Prepare for an influx of angry, barely literate, Facebook-style postings in the few days after this goes live.
This, unfortunately.
We’ll have the WaPo/Huffpo crowd down here trying to “debate” aka – vomit emotions and nonsensical “figures” and quotes. We’re gonna have ourselves some fun…
Not debate, they’ll be asking why we don’t “Compromise” (aka give in to them).
Fun? This should be easy! The next few days, we’re going to see a bunch of folks come here thinking they’re going to bust up the yes man commenting system. Little do they know how much practice we’ve had with hummer and MikeyBDigits. They’re going to get thrashed (but politely, guys) by multiple comments debunking their emotions. I can see a bunch getting frazzled. The FLAME DELETED line is about to get over worked. But, please, just them flaming us, makes us look more professional.
I haven only been here a couple weeks (not sure how I didn’t see this site for all of these years) but my first post I read has an entertaining MikeyBdigits post. I knew I had to stay! I hope we have more like him show up to so we can educate them.
How many people practiced fire drills at their parents home growing up? I know I did! My dad also told me the drill if bad people came into the house and I was able to get the .357 out of the gun cabinet. It’s called being prepared. I like how the Rabbi has prepared his family with a plan.
On the bright side, while some (ok most) are diehards who will never be swayed by facts, there will be some who visit and take something positive and pro2A away with them. Especially if we sell it.
I hope we stay as civil as we generally are. Not soft, not rolling over, but scientific and civilized. Even when they aren’t.
This is coming – so we can let it control us or we can control it. Get our message out. Anyone wiling to engage has some doubts, or can be given some by getting to the facts. The diehard antis will head back to huffypo when they get no traction. But others will stay. This is an opportunity.
RF and Rabbi, congratulations on making the “Bigs”. For the WaPo, that was pretty fair and balanced.
Much like the so called “Silent Majority”, we are winning despite all of the MSM’s objections and rhetoric to the contrary. Yes, we still have a very difficult row to hoe as time passes, but we are in a position of strength that we haven’t been able to enjoy in decades. All that they have is lies and misdirection. We have truth, data and rationality on our side. Will that be enough to carry the day? I don’t rightly know but it’s a pretty good start and a decent place from which to carry the fight.
I agree. I thought it was a very nice article. Gun control folks like me will be struck with the foolishness of arming yourself and preparing for imaginary situations that are extremely unlikely to happen. But, we’ve discussed that enough.
If the event is some ‘imaginary situation that is extremely unlikely to happen’ why bother with gun control at all? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
This is the very point. Misuse of the gun is more likely than proper defensive use. That makes arming yourself one of the stupidest decisions you could make – except in rare cases.
Instead you’ll just soil your pants and call for someone with a gun to come and file a report after you’ve been robbed / raped / murdered. The logic is brilliant. /s
“That makes arming yourself one of the stupidest decisions you could make – except in rare cases.”
Unless you need it. Then whether or not you are armed will either become the smartest decision you ever made, or the last decision you’ll ever make.
Misuse of the gun is more likely than proper defensive use.
Other than the fact all the science does not concur with that conclusion, it’s gotten to be such an oft-repeated lie that nobody called you on it.
Even DoJs conservative estimate of 1MM defensive gun uses per year puts that maguffin to bed. And frankly, even I think that estimate may be high.
“Even DoJs conservative estimate of 1MM defensive gun uses per year puts that maguffin to bed.”
All the estimates of DGUs rest on a formula that 90%, or more in some cases, were the brandishing kind, with no record of any kind except the gun owner himself regaling tales of heroism in the face of lethal danger. You can’t expect anyone to take that seriously and consider it evidence.
All the estimates of DGUs rest on a formula that 90%, or more in some cases, were the brandishing kind, with no record of any kind except the gun owner himself regaling tales of heroism in the face of lethal danger. You can’t expect anyone to take that seriously and consider it evidence.
All evidence is anecdotal until compiled. Pretty sure you never made the HS debate team (let alone college), huh? I’ll bet a double-ruby on it…
Meanwhile, let’s pretend. Let’s pretend it’s only 10% of that DoJ figure. A mere 280-ish times per day. Across a population of 320MM. Almost a rounding error in stat terms.
Do you really suggest that those 5 people per day who “brandish” a weapon per state should just lie there and take it? That they should submit to victimhood? That they should watch their significant other be raped/killed before their eyes? That they should watch their children raped/killed before their eyes?
53? Given the pictures I’ve seen and your videos on YouTube, I’d have guessed more like 43.
I seriously thought 53 was a typo. Robert’s lookin’ good!
The way he links to semi-dressed foreign models I would have guessed 23.
Great article, and good looking dog too!
+1 to both!
Great article, well up to the whole “dog parka” thing. Just kidding, Robert.
As fair as could be expected, I guess. I found it interesting to read about your background. I knew about “TTAC” but never realized you were older before becoming a ‘gun guy’. (Agree that the dog was a handome fella!)
