“(Shooting a gun) is so, you know, old school and analog and artisinal. I mean, there’s a certain unintentional time-travel aspect to this whole thing. I mean, I’m as big a sissy as you, but because I’m older, I went through the normal sixties Boy Scout camping thing that you didn’t do.” Public radio show host Kurt Andersen, while taking author Joel Stein to New York’s West Side Rifle and Pistol Range so he can shoot a gun in order to “man up” and properly raise a boy.
The air at the Westside Range must have been thick with estrogen once Prancer and Dancer showed up. Here’s a tip, fellas. Real men don’t use the word “artisinal” when they’re talking about guns. Bread, maybe. Cheese, possibly. But not guns.
I don’t say this often, but lol!
Ralph, that was a brilliant assessment. Bravo.
I swear to Darwin, if this brings the hipsters, I am going to drop a nut. When I called for “big tent” 2A advocacy, I didn’t mean annoying whingy vegetarian scraggly-assed-bearded Decembrists fans with all-hemp-faux-retro outfits and halitosis. This will be worse than when they “rediscovered” Pabst Blue Ribbon. The filthy gits.
I want to exhort you to take a broader view on this, but I’m too busy laughing at the “Decembrist fans” crack.
And halitosis!!! That’s it. If I see these guys at the range, they’re going to get a swirly…. 🙂
Nailed it. Can we start using the acronym AWV S-A-B DFs? For some reason, the adjective “precious” keeps floating into view. However, I am willing to admit them to the group if they are willing to give the 2A the same respect they give the First.
Too late… New York Magazine back in fall of 2010 had a story called “hipster sports.” I forgot what the others were, but they did mention “shooting.” Of course it was only at the Westside Pistol Range, with the usual NYC set of strictures.
I concur. PBR has been one of my go-to favorites since I was, errrr… 18? No wait, it’s 21. That’s it. 21. But my balls can actually move around in my pants so I’m not a hipster, right? Oh and I brush regularly. When I’m not dipping.
Studio 360 is now and then an interesting program, but the host and his guest do have metrosexual oozing from every pore. That being said, the big tent is a good idea. If it takes something like this to convince the tragically cool that guns are fun or at least not evil, then so be it. Support is support, and I’d rather see New York have to build more gun ranges to accomodate all the new gun owners than to have all of us need to sneak off to a seedy place like someone about to commit a vice.
Let’s just hope that their interest is genuine and lasting.
I know, and I agree, but hipsters are too inviting of a target for me to forego the meta-hypocritical joke:)
A couple comments:
“… I went through the normal sixties Boy Scout camping thing that you didn’t do.”
Uh, what? I was born 5 years after Joel Stein, and I went through the Boy Scout camping thing, complete with guns. That he missed out is his parents’ fault, it has nothing to do with his age.
At 1:39, Joel said (as he aimed his rifle just over the cameraman’s shoulder, “I don’t feel good about this, with someone right in front of me?” In saying that he showed more sense than the “trainer,” who not 5 seconds further into the video stuck his thumb over the end of the barrel of the rifle Kurt had shouldered. Yes, I know the rifle was unloaded. Yes, I know it was likely triple-checked, and the ammunition wasn’t even in the same room. But still, don’t exhibit dumb behavior in front of people that know nothing about guns. They’re like 5 year olds, they’ll mimic what they see the “adults” do.
Oh, and I forgot to add: Good on Joel for realizing his limitations and making efforts to correct them. He wrote a book about his experiences in “manning up.” I haven’t yet read it, but it looks like it might be amusing, at least.
I skimmed through the book, it’s pretty interesting, especially the part where he underwent some real military training and fired some cool weapons.
Good on Joel for realizing his limitations
If he truly realized his limitations, he’d be undergoing testosterone replacement therapy right now.
I usually find Joel Stein pretty insufferable, but I thought that was quite well done. I like the “if you got robbed in the ’50s, this is the guy who was robbing you” line.
I laughed out loud to hear these two guys describe their journey to shoot a Ruger 10/.22 at five yards as a ‘quest.’ For me, a trip to the hills to shoot some .22s is about as ‘quest-like’ as a trip to the mall.
It’s just cheaper, quieter and much more fun.
Once “man up” has been earnestly uttered, secure your wallet and promptly exit the premises.
I think these two are pretty much hopeless. Not entirely hopeless, but….
Either one of my Grandmothers (who are both in their 80’s) could “out-man” either one of these weenies. Hell, my mother’s mother keeps a .410 in the kitchen so she can blast squirrels (freeloading punks!) off her bird feeder, and these two twerps think a .22 is loud… and I am sure Gram doesn’t use ear protection.
It’s going to take a Lot more than one trip to the range to shoot a 10/22 to make a man out of either of these two.
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