“Most gun owners are driven by irrational fear and insecurity.” – MikeB302000 commenting under a previous Quote of the Day (Over-Caffeinated Hysteria Edition)

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71 COMMENTS

  1. Well, ask an ignorant person what he thinks, and guess what kind of opinion you get?

    Wonder why he never mentions his own irrational fear of an inanimate object?

    • As for my irrational fear: I fear my hammer. You know how many times that thing has bruised my dainty fingers?

  2. I have an irrational fear of clowns and I’m insecure about how I look in a bathing suit so I guess MikeB nailed it.

  3. I fail to see how wanting to protect yourself is irrational fear or insanity. People who do own weapons are being proactive with home/personal security. Moreover instead of relying on a governmental agency to protect them they do for themselves. Perhaps we should apply the same saying to police forces or military. I mean why should the military/police have weapons? Oh, wait a minute they are defending something, huh… I wonder what gun owners want to defend.

  5. “Most gun owners are driven by irrational fear and insecurity.”

    Mike, just treating you like a rational human being for a moment – I have to ask how in the heavens could you possibly know this? Do you have a scientific study in mind that both identifies an objectively irrational fears (I own a gun because the tomatoes are out to get me) and that over 50% of gun owners are driven by them?

    A good deal of gun owners have a knee-jerk reaction to anti-gun folks. You validate these instincts when you make statements that both empirically and rationally dubious.

    Just because you do not feat a home invasion, a mugging in a parking lot or a mass shooter at your cube farm does not mean the fear is not rational. Some people are not afraid of heights. Good for you, but your blanket indictment of millions of your fellow citizens is at the very least arrogant and simplistic.

    • This is my main beef with MikeB… ok one of my main beefs with MikeB… er, among my beefs with MikeB this is one of them. Please MikeB, learn how to use qualifying words like “many” and “most” or start backing up your assertions with solid facts. If you can’t do that, you come across as rather trollish.

  8. it must be something to do with his mother…….Sigmund Freud says: “A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity”

  9. I’ll freely admit that the circumstances that require a defensive gun use a relatively rare, rarer than commuting to work, grabbing coffee, chatting with co-workers, writing emails, etc, etc. But they’re not exactly lightning strikes either, and refusing to prepare for them is just trusting to blind luck for your safety. Like many people, I view my gun in the same light as a seat belt or smoke detector, or another other safety gear I might have around.

    There is one crucial difference between those other items and my gun, however: my gun is fun! I never feel more more relaxed or have a more positive outlook about life than after a good couple hours at the range. Each pull of the trigger is a little 115 grain packet of therapy. Just thinking last weekend’s range time makes me smile a little bit. I don’t get that thinking about seat belts.

  10. If you strike the word ‘irrational’ from the quote I’d have to agree with it. Specifically in the context of hand guns in urban areas, why else would someone choose to carry a gun if not out of fear or insecurity (whether rational or not).Going to the trouble of carrying a gun for self defense means that you believe there is a reasonable chance that you will need to use it to defend yourself. In some cases that may be true, in other cases it may not.

    • By the same token why have a spare tire in your car? Why lock your house when you leave for work. Chances are nothing will happen but prudence dictates that doing something is better than nothing. Its not fear that dictates this, its necessity and common sense.

      • Like I said, it’s not necessarily irrational to carry a gun. And it’s perfectly fine to admit that you have a rational fear which drives you to do so.

        But to use your spare tire example, do you also keep a spare set of rotors in your car? How about spare spark plugs? Spare timing belt? Spare axle?

        I’m guessing you don’t keep ALL of those spare parts in your car at all times. Why? Because it’s reasonable to assume that you will be more likely to need a spare tire than a spare axle. Tires wear out faster than axles do. So you prepare for the more likely situation. Not any and all hypothetical situations which might occur, only the ones that you expect have a reasonable chance of occurring.

