The Shawangunk (NY) Journal (yes, I spelled that right) has an editorial this week titled “A True Discussion Needs To Happen.” Right away from the title, you can be sure this isn’t a pro-gun editorial. And it’s not. It decries the use of slogans and rhetoric (like the “a good guy with a gun” line), saying they prevent an actual, clear-speech conversation from taking place. I suppose that’s not an incorrect statement, but in their indictment of the NRA and gun owners, the editorial completely ignores that the same rhetorical methods are used by the anti-gun side . . .
Of course, the argument eventually works its way from language to the usual and customary “not trying to take all the guns away” line. The author says that of course, “Hunting still has its place, as does collecting.” But the Second Amendment’s not about hunting, you say, or collecting, even. “What about self-protection, or the checking of tyranny?” you ask. Don’t worry, the author’s got that covered, too, and is almost cavalier in his dismissal.
“Those sentiments,” he says, “don’t match our mature idea of a civil world, I’m afraid, where we train professionals to protect us. Or the ways in which change, and revolution, really occurs these days.” Wouldn’t it be nice to live in this world, that of “mature ideas” where we have professionals to protect each and every one of us all the time. It would be nice, but we’re not there yet. In the meantime, look at this baby.
From The Tactical Wire – STAG ARMS, one of the world’s largest AR-15 manufacturers, is now adding to its specialized laser engravings on rifles and lowers with the American or Gadsden Flag on the magazine well. These two new engravings are in addition to the extremely popular second amendment engraving. The cost for the engraving is $15.00 and must be requested at the time the order is placed. The engraving cannot be applied to the rifle or lower once it has left our factory. The engraved rifles and lowers can be purchased through our network of dealers, online at our website www.stagarms.com in the individual item pages as an upgrade option, or by calling our sales office.
Occasionally the truth works its way out. KTRE.com, out of Tyler, Texas, has a short article detailing that while the number of gun homicides in this country is down, Americans are largely unaware of that, and in fact think the opposite. We know this to be true, but that’s because we’re paying attention. They note that gun homicides in 2010 were down 49% from their 1993 peak, even though the U.S. population had grown (and presumably, gun ownership along with it).
One reason for the ignorance of the populace is, of course, that the bad occurrences get the headlines and attention, as noted by Tyler resident Anna Katrina Pecson, who said, “I don’t normally just read on it all the time, but when there’s a mass shooting or something like that and it’s big on the news, yes I do read about it and I take part in online debates and stuff.” Where she said “online debates,” read “Facebook.”
I suppose I shouldn’t be so dismissive of the conversations that take place there, if that’s where a lot of America gets its (dis)information, but then I read a comment thread, and decide all over again that those people aren’t worth saving. Luckily, if you pay attention to the crime statistics, there’s less and less to save them from.
tnoutdoors9 is one of my favorite ammo reviewers, because he’s meticulous and consistent, and thorough without being long-winded. He’s been absent for a while due to an illness, but I’m happy to report he’s back at it, and has dropped three new videos in the past week. The most recent is his review of the 9mm 124gr Federal HYDRA-SHOK round. If you’re not familiar, check it out to see his style, and then look at his (large) catalog of videos for the ammo you’re interested in.
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“A True Discussion Needs To Happen.”
Translation, there have been discussions going on, but we’re losing, and we don’t like it, so we are going to keep beating a dead horse…
Next week’s article, “A Truer, Truthier Discussion Needs To Happen.
That’s one translation, another one in another ‘dialect’ is:
“You’re not listening so I’m going to say it again, slower and louder…”
Much like when I go overseas… wave fistfuls of the colorful tissue paper they call money and speak loudly and repeatedly in English. 😉
Fact: Speaking English louder and more slowly is the equivalent to speaking any language on the planet earth.
A true discussion needs to happen- and we here at Shawagunk will decide what and how you can say, because we “Who Know Whats Best For You Little People”
are the only ones with the language skills and memes that are correct.
Anyone else creeped out by the Soviet sounding prose? The Editor citing Gopniak as some sort of authority, when that article was even creepier, illogical, error, lie and ad hominmem filled – practically a laughable parody of progtard thinking, if not scary for the power of propaganda over the true believer, as in Shawagunk.
