This is the thinking that detests the 2nd Amendment....

Simon Clark's From the Barrel of a Gun [formerly The Cynical Libertarian] has a great post on a British anti-gun advocate visiting the National Rifle Association's firing range just to find out what happens there.

Simon dissects, paragraph by paragraph, the inane thinking of a man who can't find his way past his own preconceptions, refuses to see what's in front of him, and--when all else fails--makes it up as he goes along. [Anyone who has ever been to a range will understand that part when Simon nails him on it.]

It is lengthy post, that doesn't lend itself to excerpting, so I hope you'll try the whole thing.

Here's the best I can do for a flavor:

But then I did something stupid. I actually went to a gun range.

Exactly why is this stupid? I just can't understand why anyone would think going to a gun range is stupid. Gun ranges are one of the safest places you can be, they're fun, not too expensive, you meet some great people there...

After some American friends invited me to a gun range - the National Rifle Association one no less - I was excited. Surely I would see some of those nutters. You know, those ones, the ones with hats with flaps and brown teeth and patches saying things like Neighbourhood Militia or something humorous and terrifying in equal measure.

No... I don't know. You have to wonder what sort of condition he was causing him to create such fictional characters inside his head and superimpose them in to the real world as if they are the norm.

In truth, most of the people there were sober, average-looking, hat-deficient, normal people, and none of them were wiping away drool as they shrieked "from my cold dead hands".

I wonder, would he be so opposed to the phrase if it was made regarding voting rights rather than gun rights?

By the end of the post, Simon's anger is getting the better of him. But all of you who defend the rights of citizens to own firearms and who actually shoot will completely understand.

Comments

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