One modest suggestion for our society: Think of someone with a big gun collection the way we think of someone with a big porn collection. It’s their constitutional right, but not something we admire. It’s not patriotic. It’s certainly not the sort of thing you’d see conservative candidates for office splashing all over their advertising the way they now use gun imagery.
One example of a product’s transformation from cool to repellent is cigarettes, which once cut a dashing image and enjoyed formidable support from Big Tobacco and its political henchmen. We can say with clarity that too many guns leads to shootings just like too many cigarettes leads to lung cancer.
It would be smart to study the years of public service messaging that helped transform smoking from a part of every meal, meeting and silver screen romance, into something one ashamedly sneaks outside the back door of the restaurant.
These analogies seem unkind to law abiding gun owners, which is why the focus should be about the industry more than the people who fall prey to its aggressive marketing. And make no mistake, the gun industry is engaged in a highly profitable effort to make Americans fearful while glamorizing weapons of war. As The New York Times recently reported after examining industry records, court records and online archives, the industry “spent the last two decades scrutinizing their market and refocusing their message away from hunting toward selling handguns for personal safety, as well as military-style weapons attractive to mostly young men. The sales pitch — rooted in self-defense, machismo and an overarching sense of fear — has been remarkably successful.”
Gun opponents should heed the industry’s approach: The best messages are emotional. So make them personal. Here’s the dismal accounting of guns in my life: The mother of the kids I played with when I was young, one of the first friends I made when I started high school, the bright young man I watched grow up in the house next store, the fun uncle who used to drive up from California on July 4th with a trunk full of fireworks. All lives taken by guns. Guns do not make me safer, or more free. #WhatsYourStory strikes me as a beginning to some effective storytelling for all you social media experts out there.
The central message is that a gun is not an (sic) tool for safety. It’s an instrument of death.
— Sheldon Clay in Do to Guns What We Did to Cigarettes — Make Them Culturally Repellent
I can only speak for one gun owner. Me. Shaming me because I exercise a human and civil right? That puts the shamers in bed with stalin, hitler, mao, pol pot, biden, dacian and miner49er.
Shame? Hell, I’m proud to be hated by that slimy bunch.
These are the same people who try to shame people (e.g.) for showing up to work on time because that’s ‘what white people do’.
Proud to be termed a “Clinger, a Deplorable.” Nicest thing OBlunder and Hellary (intended) ever said.
Unfortunately for clay’s childish lame attempt to draw a nonexistent connection between the 2A and a pack of Marlboros…
History Confirms Gun Control on any shape, matter or form is rooted in racism and genocide.
Apparently the whimsical mr. clay does not know Racism and Genocide is hazardous to your health.
My plan is swift certain punishment for violent party poopers. Punishment for such violence as seen at yesterday’s parade should be by a firing squad. I.E. perp uses vehicle to mow down parade goers perp is executed by being ran over.
Those running the show and running to Gun Control are those supplying gullible unarmed victims for violent criminals. Armed law abiding citizens refuse to participate in a victim pool.
Make no mistake about it…Sick Gun Control zealots envy the element of Control that the perp briefly enjoyed.
in
Debbie,
Must respectfully disagree. There is a DIRECT link between a gun and a pack of Marlboros. I don’t smoke; never did. I find the smell repellent. I found out (the hard way) on one date with a lady who smoked the truth of the old adage that “kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray”. NOT a fan of smoking. But why is it that every Leftist/fascist idiot, like MajorStupidity and dacian the stupid feels the uncontrollable desire to determine my behavior “for my own good”???
No, there is no “constitutional right” to smoke . . . unless you consider individual bodily autonomy an “inherent right” (which I do). I will never be a smoker, and I give zero s***s whether someone else is, or not. I feel no desire whatsoever to control their smoking. If they can afford me the same degree of respect, we’ll all get along just fine.
The fundamental issue is simply, “How much do you respect individual liberty??” I’m kind of an absolutist about it. So, the REAL link between anti-smoking zealots and anti-gun zealots is their common embrace of fascism and “Karen-ism”. Personally, I find that a pretty strong link.
What they describe is exactly what NY has been doing for a long time and how is that working out? Also movies will probably not get on board with demonizing guns as they would lose revenue.
C’mon, guns are icky. I bet people would flock to movies starring woke harpies and exploring their organic soy-latte beverage choices.
Yep art school films are wildly popular and practically guarantee success in the film industry.
BigE,
Actually, a well-done documentary about Karens running around screaming at people without masks, etc. COULD be funny AF. OK, not a film you’d ever want to watch twice, but . . . I would see a good film mocking Karens.
Well Played.
Greats
Maybe shaming will drive prices down so we can stock up!
You know what’s repellent? Sheeple who want to be serfs in an authoritarian social-dumbocracy by fucking up the world’s last remaining republic (based on individual rights and responsibilities) for the rest of us, instead of moving to one of the hundred that already exist.
AS the comment says it’s NOT about legallity and neither was SMOKING.
Nobody for any purpose of self defence needs anything more than a SINGLE decent 9mm or .38 calibre handgun and even then that is MORE likely, as every available statistic tells us, to get you killed that is is to save your or anybody elses life.