Is Shawagunk the place where all the old NYT elitists and wannabes go to retire? This journal reads like some old environitwit or charity girl who made it to trophy wife, got too much money in an inheritance and went to spend it on redecorating a place in the country, and now bored, wants to be someone, the next Rachel Carson, or progressive social justice muse of the country.
Notice the editorial wasnt even signed…how brave!
The Collective will rule you, I guess.
That Shawangunk editorial is the worst. Is the author playing politics? Or is he or she truly that clueless? It gives me chills to ponder the idea that some people really feel this way about the world. Everything’s fine! The police and the soldiers are here to protect us! They haven’t yet been mugged by reality, I guess.
Large groups of prey animals dont generally think for themselves. They just blindly follow the herd, until one day, they aren’t paying attention, or are weak and sick, or too old to keep up, and the predator pulls them down.
Fortunately, though gregarious (group forming) and stupid in tribal loyalty at times, homo sapiens has the ability to learn, and some break free of the group think, on their own, or after a life changing event.
Thats what TTAG is for, a place to come learn and get good info, when they are ready.
Maybe a proactive thing to help the one or two readers who might find themselves suddenly waking up, in a place like Shawagunk, where the larger group is obviously paying ads for a paper to sponsor that kind of foolish herd-think,
would be to drop into the comments section and leave a polite comment with a link, to anyone looking to think a bit beyond the pablum…
Can’t large cities, or better yet certain states just secede from the Union to have their own little hellscape called ‘Utopia’ and just leave us alone?
Their new country can be called Progress, and all the happy little progressives can hire ‘professionals’ to protect them from the criminals, who will be one in the same.
The trouble with “progressives” is that they’re not happy just living their lives as they wish because they’re not making sure that everyone else is doing the same. They can’t stand the fact that some people have different values, different morals, and different lifestyles.
They can’t stand the fact that someone in Ohio just shot a possum that he/she will later cook for dinner. They can’t stand the fact that someone in South Dakota is having a good old time slinging lead from his/her AR-15 at a paper target. They can’t stand the fact that some law-abiding person in Georgia is walking down the sidewalk with a pistol in a waistband holster.
They are just like the colonialists of the olden days… They see everyone else as savages who are just yearning to be invaded and civilized by force.
It’s actually worse than that. Progressives need everyone to conform, otherwise their vision of socialized utopia will never be achieved. A perfect example is Prohibition, when various individual states, locales and counties already enacted it on their own accord. But that wasn’t good enough because localized Prohibition didn’t always last and were sometimes repealed, while other times the people can just get around their dry area by going someplace wet. The Progressive movement therefore started to look toward the Federal government to enforce it, in the form of an Amendment. They were confident that any Amendment would never be repealed (none had been up to that point) and the extra resources of the Federal Government would be enough to successfully implement the change in Social behavior. In order to get to that point, the Progressives (both right and left) had spent years before demonizing Alcohol and appealing to the public’s emotion. They had propaganda seminars for school children that told them that even one sip of alcohol will render them dead or incapacitated. Ultimately the law was passed because too many people went along with it, thinking it wasn’t going to effect them. Even Beer drinkers thought it was only going to target hard liquor and thought that supporting Prohibition was little price to pay to appeal to their fellow Americans. All this sounds familiar of course?
Two words could change this opinion piece into something worth reading “I” and “believe”. So, “I Believe A True Discussion Needs To Happen.” Ok then, let’s talk about what you believe. VS. “A True Discussion Needs To Happen.” Oh yeah, well who made you the arbiter of all things that need to happen. F you and your lousy opinion.
I like your daily summary and commentary, Matt. Reminds be of Jeff Cooper.
+1.
I really hope they worked WITH Modern Musket on this because otherwise, they LITERALLY ripped their shit off so bad its not even funny, the name and the almost EXACT hammer lock logo.
The link to modernmusket.com came directly from the “About” section under that YouTube video, so I think it’s safe to assume it was done in cooperation.
Damnit you beat me to it before I watched the video actually on youtube and read the about haha, the speed of ze interweb.
Sometimes the embedded video misses a couple parts.
Unless I’m mistaken, that is the snake river canyon. (By the way sports fans, it’s deeper than the Grand Canyon)
The cursed habitat of really big bears, effing huge mule deer, gorgeous Rocky Mountain elk, big horn sheep, turkey, cougar, chukar, pheasant…. Etc.
