I spent five years as a videotape editor at CNN, watching reporters put plate spinners to shame. I emerged from the experience with a profound understanding of how easy it is to appear objective while pushing an agenda, sometimes unconsciously, sometimes intentionally and deviously. So when I read the salon.com article A gun lover sees the evils of gun culture: White supremacists, Obama haters, and me, my first instinct was to call bullsh*t. It simple doesn’t ring true. For one thing, there’s this . . .
I signed up for some time on the pistol range, increasingly certain with each step that this would be the last time I ever held a gun. I felt uneasy, but I wanted to do this one final time. I began filling the clip to its capacity, ten rounds of .22 caliber long rifle. A mild sense of deja vu crept over me as I slipped the clip into the base of the pistol’s grip, locked it in place and pulled back the slide to place the first bullet into the chamber. I pushed the button on the left side of the stall to send the target swiftly 50 yards down range into the backdrop of tons of mounded sand, no more hand-pulled clothes lines to place the target. Everything progresses. I raised the pistol, took perfunctory aim and fired at the two foot square paper target.
Clip. You and I know it’s a “magazine” not a “clip.” I’ve heard gun people call a magazine a clip. So it’s not inconceivable that a “gun lover” would use improper terminology for that part of the gun. But then there’s this, too.
The report was an authoritative ka-pow, much as I remember, the gun reaching skyward in a credible kick for a .22, three inches of ignited escape gas illuminating the tip of the muzzle in a brilliant blue-white flash. I remember loving the sound, look and feel of that experience. Now, I felt empty and out of place. There was no thrill left in firing a gun. The whole experience felt somehow unwholesome.
A .22 does not kick. It does not emit a brilliant blue-white flash. If you’re wearing ear protection it sounds not unlike an ant farting. So either the reporter’s lying or he’s exaggerating. Even if we give Matt Lallo the benefit of the doubt, his description betrays an anti-gun agenda.
Lallo’s account of his back room encounter with a gun dealer – as he sells his firearms – is more problematic. I’ve met gun dealers/range operators who hold similar opinions. But the writing raises an important question: did Lallo tape the exchange? Otherwise, how would he provide word-for-word dialogue? A conversation that [allegedly] goes like this:
“Look, this country is falling apart.” So much for foreplay, I thought. “We have a president who is an admitted militant Muslim whose objective is to destroy America. Just read his books. China owns us, lawlessness is rampant, the cops are useless and just look at unemployment.”
When I suggested the latest unemployment number was six percent, the retort was instant.
“Lies,” he spat. “Look, they talk about slavery and the historic condition of blacks in this country. What they don’t say is that the middle men for the slave trade were the black brokers in Africa and elsewhere who sold their countrymen to the white traders. Can’t blame the whites for wanting to make money, too, now can you?”
He continued. “My family was indentured for the first three generations that we were in this country, but by initiative and hard work we got out and prospered.”
He delivered his “enlightened” history to me with the confidence of a tenured sociology professor. I was appalled, but captivated. Such erudition on so suspect a topic.
This guy was not speaking in mindless bumper sticker aphorisms. He wanted to tie it together, to build an elegant theory, to move out of brainless wing-nut territory and offer some robust alternate history. And he was articulate, too. This, I thought, was a dangerous man.
I have the sneaking suspicion that the sentence “Can’t blame the whites for wanting to make money, too, now can you?” is fiction. Creative license. Anti-gun agitprop. I’ve never heard any such comment from anyone in the gun world. Or anyone, period. Perhaps there are people who hold such views. But it’s too … convenient.
“You know, Justice Byron White spoke about the concept of the slippery slope and said (paraphrasing) that there really is no such thing, that it is a convenient device for the intellectually timid to try to win weak arguments. He said, all you need do is assess each issue on its merits or shortcomings and make the ethical decision. It is not axiomatic, he said, that if one event transpires that another will follow simply because of similarity to the previous.”
“Total bullshit. What the fuck does he know?”
“Well, he was a highly regarded legal scholar and Justice of the Supreme Court.”
“And I repeat, what the fuck does he know?” He paused for a moment. “See, you got me started.”
Axiomatic? Who uses the word axiomatic in polite conversation? The entire quote is far too literary. Lallo could be paraphrasing himself, but then … quote marks. And Lallo’s failure to ID the gun range or the speaker. Did he – and Slate – decide not to identify the source because Lallo’s gun buyer “was a dangerous man”? Maybe. Maybe not. Especially as he writes this:
I walked out of his store with an important education and a check for $1,000. I would have taken much less, as I was anxious to rid myself of any association I had come to think of as insidious in the extreme.
So now, I am gunless.
But I don’t feel threatened, or at risk. I feel more like Marlon Brando’s character Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront.” When he’s confronted with the mobster against whom he has testified, he says, “I’m glad at what I done.”