Nobody actually NEEDS anything other than a five shot BOLT ACTION RIFLE of a suitable calibre for any legitimate purpose and nobody needs any more than 25 rounds of ammunition for immediate use. Indeed as far as I can see these measures alone would suffice to accord with the conditions of the American Constitution as interpreted by the gun owners of America
Room clearing. Argument invalidated, dumb ass.
So says the serf Albert. Trying to explain freedom to a serf is like trying to explain marriage to a single person. The reality is far different from the theory! When the state asks more of you that you’re willing to give then you might begin to understand why free men value freedom so dearly.
You’re not qualified to tell anyone else what they need.
Bet you’re one of those who think the Second Amendment doesn’t give citizens the right to own cannon as well.
What is it with you liberals and your obsession with controlling others and what their needs should be.
BTW, it’s the Bill of Rights not needs.
Albert L J Hall, British Subject. A 9 mm may be good for you blokes. but not here in America. You see we have men here. Not sheep. Our big game is a bit lager than yours and a small cal. is just not gonna cut it.
I can just see you now trying to shoot a feral pic with a .22. Then I see you running like a squirrel up the closest tree.
When you learn something about ballistics and hunting let us know ?
Nobody NEEDS to spew their opinion and beliefs online either, do they? How about we institute a 90 day waiting period for you to share your thoughts? Also, there is a limit of one opinion per day. That is reasonable because you don’t NEED anymore than that. So you go fill out some paperwork to register your “free speech” to make sure it’s traceable back to you and we’ll let you know when your permit is approved. Thanks!
Albie,
I don’t know what your gibberish has to do with my comment, but I do sincerely thank you for remaining among your fellow castrati and not polluting the electorate of our Republic.
That said, please don’t make me remind you again to address POTG – your natural lords – with the humility appropriate to your serfish station.
Umm… “fellow castrati”. Funny. Indeed, two Great Wars and the subsequent loss of manly man genes has gotta leave a mark.
R/S,
Excellent point. I think many / most with any “get up and go” got up and went (to the colonies) as well.
Umm… yes, prob also quite true. (Still giggling every time I see/type Umm… before the text).
Thanks! To make my own position perfectly clear, I love European cultures; I just hate the fact that their postwar generations basically define themselves in opposition, hatred, and apology toward everything great about their civilization.
Umm… It seems that way. Humans are gonna human I guess. I find all cultures interesting but really starting to detest many of the individuals nowadays making up (what’s left of) these cultures. It’s a straight up shame as we all have every opportunity to stand tall and accomplish great things. Instead we get the ever increasing crap we are increasingly burdened with. Hope possum sorts out his neutrino fission issues soon.
Rider/Shooter,
LOL!
‘Not about legality.” Sums the fascists up pretty neatly.
Do you spend your days in infantile omnipotence?
Scenario this.
I’m fishing and a big mean grizzley bear decides he dont like me fishing his spot no more.
Your .38 or 9mm ain’t gonna do you much good.
We’ve got a lot of mean nasty’s over here Albert. Wild hogs, wolves, bears, mad buffalo, venomous snakes and Beavers.
And Albert if you think a Skunk on your piano is bad wait until you get a diseased Beaver on your organ.
Shoot it before it gets close, shoot it with something big , and shoot to kill.
Nasty damn beavers! It’s endemic up here. So much for “save a tree, eat a beaver!”. I think quebec got most of em though.
Albert L J Hall
You can’t shame me, I’m 6’3″ 190lbs, White, Straight, and male with more “Blue Collar” trade skills then someone of your low caliber and seriously deficient intellect could ever dream of attaining.
Albert,
Are you STILL sounding that same, inane, discordant horn?? It must be an artifact of being a scrote-less subject.
1. I know this concept is probably beyond the mental reach of a pathetic, bootlicking subject, but . . . we kinda value individual liberty. It is NOT the “Bill of Needs”, it’s the “Bill of RIGHTS”. Just FYI, subject, you proposed “solution” does NOT, in any way, shape or form, satisfy the requirements of OUR Constitution. Your opinion about what I “need” for protection? Yeah, fold it ’til it’s all corners, and jam it FIRMLY up your arse, then pound it in with a Louisville Slugger wrapped in barb wire and lubricated with battery acid and habanero juice. I decide what I need for self-protection, or . . . just ’cause I freakin’ WANT it. You are invited to sit the f*** down, and shut the f*** up – your opinion hasn’t been relevant to ANYTHING since 1776. Bye, Felicia.
2. “Indeed as far as I can see these measures alone would suffice to accord with the conditions of the American Constitution as interpreted by the gun owners of America” Yeah, wouldn’t really expect a subject, who HAS no “inherent rights” (how’s that lack of a First Amendment workin’ out for you pathetic queen-followers????), to understand a document predicated on INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. That’s why YOU are a subject, and I am a citizen.
Now, toddle on back to your pathetic little island of misfit toys, and bother us no further with your @$$hattery.