Good article. Texas is a great state, but Wyoming is better.
Montana begs to disagree 🙂
Yeah, screw that. I’m just going to leave this here and say that I sweated through my tshirt while on my bike ride today, because there weren’t any clouds to block the sun beating down.
So what you’re saying is that Florida is always intolerably hot, and Montana is pleasantly brisk.
Noted.
“Florida is always intolerably hot”
That’s not what I said, but it serves my purposes fine if people believe that. I was born and raised here, and I resent the hell out of all the carpetbaggers that have come down here in the last 20 years. This state would be a lot more pleasant with about 5-7 million fewer people.
Doggie parkas? Really?
Otherwise, not a bad piece. I especially liked the little Q&A with his daughter. She’s been brought up right, I’ll tell you that!
Hey, it’s cold out there. Schnauzers can’t deal.
Excuses, excuses.
My Miniature Pinscher gets a sweater when it’s cold enough. It seems less embarrassing to me than having a dog shivering like crazy all the time.
My Weimaraner gets cold in the winter time. In SoCal. Although, she’s incapable of yapping because she weighs a whole lot more than 20 lbs. Rroowwrr!!!
I personally see it as a step in the right direction. They came to talk and posted their review in a fair manner. All the attention it garners this place will not be good but it will definitely not be all bad either.
Reading it I learned a bit about the guy and if they can see we are all human just like they are, maybe some people can be reasoned with.
I do not for a second think that Robert hasn’t been dying to speak his piece. This has likely been cathartic for him and hopefully a step in the direction he’s having this place take.
Good show, RF
Yes and No. While reading the articles, I thought fondly of RF, who created the blog solely responsible for more than 50% of my Internet time. Such devotion has, at times, even caused my marriage to be imperiled (I jest. Somewhat.)
However, I get a very left – wing alarmist perspective from WaPo. There is specific mention of the hardware used by RF and the Rabbi which we can certainly appreciate. Yet apparently neither RF nor the Rabbi have had a DGU. In the eyes of the media, they are right – wing alarmists who “cling” to their firearms despite never using them for their much acclaimed defensive purposes. If these *experts* have never needed their firearms for defensive purposes, it is likely that no one else would need them as well. Hence, the only reasonable thing to do would be to allow firearms to be banned or controlled. I almost get Michael Moore undertones.
Or perhaps I’m just reading too much into this.
There isn’t a way to see it as totally positive. That’d be reaching for the Holy Frail of objectivity. As is, I don’t let the fallacy of need (a lovely phrase I picked up here recently) distinguish what a reporter has to say. After all, they did focus on his hardware and their ability with said hardware but slandering RF wouldn’t be difficult. I would even venture to say they went out of their way to be objective. Maybe they haven’t needed the hardware yet and the reporter is sure to note this but they did NOT say the thought was ludicrous either. That’s what I was looking for.
Reading too much into it? You’re paying attention and one of us is playing Devil’a Advocate. Time will tell which of us.
I found the article very fair and well written. And I am hyper sensitive to media bias. Good job, RF, Rabbi and the author.
OK, question about a stat in this story. On the last page of the link, the reporter brings up the CDC state of 31,672 “deaths from firearms” in 2010. I’ve seen this stat quoted elsewhere, including in a letter by my local (Dem) congressman. Meanwhile, the FBI, in its 2011 “Expanded Homicide Data Table” (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-11 ) states that there were 8,583 homicides caused by guns. So, assuming that both sets of stats from the two years are accurate, does this mean that anti-gunners are using a huge number of gun-caused SUICIDES to advocate for gun control?
Just trying to wrap my head around this… that taking away guns will reduce suicides?
Actually, rethinking this, I can see that it would include accidental deaths. Even so….
“…does this mean that anti-gunners are using a huge number of gun-caused SUICIDES to advocate for gun control?”
Yes. Over and over and over again. Every single time you see a grabber use a number between twenty-five and thirty-five thousand to represent gun deaths, you know that approximately two thirds of that number represents suicides. They will use that larger, total number every single time they get the opportunity to do so without being called on it. Which is why every time you see it, you need to call them on it. Study after study has shown that suicide is ultimately method-independent, and a reduction in gun ownership will cause a reduction in gun suicide, while the overall suicide rate remains effectively the same.
Absolutely. Although your factual assessment of the suicide situation is conspicuously absent in the WaPo article.
I was particularly disappointed that there was no mention of how suicide rate has been proven to be independent of method used.
What up with that, RF? Did the quote get cut from the final article so it wasn’t too stat-heavy or something?
AlphaGeek, I would suggest that the death rate vs suicide rate subject never had a quote to be cut. That would likely fall under the heading of information that was researched and inserted into the story while it was being written, after the interview.