        Similarly, you don’t carry a gun if you don’t think there’s a reasonable chance you might need it. Of course you _hope_ you won’t need it, but you still fear that you might need it, otherwise why have it. And for most gun owners I know, that fear is perfectly rational, so there’s nothing wrong with admitting it. Fear isn’t the same as weakness unless you let it be.

        • Ha! When I drove a VW Bus I had spare HEADS in a milk crate along with belts,gaskets, pushrod tube o-rings and on and on…Now I just have a AAA card, don’t even carry a spare tire. Similarly, now that I live in Newport Beach I don’t feel the same need to daily carry as I did when I lived in Oakland. But if I ever move back to Oakland I’ll carry every day.

        • I think using the word fear is wrong. As in the other mentioned items, like locking the house, it isn’t really the fear of a break in, it is the acceptance of the very real possibility. The locking of the house, the carrying of a gun, all are proactive solutions to very real possibilities. Fear need not be a part of that.

    • Carrying a firearm confirms the right of citizens to use force. It confirms that the ultimate sovreign is the individual citizen, not the State. It confirms that the federal and state constitutions means something, and are not infinitely maleable by the courts, and that government is limited by the rule of law.

      All of those things are opposed by statists who hate being restrained by the rule of law, distain the citizen, and preach the rights of the group(which effectively mean no rights) vs the effective rights of the individual.

      Carrying a firearm is a symbolic step away from tyranny and back toward the rule of law. It shows that the MSM no longer controls the flow of information so that the left controls the public discourse. It shows that we can restore the Constitution, rather than descend into socialist tyranny. Much of the faith of the left depends on their belief that their philosophy will ultimately triumph. Carrying a firearm is a step away from the future of total control that they envision, which is why they oppose it so vigorously, and constitutionalists push it so vigorously. It is the camels nose under the tent.

  11. My answer to MikeB is the following. I have concealed carry permit and carry not because I fear that because a in the last year and a half ago I had and epiphany that I and I alone have to be responsible for my own actions, choices and outcomes. This is not an irrational fear or one based on insecurity. As a matter of fact once I had this epiphany I became a more centered and grounded individual than before.

    I am going to make a statement that you may or may not understand MikeB but I think you should hear it anyway. Just like anyone who as ever truly felling in love, found God, or discovered the passion that lets them wake up early and go to bed late. My epiphany was like that. To an extent, I have both RF and Brad to thank for that. Because it was just around the time that I started reading this blog that I realized I, as an individual, am the one solely responsible for my actions. The first plank or foundation, if you want call it, is that I have to look out for my own safety and the safety of my family. The second plank is that I have to look out for the safety of my neighborhood. Which then expands outwards from there to City, County, State and Nation. But I have to lead by example and with integrity. MikeB I pray for you and hope one day that you too will have an epiphany that will let you truly see and understand that being a sheep dog is an outward reflection of a moral and ethical acceptance that you are responsible for yourself the safety of your family and of your neighbors. I hope if you do reply to this post that’s more than two lines and it’s actually a discussion and not just a sarcastic or flippant response that you put little or no thought into.

  12. First, “most” is a highly speculative, poorly defined and easily backed away from quantifier, making it very convenient as a choice of word upon which to base an argument in the absence of hard facts (which in this case are impossible to come by). Second, I wonder if Mike would say the same about “most” seat belt wearers or smoke alarm owners. Finally, I would argue that I carry due to a RATIONAL fear and a knowledge of how UNsecure we truly are. I say my fear is rational rather than irrational because after much reflection, I can coherently verbalize the causes of my fear how I know carrying a gun increases my chances of neutralizing those causes. Good luck getting someone with an IRRATIONAL fear of puppies to do likewise.

  13. I have an irrational fear of someone thats gonna hurt me. My wife works in the ER and sees alot of people who have irrational fears of people who are gonna hurt them…..again.

  15. Let’s be honest: most of us own guns just because they’re fkn fun. We aren’t really that scared about someone trying to ventilate us or ours, we just like guns and like shooting, and we have the freedom and the right to have that hobby. That’s about the least sinister justification for gun ownership anyone can have, and I would venture a guess that if you did some actuall research, you would find that such is the actual majority opinion, not fear and insecurity.