It’s been my experience that anti-gunners are always glad at what they’ve done. So glad that they feel perfectly justified in lying about the facts surrounding their position. In any case, if Lallo was a “gun lover” his “defection” from the cause is no great loss. The natural, civil and Constitution right to keep and bear arms does not depend on anyone’s approval. Even when it does.
“I walked out of his store with an important education and a check for $1,000.”
That’s his .22 he was talking about?
He had a .22, two shotguns and a .38 police special.
Still, 4 used guns would be a hard justification for a solid grand, especially from gun store. They’re not ever going to give anyone that much unless they were gold plated.
if he is shooting at a 50 yard target cold, then it must be one of those Olympic ones.
I’m thinking 50 feet. Who shoots a pistol at a 150 foot range?
*raises hand*
50 yards isn’t the easiest distance to shoot, but it is certainly within the capabilities of most pistols.
I used to shoot handguns routinely at 100 yards and farther, including 9 mm semiauto. 250 yd was fun, but that was with revolver.
The range I frequent now has steel at 50 yards on the pistol range; it’s a ton of fun to ring the bell, and lots of folks do it.
And who locks and loads and then sends the target downrange? I don’t want to be holding a live firearm with one hand and absentmindedly be fiddling around with trying to send my target downrange with the other hand.
I saw that too.
According to the article, he claims that it is a “Colt Match Target” (i.e. Colt Woodsman Match Target?). I don’t see how such a pistol would have a kick, credible or otherwise. In fact, Colt claims that it has no recoil:
http://stevespages.com/pdf/colt_woodsman_automatic_pistol_caliber_.22_long_rifle.pdf
Of course, that’s what one would generally expect from a match target .22lr pistol.
And this is what he let go for $1,000 (or so he claims):
Again, doesn’t sound plausible. Depending on its condition, the Colt Match Target pistol could go for twice that total in a private sale.
The first serious BS call-out to me was the he loaded his magazine (which he calls a clip) with ten rounds of “.22 caliber long rifle” ammunition. Who the eff would ever call .22LR that? If you want to be pedantic (which this guy apparently does at every opportunity) you might call it “.22 Long Rifle ammunition” but his phrasing is very much like the clueless news anchors who talk about “.357 caliber magnum” revolvers.
.22 Long Rifle. You know, known casually among gun folk as ‘Ma Deuce’.
He’s writing for the Salon anticrowd that wouldn’t know a .22lr from a .50BMG. Spelling it out long hand makes it sound much more threatening, like the “authoritative” report when fired.
You are confusing two slightly different weapons. A .22LR would be a dot double deuce.
“two skeet guns” has a pretty wide range.
I have 3 different shotguns for clays, from a wholly unremarkable Super-X Mod.1 to a TM-1 single-barrel that’s probably worth $2500 alone, and that’s way on the low price end for competition shotguns.
I also say BS. Who sells a gun for a “check”? Its cash on the barrelhead bucko (or trade goods).
This.
Right *there*.
I’ve NEVER sold a gun to private party and been paid by check. No one has ever tried to buy a gun from me with a check.
Cash On the Barrel-head. (COB).
Period.
Actually, I did once. The guy was nice enough to accept the check and trust me.
The only issue that I ever had with the transaction…was that I gave him my name and address.
Nothing bad happened, but I wouldn’t do that today for many reasons.
In this day an age the Left uses narratives to construct fake but accurate news stories. Just ask a certain fraternity at the UVA. If the story line is just too perfect than it’s probably made up.
The “narrative” news device is a convenient tool to mislead and persuade. It is in essence a testimonial, but rather than use a “celebrity” it uses “everyday” people. It desires to be more persuasive by being more personal and emotional. It works really well, except when the listener perceives that they are being duped, often people that know the inside story will immediately realize the deceptiveness of “narratives” but depending on viewpoint may accept that.
The “narrative” has many advantages over purely factual news reporting. Since it is often merely relating the “opinion” of persons interviewed, it doesn’t have to be a factually rigorous. It is also easier to shape to pre determined theme and goal as elements that support a preconceived “narrative” can be emphasized and viewpoints and dialog that doesn’t can be de-emphasized or removed.
It can also be rigged to be a more interesting story or more “persuasive” story by juggling the facts to fit the needs of the storyteller.
In essence it is a great tool for propaganda.
As such it is more propaganda than
It’s not “more propaganda than news”, it’s just propaganda. Narrative journalism is at best cherry-picking facts to fit the pre-determined narrative. At worst, it’s Sabrina Erdely, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair et al just plain old making stuff up to support their ideology. Or just their career prospects.
