who are your friends?

[coda80]

ive recently had two separate instances where my stance with my right to bear arms was questioned. first, a good friend of mine for many years was at a cookout my family and i attended. ive not seen him in over a year. he asked how ive been and what ive been up to and i explained that since i saw him last ive purchased a few firearms and really started to see our world in a new light. he told me that he thinks they should ban all guns from everyone so that the world would be a safer place. i was shocked! i actually have a friend so naive to think that if he takes the guns out of my hands that gangbangers will only be armed with broken bottles. or that the next criminal that decides he wants to rob a bank will not be able to find a gun to do so.

the second incident made me a little upset. my daughters best friend for 3 years now spent the weekend with us at our place. her and my daughter who are both 13 years old wanted to go in the back yard and shoot one of her bb guns. i was outside doing yard work so i was able to keep a good eye on them. they shot it for about 20 minutes, got bored and put it away, but during their shooting they took pictures which they later uploaded on the computer. the girl went home and showed her mom and mommy freaked. asked her daughter if i was on drugs and what the heck was i thinking letting my kids shoot guns? now she is not allowed over here anymore.

how did the masses become so brainwashed that these people believe I'M crazy? this is disturbing.

 

[johnb62]

It is a wonder how/why people adopt the view that they do. Some have legitimate reasons and some just like to jump on some bandwagon that they know nothing about. Those are the ones that bother me.

I do think that before I let a 13 year old friend of my child shoot a bb gun I would secure the parents permission. That's just me though.

 

[88E30M50]

It's years and years of conditioning by the media that is turning otherwise thinking people into closed minded anti-gun bigots. It's beyond my understanding how someone could honestly think you could get rid of guns. Sure, you can outlaw them, but the only ones to give them up would be some non-outlaws. The rest of us would just be branded 'outlaws' just for maintaining our right to self defense.

I'm always amazed that people tolerate the utter crap broadcast on TV to their kids, but have a huge problem with the idea of a gun. Sure, a gun can allow someone to impose their will on someone else, but a gun can just as easily remove the ability for someone else to impose their will on the holder of a gun.

I hope you were able to talk some sense into either of them.

 

[E5RANGER375]

im sorry your friend has the wrong views. and make NO MISTAKE, he IS WRONG.

im sorry for your daughters friend incident too. but i will tell you that if it was my daughter, i would have expected a phone call not from you, but from my daughter to ask for my permission before she played with the BB gun. Then i would have said yes, because by then i would trust her with a bb gun, heck, she will have her own form 2 items by then im sure. sorry the mom freaked that bad, sounds like a hippie freak.

 

[Expat]

That is a danger that all of us face. We talk to people on INGO all the time. Our circle of friends only include other like minded individuals. When we then interact with members of the general public, we are shocked at what we find. It is difficult to underestimate the success the liberals in the mainstream media have had in brainwashing the public.

 

[Lex Concord]

ive recently had two separate instances where my stance with my right to bear arms was questioned. first, a good friend of mine for many years was at a cookout my family and i attended. ive not seen him in over a year. he asked how ive been and what ive been up to and i explained that since i saw him last ive purchased a few firearms and really started to see our world in a new light. he told me that he thinks they should ban all guns from everyone so that the world would be a safer place. i was shocked! i actually have a friend so naive to think that if he takes the guns out of my hands that gangbangers will only be armed with broken bottles. or that the next criminal that decides he wants to rob a bank will not be able to find a gun to do so.

the second incident made me a little upset. my daughters best friend for 3 years now spent the weekend with us at our place. her and my daughter who are both 13 years old wanted to go in the back yard and shoot one of her bb guns. i was outside doing yard work so i was able to keep a good eye on them. they shot it for about 20 minutes, got bored and put it away, but during their shooting they took pictures which they later uploaded on the computer. the girl went home and showed her mom and mommy freaked. asked her daughter if i was on drugs and what the heck was i thinking letting my kids shoot guns? now she is not allowed over here anymore.

how did the masses become so brainwashed that these people believe I'M crazy? this is disturbing.

How? First clue is your avatar.

Ann Arbor (along with countless other college towns) is a hotbed of "Liberalism" (in the modern sense).

For the most parts, they run and permeate the secondary and post-secondary educational institutions. It's actually amazing that any freedom-minded individuals escape with their principles intact.

Of course, "Conservatives" often fall for the same excuse for logic, such as the idea that the "war on drugs" will do anything but increase drug-related crime and make it more violent, all while enriching those who would prefer a life of crime rather than an honest wage.