Yes, anti’s usually include suicides (which exceed murders). That’s a large part of the “you or a family member are more likely to be killed by a gun if you have a your house” routine. So gun owners should start using a rope just like the anti’s?
I also have a problem with the passive construction of those claims, where it’s the demonic gun that does the killing.
I suppose it would be too much to ask for the confiscators to be marginally more honest and compare it to other forms of suicide, without the evil-gun BS.
Yes, that is one of their more notorious frauds.
If you mention it, they say people wouldn’t committed suicide without having the guns handy; the guns enticed them to kill themselves, or allowed a spur-of-the-moment decision to be acted on.
If you then show country after country suicide stats around a gun ban, where the overall level remained constant and only the method changed, they say the gun culture hasn’t faded away yet, and we will have to wait longer to see the result.
Yep. And Japan never had a gun culture, but rather a sword culture. So, because they haven’t gotten over the sword thing, they jump in front of trains. Has nothing whatever to do with social pressures.
OK, it’s pretty clear now. One more thing to add to the long checklist of fraud, deceit, and lies when it comes to the other side.
This particular bit makes me sick to my stomach because of how they are again dancing on the graves of dead people (like Sandy Hook) to make political points. I knew two people who committed suicide. One used (his own) gun, the other barbiturates. I know the one who shot himself would have killed himself even without any guns around.
Lets hope it gets printed just like the internet article, it will not be able to change the minds of all gun grabbers, but if it could change the mind of “just one”
RF, enjoyed the article, good job.
I would have expected a smear job, considering the source, but that was a very fair (and informative) article.
My only quibble was this line on page 3, where the author accidentally let “assault rifle” slip in there incorrectly: “The national debate about gun violence is often framed around the question of why anyone would need an assault rifle, or a 30-round magazine, to hunt a deer.”
Other than that, I thought it was a really good, fair, even-handed piece.
Yeah, +1. Having done the press thing myself, I can tell you that this is as good as it gets.
“Other than that, I thought it was a really good, fair, even-handed piece.” I will agree with you on that……..let us hope that it actually gets printed, and does not end up as detritus on the editor’s floor tonight. I will remain optimistic, but the press has not done a very good job on the pro side of the issue.
I had this from a disarmist recently. I told him that hunting season in the US is often during very cold periods and your don’t want to fumble about with numb fingers reloading all the time. An example where a ‘high capacity’ firearm is safer, I thought.
Jews have been systematically kicked around and killed in large numbers since before they even ever coalesced into a definitive ethnic group. The Holocaust wasn’t the first systematic mass murder of Jews and other “undesirables” in history by any means. Nor, sadly, will it be the last. RF and the Rabbi have every right to take “never again” seriously.
COMMENT DELETED
Sorry Matt but this is not going to be another thread about holocaust “bragging rights.”
It’s OK, he cross-posted the exact same comment into the comments section on the WaPo article, too.
As a Jew and former IDF member I take “never again” very seriously.
As a non-Jew I take it very seriously and swear I will be standing there right beside y’all.
I do always find it weird that [we] Jewish folk tend to be so liberal in general — voting Democrat, anti-gun, etc. For the reason everyone has mentioned, protection from persecution, but also for some other practical reasons like the fact that Democrats don’t support Israel like Republicans do. Like the fact that — and sure, this is a huge stereotype — Jews tend to be financially successful and would probably benefit personally from ‘republican’ tax policies.
I grew up in an area with very few other Jews, and pretty darn close to some major national hubs for white supremacist / neo-nazi groups. Still, I barely, barely ever actually saw or felt antisemitism. UNTIL RECENTLY. No joke, this talk of assault weapons bans and confiscation and such has spurred A LOT of it. Soooo many of the comments on Pro2A videos that I have watched on YouTube, plus blog/news comments (NOT on this site, however!), are extremely antisemitic. Claims that this whole thing is due to Jews wanting to disarm non-jews and “take over.” Really nutso stuff. I mean, sure, Feinstein is Jewish but claiming it’s some vast Jew-driven zionist conspiracy to take over the world is crazy. I would have been in on the invite and I got nothing in the mail about it haha. Anyway… I even stumbled across specifically anti-jew 2A-related videos on YouTube. Not a fan. It scares me to suddenly see so very much of this. I guess I’ll just cling onto my guns even tighter then.
Our Proprietor makes the Bigs!
Now, you’re infamous, Robert Farago.
Looking good, especially the photo of the AimPoint in front of your designer glasses. That communicates all sorts of modern casual tactical cool.
By the way, sorry, but couldn’t hold my funnybones together when I read this:
Back home, Farago greets his daughter, Lola. His nanny calls a cab. Lola is in third grade and attends a Quaker school. That’s a bit awkward for the gun blogger, and he tries to keep his interests “on the down-low.”
A grandson of a Holocaust surviving Jew, who owns a pro-gun blog, sends his daughter to the uber-pacificist peacenik-y Quaker school.