“News” went away a couple decades ago, if it ever existed in the first place. Luckily, there’s the Internet. Unluckily, as they’ve proved in the past five years, the old-guard media can still drive the conversation if they lean into it.
By the way, between the inaccurate gun details (firing a pistol at a 50 yard target?) and the dialogue that’s more colorful than everything I’ve ever heard in all my range trips combined, I say Lallo made it all up. I almost wish we had registration just so I could check whether he ever really owned a gun.
I just read an article recently talking about this exact idea…..
People who are telling a lie about a thing generally tell that lie in a narrative format. Who they were with, how they got there, what it smelled like, the color of the sky, generally stuff that paints a picture without giving any actual information.
People who are telling a truth about a thing generally tell the truth in a more realistic format. The arrived at a certain time, there were this many people already there, they shot eight out of ten through the center, generally stuff that would be informational about the thing or place they are at.
I wish I could find the story again… by itself it wasn’t very interesting but the idea presented really sheds new light on reports from so-called journalists.
“Truth is not a value of the Left.”….Prager
I was also thinking this had many of the same…*ahem*, journalistic stylings of the Rolling Stone UVA Rape story.
^^this. I had exactly the same thought.
I hear there’s a job opening at Rolling Stone. They need more fiction (lie) writers.
Ha!
Nailed it.
Cool story bro. I didn’t know that Salon was into publishing works of creative fiction.
Have you read anything on that site?
Yeah, that article is made up from his fevered imagination.
Aren’t guns that fire from a case illegal?
From taking perfunctory aim with a .22 pistol at 50 yards, to getting into a political discussion with a fanatic conspiracy theorist while trying to sell firearms, the whole thing is clearly BS. He is a liar and nothing more.
You know, its sad but I believe the political discussion part more than the shooting part. My mother watches Fox News constantly and has at one time or another said basically every single line that gun dealer supposedly said, minus the lawlessness.
Based on your excerpts and breakdown, I could easily see someone with absolutely zero trigger time browsing arfcom or glocktalk for a couple of hours and completely fabricating everything written. The part about the actual shooting is especially suspect. You’re shooting a .22 pistol at 50 yards? Your indoor range is full of mounds of sand? Or is that an outdoor range that has automated target stalls? Cause I’ve never seen either. And then there’s the 22 that apparently shoots like a 357.
“You’re shooting a .22 pistol at 50 yards? … And then there’s the 22 that apparently shoots like a 357.”
Maybe he meant 22 mm.
Or 22.0 Caliber.
Pre-internet I used to read pulp fiction where the author would insert details about firearms and automobiles that was lifted directly from manufacture’s catalogs, he may have done the same concerning women’s underwear having no experience with the former and the later
sounds like an anti that has almost enough knowledge, but is really pushing an agenda:
OFWG – Check
White Supremacy – Check
Hate of the Government – Check
Stupid gun owner – Check
Distrust of Cops – Check
What am I missing… Oh right where are the Zombies?
“.22 caliber long rifle”…laugh.
Despite the disdain they must experience in doing so, it appears some of the antis are trying to educate themselves about guns and gun activities – at least enough to *sound* authentic to the uninitiated.
Unfortunately for them, the red flags start to pop up as soon as they awkwardly try to relate some biased half truth or outward lie to further the rhetoric they are passing off as fact to the uninformed.
Of course, the already biased readership of leftist and anti-gun media will gladly gobble up this kind of bogus story from sources like Salon.com as completely reliable and factual because it confirms their expectations of what is real, even if it is totally made up.
He’s a “gun lover”, but only has $1000 worth of guns?
Just the tip. . .
I shot 3 .22s on Saturday, a grand total of about 100 shots. I wanted to shoot more but the shoulder pain, concussion and powder burns were just too much.
I’m still seeing blue-white spots.
I feel your pain. I like to wear my welding mask when I shoot my 22/45. People vacate my range when they feel the concussion and see light of a thousand suns coming from the end of my barrel as I somehow mitigate the recoil produced, clip after clip.
I shot a 12-gauge once. Once.
Mine’s a 24-gauge. It shoots through schools.
You inspired the Johnny Dangerously in me.
It’s an 88-magnum. He had it made special. It shoots through schools.
Salon: fairy tale time!
Based out of San Francisco; what do you expect?
Confabulation is so hot right now!
‘When I suggested the latest unemployment number was six percent, the retort was instant. “Lies,” he spat.’
For the record, if the laborforce participation rate were the same as it were when the big O took office the unemployment rate would be 11%. Just because people quit looking for a job doesn’t make them not unemployed.
I have a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and I had to go back to graduate school because I have been unable to find any full time job since 2013. Either I am doing something really wrong or the job market aint as hot as people are claiming.