Albert, you should begin your ridiculous campaign by advocating for limits on police equipment, probably from the inside, as a police officer. Just exactly what does a law enforcement official need with a weapon of war whose only purpose is to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible? Does anyone think that is what we’re paying for with our departments? Yet I doubt there is a police or sheriff’s department in the nation which does not have so-called “assault weapons” with 30-round mags for their officers, as well as 17 round magazines for their handguns. With all that firepower they are clearly helpless against attackers according to your obviously falsified “studies”, would do so much better unarmed. You can pretend, but no one can possibly be that stupid.
Wouldn’t be much use if it wasn’t.
…. it better be or we’ve all squandered our hardearned (now devalued) money.
It’s in the last paragraph. He knows people who died by firearms, exact circumstances unknown, blames all gun owners, and wants what he thinks is justice, although it is really vengeance.
Bets they were all suicides. Tragic but often conflated with all firearm related deaths to inflate the number
Still does not compare to opioids, 107,000 deaths last year. Maybe those should be banned!
This is the usual misdirection, because again they don’t look at the people, just the gun. “We can say with clarity that too many guns leads to shootings.”
No we can’t say that with clarity, this is way too vague. The author assumes many guns equals much crime and death, if this was so, someone with one gun should be killing at least one person. Own multiple guns, it follows that a bloodbath is the inevitable result. No allowance is made for responsible ownership and use vs the criminal element.
“Think of someone with a big gun collection the way we think of someone with a big porn collection…not something we admire. It’s not patriotic.”
Yeah, sure, Gun collectors definitely are the number one killers. They like to display each gun with photos and headlines of the people they killed with that gun. Crazy they are allowed to do that in this society right? Much sarcasm here.
The fact is… And it is a fact… Millions of Americans own millions of guns and never, ever use them for anything except lawful purposes, mostly shooting targets at the range, hunting, competition, collecting, building and modding, or carrying. While gun owners do use them to defend life, chances are most gun owners will never have to shoot anyone in self defense, or even draw a weapon for such purposes.
“We can say with clarity that too many guns leads to shootings.”
The data destroys that narrative. We reduced violent crime while increasing the number of guns. We also reduced violent crime while abortion numbers were falling. These people hate science, don’t they?
“This is the usual misdirection, because again they don’t look at the people, just the gun.”
Yep. From time immemorial. However…
When Cain committed the very first murder, God did not see fit to try to blame the rock… We would all be best to follow God’s lead, even the agnostics and atheists. Not s bad place to start, you never know where it might lead in time.
“Think of someone with a big gun collection the way we think of someone with a big porn collection…not something we admire. It’s not patriotic.”
He has a problem with the internet then?
I thought the Leftist Scum ™ were all about how *wonderful* the “Great and Powerful Oz, er, the Internet, is… 😉
If you hate America so much please leave we won’t miss you one bit.
You can’t shame me over my gun ownership. Or anything else. Sticks and stones and all that.
Like jwm said I’m proud to be hated by the American hating scumbags.
Sheldon clay sounds like he is another Democrat living in Utopia. He has no idea what life is about.
They may not know what life is about, but the vast majority of progressive/democrats only seek Utopia, they’ve never been there and they know it. In reality, most of them are sad, miserable people who even hate themselves, let alone happy people who are successful or even feeling a sense of freedom.
The author hasn’t been paying attention. Cigarette smoking is trending upwards among the yoots.
Besides, I can’t imagine anything making guns seem un-cool. What’s the gun equivalent of a 60 year old with yellow leather skin, no teeth and a tracheotomy?
A Hi Point?
Come on, man. They are ugly and heavy and made from pot metal, but are reliable.
That’s cold.
Ugly and heavy but I guarantee my Hi-Point 380 is as accurate and reliable as anything you put against it.
DAYUM, jwm, that was BRUTAL!!! OTOH, people rag on KelTec (properly; their quality control is non-existent), but I got a Sub2000, spent the time and money to do a full MCARBO upgrade on it (which almost doubled the price), and as upgraded, it’s actually quite a nice little carbine. Requires a lot of cleaning, but with decent ammo is pretty reliable.
Never met a Hi-Point I liked, but . . . if that’s all you can afford, it’s “better than nothin'”.
Hollywood made an effort to remove smoking from movies. Will they do the same for guns?
Hell, no. That’s their ‘Achilles Heel”, the vast fortunes they make from guns in movies.
Remember all the bluster some producer made a few years back when he claimed he would destroy the gun companies with his movie ‘Miss Sloane’, starring Jessica Chastain?
Yeah, it didn’t… 🙂
Did anybody ever look at the *results* of all that mind control and virtue signalling for the past 40 years or so? Was there any change in ANYTHING? I think not, or we would hear it screamed from the rooftops. I’m betting the incidence of cancers, heart disease, and so forth is essentially unchanged, tobacco never had anything to do with them, much less cause them. The only thing ever close to proven was a “correlation”, which is essentially meaningless, yet huge numbers of people are convinced millions of lives were somehow saved without a shred of evidence. After all this time, trendlines tracking various events versus death rates from a variety of ailments should make the effects obvious.
“Listen, kids don’t smoke because a camel in sunglasses tells them to, they smoke for the same reasons adults do because it relieves anxiety and depression.