Always knew you had a cathartic zen sense of humor, now it’s confirmed!
And:
“How do you think you could have stopped that?” he says.
“The teachers having guns,” the 9-year-old says.
“Do you think your teachers should be able to have a gun?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So they can defend us?” she says.
“Is it true that violence isn’t the answer?” he asks.
“Well, it shouldn’t be your first answer,” she says. “If someone’s trying to kill you, yes.”
talk about teaching your daughter well!
I can just see the ‘um, no DUH, WaPo man!’ written all over her face, as your daughter Lola said this: ““So they can defend us?” she says.”
Overall, for an MSM scribe, it wasn’t wholly bad, despite the slight snarkedy snark snark, ender punctuation:
But that’s not the point. The point is that Farago was alert to the potential danger in the world. He was prepared to defend himself, if absolutely necessary, with his Glock. Even though, so far in his incarnation as a gun guy, he’s never had any reason.
Suppose that’s as ‘neutral’ as a statist scribe can be.
As someone who’s never been interviewed by WaPo, so I have no reference to gauge other than an extrapolation of known reality and some familiarity with media business, must say, all in all, you were rather excellent in it; well done Herr Farago. Well done.
My father was a Holocaust survivor. My grandparents on his side not.
My grandparents on his side not.
That just brought a chill to my body and tears to my eyes.
I have always been interested in history and ww2 especially, probably because my dad was in the army then and my mom’s 2nd and 3rd husbands too, so what they were fighting for was always at the fore in talking or thinking about that time. It took a long time into my adulthood to think “what if they never allowed themselves to be disarmed? Would that have stopped the murder of 12 million people?”
Pardon me Robert,
I distinctly remembered you writing about your father being a holocaust survivor (how could one forget with the very visual narrative of his wake-in-the-middle-of-the-nightmare bouts you so aptly described in the past, here @TTAG), so when I read the WaPo scribe referencing your grandparents, I presumed.
My apologies.
Quakers are also activists. They helped free slaves back in the day.
Funny how a 9 year old has more common sense and intelligence than the vast majority of the adult public.
Overall, very good. Kudos, Robert! When are you back in my neck of the woods (Florida)? Be sure to call!
Seemed like a good write up(nice dog BTW). The “is always on alert” sounded,how you say, over protective? Maybe I read that wrong though, Randy
I wish I knew where I read it, but it stated that the criminals target people who looked oblivious, hunched shoulders etc. Someone who is aware, walks with some authority would get a pass. This is the same for military targets. Do you attack the group that is armed to the teeth, aware and alert? Or do you attack the convoy with people asleep in their turrets? Being alert isn’t paranoia, it potentially may make you less of a target.
He may be an asshat, but you’re dead wrong about Indian population. His link showing estimates of 50-100 million is backed up by several anecdotal reports. I’m certain I have some of these details wrong, but the general gist is valid.
A spaniard, maybe Ponce de Leon, came up from Florida and traipsed all over before leaving elsewhere, maybe the Texas coast. One hundred years later, more or less, a Frenchman came down the Mississippi, and their paths crossed in Arkansas. Here the Spaniard had reported village after village visible from anywhere, and the Frenchman reported it almost empty, hard to find any villages.
In the 1500s, English fishing off the New England coast risked their lives trying to land to get fresh water of game due to the number of villages close to the coast. One of these landings included a battle where Squanto was captured and taken back to England, which is how he learned English. Many years later, trying to get back to his home, he got a ride on the Mayflower, and they found almost no villages of any sort. Squanto’s tribe had vanished, and tried to get the English to help a formerly-enemy tribe beat up a different enemy tribe, which is where a lot of misunderstandings came from.
Both population drops are attributed to disease.
By 1700 or so, only 80 years after the Pilgrims had landed, the Indian population had been subject to plague after plague every 10-20 years, losing something like half their population each time. The Indian population was so low by then that when histories were written, they dismissed as nonsense all the original reports from the 1620s of how many Indians there were, and when you consider how depopulated the 1620 coast was compared to just a few decades before, it’s pretty obvious there had been a whole lot of Indians before the white man’s diseases killed them off.
Expect more antigun pro democrate nut cases like OE to be saying how evil we are because we support the 2A and will oppose any take over by the media backed Fascists.
” including an AR-15-style semiautomatic (an FN SCAR-16 — Special Forces Combat Assault Rifle).”
Since when is a SCAR-16 an “AR-15 style” semiautomatic (redundant)
Not to mention the SOF’s have only stuck with the SCAR-17, for economy’s sake presumably.
Since when did you get an AR-15? I thought you only had the fish gun…
Great article, RF!
Please store all tinfoil hats and black helicopters for the next few days. We should start the new readers out with the easy stuff, before educating them to the larger and highly unpleasant complications that would arise under the proposed disarmament legislation. Baby steps, people.