I work in the residential construction industry and we are now building houses at a rate that was the fewest in a given year since WWII, but since that’s nearly twice the rate it was a couple of years ago things aren’t that bad for those of us still in business. I did go 4 months without a paycheck (or an unemployment check) at one point though.
I switched from mechanical engineering to law for exactly the same reason, just a few years before your situation. The higher salary of engineering (supposedly) isn’t such a benefit when you can get laid off and stay out of work for such a long time. I loved engineering, but I need to eat, too.
And as Vhyrus’s post suggests, just because the rate is lower, doesn’t mean that people are in the jobs they trained for, or are full-time.
Burger flippers and architects are both needed in our society, but when the latter can only get a job as the former, there’s a problem somewhere…
Fiction. Writer of fiction, or vain imaginations.
Too often, reality interjects to those who are anti-gun. Leftist reporters in Atlanta some years ago advanced the anti-gun agenda at every opportunity and to everyone they could. Their lives went swimmingly along until one day street thugs assaulted them for their wallets, requiring many stitches, almost losing and eye on one and a kidney on the other, and afterward both enrolled in gun safety and proficiency courses and purchased guns.
NO GUNS ALLOWED in a convenience store window prevents law-abiding citizens from defending themselves so criminals, the mentally unsound, and jihadists can wreck havoc, injury, and death there. Lawsuits waiting by the wounded and family members of the diseased to store owner(s) and/or management.
Ya, I remember the first time I shot that over-powered 10/22….. it felt the same as my BB gun. How can this guy be anything but an idiot? He is so over-exagerating shooting a .22 I had to stop reading.
Speaking of BB guns, I just bought the Colt SAA 45 ‘stainless’ from Pyramyd Air for $119. It blew me away with the little details and quality. I shot it with a friend over the weekend. Favorite gun out of the 3 BB guns we shot. Looks and feels real. (Also shot the Umarex Luger blowback and an old Crosman from the 70’s.)
BTW, I’ve got a used Sig Mosquito that I’ll gladly part with for $1000 if anyone’s interested. I’ll even throw in a used Crimson Trace laser sight.
Double Down and offer a SR22, Can’t get them in CA anymore. Plinking goldmine mine I tell ya.
What’s up with CA? Were compact .22 handguns the ‘weapon of choice for criminals’? Was there blood trickling in the streets?
“A .22…. does not emit a brilliant blue-white flash. If you’re wearing ear protection it sounds not unlike an ant farting.”
RF, I see that you don’t shot CCI Stingers out of an SR22. Think PMR-30 levels of fun with 3X the reloadus interuptus.
Yeah, last year when supplies dried up, I shot a .22 match standing next to a guy shooting a Ruger I believe that had some type of compensator on the barrel. He was shooting stingers. I could feel the blast from those things against my face. They’re pretty stout. I asked him what he was shooting, he replied, “Stingers, it’s all I have left.
But I doubt that’s what this clown was shooting, if it is at all true.
I may not be the sharpest knife in the kitchen but I’m calling BS on this entire article. Seems like an agenda with a story constructed to support that agenda.
To borrow a phrase from the pro-abortion crowd, ‘If you don’t want one, don’t have one.’ There, feel all warm and fuzzy now? Dolt.
There isn’t a paragraph in Lallo’s piece that lacks confabulation. My first suspicion was that perhaps Bloomberg thought Matt was really down on his luck, and offered him a helping hand, “workfare.”
The other possibility is that he’s desperate to win Shannon’s affection despite the competition from DD. What a man won’t do for….love, or perhaps for a paying job at Everytown for Oligarchs.
I call bs on the whole story. Where did he find enough .22 to fill that clipazine? I’ve seen boxes of .500 S&W, .480 Ruger and .416 Rigby on the shelves of local dealers that couldn’t come up with a box of .22s.
Last weekend LGS has boxes of 300 CCI MiniMags for $28 each. Not exactly pre-Sandy Hook, but not too bad.
Guys it’s Salon, what else do you need to know?
So, that conversation? Yeah, I’ve heard it, in various forms, way too many times. I’ve heard words like that from my father, a guy on the street, and coworkers; that’s not a stretch. The anti-intellectualism, subversive racism,
I find his description of shooting a .22LR bizarre; the conversation? not so much. Gun culture isn’t just OFWG suffering from privilege distress, but it does make up a sizable chunk.
Unlike this author, I can realize that the culture of guns is problematic and still not blame the object. I don’t think the progressives get that if the insane wing-nuts are the only ones with guns, that’s a recipe for genocide.
“I can realize that the culture of guns is problematic “
The real question for you is can you realize there is no “culture of guns?”
So what if you’ve heard a conversation like he claims happened. That does not mean every gun owner talks that way. Nor does it mean most gun owners talk that way.