And you’d be anxious and depressed too if you had to put up with these pathetic, insecure, striving, anal, yuppy parents who enrol you in college before you’re old enough to know which side of the playpen smells the worst! And then they fill you full of Ritalin and then drag you all over town in search of meaningless structure; little league, club scouts, swimming, soccer, karate, piano, bagpipes, water colors, witchcraft, glass blowing, and d-i-l-d-o practice.
They even have play dates for Christ’s sakes; playing is now done by appointment! Whatever happened to “you show me your wee-wee and I’ll show you mine?” Hey, no wonder kids smoke; it helps… not as much as weed but hey, you can’t have everything. You know it’s true; parents are burning these kids out on structure. I think every day; all children should have three hours of daydreaming. Just daydreaming – you could use a little of it yourself by the way – just sit at the window, stare at the clouds, it’s good for you. If you wanna know how you can help your children, leave them the fuck alone!”
That was yours, a few years back, wasn’t it?
I definitely picked up the habit due to the complete and utter idiocy of 95% of the “adults” I was forced to deal with.
Same reason I started drinking at the same time.
I quit both after realizing that they don’t actually help anything. You just wake up hungover with your mouth tasting like an ashtray and still have to deal with the idiots.
The quote is from Carlin.
The late, the great.
Have to say I miss that guy… 🙁
Ha! About halfway through it I actually started hearing it in Carlins voice. The Christopher Hitchens of comedy, for sure. Two big losses.
Consider me shamed.
I bought 3 new guns in the last 30 days.
I spent over $3000 at Luck Gunner.
I spent $1000 on guns parts
I actually didn’t need any of these purchases. All purchases came from savings.
Now with the freight companies under threat by the US Senate any fool can see where this is headed.
Connecting the dots it appears Civil War is inevitable. The Communists are taking us to a dark place.
Are we going to find 110 million + citizens with 700 million guns are a problem? If we go to that dark place it will be.
What that great line in Die Hard? “Surprise Motherf..ker”.
Or, after they make me a felon for other things that are currently legal,
“Now I have a machine gun too! Ho! Ho! Ho!”
No, just *you*, pee-gee-two.
YOU.
Nobody likes you, why don’t you go play in traffic? 🙂
Hi scab, stealing screen names indicates you’re a creature of no moral character. Go back to Media Matrers and HuffPost where you belong.
WTF are you talking about?
Many people don’t smoke because their bodies tell them it is not for them. Without the movies and the free cigs in E rations, people would not have picked up the habit during WWII. Cigarettes were meant to be a quick break from work, it took longer to get a coke or to sit down and load a pipe.
Smoking has nothing to do with firearms, other than both have been targeted by the liberals as a bad thing.
SO are you saying that CIGARETTES and TOBACCO are NOT a BAD thing and do NOT cause Cancer, Heart problems circulatory problems and pre -aging? It’s nice to have a REAL medical experti in ONCOLOGY and ASSOCIATED Diseases on these pages. It’s the ignorant and illiterate buggers like you on these pages that do your cause no damn good at all.
THe death rate c oin the USA caused by the easy availability of fiearms both legal and illegal has everything to do with nthe 20,000 illegal deaths caused by them a YEAR. If vthe US Military had the same casualty rate it would been seen as a military.. In 12 years of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan the USA had something in the order 0f including physical injury and death 10,000 disater
He said nothing of the sort.
Your rant was unhinged. And non-sensical at the end.
You want to see an ignorant and illiterate bugger? Look in the damn mirror.
That’s the real dacian.
WTF does Americans having gunms got anything to do with you Albert Hall?
Are you jealous that I have 1,776 assualt machine gunms?
Albert L J Hall:
Too much time on your hands these days now that you’re not performing “reach-arounds” on George Michael in a Hyde Park restroom nor allowing yourself to be chained to a radiator in Boy George’s bedroom eh?
Get a life, we are adamant, we are not now and never will surrender our firearms, not one. Now take your prancing Piers Gaveston self down to an East End alley and resume doing what you do best.
I’m sorry, Albert the Subject, we don’t speak gibberish here in America. Can you try that again, using something similar to actual English, perhaps with at least 3rd grade level spelling and punctuation?? I would ask you for, perhaps, an actual THOUGHT to be conveyed, but I fear that is beyond your extremely meager talents.
Sod off, swampy.
Yo Al, *I* will say cigarettes do not cause cancer, as well as that no one with any standing has ever claimed that they do. In my case, I smoked 2 packs a day for 40 years and do not have cancer of any kind 10 years after quitting, and that is NOT POSSIBLE if cigarettes cause cancer. Use of cigarettes shows a CORRELATION to cancers of some kinds, but that could just as easily mean that a predisposition to cancer could make cigarettes more enjoyable, the point is that no one knows. But statements such as yours, above, are simply ignorant even if not downright stupid, and make you liik like a fool, like most everything else you post.
We certainly live in two completely different Americas where one side doesn’t have a clue how the other side thinks and the other side fully understands that the one side is a bunch of commies and all that that entails.
1) Smoking is not a right specifically enumerated in the bill of rights. That doesn’t mean a right to smoke doesn’t exist, perhaps under the due process clause, but that such a right is not on the same level as the RTKBA. It is much easier to regulate things that are not enumerated rights or directly required for the exercise of enumerated rights.
