09-08-2019, 08:05 AM
Fess Wrote:Living near one of the most liberal cities in NC, I have a good idea of some of the anti-gun arguments. When it comes to removeable-magazine semi-auto rifles (pretty much limited to AR-15 or AK-47 in their minds), an anti-gun person will never feel comfortable knowing that there are people around who have enough weapons and ammunition to quickly kill everyone in their neighborhood.
They are terrified when they find out that many gun owners have 500 rounds, much less thousands of rounds of ammunition. They are even more frightened when they see videos of people doing tactical training to become even more effective at killing people. The targets have outlines of humans, don't they? They do not understand the sport of shooting and that someone might shoot many rounds on a range day for a hobby. The majority of people in many american cities have never touched a firearm and see them only as devices for killing. I have been frustrated that although I bought air-rifles and archery equipment for my two children, they have had no interest in participating in these, what I always considered "normal American," activities.
I think that it would be fair to say that most anti-gun people believe that the United States has evolved beyond the wild-west days where seemingly everybody carried a gun to defend themselves from other (bad) people with guns. They think that it is ridiculous to believe that our own government might turn against us and view those that do believe and prepare for that eventuality as dangerously paranoid.
In short, it is a fundamentally different world view from that held by the people like us who spend time on a firearm-related website. I honestly don't know how to bridge that gap on a large scale, but I sometimes think of myself as trying to be an ambassador from the gun-owning community.
I met a family from France that was deathly afraid of firearms. As my family and I became friends with them, "I made a deal that I would try escargot" if they would learn how to shoot. The mother, 'who was the one most afraid of firearms" ended up joining my local Practical shooting club and competed for many years with my wife. Every gun owner should be an ambassador to the shooting sports and gun ownership. They explained to me that years of TV and movies had made them fear firearms, until they actually experienced how to shoot safely and there was nothing to fear. Sometimes when a person has lived with firearms like I have all of my life, "where everyone has a rifle or pistol at any given moment" that there are people who have never shot or even seen a firearm. Living in the country," where help can be 30 minutes or longer away" changes most peoples anti-gun beliefs. Encountering bears and mountain lions is not uncommon where I live "and carrying a firearm when going for a walk" is as natural as carrying a water bottle..