The Partisan Divide on Issues

[TnT]

As a flaming liberal with a roomful of guns, I'm mostly puzzled by the concealed carry folks as well as the owners of the so-called "AR-15".

It's like saying "The orange is the perfect food!"  "I don't need protein or complex carbohydrates or vegetables; the orange is what I want!"

For example, let's say hypothetically that I have a S&W .357 revolver, a Remington 12 gauge Wingmaster shotgun, a Remington 700 .270 with a nice Nikon scope, a Winchester 30:30 saddle rifle, and the Remington bolt action .22 that I got when I was a kid.  And let's further assume that I'm familiar with all, can field strip and clean them and maintain them except for skilled tasks best left for real gunsmiths.  And that I've been coached and trained on the proper safety measures.

Question #1.  How do I differ from the typical "AR-15" owner?  Answer:  The AR-15 owner has probably never been around firearms until he got his rifle.  Chances are the only other firearm he has, if any, is a Glock .40 pistol.  Training?  Virtually none.  Safety?  None - no gun safe, no idea of how much he risks.  

Question #2.  What can the "AR-15" owner do better, or even as well as, I can do by selecting the proper tool for the circumstances?  Answer:  Nothing, other than, perhaps, shooting up a classroom full of third graders.

Question #3.  What, if anything, does the average "AR-15"/Glock owner actually DO with his firearms?  Answer:  It's like buying a treadmill - it gets used decreasingly over time until finally it ends up in the basement or garage collecting dust.  Sure.  They go to the range a couple times, shoot up a few boxes, and then it dwindles down to nothing.  But ask them about the safety or appropriateness of them having these items laying around their house and OMG!  All of a sudden we've got a Second Amendment constitutional lawyer on our hands.

Question #4.  Where do the "bad guys with guns" get their guns?  Answer:  By burglarizing the cars and houses of the "good guys with guns."  Can you even imagine it?!  Keeping a Glock somewhere in your vehicle all the time?  Our cops keep telling the general public here in my city to not leave firearms in their cars.  Dear god.

Question #5.  What is worse than bringing a knife to a gunfight? (To quote the old adage.)  Answer:  Bringing a gun to a gunfight.  Explanation:  Gunfights, by definition, come in infinite varieties.  Every circumstance is different.  There is no way to predict how one might be challenged such that having a firearm might be of any value.  One thing is guaranteed - if a gunfight breaks out, and if I have a gun, I'm IN the gunfight whether I like it or not.  Whether the cops or the "bad guy" shoots me is up for grabs, because I'm not wearing a cop's uniform.  And god help me if I'm black, and a "good guy with a gun."

Question #6.  What is better than my S&W .357 for defending my home?  Answer:  A baseball bat and a yappy little dog.  Why?  Because I get to know the invader is coming.  My pistol won't wake me up barking.  I have to concede that my Wingmaster plus the yappy dog is about as good as it gets.

My bottom line opinion is that the vast majority of new gun owners, over the last couple decades, have no business owning their firearms.  This crap has turned our country into a tinderbox, peopled with limp-dicked wannabes who think that slinging an "AR-15" in front of them, like a real marine, turns them into saviors of our civilization.

Superficiality abounds.