A member of our Armed Intelligentsia sent me a link to this Sunday’s Doonesbury comic. In subsequent panels, our coffee house hero responds to the challenge to his manhood by revealing that he “spent two years behind an M60 machine gun defending, among other things, your right to be a moron about guns.” This technicolor interchange is wrong on so many levels. Well, at least three . . .
1. People who carry guns are not “yahoos”
America’s liberal elite holds this truth to be self-evident: the average American is stupid. Too stupid to be taken seriously. Anyone from the right who pretends to represent them is also a moron. George Bush. Need I say more? Sarah Palin.
When Gary Trudeau’s proxy insults the open carry advocates in this strip as “yahoos,” she is well within the proud traditional of liberal condescension, which extends to gun ownership. As we’ve said here many times, the gun-grabbing elite believe the average American is too stupid and emotionally immature to own, never mind carry, a gun.
While there are plenty of irresponsible people with guns—just as there are irresponsible people who drive automobiles—they are a small minority of firearms owners. We can argue stats until the cows come home. Suffice it to say, calling someone a “yahoo”, unbidden, in a public venue, simply for exercising their Second Amendment right is an excellent example of emotionally immaturity.
2. Gun owners are not compensating for a small penis
When it comes to measuring virility, it’s testicle size, not penis size. Second, I’ve never heard ANY gun owner challenge a man’s manhood for NOT carrying or firing a weapon. This is a liberal fantasy that relates to the “Can you squeal like a pig?” scene in Deliverance. This alleged connection between gun ownership and sexual insecurity is inextricably linked to the “gun owners are stupid” meme.
Third, I have heard people talk about penis size and gun ownership: gun control advocates. JadeGold, a commentator banned from this site, has made that assertion many times. The funny thing: Freud said that the lack of a gun indicated feelings of sexual inadequacy. I disagree with that and everything else Freud said, but point taken. So to speak.
3. Open Carry advocates are not bullies
Following on from the above, it’s important to note that open carry (OC) advocates want to have the choice whether or not to carry in public. Trudeau’s mischaracterization—that OC’s proponents believe that everyone should carry—mistakes their belief in individual gun rights for a desire for liberal-like social engineering.
Liberals squawk about “their right not to have to be threatened by private citizens’ guns in public.” That’s empty rhetoric. They do, however, have the right to propose a constitutional amendment that eliminates Americans’ right to keep and bear arms. When you’re ready . . .
The final panels of this episode show the OC advocates giving the vet props for his service and his prowess with a really big gun. Ironically enough, the punchline plays into the fantasy of guns = manhood. Which shows you who’s obsessed with penis size in this debate.
Ah yes, and who else but a liberal cartoonist-and husband to Jane Pauley, to represent the opinion of a vet-when he has never walked in those boots and never saw the wrong color tracers ever coming his way…
I don’t know anyone who carries (except maybe for a few cops) who would even respond to being called a “yahoo”. The civilians I know who carry are the most non-confrontational lot you could come across. The basic philosophy is “if it’s not life-or-death it’s not worth fighting over at all”.
Of course, Trudeau lives in a world populated not by people but by strawmen. Like all bigots he assumes he knows everything about people he’s never met… or even actually listened to.
Seriously, Gary Trudeau’s alive and drawing? I don’t get my news on dead tree any more, so am pretty shocked to see that Doonesbury’s still around. Can you say anachronism?
Meh, I like Chris Muir’s Day by Day better.
I confess, I read and enjoyed Doonesbury in my youth. Trudeau’s work from the mid-70’s was fantastic and bi-partisan (heck, William F. Buckley even wrote the intro to one of his collections). I got one of my favourite anti-liberal sayings from Doonesbury: “Of course labor leaders are sensitive to the working class: That’s how they avoid belonging to it.”
Since the early 80’s and the resurgence of conservatism Trudeau’s become more shrill and harsh and partisan, and as a result, less funny. These days he’s nothing but Ted Rall with a storyline.
RF says: “I’ve never heard ANY gun owner challenge a man’s manhood for NOT carrying or firing a weapon. This is a liberal fantasy that relates to the “Can you squeal like a pig?” scene in Deliverance. The connection between gun ownership and sexual insecurity is inextricably linked to the gun owners are stupid meme.”
Not true, RF. On at least two occasions at TTAG you have personally challenged my masculinity for not carrying/questioning the need for open carry. (1. “At least I have balls.” 2. “Grow a pair.”) Ralph has done the same more times than I can count, as have others.