Sometimes it seems the sane are in a distinct minority.

So, out of curiosity, are you a UM alumnus, or just a fan?

 

[5.56'aholic]

some people are just plain dumb, that's why they are anti-gun. They think that the government/police/military are omnipotent, and will always be there in their time of need.

 

[jdhaines]

How? First clue is your avatar.

Ann Arbor (along with countless other college towns) is a hotbed of "Liberalism" (in the modern sense).

For the most parts, they run and permeate the secondary and post-secondary educational institutions. It's actually amazing that any freedom-minded individuals escape with their principles intact.

Of course, "Conservatives" often fall for the same excuse for logic, such as the idea that the "war on drugs" will do anything but increase drug-related crime and make it more violent, all while enriching those who would prefer a life of crime rather than an honest wage.

Sometimes it seems the sane are in a distinct minority.

So, out of curiosity, are you a UM alumnus, or just a fan?

My wife and I took a shopping trip to Ann Arbor last winter for a weekend away. I was amazed at the people there. I saw people smoking what looked and smelled like weed on the streets. It was the most liberal place I have ever been (and I spent a summer in Southern Cal once!). I felt like I was in another world. Every store looked like a throwback to hippie times. I haven't ever seen anything like it. West Lafayette was NOTHING like that when I went to Purdue.

 

[Jon Craig]

My wife and I took a shopping trip to Ann Arbor last winter for a weekend away. I was amazed at the people there. I saw people smoking what looked and smelled like weed on the streets.

Yup that's Ann Arbor. Always been that way as far as I know.

And it probably was weed - I believe personal possession is only a $10 fine there, and from what I know it's not enforced anyway.

 

[jedi]

OP so what have you done with your old friend? Have you tried to explain his logic to him in another way? Taken him to the range? Etc?

As for your daughter's mom's friend same set of questions.

Just curious on what you ahve done since then about these 2 cases.

 

[public servant]

i would have expected a phone call not from you, but from my daughter to ask for my permission before she played with the BB gun.

Unfortunately...the rest of the world isn't as open minded as we all are here. While I agree the daughter should have called...I also think you should have been in on that conversation as well.

Win their hearts and minds.

 

[redneckmedic]

I think everyone has a right to their own opinion. If mom doesn't want her child around firearms when they aren't around, or for that matter, since her daughter isn't familiar with guns that's OK. If mom and dad have no family history with guns, its OK to think that their daughter might be in harms way. Especially if they knew that you weren't supervising the situation.

i was outside doing yard work [strike]so i was able to keep a good eye on them.[/strike]

The views of your friends may not line up with yours, but they aren't wrong just because their opinion differs from you. Is this worth loosing a friendship over... ?

 

[jedi]

I think everyone has a right to their own opinion. If mom doesn't want her child around firearms when they aren't around, or for that matter, since her daughter isn't familiar with guns that's OK. If mom and dad have no family history with guns, its OK to think that their daughter might be in harms way. Especially if they knew that you weren't supervising the situation.
The views of your friends may not line up with yours, but they aren't wrong just because their opinion differs from you. Is this worth loosing a friendship over... ?

And thus the mood/though of the nation has indeeded changed (for the worse IMO). In several of the gun magainzes that I get/read I have read dozens of articles about how the author's growing up in the 50s/60s owned BB guns as kids and all the stuff they did with them (shooting at tin cans in the fields, getting into "wars" with the other side of town kids, fighting off a bully, etc..) and the impression from my reading has always been that the kids were a) unsuprvised and b) never in any real danger.

The last article that comes to my mind is from the Dillion Blue Press book (June 2010 edition) in which the in author using his BB guns fights off two bullies with their BB guns but becuase he had a pump we was able to run and gun at the same time and put more BBs downrange then his attackers.

What's the point? Here I am on a gun fourm and I see comments like the one above about "supervision". The OP (me would think) knows his child well enough that he felt very little supervision was needed (ie. probably becuase child already had grown up with the BB gun rules for said family, was mature enough to handle the firearm, mature enough to show someone else what to do, etc..) & yet some think eveyr child needs "supervision".

Just like you need a LTCH before you can carry when back in old days that "need" for some piece of paper to exercise your right was not there. My, my how the nation as a whole has changed in it's mindset.

Sorry end of rant.

 

[JohnP82]

pyschological disarmament. That is their first step. They know to look to the future and go after the youth to scare them away from guns, That way it will be easier to disarm them down the road.

