fee, which is nothing. So the people took the next best thing, the AR 15, which is pretty much just an M16 without the fully automatic ability. And the people found out that the AR 15 is actually a very good gun. It is easy to shoot, with little recoil, it can be adapted for different body sizes easily, it can even be changed from one caliber to another, with just a few simple changes, like the upper half and the magazine, and sometimes the bolt.
So the popularity of the gun took off, and it is now the best selling rifle in America and has been for well over a decade. I will admit what many people who own guns won't, and that is that for many, the whole part of looking like a Navy SEAL with the gun to match is a big draw, and you can spot the type a mile away. But that is actually not the way it is for the majority of gun owners out there. I own guns, and I am actually able to defend myself and my home in the very unlikely event of a home invasion. But while I own both long guns and handguns, I have no practical use for an AR 15 and so I don't own one.
I too have run into the whole thing about trying to educate people on social media about guns, while being a reasonable voice in the wilderness, and have almost always been attacked, whether by strangers or friends. It is a shame, that people who live in the same country and should want the same thing, namely to live in peace and freedom, should be so willing to attack someone else who wants the same thing.
I know that you didn't ask for this lesson, and I apologize for the long rant. I just wanted to try and make sense of what is a very fair and real question, that most gun people simply ignore or attack. In any case, I wish you the best, and I hope that you don't judge all gun owners by the attack dogs who troll the internet. Most of us are normal, family oriented, law abiding people who don't want to harm anyone, just like those who choose not to own guns.
Well, I do appreciate a logical, reasonable argument ~ although I didn't say so in my blog, I did mention that we own several firearms, just not a semi-automatic. I had hoped I would receive a reply like yours, although there was at least one or two that were fair-minded, but most were as you say "attack dogs". And I get that too, but I had hoped that a simple question would have included something more in line with your reply and not the vitriol that most of them were. And in my opinion, herein lies most of the problem with anti-gun folks with those that tell you that it will be taken only from their cold dead fingers (and this is a direct quote from one of my co-workers). There is only a fine line ~ if you think of the size of a football field, that fine line is likely only the width of a hair. The rest is craziness and illogical rants that solve nothing.
DeleteI thank you for explaining the desire to have the same type of guns that the military owns, I see the rational behind it much better than I did before. Humans are what we are. When we see something better than we own, we want it, and whether or not we NEED it is another question entirely. I could compare that to shoes, for example, lol.
The one thing I feel needs to be pointed out here, is that being human, some of us are downright batshit crazy. And although those people are in the minority (for now) somehow this needs to be dealt with so that those people aren't afforded the option to go out and buy a gun, which makes it very easy for them to go out and kill more people than they could with a knife.
And again, THANK YOU for being a ray of sunshine through the clouds. I truly appreciate it.
What pigpen51 said above. Please know you are always welcome at the blog :)
ReplyDeleteWith that I will give a bit of a story about me. I never grew up around guns other than
my Grandfather having his police revolver. Sure I shot BB guns but the whole gun thing never was an issue until I got older. About 18 years ago I went and got my CCW permit "because I could" and "it is my right". No other reason. It took be a while before I even bought my first handgun. Then over time I have hung out with gun owners, gone to the range and purchased other firearms. Mostly driven by the attacks on gun owners by the left and the Obama regime. The world appears to be getting crazier and I will not become a subject or a "victim" with out a fight.
Be safe out there :)