I hate it and love it at the same time.
I’m going to put this as nicely as I can:
It takes a special kind of bird brain to think that because they want to be chicken, that to protect themselves from the wolves with teeth is to: step one, try to have big dogs with teeth to protect them; step two, try to turn everyone else into chickens.
My response is to show my big pearly whites.
Your comment may be closer to a fundamental truth than many want to admit.
It’s R Selected thinking, pure and simple.
They have a genetic make-up (as indicated by their comments and behavior) that programs them to think like prey. Mice. Sheep.
The fundamental problem with this thinking is that the mechanism of population control for R Selected organisms is predation. They are ‘fine with that,’ because it’s “what works.”
The wildebeest, the zebra. So long as there is one slower for the lion to catch, I’m fine.
Personally, I find that disgusting and abhorrent in a human being, but there you go.
Good analogies.
I simply can’t think like them.
Ah “trained professionals”. Back in Brazil, where I’m originally from, the “trained professionals” arrested people in the dead of night who the government felt were dangerous and a fair number of these people were never seen again.
Sure, let’s have a police force, but it’s a fatal error to leave them in sole possession of force in civil society.
I did a lot of overseas travel in military, I’ve been on every continent, sans Antarctica. Sometimes, I was there in uniform, others I had to pretend I was not military, but a civilian traveller.
Either way, I always kept money stuffed down my boot. Why? Bribe money for local police.
Let me put that in /r/thathappened.
What is this website, I’ve never heard of it.
To the typical American, whose experience beyond our borders consists primarily of Carnival Cruise Lines and the Travel Channel, your sage warnings sound as foreign and unrelatable as moonspeak. Hopefully, America will soon wake up to the grave and growing menace that is its own devolution.
There are a lot of places in the world where a handful of American $20s can to get you into a lot of trouble, or get you out of a lot of trouble.
Also, Zippo lighters are amazing bartering tools. They’re highly coveted in a lot of places.
I really really really hate tnoutdoors9’s test medium.
Why? Because it’s not clear?
I know he experimented with some clear a while back, but stopped using it for reasons I can’t recall.
The clear was never dense enough. TN’s always been good about using the requisite denim and calibrating his test blocks, and – in doing so – he was able to determine that the clear gel was never up to FBI snuff.
He wants a “true discussion” as long as the opposite side doesn’t resort to any cliched comments, like the good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns.
Or facts.
That youtube video looks like the ideal weekend to me!
-D
The Shawangunk Journal piece really troubles me. I grew up out here, and for those of you not familiar with our neck of the woods, this is the typical scenery:
http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/250373.jpg
We do have a growing ‘citiot’ problem, as people flee NYC and move up here. Unfortunately, they bring their liberal brainwashed ideals with them. I notice the author remains anonymous, and probably for good reason. This publication covers the whole Shawangunk valley, and I can’t speak for the other side of the mountains but I can tell you his views do not represent the locals in Shawangunk/Gardiner.
The same phenomenon is happening in a lot of other places. You can see the results in Las Vegas too from the SoCal transplants.
I was nearly sworn off guns, but after watching the Hollywood trailer, I now have to get all 78 used in the movie clip. (clip is correct -movie “magazine” doesn’t even make sense)
He’s absolutely right. It’s way too vague and is often mis-interpreted. Which is why we would like to change it to say this instead: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.
The jokes on them. I just happen to COLLECT modern and historic military arms.
“Those sentiments don’t match our mature idea of a civil world, I’m afraid, where we train professionals to protect us. Or the ways in which change, and revolution, really occurs these days.”
Looks at Ukraine, Syria, Mexico, Thailand, etc. etc… ya sure we do…
And those “trained professionals” aren’t living up to any standard of perfection, nor are they there for personal security, nor are they any entity I’d ever put full trust or faith in, nor do they prevent any of the thousands of violent crimes that occur and are statistically 8 times more likely to cause YOUR death than a terrorist attack. I’ll stick with relying on myself you can crawl back to Shawangunk and hide under your blankies telling yourself you are better than defending yourself with the weaponry of the times.
You give up your gun, and I’ll get you to give up everything else. – TERMS, 2012
How’s that sound? Works both ways.
The Shawangunk area was famous a few years ago for its UFOs; I can only hope one comes back to pick up the Journal’s Editorial board.
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