I was not particularly offended then and I am not complaining now. It is what it is, and I take it for what it is. I just want to make sure the record is straight and that you are aware of the things you think and say.
Citation.
TTAG 2-4-11; 3-18-11.
Sorry Magoo, your cites don’t check out.
There was nothing I could find on 3-18-11 and since you can’t provide a proper cite I’m calling shenanigans.
For 2-4-11 the only reference involving balls in a response to you was in reference to your mention of a field hockey stick a game, oddly enough, played with balls.
It is a tenet of gun loonery that people who don’t carry guns are only relying upon the police to protect them. According to gun loons, these citizens are refusing to take “responsibility” for their own safety. They are “sheep,” “sheeple,” “pacifists,” and “parasites.” Of course their courage and manhood are frequently called into question. That’s the gun loon mentality. You can see it on parade here most every day at TTAG.
As I have often said, you guys just can’t hear yourselves. I don’t think some of you have ever given your own thinking serious examination.
If you don’t carry a means of self protection, who protects you? I personally won’t question your manhood if you choose not to carry. I might however question why not. I carry because once, years ago, I was left on the side of the road, bloody and unconscious. I swore it wouldn’t happen again. Now, with the coming of age and physical infirmity, I have decided to take responsibility for my own defense. If you choose not to, well, that’s you.
I protect myself. I don’t require a handgun to do so. Actually, a firearm is far less useful than you guys like to believe. You are essentially selling each other a bill of goods. You do not take responsibility for your safety. Instead, you rely on a gun.
Is that why you believe the police carry guns? Because they were sold a “bill of goods”? Their utility belts aren’t heavy enough without the gun and ammo?
Non-cops have even more reason to be armed than do cops.
Criminals go to some trouble to avoid cop, while they actually prey on non-cops.
As the Gabby Giffords Shooting showed America: Cops seldom arrive in time to even arrest as suspect,much less use their guns.
Do you believe the cops need to be armed?
Why?
Doesn’t logic tell us, that if the police NEED to be armed for a call, the people the police were called FOR needed to be armed as well?
“I protect myself. I don’t require a handgun to do so.”
So you’re saying that if someone kicked in your door at 2:00 a.m., you wouldn’t call anyone?
I bet Jennifer Hawke-Petit felt the same way . . . prior to her rape and murder.
There’s never going to be ANY constructive dialog about ‘gun control’ until the name-calling, insults, and ‘funny’ cartoons stops.
I carry (every day) and to my way of thinking, to carry or not carry is a serious decision that should be made with an open, sober mind.
I will confess that the ‘small penis’ insult is my personal favorite! Hahaha!
“As I have often said, you guys just can’t hear yourselves. I don’t think some of you have ever given your own thinking serious examination.”
One can just as easily say the same thing of American anti gunners, there are so many knee jerk prejudices in the insults thrown by them.
Your country has such a problem with gun control due in disproportionate part to tactics of the (embarrassingly) revealing insults and combination of arrogantly ignorant assertions used by the more vehement aspects of American “Liberals” (or Left wing as I in my Limey way prefer to call it).
Coming across as weird, hysteric, threatening and fanatic is not a winning argument for why the other guy should drop his weapons and submit your worldview.
Consider the beam in thine own eye sort of thing.
Just curious – what do all you guys who chose to carry a firearm (blows my mind to even say that) do with that gun if you happen to get drunk?
I know if I run into someone I didn’t expect and we toss back a few I can be drunk on a Wednesday evening when I didn’t know that would be the case that morning. I then know I can’t drive – but what do you do if you have a gun on you? Now you’re a drunk guy with a gun. Depending what kind of drunk you are that can be more dangerous than a drunk guy behind the wheel.
Seems like one more thing to worry about: One more thing cops can harass you about, one more thing to go wrong, one more gun in the room (in gun math that’s not always good) and possibly more bullets flying around.
It must be a small dick thing – that’s all I can think of – seems like a lot of hassle otherwise.
Simple, choose not to drink. One does not “just happen to” get drunk; it requires a conscious decision to drink to excess.
“It must be a small dick thing – that’s all I can think of – seems like a lot of hassle otherwise.”
I can think of lots of things other than dicks… and the vast majority of the time I do. But that’s just me.
As to guns: Well I was taught that it’s all about safety first, like driving a car – so long as the gun is unloaded and put away then it’s (potentially) beer o’ clock! Before a long drive…. Not wise.
“Freud said that the lack of a gun indicated feelings of sexual inadequacy….”
Actually, Freud didn’t say that at all!
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