    • You are absolutly right. I just plain love to shoot and hunt. However my neck of the woods has changed alot in the last decade and there are places I just plain dont go unless I have my heater with me. Where I work is a major drug traffiking hub and I’ve personally have friends that needed their firearm to possibly save their life “in broad daylight”.

  16. Just like I always carry my multi-tool out of fear. Honestly – fear of being caught again in a situation where I need it to help me save a life and don’t have it.
    I’m close enough to 60 years old as to make no nevermind. I have twice been in a situation where I was trying to (as a citizen, not an EMT) extract someone from a burning vehicle. One of those times I needed something to help me break the vehicle glass to get to the driver.
    I didn’t have it.
    So – that was one time in 60 years, or 1/21,915 (60 x 365.25) = 0.000046% of the time I’ve been alive that I needed it.
    So – am I thereby irrational about always carrying my multi-tool? Am I insecure without it?
    Maybe so. But if I have to do it again, I’m prepared by golly.
    (Refute that, Mikey-boy.)

  17. And you’re giving mind-numbingly stupid quotes from nobody bloggers their own article because…?

    I know his stupidity makes us look good, but still. At least rebutting the stupidity of well-known people may be more relevant to the average person.

  18. Okay, this makes it official for me . . . anything this a$$wipe (MikeB302000) says I won’t bother to read anymore. Anything he has to say is not relevant to how I live my life.

  19. Mike isn’t fearful of guns. He just feels hurt and insecure that even when he sees a snub nose revolver with a short 2″ barrel it just reminds him of his own mini barrel.

    • Finally! A counter-argument to the tired “compensation” argument that the gun-haters love to use when they’ve lost the argument!!

      Excellent!!

  20. Robert’s basic problem in his handling of MikeB and his views is that he believes Mike acts in good faith. I believe that is a false assumption. Mike pretends that he supports gun ownership because he thinks he can seduce us into giving up our constitutional rights. In quotes like those cited in the threat he lets slip his normal contempt for the unwashed masses that so-called Progressives flaunt in privatge. Mike neither supports gun ownership nor our intrinsic right to self defense. He would gladly turn the streets over to the gangbangers and thugs.

    We ought to hold MikeB to the standard of walk the walk not talk the talk. Mike needs to come home to the US and move into some crime infested, gang run ungoverned inner city neighborhood to prove to us that we don’t need the means of self protection. I think after he is beaten and robbed and his wife raped he will join the ranks of armed citizenry.

  21. By the same logic wearing my seat belt every time I drive would be an irrational fear. I haven’t has a crunch-up in 25 years but still buckle up every time I’m in a vehicle. For me buckling up and carrying a gun are done for the same basic reason: my chances of surviving are much better with them.

  22. Everyone is missing the point of the statement. Look again:

    “Most gun owners are driven by irrational fear and insecurity.” – MikeB302000

    I know it will hurt, but follow the statement to it’s logical end…

    1. Most gun owners are driven by irrational fear and insecurity. (premise)
    2. Irrational fear and insecurity is a sign of mental disorder. (logical step)
    3. People with mental disorders should be banned from all access to guns. (conclusion)

    Therefore, most everyone (government excepted) who wants a gun should be banned from having one because they are crazy to want one.

    Catch-22

    You can also drive the logic backwards…

    If someone is crazy to want a gun, then they must have a mental disorder, such as an irrational fear and insecurity.

    I told you it would hurt, but thank you for following the logic of fear of guns with me.

  24. “Most gun haters are driven by irrational fear and insecurity.” – TexanHawk

    Hold on…. how do I know? Have I a degree in Psychiatry? Have I met a majority of gun haters? Have I participated in a objective study of gun haters? Nope. Sorry, I guess I don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground and I hereby retract the above statement.