2) Guns can be owned and used in a perfectly safe manner. No amount of cigarette smoking is safe.
3) Sidestream smoke is difficult to control and harmful to people nearby. Guns are not harmful to anyone at all anywhere unless misused.
4) You can’t smoke in self defense. Cigarettes will not hold back or defeat tyranny.
5) Your personal losses of friends and family are not grounds to punish me. I had nothing to do with them. Maybe we should limit your speech because it you speak in opposition to my rights.
6) Most of the “gun violence” you leftists whine about is conducted by black males and inflicted on black males. Maybe we need more black male control. Black males kill more people on a weekend across the US than are killed in all of the mass shootings in many years.
But smoking is bad for you, you know, like STDs. Don’t look now, but STDs are on the rise. How could that be? Why are we suddenly hearing about new diseases being transmitted? Does he plan to shame people spreading the Gayorgy Pox? Or are you supposed to be proud of being a gay orgy aficionado? The messaging has been very confusing lately, especially last month. Is suicide a problem? Is there a particular segment of the population with a big suicide/attempted suicide problem? Why are we pushing more children into that particular confusing segment? Things that make you go hmm…
Obviously a new untested, experimental Vaccine™ with monthly boosters is in the works. “Brought to You by Pfizer” no doubt. Sales must have slumped recently. Wonder if they’ll be marketing genital masks too? And maybe footprint floor markers to be placed facing each other six feet apart and a buffet spit shield to hang between them. Will there be Lockdowns™?
Rider,
Can’t remember what it was, but I distinctly remember an old “camp” comedy where a couple were attempting to mate, both wearing full-body condoms. The movie was only “meh”, but that scene got a belly-laugh out of me.
Lamp, my two hefty, married riding pals and I got caught in the Oregon rains so we stopped and prepped ourselves a bit better. I turn around to see these two clowns in matching grey n black tight fitting Harley rain suits and beanies, black face masks n tinted goggles doing chest bumps on the road like inflatable teletubbies. I damn near died.
Okay. Who wants to tell him who the best gun salesman is?
All of us know a Sheldon Clay or too — thin wrists, bony handshake, way too much soy in their diet. And that is going to shame me? Don’t think so.
When did wrists or diets have anything to do with ásshóles seeking to infringe liberty?
“When did wrists or diets have anything to do with ásshóles seeking to infringe liberty?”
When the low testosterone “David Hogg”-type media whores and “intellectual” academics who would never deem to soil their frail little digits touching nevermind firing any kind of firearm. When these “influencers” started demonizing us and pontificating about legislation/social policy concerning firearms they became how shall we say “Fair Game”, so fifty years or so ago.
Ralph,
” . . . thin wrists, bony handshake, way too much soy in their diet.”
Should be, “Thin, limp wrists; bony, limp, damp, weak handshakes; way too much soy in their diet, and a predeliction to pay large, tatooed bikers to shag their girlfriends in front of them (and the girlfriend is thrilled, because it’s the first time since she’s known him she got a decent shagging).” There, FIFY.
Im a NYer, originally the City and now the near burbs, guns have been in my life and homes since my birth 56 years ago; almost all of my father’s friends had guns, we regularly had reloading sessions at the kitchen table with multiple people coming over and up to a dozen calibers being reloaded; we went hunting, target shooting (clays and papers), we were trained in the value and use of firearms as food producers, objects of enjoyment and of self-defense.
I know one person who was shot and, unfortunately killed—a friend’s uncle who was tending the families Bronx liquor store and was violently robbed and killed, he was not armed. None of the children of the adults mentioned above became school shooters or criminals. None of us viewed firearms as “cool” even though many of us enjoyed the culture hype of guns in the 80s.
The same bad guy(s) that killed my friend’s uncle are there today and the same good guys like myself and my friends own and respect guns today; all that has been added are a few disillusioned and desperate individuals who feel that society has abandoned them.
The focus should not be on us, the law-abiding individuals; but should be on the same bad guys that have always existed and figuring out why societies outcasts, who have always existed, are inexplicably more often turning to violence.
T
“We can say with clarity that too many guns leads to shootings just like too many cigarettes leads to lung cancer. ”
False.
We can say with clarity that too many cigarettes leads to disease (e.g. lung cancer) because the effects of the chemical composition of cigarettes has as their overall only effect of causing such disease, even though its use may be intentional the disease was not but rather the disease was going to happen and will happen for a fact because the cigarette causes it. That disease may be noticed or not notice, it may or may not manifest in a way that affects the person, unfortunately around 400,000 each year do suffer and notice that manifestation. Everyone who smokes cigarettes has a disease of some type, none escape such disease.