 

[redneckmedic]

I think everyone has a right to their own opinion. If mom doesn't want her child around firearms when they aren't around, or for that matter, since her daughter isn't familiar with guns that's OK. If mom and dad have no family history with guns, its OK to think that their daughter might be in harms way. Especially if they knew that you weren't supervising the situation.
The views of your friends may not line up with yours, but they aren't wrong just because their opinion differs from you. Is this worth loosing a friendship over... ?

yet some think every child needs "supervision".

Please don't confuse the views of this man with the views of the nation, as that is foolish and counterproductive. However, you must have a broader mindset when your looking at a 307 million population in this country. I don't think all 13yr olds need supervision, and I didn't say or hint at that. But the other child, whose family clearly doesn't have experience around guns BB or not doesn't. Any parent knows it takes a split second for something to go disastrous. I am not blaming the OP, however I do think putting yourself in someone else's shoes from time to time is worth a millions lessons.

never in any real danger.

That is just asinine. I personally have been on the receiving end at the ER when on 4 separate instances children have came in for BB gun injuries. And that is just on the East Side of Indy in a 6 yr span. Including loss of sight and pneumo-thorax. I even read an article about a BB causing a DVT.

I am not anti-gun what-so-ever, but I am still intelligent enough to recognize responsibility when its called for.

 

[Jack Ryan]

What's the point? Here I am on a gun fourm and I see comments like the one above about "supervision". The OP (me would think) knows his child well enough that he felt very little supervision was needed (ie. probably becuase child already had grown up with the BB gun rules for said family, was mature enough to handle the firearm, mature enough to show someone else what to do, etc..) & yet some think eveyr child needs "supervision".

I trusted my kid, but I don't trust YOURS or any one else's until I've watched them enough to know. You obviously DIDN'T know the kid that well. Pro or anti gun barely even scratches the surface. You can't trust most 13 year old with a frigging paint ball gun these days. Most kids you can tell they can shoot any thing they want to shoot with a bb gun, paint ball gun, what ever so long as you can't see the house from where you are shooting or from what you are shooting at. 13 frigging square miles of shooting any thing you want all you want all day long.

The result... paint ball spot on the barn, hole in a brand new can of paint, one good butt kicking and end of any kind of shoot for a good long while. You could just look the kid in the eye when you were standing in front of the paint can I keep on the range to paint steel targets and he may as well have been holding a sign as he waited to see what would happen. It was an obvious "test shot" to see how far they could go and after they learned "not one inch with this guy" it was never again a problem.

 

[cosermann]

... he told me that he thinks they should ban all guns from everyone so that the world would be a safer place. ... i actually have a friend so naive to think that if he takes the guns out of my hands that gangbangers will only be armed with broken bottles. or that the next criminal that decides he wants to rob a bank will not be able to find a gun to do so. ...

Lots of golks in the UK, Australia, Jamaica, etc. would disagree (not to mention DC, Chicago, etc.). Gun bans have made all those places more dangerious.

Conversely, states that have passed 'shall issue' legislation have become safer (violent-crime-wise that is).

Your friend has no facts or history on his side; only his feelings, and vague notions.

More guns = less crime.

 

[9lock]

how did the masses become so brainwashed that these people believe I'M crazy? this is disturbing.

Same thing that has people brainwashed in thinking we still have a two party system and taking sides (left/right)(divide and conquer comes to mind) Television! Turn it off! Joseph Goebbels would be proud.

 

[TopDog]

It's years and years of conditioning by the media that is turning otherwise thinking people into closed minded anti-gun bigots.

Absolutely, but I think most have become sheep. Being brain washed on much more then just guns.

This is what I find more often than not. Frequently a person that has had little to no personal contact with guns has the mindset the media has given them. That is right up to the point that they personelly or someone close to them is either killed or seriously hurt. Then there is an amazing awakening! All of a sudden they want a gun for protection.

 

[Bendrx]

Same thing that has people brainwashed in thinking we still have a two party system and taking sides (left/right)(divide and conquer comes to mind) Television! Turn it off! Joseph Goebbels would be proud.

I'm pretty sure TV is the worst used invention ever. Haven't been a TV watcher for years. Don't have cable, nor do I have a converter box so don't think I will be anytime soon either. (aside from at friends houses).

Perhaps it would be a good idea to talk to the childs parents and first apologize for not speaking with them, and then ask if they would be willing to go shooting with you at some point. Even offer to pay for the bullets and range time if you are able to. If they don't want to then maybe they'd like to try the BB gun. Have a BBQ or something so that you can show them how to be safe, and casually explain your views. The worst that will happen is they wont change thier minds.