If be happy if we could go a full week. Then another week. Then after that…
The Holocaust may not be the worst example of genocide by numbers, but it was the most industrialized and most modern of genocides to date. It takes whole new level of brutality and coldness to cage, work, starve, and then murder the survivors by the methods chosen by the Nazis.
Many genocides in history occurred in bursts of violence as part of warfare, but the Nazis killed the Jews slowly and coldly, not in the heat of battle.
The position of the Jewish people is not the same as the the heated assaults in Rwanda, or the misguided attempts to convert the Native Americans. The Nazi death camps were well-organized machines of the modern age.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand the comments about how you are a paranoid right winger are already coming in on WaPo.
People will never believe something will happen to them… until it does. It is pathetic how reactionary our society has become. Why have personal responsibility when the government can do it for you!
*sigh*
I laughed when I read the comments of people asking not to be helped because they don’t want to be shot by “inadequately trained” citizens. I wonder if they would feel better being shot by “trained professionals” instead?
By the way RF, like the glasses. Reminds me I’m due for a new set soon.
The same people who will never be in a car accident.
CONGRATS.
Way to go Robert!
I love Lola’s answers! Great nine year old, it is so simple and easy to understand isn’t it..
I have to admit, that this whole gun blog, and second amendment rights thing does infringe on my marriage, but down deep she also understands it’s important.
I hope and pray we will continue to grow and and get out the good word.
CONGRATS! Printing to read later.
They said visceral pleasure….heh heh heh
Robert, I am not sure how much you have shared of you’re life before I joined TTAG but thanks. I came across The Truth About Cars while typing TTAG in my browser, I always thought the name was a coincidence.
Do you ever eat at Fire and Ice outside the Providence Place Mall? Good food and experience. I used to take my ex-wife there when we lived in Connecticut.
Thank you as always for the hard work.
I carry a gun everyday and while I’m generally pretty aware of my surroundings I don’t make too much of it. It’s as natural as carrying a set of car keys to me. This author made you guys sound paranoid, probably intentionally.
+1
For at least the past 2 years, I’ve regarded TTAG as “ground zero” for everything related to the overarching issues of guns in America. There are blogs and forums that are more specialized and localized, but TTAG gets it from the 50,000 foot view right down to ground level.
This is the pulse.
I thought it was a fair article despite a few lines in there designed to appeal to anti-rights folks and to try and undermine the subject.
I took issue with the phrase “the gun fundamentalists” which was linked to an article about how the NRA was turned from a marksmanship group to a gun lobby. Also, the term “fundamentalists” immediately brings to mind undertones of terrorism, furthering in the minds of those already convinced, that we are “domestic terrorists.” Subtleties such as this I cannot ignore and find at least slightly destructive to any positive light that may have been shed in the article.
Second, the very last line of the article (an echo from other parts of the article) stating “Even though, so far in his incarnation as a gun guy, he’s never had any reason.” is another subtle erosion of any legitimacy that had been offered previous. The implication is that we are indeed crazy people, toting guns for the love of guns, and not for any legitimate need. Again, they use “need” as a means of framing the issue.
I thought it was a more fair article than usual, however. Kudos to the author for at least trying.
Would it be too soon to take odds on how many threats
get leveled at the readers, and writers (RF in particular)?
How about how many get an interview from a Holder
justice lackey? Let’s hope it doesn’t happen but I doubt
many of us will be surprised if it does.
Let’s setup a program to donate $1 or whatever for every
threat to a group that trains kids in proper firearm handling
like the Eddie Eagle program. It also may not be a bad thing
to record and post threats and shear lunacy on a weekly
basis.
Robert,
I first discovered your blog years ago at thetruthaboutcars.com a bit before the GM bankruptcy. I came to TTAG after you left TTAC.
I have to say, I like what you’ve done with the place.
I too have become a 2nd amendment “absolutist”. In the space of less than a year, I went from not thinking about 2A and firearms to a gun safe full of stuff and the realization that the 2nd amendment protects, not only my family, but the entire constitution and nation.
I owe this realization partially to one of my gun enthusiast friends and to you.
Thanks for the great work.
-ted
Just read the article…and the comments. its entirely liberals trying to earn tough guy rights by bragging about how guns are useless in self defense, how they can rely on the police to stop the bad guy before he strikes, and using their “logic” to mark RF as a paranoid terrorist.
Hey I have an idea, since logic seems to be the liberals worst enemy, why don’t we hit them with so much it kills them? Because like the rest of you im so sick of hearing morons shout legislation and bullcrap about a topic they know nothing about.
Given the biased and somewhat less than factual press on the gun rights lately, this article is about as good as it gets. Also, interesting to get a bit more information on your background.
It will be interesting to see comments here over the next few weeks, though I expect when anti’s are confronted with real facts they will disappear quickly.