The FDA definition of disease is:
“Disease or health-related condition means damage to an organ, part, structure, or system of the body such that it does not function properly (e.g., cardiovascular disease), or a state of health leading to such dysfunctioning (e.g., hypertension); except that diseases resulting from essential nutrient deficiencies (e.g., scurvy, pellagra) are not included in this definition…”
Basically; At a minimum, every time a person smokes a cigarette they incur, at a minimum, damage to their brains because the chemical makeup of cigarettes is such that the chemical competition of brain function is altered in a manner that is damaging to normal brain function because it makes the nicotine receptors in the brain act outside their normal activity using the very tiny amounts of nicotine found naturally in foods but cigarettes have a lot more nicotine and suddenly the nicotine receptors want more. This alteration manifests its self in what has been described by a ‘relaxing effect’ or “satisfying effect’ when they smoke because our brains naturally contain nicotine receptors that are ‘satisfied’ when they receive nicotine. Additionally, the heart and lungs and other body organs are affected. Now, this damage may not last as the body is great at healing its self when it can so overall no lasting damage then no long term effect that’s detrimental, but damage there was and as a result disease. To those who smoke cigarettes on a regular basis, basically, that ‘craving’ you feel is a result of the altered brain chemistry that has already damaged the brain through its chemistry in such a manner that the nicotine receptors on the brain want more and here is where the term ‘habit’ comes in because people will smoke to satisfy that. But although the body is great at healing its self when it can, its not a really reliable thing among all and for some there comes a point where the repeated damage from continuing to smoke overcomes the bodies ability to repair the damage and then the manifestation results in different forms of noticeable disease (e.g. COPD, heart problems).
We can not say with “clarity” that “too many” guns leads to shootings any more than we can say that too many cars leads to car accidents. In both cases, cars and guns, it is the actions of the individual that determine how they are used and not the gun or car its self that causes any detrimental effect where as with cigarettes its the composition (chemical makeup) of the cigarette that causes the detrimental effect and not the individual. But although misuse of either can lead to an undesired effect, the cigarette is going to cause it all by its self when its used and the gun or car is not going to cause such undesired effect all by its self.
So it is 100% false that “We can say with clarity that too many guns leads to shootings just like too many cigarettes leads to lung cancer. “
Correction:
“…. the chemical competition of brain function is altered …”
should have been
“…. the chemical composition of brain function is altered …”
Until someones tells me that Hoppes #9 causes cancer I would say, fuh-get-about-it. I don’t care about attention seeking idiots.
It does cause cancer but only in California.
Everything this idiot wants is how it is in the urban hell holes of America. And it doesn’t do squat. The laws are draconian, guns are bad-mouthed 24/7, and the carnage is worse nowhere else.
Since when should a man or woman be ashamed of exercising they right to self defense? If they are “ashamed” of exercising their rights they are not much of a man or a woman.
Walter, there seems to be a lot of confusion these days as to the definition of a man or a woman. And, this may be the problem……………they just don’t know!
IHush, If someone does not know the difference between a man and a woman, I suggest they take a biology course.
But, WALTER, even SCOTUS nominees “aren’t biologists”, so they can’t TELL who’s a man or a woman. Funny, boy field mice can tell girl field mice. Male snakes seem to have no problem identifying female snakes. Male salmon swim hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles, manage to find a female salmon, and mate.
Why is this so difficult for “homo sapiens”???????
Basically, because it’s not about “knowing what a woman is”, it’s about enabling, rather than treating, severe mental illness. I truly pity someone so mentally confused that they are in doubt about which sex they are, and I hope the best for them, but coddling obvious head cases, and worse, making public policy decisions based on their delusions? Ain’t it.
Shaming smokers sure hasn’t done much good. There are still a slew of them polluting the air with that filthy habit.
The portion of the population that smokes is down 59% since 2005, which is about when the “shaming” trend started.
Statistically the obese should have been the target but mUh BoDY pOzItiviTy! prevents that because so many Leftist women are disgusting hogs.
strych9, Smoking is still a dirty, filthy habit.
Which doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that a social stigma campaign cut the rate of smoking by nearly 6 in 10.
strych9, We are going to have to agree to disagree. Smoking is inherently harmful to one’s self and to others. Possessing a firearm is not. In one case (trying to cast a bad light on smoking) is a good thing. On the other, trying to cast a bad light on a means of self defense is not.
Good lord yer stoopid, wally. Not even gonna try to explain why this time.
Riderless/ShootOff Canuck. If your dumb posterior wants to be a smoker and give yourself cancer and be ignorant of the rights of others, that is your problem and yours alone! Still as stupid as you ever were, I see. Pushing the same old crap.
Walter,
Gonna have to side with strych9 on this one. Sure, smoking is a vile habit, with substantial negative health ramifications. So is drinking. Don’t even get me started on heroin or crack or meth. So what??? Is it your position that YOUR preferences about personal behavior should control what other people do?? Sounds pretty fascist to me.
Deplore what they do, disapprove of what they do, hell, even shame what they do, if that floats your boat, but . . . they have the ABSOLUTE right to go to hell their own way. Not my business – or yours, either, for that matter.
Lamp in the case of smoking, Yep. We have enough pollutants and carcinogens in the air without cigarettes.
Wally, absolutely unsurprisingly you are totally clueless about why I said what I said. But you be you, wally. Edificate us all some more genius. (Still refusing to look that word up, aren’t you, beverly?).
Rderless/ShootOff Canuck, Do you really think for a nanosecond I consider anything you say? You are like mind over matter. I don’t mind because you don’t matter. One might consider you to be one of those pollutants and carcinogens I was referring.
Yet here you are, wally. Again. Still. Lies, stoopidity n all.