  25. You know, all the home protection, self defense talk aside, I enjoy my firearms mainly because I like to shoot. Much like I enjoy sitting down and knockin back a few beers while watching a game, or working on a car. I am driven because I think that shooting is just plain fun. No fear, insecurity, or paranoia of any type involved. Just like I didn’t buy a jetski because I am afraid of row boats, I bought it because jetskis are awesome.

    • “You know, all the home protection, self defense talk aside, I enjoy my firearms mainly because I like to shoot.”…”No fear, insecurity, or paranoia of any type involved.”
      Right there with you!

  26. But wait! MikeB302000 has said time and time again his statements are only his “opinion” based on “using my (his) head” and “best judgement”…
    Failing to have any valid arguments, he just resorts to posting whatever antagonistic, bovine scatology he can concoct at the moment in a pathetic attempt to pretend he has something to say.

    Truthfully, I don’t think he even cares if he has anything valid to say, he just wants to see if he can get a negative reaction because that is all he can reliably count on succeeding at.

    “Calling him a Troll is to be unkind to Trolls.”

      • Which is half of a sentence, if I may. The other half is, “who is conspicuously absent from this discussion.”

      • The idea that one should not engage bigots on an intellectual level is folly; the entire idea of labeling those who dissent with your worldviews ‘trolls’ who are not to be fed is part and parcel of leftism.

      • Actually, since this post was an all-too-tempting invitation by this Site’s Management to bag on MikeB302000, I just could not resist. Going forward a week or so ago MikeB302000 convinced me that engaging in pissing contests with him was a bona fide waste of time, so I won’t be paying any further attention to him.

  27. Like most people who are anti-gun, their opinions are thinly disguised insults at those of us who own firearms. Tack on a layer of moral superiority, they stake out higher ground based on illogical assumptions.
    Nice little world they live in. It’s not reality but it is warm and comforting.

  28. “Most gun owners are driven by irrational fear and insecurity.”
    Until the Enemy is at the gates… and it can happen to you.
    I came very close to that situation and I am glad I had the 870.

  29. MikeB302000,

    I have two questions for you if you will:

    1, What is you solution? (“Gun Control”, “Gun Violence”, “Gun Ownership”)

    2, Give us one example in History where your solution has worked, effectively (As Stated, As Promised, As Billed).

  30. Clint Eastwood was on stage yesterday with Senator Pat Leahy to open the Warner Brothers theater at The Museum of American History on the Mall.. He said they’d gone target-shooting together the night before. He wanted to explain his views on gun control. I thought MikeB might enjoy his words: “A policeman recently pulled over a lady, a middle-aged lady, and asked to see her license. ‘Certainly,’ she said, and handed it over. ‘I see on the back of your license that you have a concealed carry permit.’ ‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Do you have a gun in the car?’ ‘Yes, officer, I have a Smith & Wesson locked in the glove compartment.’ ‘Anything else?’ ‘Yes, I have a 357 magnum here in the console, and a 40 caliber Glock and two spare magazines under the seat.’ ‘What the hell are you afraid of, lady?’ And she replied, “f…n nothin.’ The crowd roared. Maybe you had to be there.
    View it here if it’s still up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKHfkecmVBM
    I’m more than a little curious, by the way: Why does anyone care what Mikey says? He never has a serious comment, just recycled 70’s silliness. Is this going to be a permanent feature of the site?

    • If you look semi-closely, you’ll see he didn’t post his comment here, it was posted by the owner of this site – reverse trolling, if you will…

  32. In my bedroom I have a fire extinguisher. I don’t live in paranoid fear of fires yet in life fires do occur as do home break-ins and violence. BTW, the 16″ high red-colored tube-shaped extinguisher is what it is and not something I bought to compensate for something else.

    • Very good point here.

      I have life insurance, wear my seat belts, have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, wear a cup when I play baseball, hearing and eye protection when at work, keep my kids out of the yard when I mow the lawn. Are all of these precautions I take based on irrational fear? Are any of my weapons for the sake of precaution? Maybe.

      I own a fast car, motorcycle, and horse. Cars, motorcycles, and horses kill lots of people every year. But, I enjoy driving and riding and shooting my guns; I extract great pleasure. How the heck can something I draw pleasure from be based on irrational fear and insecure?