Fair as far as articles like these go, and it sounds like RF did a great job not only representing the TTAG community, but the gun rights community as well. I’m also impressed that RF and Rabbi were able to convince the WaPo reporters to come to the range with them!
As for TTAG getting more traffic, I forsee it being a mostly good thing. Yeah, we’ll probably get an influx of trolls, but large amounts of WaPo readers, who remain open to the TRUTH about guns, will be exposed to the wealth of articles here on TTAG (which like the NY Times, has a large readership outside of the city in which the paper resides). I call it a PR win.
I suppose the use of biased terms like Weapon and “Special Forces Assualt Weapon” less than a dozen times points to the author’s attempt to be “fair”
Well, I got as far as the part under the picture where the reporterette says you’re against banning automatic assault rifles…..
Nice write up and bold of you and Rabbi to be so “out there.” I am wondering why they did not talk about David’s law enforcement background?
For such a time as this indeed.
Eric
As a former frum Jew I love the fact that the article revolves around places to eat 🙂
“Once you put a gun on, you gain situational awareness”.
What a joke and full of misguide. There are tons of morons out there that do not gain this.
I’m curious; the article mentions you are a second-amendment absolutist, but when asked about bazookas it quotes you as saying, “we’re not crazy.” Wouldn’t being an absolutist mean that you would think it’s okay to own a bazooka, or a select-fire rifle, or a Mark 19, etc.?
Absolutely.
How is that “crazy?”
It means no back ground checks, no BS clauses due to shipping across state lines.
Small arms whether fully automatic, or semi auto should all be available to the public. Historically cannons were privately owned, so if we look at modern times, an RPG, and an M-16 would be considered equivalent.
The idea of owning an RPG, and being able to afford firing one even to practice is out of reach of most, if not all of the American public.
It really is a compromise on our parts not to push for that, and in general minus full out war on tyranny there is really no reason for it.
To that end if a civil war were to break out, and this is just theory, take the tin foil hat off. If this were to happen, the people devoted to the citizens and the Constitution would clean out the national guard armories, and the citizens would now have control of such weapons. Many enlisted would also join ranks taking their arms with them.
I read through the linked story. Lola handled herself with maturity and she was able to articulate herself very well.
Great article. The comment section below the article has already started the stupidity. It’s the usual fare.
MAN the posts on that website are horrible! Just crazy, crazy anti-gun stuff that’s totally baseless in anything resembling reality. Talk about shooting from the hip haha
Also, that article just really kept driving home the fact that you are financially well-off. I can’t believe how much focus is on that, and I’m not really sure what the point is and whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing or if the author is just crazy or jealous or what. But the house, the dogs, the neighborhood, the restaurants, the ‘job,’ the nanny, the blah blah blah it was really weird to see this much effort spent hammering home this image when I don’t see how it’s related to the subject matter. Whatever.
JMS you forget that success is now measured on how much government teat your sucking on. Critical thinking skills, working in the private sector, and actually making money is frowned upon now, unless your a big time donnor to the political class.
You must sacrifice to support those that choose not to work. Obviously your not apart of the group think these days. The comments at WaPo are ugly.
You have a mental problem if you do not think like they do. Funny if you have ever traveled or lived in other countries, you will find multi generational familes but in the USA it is ok to kick your mother to the street and have the government take care of her.
there are a lot of nasty comments on the washington post article about you RF. we stand behind you 100%. keep up the good work to all the TTAG staff.
You expect any less from them? Why would people who don’t respect or like themselves enough to even desire the most basic implements of self-defense show any respect for others?
For your own sake, don’t read the comment section. It’s bad enough that they project some kind of laughable paramilitary image on to anyone who owns anything more threatening looking than a slingshot, but to bring his kids into the discussion is down right despicable.
The comments on WaPo make me sick; what has happened to freedom and our country?
The article depressed me because of the level of writing. The article came off as rather simplistic and the author gave off an element of “I’m only doing this because I was told by my editor to do an article. Therefore, I will merely transcribe the interview, so I can move on to something more aligned with my world view.”
My two cents. That and 98 cents will get a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Man, those people in the comments really, REALLY don’t like you…..
What a bunch of mouth breathers….
Considering the source, RF, this was a love letter. And I’m not talking about a Frank Booth love letter.
Kudos if you dig the “Blue Velvet” reference.
+1 on the Blue Velvet reference.
I’d rather be a paranoid Jew, then a forgetful mindless Jew.
Dear God, the comments section on the Washington Post site…
I agree the haters are out…
One even said RF needs more Viagra LMAO! It is really sad…
I think we all have pretty much been called killers, and racists, with small male members..
Brother, I thought you lived in Texas?! Pack up your stuff and come on. We’re a friendly bunch and we welcome defectors from more oppressive states.
If off topic inflammatory comments are so bad, then why dont you speak out about the anti-leo, anti-government, anti-obama, anti-liberal, caliber wars, brand wars, etc comments?