Riderless/ShootOff Canuck. the lies and stupidity are all yours, Frozen Brain.
But we both know they are not, don’t we… wally boy? That must burn the fuck out of you at night, getting caught out in your lie by a mere subject of someone else’s queen, doesn’t it… beverly?
Riferless/ShootOff Canuck. What I know is that you are a sick perverted liar. The only thing that is getting burned is your arse.
Do yourself a big favor and take advantage of that free health care and get a prescription of a psychotropic.
Again, we both know that ain’t the case, don’t we wally boy? Yessir, must burn like a hot coal.
Riderless/Shootoff Canuck, Like I said, we both know you are a sick perverted lair. And I am sure that it burns your filthy soul. Take advantage of that “free health care” and go to a doctor about some psychotropic medication.
Getting past all the emothional hype, both from gun owners and gun banners, “shaming” firearms owners into submission will never work unless the angry, Antifa/BLM Left abandons their now standard tactic of burning down neighborhoods and intimidating the entire general public in their demands for “social justice”, which does not, never has, and never will exist.
We should take comfort in the fact that the 2A side has added somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 million new, first-time firearms owners since the onset of the 2019 riots, as well as Conservative political groups swelling in numbers as people see reality and flee from the progressive Left in droves. (This is something these people really did not want to do, but the reality has been right in front of them.) Tally the pro-gun, Conservative primary winners in 2022 as well.
As usual, the progressive bedwetters have overplayed their hand far too soon. There is no way average Americans, not even the oft-scorned suburban soccer moms, nor the limp, metrosexual males(?) under their dominance will give up a last chance sense of needed protection as long as THEIR OWN lives, property and livelihoods are square in the crosshairs. Inner city rioting is one thing, when it spills into the main city and burbs, we’re talking real danger.
Since 2020 I’ve been doing some casual firearms introduction and training with a number of former progressives, mostly women, and primarily trained musicians, who have seen the light and know the only person they can truly trust for help during an emergency is themselves. And these same people have also begun reading the Constitution and taking some appreciation for their previously taken-for-granted rights, pulling kids out of public ed to train themselves (even to the point of having their kids read traditional American Founding books), learning to garden for vegetables and preserve them through canning, and other activities to prepare for an uncertain future. Empty shelves at Target and the supermarkets have hit them hard. Can’t get toilet paper???
While avid 2A supporters have had little help from nontraditional Constitutionalists over the past 90 or so years, there is a change in the wind blowing across America. One of the biggest factors cited by my “students” were the actions of Maggie Trudeau’s little bastard in Canada in the heavy-handed “putting down” of the trucker strike. While the Jan 6 fiasco in the US didn’t really sink in for them, the jack-booted thuggery (thanks, WLP!) in a tender-mercy country like Canada did, and they’re now scared to death of what could happen here. One of “my gals” even mused how different it might have been if Canadians had the right to bear arms. Bingo!
We POTG would be very smart to get off our butts and seek out the new firearms owners. Cut the derision crap of the past and see reality as it is now These people most likely didn’t like having to buy a gun, but reality has set in on them like a ton of bricks. In the near future, they will either see their move as a mistake, or a necessary evil.
MY primary reason for owning firearms, in general, is the satisfaction I receive from shooting, reloading, tinkering/building, and marvelling at the engineering that went into their creation. Only 6 years or so after getting my first real shotgun in 1970, however, did I begin to see the threat of some idiot in DC or Des Moines coming to try to take it away, or my right to use it. In fact, my first AR build came about in 1993 and was a direct result of the government trying to ban a “curio” I first saw as as a kid in Craton’s Sporting Goods in 1964- a Colt AR15. By now I’ve built dozens of them in various calibers, yet I still view them as curios and they would not be my first choice of weapon in most cases.
It would be intelligent for us to latch on to some new gun owner in our sphere of influence and teach them the enjoyments of shooting, so if/when the red balloon does go up, they will also feel confident in putting their gun into use to defend themselves, their loved ones, their property and their very livelihood. Or we can contiue to divide and drive wedges between Americans by ridiculing, mocking, and not trusting those who could quite easily become allies. After all, even them most meek of them have been targeted in some manner by their own government in recent years, if only in high energy costs, and they know it. THEY are also seeking allies.
And take heart: As long as the threat from the government is present, as it currently is, there will be no shaming of anyone except those voting to maintain the present conditions.
I’m very sorry about the length but I believe it’s a story worth passing on.
Craig,
FWIW, my “standard operating procedure” when I meet a new gun owner is “Wow, GREAT!! Are you enjoying it? Do you have a range you like? Found any good classes?” If (as often happens) they say “no” to any of those, my response is, “Gee, that’s too bad. Give me a call when you’re free, and I’ll take you to my range/class. I’ll cover the fees and ammunition.” If they are (as they usually are) mostly inept in following the Four Rules, I try to (gently) correct them, and/or suggest a good class.
If we’re going to be responsible gun owners, we owe it to ourselves and other POTG to not just encourage new gun owners, but encourage them to do it RIGHT – without being a total Karen about it.
I’ve introduced many to the joys of pew, mostly wimmens, and without exception it was a duck to water. Or at least lots of smiles and splashing around.