There is no “gun culture.” That’s a fantasy created by the anti’s to label us as “The Other” and hence justify their vilification. Gun owners are a very diverse group with drastically different lifestyles and belief systems…joined by one common factor: ownership of one or more firearms.
Good grief. Is there this much panty-twisting over labeling “Ford Owner Culture” or “Blue Jeans Culture” or basing a claim of “culture” onto mere ownership of anything else? Do we talk so much about “Golf Culture” or “Prefers Pens Over Pencils Culture?”
Giving them “gun culture” as if it has any meaning whatsoever is letting them set the language used in the discussion.
And, final thought on this topic: This is one of those things that has to drive them batty. We ARE a diverse group. We are tolerant of others within our ranks…(9mm vs .40 vs .45 arguments notwithstanding).
There’s not an OFWG here that I believe would not take a homosexual person shooting, for example. We WANT folks of all races and income levels to have the tools to defend their lives as we recognize self defense as a basic, moral right granted to all humans.
That’s GOT to drive them nuts. We ARE much closer to what they openly lie about being…tolerant and willing to get along.
In short…everything they claim is a lie; it’s all premised on a lie anyway…their bs is not about guns at all. It’s about controlling other people. Guns is just the emotional hook they use.
There’s not an OFWG here that I believe would not take a homosexual person shooting, for example.
Well you better do what they ask or the’ll sue if you don’t.
As a Gay gun owner, you damn well better take me to the range!
“I don’t think the progressives get that if the insane wing-nuts are the only ones with guns, that’s a recipe for genocide.”
I don’t know if this is sarcasm or not.
If not, you got it wrong. usually is the other way around. When progressives build their utopia is when the genocide usually happens.
I had a very progressive friend who happens to be transgendered. She wanted to get into guns, but believed as this author, and apparently you that the “Gun Culture” was racist homophobic, bigotted a-holes. I told her that was total bullsh.. crap. I told her to go to the gun range and say that she wanted to get a gun, but didn’t know what kind she wanted.
People were falling all over themselves trying to help her. Born a black man and dressed now as a woman(though still obvious male features), and the “gun culture” was more than happy to help. Are there racists and homophobes? Yes, but it isn’t THE culture. But she exemplified WHY that continues. People THINK that is the culture.
She was afraid of the gun culture’s reaction to a transgendered person, and now she shoots more often than me.
The only area where you will really get an argument is if you think the 1911 isn’t the best firearm ever devised by man 😀
Browning may have been brilliant, but Gaston is a gun god.
😛
Yep. Brought down from on high by the prophet Moses, John Browning Moses to be exact.
Darn, my editing function wasn’t working, John Moses Browning.
So TM, transference much? “Anti-intellectualism, subversive racism”.
That was funny. The only “anti-intellectual ism” and “subversive racism” that I see is coming from the leftist “intellectual elite”.
“Gun Free Zones keep us safe”. (really)?
“There will be blood in streets if average citizens can carry a gun in public”. (Nope)
“The second amendment was passed to keep blacks as slaves” (nope, the blacks codes passed by democrats was to keep blacks defenseless)
“The white/hispanic George Zimmerman used Stand Your Ground laws to murder Trayvon Martin”. (Was never used as a defense and a jury of primarily women judged he legally defended himself from an unprovoked attack)
“The NRA is racist”, (even though they defend the right of law abiding blacks and minorities to carry guns in public)
“The people that want to carry a gun are intolerant, racist bigots that hate gay people, blacks and minorities”. (even though everyone that I’ve have seen or read that supports the second amendment defend the right of gay people, black and minorities to carry a gun to
defend against attacks by racist, hateful bigots)
Do Tell Me TM, which group is being anti-intellectual and a subversive racist?
I was thinking of more examples.
So the leftist “Intellectual elite” doesn’t want average citizens carrying guns for self-defense;;so in other words, these “intellectuals” don’t want the blacks or other minorities, to be able to defend from racist attacks, they don’t want women to be able to defend against bring raped and they don’t those that are of the LGBT group to defend against being attacked for their sexual orientation.
Where as those that support the second amendment do.
So in the end, those that support the second amendment cares more for the rights of all people to be free from being attacked, to have people have their lives safe from racist and hateful based murder, than the leftists.
In actual fact, The leftists, the “intellectual elite” by their actions shows absolute contempt. They show an absolute hatred for those that they say they care the most about.
Actions speak louder than words.
It is those that support the second amendment and the right of all people, regardless, of race, religion, gender or sexial orientation that show true love for all human beings, not the…. I can’t even say the “E” word anymore. They have shown such a base savagery in their treatment of those most needing defense, to call them “intellectual” or “elite” is an abomination.
No, these perfumed princes, these savages with degrees, are to me, to be pitied, nothing more. To be looked as clowns, as the crazy relative to be seen with forbearance, but not to be taken seriously.