  33. There is a possibility that I could care less about any opinion that mikey might offer . . . but I sincerely doubt it.

  34. Mike is not really the vanguard of the anti-gun argument. It’s fun to pick on him, but there are others who make far better arguments. He tends to take personal potshots at penis size (maybe not literally, but you know what I mean), etc. He makes a good straw man. So let’s stop patting ourselves on the back and prepare to really sell our case.

  35. Wrong.

    It is rational to determine what is possible in the world, assess what you can control and what you can’t. It is rational to depend on what you have control over. It is irrational to depend on that which you can’t control. It is rational to weigh statistics of events against the severity of the outcomes of the events, in a game theoretic manner, the basis of risk assessment.

    There are bad people in the world who will use violence as a tool to succeed in committing a crime against an innocent, to decide unilaterally to take away someone’s right to live freely and privately. There are people who use violence to dominate. It is possible that any one of us can be made subject to this.

    The choice for some other person to be a violent aggressor is something I can not control. The aggressor makes that choice alone, without my influence. I can only control the outcome of his choice once I am included in the situation, which is the moment he has chosen to start the violence.

    Are there lots of these people? No. Is the probability that I will be forced into such a situation large? No, but it is not negligible either. It happens thousands of times a day all over the world. But weigh that small/modest probability by the outcomes. A loved one could lose a life. I could lose my life. My family and friends would experience the sorrow of loss. Those that benefit from the work I do would lose that benefit. I no longer will be able to contribute positively to the society I belong to. The probability is what it is, but the outcomes are grave and affect a lot of people. The outcome of my failure to defend myself creates a lot of collateral “victims”.

    If I allow these collateral victims to be created, I have committed a passive act of violence against innocents. I will not do that, I will not become an aggressor against innocents through irresponsibility with my own life.

    For these reasons I will be reasonably equipped to defend myself, because that is within the purview of what I can control, that becomes a responsibility. I will safely handle my defensive tools, safely store and secure them, safely maintain them, because this too I something in the purview of my control. I will encourage good people whose existence benefits the world (which is most people) to take similar responsibilities for themselves. I can’t control the actions and motivations of others. Only my response.

    -D

  36. “Most gun owners are driven by irrational fear and insecurity.” – MikeB302000

    What do I have to be afraid of? Nothing. I’m armed!

  37. I don’t know about everyone else, but I like guns because I like the be able to effect things further away than I can reach, whether it be paper or steel or a person trying to kill me.

    Every kid has wanted to be able to effect things with his mind, sat and tried their hardest to use the force to move something after seeing Star Wars. Man is extremely lazy, the gun is simply an extension of that laziness, allowing us to effect something without having to walk all the way over to it.

  38. “Most gun owners are driven by irrational fear and insecurity.”

    Aside from the fact that shooting guns is very fun, and shooting a lot of guns is even more fun, they do serve a defensive purpose. Even if the chance is less than 1% I’ll ever need it for defense, I’d rather have it if the time came. I have car and homeowner’s insurance too. Does that mean I have an irrational fear and insecurity that my house will burn down or that I’m going to wreck my car?

    If ignorance is bliss, the antis must be the happiest people on earth.

  39. Hey Mike, sing it with me!

    Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
    Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

    Wouldn’t you like to get away?

    Sometimes you want to go

    Where EVERYBODY knows your name,
    and they’re always (so) GLAD you came.
    You wanna be where you can see,
    our troubles are all the same
    You wanna be where everybody knows
    Your name.

    You wanna go where people know,
    people are all the same,
    You wanna go where everybody knows
    your name.

    source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/

  41. I must have an irrational fear that my home will burn to the ground, because I’ve been paying home insurance for the last 30 years and the sucker is still standing. I must also have an irrational fear that I’m going to crash my car, and I must be a dope because I’ve spent a ton on car insurance over the years. I’m not even going to get into my irrational fear about health insurance.

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