“One modest suggestion for our society: Think of someone with a big gun collection the way we think of someone with a big porn collection. It’s their constitutional right, but not something we admire. It’s not patriotic. It’s certainly not the sort of thing you’d see conservative candidates for office splashing all over their advertising the way they now use gun imagery. “
Both also happen to be complete non sequiturs vis a vis the Constitution and, interestingly enough, none of your fucking business.
My neighbor likes to collect those little memorabilia spoons (true story). Who cares? Not my circus, not my monkey. This applies to anything else someone might have that doesn’t harm others. Porn, guns, jugs of water, small bottles of their own toenail clippings, art, or assorted lengths of 14g primary wire in different colors.
strych9,
I wanted to write a comment agreeing with you, but your closing paragraph had me laughing too hard. Can’t find the exact quote right now (can’t even remember which book it was) but Robert A. Heinlein once wrote something along the lines of “the essence of a civilized society is keeping your nose out of other people’s business”. A hearty “hear, hear!!” to you and RAH!
Shame away Leftard. Don’t care if baby murderers shame gun owners. Consider what happened yesterday in Highland Park,ILL annoy. We got a lecture from the likes of Jabba the prickster & slow Joe Bidim. Protected by guys with gats. From your cold hellbound hands…
Shame? I’ll wear it like a badge of honor!
Lol.
Allow me, your humble scribe, to end the argument once and for all time :
Unless they smoke, kissing a gun owner doesn’t taste like licking an ashtray.
{Mic drop…}
*Snicker* 🙂
Geoff,
It does if they are also a smoker. Just sayin’.
But the only time someone needs to worry about “second-hand gun” is if (i) it blows up in their hand, or (ii) it’s pointed at them.
AR15s don’t need glamorizing. They literally sell themselves. I can’t think of anything else with the combination of ease of use and effectiveness.
“They literally sell themselves.”
And there is about be a *massive* run on them in about 5 states…
LOL about to? My in laws are buying AR’s and while not anti gun they were traditional if any firearms for decades.
busybeef,
The AR is a good, not a great, platform. Since (these days) you can build it out in other, more effective, calibers than the pathetic 5.56 poodleshooter, they can be relatively effective firearms. I like the modularity, the ability to modify and upgrade, the ubiquity of the parts and ammunition (at least 5.56, .300Blackout or .458 SOCOM, not so much), the relatively light weight. Other platforms I like better, but . . . overall, ESPECIALLY in a more robust caliber than 5.56, not bad, not bad at all.
Honestly, all these things considered plus more really do make it a ‘great platform’. Is it a ‘great rifle’ in and of itself when compared to others, including bolt actions/lever actions? Maybe not but it ain’t far off. It is beyond doubt the most versatile small arm ever made. One should be standard issue as one reaches the age of adulthood. Just imagine how things would change if they were as ubiquitous and as mysterious as a toaster. Mind you, I have seen some struggle with even a toaster…
Prais the Lord and pass the ammunition. I am a bitter clinger.
Honestly, who in their right mind tries to pick fights with armed people? Mental illness apparently doesn’t afflict only post-adolescent male loners.
As for studying the war on smokers, one needn’t research years of PSAs. Just peruse a copy of Rules for Radicals.
Yeh, them guns are horrible, should never be in the hands of anybody under 21, EXCEPT when you start DRAFTING again to fight YOUR war against the RUSSIANS. Then, KILL BABY, KILL.
Mother rapers, father rapers… the ghost of Arlo Guthrie.
Let’s do to anti-gunners what we did to Nazis.
Try a few for show, then bring the rest into government, industry and research??? Well, they’re ALREADY in government, a lot of industry, and probably a lot of “research”. I wouldn’t mind putting a few on trial, even if it were just a few “show trials” – pour encourager les autres.
A gunm collection is like a porn collection?
Cigarettes are bad. They may well be however .gov gets a lot of tax revenue off of them, so no matter how many people die from their choices cigarettes are here to stay, same with booze.
Priorities, with the opportunity for graft being the prime mover.
My gun collection is largely historical. Roughly 3 out of every 4 of my guns predate the end of WWII. My guns won’t give anyone cancer and they “hopefully” won’t cause anyone to become addicted to masturbation.
You can try to shame me for my collection as though it’s a threat to society. But after you claim no one needs more than a one or two firearms and the rest should be turned in and destroyed, I’ll leave you stuttering to justify destroying my dozen firearms that predate 1900 including revolvers that helped free the slaves
I (don’t have) almost a hundred guns because I’ll need all of them if SHTF.
I (don’t have) almost a hundred guns because if someone breaks into my house I will need them all to defend my home.
I (don’t have) almost a hundred guns because I need all of them today tomorrow or yesterday.
I (don’t have) 100,000 rounds of ammo to feed my almost one hundred guns.
I (don’t have) almost a hundred guns, because dumb asses think the time will never come when they will be needed.
If I did have almost a hundred guns and 100,000 plus rounds of ammo, I would supply all those dumb asses with what they need when the SHTF.
You an scoff at me all you want, but when or if SHTF, come see me. We can probably work something out.
If I had almost a hundred guns and 100,000 plus rounds of ammo , it’s because I can.
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