Of course, ridding himself of his gun-totems totally disassociates him from the “gun culture” of which he previously considered himself a part. Huh? So, when I drive my Chevy down the road, I’m confused. Am I part of the NASCAR phenomenon, or associating myself with loggers or steel workers? Does my gun ownership align me with cops, soldiers, Pink Pistols, Olympic competitors or Black Panthers? Or all of the above?
Or is stuff just stuff?
You said much better what I was trying to say just above.
Well put.
Au contraire, what you wrote JR was clear and on point. Your words point out the efforts of the antis to segregate as some hateful “culture” those who choose keep and bear guns, indeed, anyone who dares to even express a positive interest in firearms, as deserving of “vilification” and contemptuous regard.
It was well said and needed to be articulated as you did.
The same can be said about the “narrative” comment by CT Resident further above.
All well put.
Salon is the septic tank of internet news sites. These guys actually wrong an article pushing for a social America as well as denying the holocausts perform by various socialist and communist governments and dictatorships in the 20th century. The people behind the site are the SCUM of the earth.
“Worse, what if I wasn’t repulsed? I needed to know.”
Because right-thinking people who are smart enough to read Salon are supposed to find guns repellant, and find people of the gun repulsive. If they aren’t, they are expelled from the tribe.
But if I know nothing about guns and it’s everything I already believe to be true, then he comes across as super credible. Is Salon ever presented as a credible news source other than an agenda driven outlet?
Yes, actually.
I’ve seen people posting about and linking to salon articles as if they are “news,” … even when it is INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS they are made up.
There were some doozies after Sandy Hook.
In one case that I particularly remember, salon posted a ‘story’ about something to do with Sandy Hook shortly after…a and Yahoo and a WHOLE BUNCH of blog sites and ‘news aggregators’ picked it up and re-posted…word-for-word.
The story raised a big stink at the time; folks were falling for it hook-line-and-sinker even though there was precisely ZERO vetting of ANY of the information presented. The information trail ended at “salon.com” and could extend no further.
I’ve seen other stories from them similarly handled…repeated and passed on throughout the ‘blogosphere’ and even ‘reputable’ (that’s questionable, of course) news sites without any vetting beyond “salon.com reported.”
It’s pretty disgusting, really.
Don’t let the faux-door phantom-hit your fabricated ass on your imaginary way out, pretend-gun fake dude.
I didn’t have any guns. Then, Sandy Hook happened, and I decided: not one more. Now I have seven weapons, and counting.
For what it’s worth, I recently saw a handwritten correspondence by Elmer Keith that referred to his 1911’s magazine as a “clip”, so that’s not necessarily a deathblow to the writer’s credibility.
The rest of the text, though, pretty much is.
It just proves you can trust everything a gun rag publishes.
Everybody makes mistakes, even Elmer. I imagine that called them that because the Army sometimes did.
Either the author has the fastest eyes in the world or got his info from watching slo-mo videos of shooting. Last weekend my brother and I shot through 500 rounds of .40, about 300 of 9mm, and 100 rounds of various loads of 12 gauge and I wasn’t quick enough to catch a flash from any of them. I even got some of the action on film and can’t find a single flash.
I can see the muzzle flash from my 9mm just fine. Speer Lawman makes a noticeable red flash.
And my 10mm makes a huge flash, especially when I’m shooting my hot handloads.
Ummmm… no.
Without getting to deep here, for the left the truth isn’t really relative. The narrative is whats important. If something didn’t actually happen, well it could have.
And I’ll say this. I interact with thousands of gun owners online every year helping to run various gun forums etc… I go into a dozen different gun stores in CA, OR, WA and TX. I shoot and buy and sell guns, Im a carry permit holder x3 I have an FFL and I correspond with collectors all over the country.
Where is the guy described in the story? Ive never met him or anyone like him.
“I pushed the button on the left side of the stall to send the target swiftly 50 yards down range into the backdrop of tons of mounded sand, no “
With a .22lr pistol after not having shot for a long time?
I noticed he didn’t comment on how many he got on paper. But I really doubt it was a 50 yard indoor range. More likely 50 ft. But then details like units don’t matter to people more concerned with “feelings”.
As far as I can tell, this guy is a food writer for the Baltimore sun. This is his first article for Salon.
I wonder if he called them up and told them he had a great story for them…
“I wonder if he called them up and told them he had a great story for them…
Or vice versa…I wonder if they called him, said “We have this story we want to run and need someone with some ‘cred’ to put their name on it.”
Would not surprise me in the least.
The culture of firearms ownership and usage is what you make of it. It’s as if the author went out deliberately to find the most negative aspects of the scene.
It’s as if I went into the hip-hop culture, dead-set on finding drug dealers and murderers, and ignoring people like Common and ?uestlove.
