Exactly. Some asshole made an explicit threat that when the time comes they’d come after OP and those like him to take their lives. Who knows if that was just bullying for the sake of taking the joy out of the other person but it meant the OP’s decision to arm themselves was compelled under threat.
That, as opposed to some bullshit sense of feeling existentially threatened because liberals talk about some day somehow taking your guns, and call you names. (OK, so there was that one poster who would obnoxiously bring up “re-education” as a solution. They are not around any more, you may have noticed.)
OP is perfectly in the right to feel angered that they felt forced into this, being denied the positive elements bump mentions as being involved in a free choice. That is a very nice firearm and this is indeed a perfectly cromulent pastime for the competition and for the mechanical nerdiness of mastering how the device works. But OP can’t bring themselves to enjoy it, because of how it came about for them.
Part of the whole point of living in a civilized society is supposed to be to NOT need to be in “the constant fear of violent death”. The people who believe that their protection against “tyranny” is to make everyone else fear being hurt or killed, are the tyrants.
If you want a skill challenge related to target shooting, you could try a pellet gun and have far less risk of killing someone and proliferating lethal weapons. Or archery.
This is where the psychology of the gun culture takes a dark turn and becomes more dangerous.
No, an asshole making threats is “a” problem, not “the” problem. There are two problems here, the asshole, and his guns. It’s the two together that are uniquely deadly. And it’s in the nature of being human that anyone, at certain times and places, under certain conditions, can be that dangerous asshole. And this is true no matter how hard and how sincerely “law-abiding citizens” try to convince themselves that it isn’t.
That’s birther and election denial levels of conspiracy theory thinking…
you are so adorable
It’s the tiny little top hat that does it.
I’m guessing you have never actually fired a gun or you would be able to understand that archery and shooting are nothing alike.
Some people shoot guns because it is fun. Some people ride fast motorcycles because it is fun. Some people spend hundreds of dollars on thread to needlepoint a fancypants 12 inch piece that has no use at all because it is fun. As long as none of these things endangers other people or their property I have no problem with it. Specially because I just described myself, LOL.
I’m another bleeding heart liberal who owns enough guns to arm a third world country. They are properly stored in a large gun safe
The last time I got into a physical altercation with someone, I didn’t pull out a gun and shoot him…instead, I wacked him on the head and shoulder with my cane. He was a hurting puppy when I got done with him.
Shooting at the range is perfectly safe, unless you’re going to some sketchy place. And it’s a lot more fun than a pellet gun. Trust me… I grew up shooting pellet guns as a kid.
I think you’re reading too much into it. It’s the same sort of rush/powerful feeling that comes from using a particularly powerful tool- like a chainsaw, or a nail gun, or something like that for the first time. It doesn’t really last, but I do know exactly what the OP’s talking about.
Hey, it’s extra points if BlinkingDuck shoots that top hat off…!
( Do you really want to deprive him of a rightfully earned Honduran Cigar…? )
In Philadelphia, police sprayed tear gas on a crowd of mainly peaceful protesters trapped on an interstate who had nowhere to go and no way to breathe.
NY Times is nothing but a conspiracy theory purveyor!!!
The only gun I ever fired was when visiting someone’s farm as a kid, and one of the adults let several of us kids shoot a .22 rifle at targets. But no, I’ve never fired anything like Dirty Harry’s “are you feeling lucky today, punk?” gigantic handgun. I don’t claim that archery is anything like that, but it is indisputably a test of accuracy.
Sure, I agree, but the problem with guns is that they absolutely DO endanger other people in a major way. Most gun nuts just don’t care, but the other part of the problem is that most legal and responsible gun owners just can’t see their guns ever being abused or falling into the wrong hands, and can’t see gun proliferation as the problem that it is. By all accounts, the mother of the Sandy Hook shooter was a law-abiding responsible gun owner who, steeped in the American gun culture, saw shooting as a way of bonding with her son and sharing a common “fun” activity.
I agree. It’s the gun proliferation that’s the problem.
I understand the feeling. I’m not immune to appreciating good tools and the empowerment that powerful ones give you. The problems happen when the shunned, the depressed, the angry, the rejected latch on to the empowerment of the gun as a means of compensation and revenge.
This conversation is oddly uncharacteristic of the Pit as you folks have been most civil despite my promising to not engage in a gun debate and then coming right back and doing so. I guess the problem is that it’s an issue I feel strongly about and so am easily triggered, if I may use the term, to respond to specific statements that bug me.
The other thing you nice folks have not done is ask me why a bleeding-heart Canuck like myself concerns himself with American gun politics. Aside from the fact that we have our own gun problem that stems largely from guns flowing across the border from the world’s largest and least controlled infestation of guns, it’s because it deeply bothers me that a great country like the USA is so deeply mired in gun violence. And no, it’s not just because of crime, nor is it uniquely a mental health problem or some other societal problem – other western countries have all those same problems. You have to ask what it is about America that makes the gun problem so unique.
And with that, I’ll show myself out.
America is a neighbor and a very close one culturally and economically. They’re almost cousins. I think whatever happens in one country often affects the other, for good or ill. Americans also care about things that happen up north politically and otherwise.
Anyone who tells you to shut up and mind your own country’s business is an ignorant asshole.
Completely agree. I own a dozen ‘real’ guns. All inherited. While I do live remote, I don’t target shoot with a real gun on my property. Don’t want to pollute the area with the noise. Some folks across the valley don’t share my respect.
I did buy a very high quality and expensive pellet gun. It’s .22 caliber and insanely accurate. It requires a special compressor that can bring it up to 3000 psi. Those are SCUBA tank pressures. It shoots pellets at 1000 fps. I shoot dime sized targets at 100 feet. It’s more accurate than I will ever be. It’s not your normal pellet gun.
I also used to love archery, but it’s been years.
I shoot powderburners, airguns and do archery, in an ascending order of time expenditure / enjoyment. Shooting all these projectile weapons has much in common, in fact, if you factor out the noise and extreme range differences.
BTW, 1000 fps in .22 cal is a powerful airgun, but not near the top of the power range of PreChargedPneumatics, or PCPs.
I make that two wooshes, well done!
A “fucking pistol” has a ribbed barrel, most likely.
It is a PCP. I suppose I could get a more powerful one. The air rifle is on the low end (or lower) of a regular .22.as far as fps. Does not have the ft/lbs of energy of course because the pellet is much lighter than a regular .22
You certainly practice all the same cautions as you would with a regular gun.
It’s really fun to shoot, and after the initial purchase, the ‘ammo’ is dirt cheap.
Go to your room, now.
I HATE YOU!
~ slams door ~