Matt, we could say the same thing about your off topic postings about the Holocaust, Israel, and the American military.
What? Where is there a Starbucks with 1$ coffee…lol. That’s like telling me DiFi owns an AR…just can’t be true!
Take the WaPo comments section as a badge of honor, RF. We’d know we were on the wrong path if sub-human trash like that actually agreed with you.
Remember, to be despised by the despicable is akin to being admired by the admirable.
Can’t wait to see all the “non-violent” and “tolerant” posts that come from the antis because of this.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot by reading this blog and many of the thoughtful comments here over the past year+. Unfortunately browsing the comments following the article at the WashPo site I feel a little dumber now.
Great website RF, keep up the good work! If this site ever goes away I’ll have a good chunk of free time back I’ll have to figure out how to fill.
I’ve only started reading TTAG in recent months, so that provides an interesting look at how it came about. Good stuff!
I always wondered if TTAC and TTAG had some sort of relation besides the name…
Many in the comments section of the Wapo article didn’t care for u, but that was to be expected. U really put parkas on your dogs?
please foreign commenters, come on here. Im awaiting huffpro and washington post creatures.
ill offer a free surgery for a new asshole.
Florida begs to disagree. No state income tax, sunny weather year round and scantily clad gorgeous women, or good looking men if you’re into that, running around 9 to 10 months out of the year. 1M of them carry concealed
And Jacksonville isn’t as hot as the rest of Florida…nor do we get pelted with hurricanes the way much of the rest of the state does 🙂
Very nice article btw. Nice to learn a bit about the man behind the monitor. Cute daughter too 🙂
always good to know about the management.
A weapon is like your Fire Extinguisher, or first aid kit. Its not appropriate for all uses but can handle a lot of little stuff and if you have a big problem, its better to have some resources.
Reading the comments at the Post site reminded me of listening to discussions from people I’ve known about automobile malfunctions who have never even had their heads under the hood of a car. Arguing with anti-gun fanatics is pretty fruitless because they have an an instant imaginary scenario to support each of their presuppositions. The fact that the 2nd Amendment exists is ultimately a fearful reality that the bury-your-head-in-the-sand crowd is emotionally and mentally unprepared for. The Constitution cannot, and does not guarantee our safety, but the 2nd Amendment provides a better means of protection than rocks or clubs.
Prepare for an influx of angry, barely literate, Facebook-style postings in the few days after this goes live.
This, unfortunately.
We’ll have the WaPo/Huffpo crowd down here trying to “debate” aka – vomit emotions and nonsensical “figures” and quotes. We’re gonna have ourselves some fun…
Not debate, they’ll be asking why we don’t “Compromise” (aka give in to them).
Fun? This should be easy! The next few days, we’re going to see a bunch of folks come here thinking they’re going to bust up the yes man commenting system. Little do they know how much practice we’ve had with hummer and MikeyBDigits. They’re going to get thrashed (but politely, guys) by multiple comments debunking their emotions. I can see a bunch getting frazzled. The FLAME DELETED line is about to get over worked. But, please, just them flaming us, makes us look more professional.
I haven only been here a couple weeks (not sure how I didn’t see this site for all of these years) but my first post I read has an entertaining MikeyBdigits post. I knew I had to stay! I hope we have more like him show up to so we can educate them.
How many people practiced fire drills at their parents home growing up? I know I did! My dad also told me the drill if bad people came into the house and I was able to get the .357 out of the gun cabinet. It’s called being prepared. I like how the Rabbi has prepared his family with a plan.
On the bright side, while some (ok most) are diehards who will never be swayed by facts, there will be some who visit and take something positive and pro2A away with them. Especially if we sell it.
I hope we stay as civil as we generally are. Not soft, not rolling over, but scientific and civilized. Even when they aren’t.
This is coming – so we can let it control us or we can control it. Get our message out. Anyone wiling to engage has some doubts, or can be given some by getting to the facts. The diehard antis will head back to huffypo when they get no traction. But others will stay. This is an opportunity.
RF and Rabbi, congratulations on making the “Bigs”. For the WaPo, that was pretty fair and balanced.
Much like the so called “Silent Majority”, we are winning despite all of the MSM’s objections and rhetoric to the contrary. Yes, we still have a very difficult row to hoe as time passes, but we are in a position of strength that we haven’t been able to enjoy in decades. All that they have is lies and misdirection. We have truth, data and rationality on our side. Will that be enough to carry the day? I don’t rightly know but it’s a pretty good start and a decent place from which to carry the fight.
I agree. I thought it was a very nice article. Gun control folks like me will be struck with the foolishness of arming yourself and preparing for imaginary situations that are extremely unlikely to happen. But, we’ve discussed that enough.
If the event is some ‘imaginary situation that is extremely unlikely to happen’ why bother with gun control at all? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
This is the very point. Misuse of the gun is more likely than proper defensive use. That makes arming yourself one of the stupidest decisions you could make – except in rare cases.