Indeed. It also reminds me of Rolling Stone, desperate to expose an egregious example of indifference to gang-rape at an ‘elite’ university, immediately gloms-on to the first delusional feminist that rogers-up a BS story about being gang-raped. No evidence, no examination of evidence, no real questions asked. Everything is accepted, carte-blanche.
100% fabrication. Slander by design. America’s leftists would make a Bolshevik blush.
I love the tacit progressive presumption that, “I’ve fallen out of love with firearms, so it’s really time for *you* to fall out of love, as well. And if you don’t, you’re probably a Nazi.”
I attempted to read the article, but it was filled with so much convenient anti-gun BS, it couldn’t stomach it all in one sititing.
“The seedy personnel wore sidearms, not small caliber “personal” pieces, like the infamous Beretta .25, but big and powerful cannons, nuzzled into expensive breakaway holsters set high on the hip.”
No offense meant to anyone that owns and carries or enjoys shooting a .25ACP. but my impression of the round was always that it was a popular round with “seedy” characters. I expect the big and powerful cannons were typically Glocks in retention holsters.
Isn’t the .25 pretty close to being an obsolete cartridge in terms of actual use? I can’t specifically remember the last time I saw a .25 for sale in a gun shop hereabouts. And what is so “infamous” about the Beretta .25 anyway? Maybe he meant “Raven”?
Pure fiction from a Coward while posing as some morally enlightened, brave convert.
There is so much bull hockey on that article it’s not funny. In a direct quote he’s got a man who is apparently a very, very well stocked and knowledgeable gun dealer referring to a “sound supressant” in this part…
<>>
Let’s see… a fully automatic weapon with both 30 and 50 round clips hidden inside a briefcase. Yes, that’s surreptitious all right….a real “assassins” gun. W T F
This guy has no clue. What’s worse is that the Salon folks will put him on a pedestal as someone who has “seen the light”.
He opened the neat leather case and nestled into its form-fitting interior was a short and nasty-looking machine gun with a 30 and 50 round clip. I asked him to take it out of the case.
“It doesn’t come out,” he said. “You shoot it from the case so nobody will know. It has a sound suppressant. That little round hole is where the bullet comes out. Pretty neat, huh? Not many of these babies around. Thirty-eight grand.”
Worse probably than an assault weapon, I thought, this is an assassin’s gun. Designed for surreptitious murder. And for sale on the open market. And here was Zack, so very proud of it.
“While visiting my son in a state south of Pennsylvania, I stopped at an indoor range and purveyor of new and used guns. It was some operation — expansive, spotless and bright, with perhaps $5M in visible inventory on display. This was the rich cousin to the shabby place in Philly.”
“I pushed the button on the left side of the stall to send the target swiftly 50 yards down range into the backdrop of tons of mounded sand,”
Does not compute. Large modern gun range with millions of dollars in inventory, a 50 yard indoor pistol range and a sand backstop? Never heard of a sand backstop at an indoor range.
“My family was indentured for the first three generations that we were in this country, but by initiative and hard work we got out and prospered.”
This quote jumped out at me. Three generations? Seriously? If this is true, this guy comes from a long line of idiots.
Typical practice before slavery was 7 years as payment for passage, not 70.
Yep. Total BS.
“Matt Lallo lives in Baltimore, MD, and has written restaurant reviews for the Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Magazine. He continues to write topical articles and short stories.”
Yeah, there’s a highly credible source on firearms – a restaurant critic for Baltimore media. This whole thing reminds me of the “Rolling Stone” so-called “investigative reporting” on the UVA frat rape smear report.
Did this guy come from the 1930s detective novels?
If someone wanted to create an exaggerated piece of pulp fiction, this would be it.
What’s wrong with being an Obama hater? Hrs a horrible president. Less transparent than Nixon, failed on just about every campaign promise, several cabinet members have committed felonies or allowed them to happen in their organization. Funny that it is in the list.
Exactly! I consider myself extremely left-wing and IMNSHO Obama is the worst President I never voted for.
I have a friend who voted for Obama twice (largely because he didn’t like the Republican candidates) but now admits to regretting his votes. He immigrated from Slovakia as a kid and thinks Obama is selling out this country to our adversaries around the world. Funny thing too is that he is on par with me on many issues, especially when it comes to gun ownership, even though he doesn’t own any firearms.
I worked with a guy who escaped Slovakia in the ’80s.
He was genuinely baffled by the American mindset on some things.
He said there is no reason that someone could not earn as much as they desired here.
I was pleased and honored to help him select his first gun, a Ruger GP100 for home defense.
“So now, I am gunless.
But I don’t feel threatened, or at risk.”
Yeah, I think this is fiction. Here is the “gun owners are paranoid” implication.
I don’t believe this fool was a gun owner, but I don’t find it super hard to believe he found a moron. What I take issue with his him broad-brushing ALL gun owners by this one example.
Not buying any of it. I know there are idiots out there of every political stripe. but this guy is just making stuff up. He’s trying to one-up Erdely.
I wants me some of those .22 long rifle rounds that go “ka-pow”
All of mine just go “pew pew”
1-2 years ago: …..“if you don’t like gay marriage, then don’t have one”
Today:….“if you don’t cater our gay wedding we’ll sue you into the ground or toss you in jail”
Yeah, no such thing as a slippery slope.
1st off this article is complete crap, this guy probably was a gun owner in the loosest sense of the term in that he probably had a couple of guns sitting in a closet for the last 25 years collecting dust. However, he does have a bit of a point about the crazy conspiracy theorist gun owner. I’m not remotely saying all gun owners are crazy conspiracy nuts, but the probability of being a nutjob conditional upon gun ownership is definitely higher than population averages. Conversations I’ve had at the gun range: “…an Israeli firm designed a lot of the security measures at the airports, I bet they sabotaged the security to help the terrorists on 9/11, Obama is the anti-christ and will soon bring about the end of days (yes, seriously), you know they are using drones to target US citizens on US soil, those are just the craziest one, I have dozen people at the range tell me how Obama is clearly a Muslim, clearly born in Kenya, selling the US to China…..etc. Yeah, I feel you on criticisms of Obama, but I like my criticisms to be based in reality.
“…an Israeli firm designed a lot of the security measures at the airports, I bet they sabotaged the security to help the terrorists on 9/11,
I’d easily wager a $20 bet that the percentage of Leftists who believe that is larger than the percentage of gun owners.
The 911Tuther movement crap came straight out of the house of the Left and the “Blame America First” mindset. Of coarse there were the occasional right side Truther (looking at you Ron Paul).
Your litmus test is “if libtard progressives think ______ then is must be true” else not tre?
Sorry I wasted a few moments reading this drivel…the comments were entertaining though…
““Would a hit man carry this?” I asked. “I hear they use .22’s.”
“Nah, too heavy,” he said.
I felt relieved. Just paper targets. That’s good, I thought.”
I just caught this gem, what a maroon.
So, which is it: so heavy that an assassin wouldn’t want to carry it, or so light that a .22LR round causes it to kick?
I’ll be blunt here. That guy is a lying sack of trash. He plucked a few details to make his story plausible to the casual reader. The description of firing the .22 was enough bullmanure for me. He’s just another lying anti.
Even if it were true so what? So some gun(store) owners are bad people by Salon’s estimation therefore no civilian should own a firearm? Seriously, that is the level of argumentation we have here? Many a grade school student can see through that non-sequitur.
* “the middle men for the slave trade were the black brokers in Africa and elsewhere who sold their countrymen to the white traders.”
This would be true but its worse. Blacks did not act as the middleman (though some did) but they were the ones that actively enslaved free men & women. And Steve jobs did own a PC. It ain’t troll’n if its true!
Google is a wonderful thing. I’ve established a timeline of the events of the story.
Matt Lillo, sometime restaurant reviewer for the Baltimore Sun (according to the byline in Salon), opened up his own joint in Mt. Washington, about a mile from my uncle’s house, in 2012. I may have even been there. Yelp reports it’s closed now. Admittedly, the location is jinxed.
http://www.bmoremedia.com/devnews/blue-sage-cafe-042412.aspx says that Lillo “moved down to Baltimore from Philadelphia two years ago with his wife to be closer to their children and grandchildren.” So that puts his move in 2009 or 2010, between Obama taking office and his leaving Philadelphia, five or six years before he wrote this piece. Nobody takes mental notes that closely. He might recall the dealer’s general tone, and it’s very plausible that the guy disliked Obama, but this is clearly a half-remembered, half-made up fiction.
It’s also clear that he sold his guns not because “it felt dishonest,” but because he was MOVING. Who doesn’t try to get rid of their unwanted stuff when they’re packing up a house? He may also have learned that Maryland (especially Baltimore) is very hostile to gun ownership and has registration requirements and FOID cards and all those bureaucratic obstacles the antis just love. Given the trouble of bringing in guns from out of state, he probably just didn’t want to bother.
So, I’m calling this not “pure” bullshit. It’s half-fabricated, self-righteous, insulting, disingenuous bullshit.
50 yards with a .22 caliber pistol that has a huge kick at an indoor range? What a lying sack of &$%#! I know propaganda is usually made up of lies, but at least they can try to spin a lie that has some semblance of truth.
Yeah this is some serious narrative pushing from top to bottom. I think you called it right. Nice straw man, though.
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time to talk about this topic here on your site.
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