Instead you’ll just soil your pants and call for someone with a gun to come and file a report after you’ve been robbed / raped / murdered. The logic is brilliant. /s
“That makes arming yourself one of the stupidest decisions you could make – except in rare cases.”
Unless you need it. Then whether or not you are armed will either become the smartest decision you ever made, or the last decision you’ll ever make.
Misuse of the gun is more likely than proper defensive use.
Other than the fact all the science does not concur with that conclusion, it’s gotten to be such an oft-repeated lie that nobody called you on it.
Even DoJs conservative estimate of 1MM defensive gun uses per year puts that maguffin to bed. And frankly, even I think that estimate may be high.
“Even DoJs conservative estimate of 1MM defensive gun uses per year puts that maguffin to bed.”
All the estimates of DGUs rest on a formula that 90%, or more in some cases, were the brandishing kind, with no record of any kind except the gun owner himself regaling tales of heroism in the face of lethal danger. You can’t expect anyone to take that seriously and consider it evidence.
All the estimates of DGUs rest on a formula that 90%, or more in some cases, were the brandishing kind, with no record of any kind except the gun owner himself regaling tales of heroism in the face of lethal danger. You can’t expect anyone to take that seriously and consider it evidence.
All evidence is anecdotal until compiled. Pretty sure you never made the HS debate team (let alone college), huh? I’ll bet a double-ruby on it…
Meanwhile, let’s pretend. Let’s pretend it’s only 10% of that DoJ figure. A mere 280-ish times per day. Across a population of 320MM. Almost a rounding error in stat terms.
Do you really suggest that those 5 people per day who “brandish” a weapon per state should just lie there and take it? That they should submit to victimhood? That they should watch their significant other be raped/killed before their eyes? That they should watch their children raped/killed before their eyes?
53? Given the pictures I’ve seen and your videos on YouTube, I’d have guessed more like 43.
I seriously thought 53 was a typo. Robert’s lookin’ good!
The way he links to semi-dressed foreign models I would have guessed 23.
Great article, and good looking dog too!
+1 to both!
Great article, well up to the whole “dog parka” thing. Just kidding, Robert.
As fair as could be expected, I guess. I found it interesting to read about your background. I knew about “TTAC” but never realized you were older before becoming a ‘gun guy’. (Agree that the dog was a handome fella!)
Good article. Texas is a great state, but Wyoming is better.
Montana begs to disagree 🙂
Yeah, screw that. I’m just going to leave this here and say that I sweated through my tshirt while on my bike ride today, because there weren’t any clouds to block the sun beating down.
So what you’re saying is that Florida is always intolerably hot, and Montana is pleasantly brisk.
Noted.
“Florida is always intolerably hot”
That’s not what I said, but it serves my purposes fine if people believe that. I was born and raised here, and I resent the hell out of all the carpetbaggers that have come down here in the last 20 years. This state would be a lot more pleasant with about 5-7 million fewer people.
Doggie parkas? Really?
Otherwise, not a bad piece. I especially liked the little Q&A with his daughter. She’s been brought up right, I’ll tell you that!
Hey, it’s cold out there. Schnauzers can’t deal.
Excuses, excuses.
My Miniature Pinscher gets a sweater when it’s cold enough. It seems less embarrassing to me than having a dog shivering like crazy all the time.
My Weimaraner gets cold in the winter time. In SoCal. Although, she’s incapable of yapping because she weighs a whole lot more than 20 lbs. Rroowwrr!!!
I personally see it as a step in the right direction. They came to talk and posted their review in a fair manner. All the attention it garners this place will not be good but it will definitely not be all bad either.
Reading it I learned a bit about the guy and if they can see we are all human just like they are, maybe some people can be reasoned with.
I do not for a second think that Robert hasn’t been dying to speak his piece. This has likely been cathartic for him and hopefully a step in the direction he’s having this place take.
Good show, RF
Yes and No. While reading the articles, I thought fondly of RF, who created the blog solely responsible for more than 50% of my Internet time. Such devotion has, at times, even caused my marriage to be imperiled (I jest. Somewhat.)
However, I get a very left – wing alarmist perspective from WaPo. There is specific mention of the hardware used by RF and the Rabbi which we can certainly appreciate. Yet apparently neither RF nor the Rabbi have had a DGU. In the eyes of the media, they are right – wing alarmists who “cling” to their firearms despite never using them for their much acclaimed defensive purposes. If these *experts* have never needed their firearms for defensive purposes, it is likely that no one else would need them as well. Hence, the only reasonable thing to do would be to allow firearms to be banned or controlled. I almost get Michael Moore undertones.
Or perhaps I’m just reading too much into this.
There isn’t a way to see it as totally positive. That’d be reaching for the Holy Frail of objectivity. As is, I don’t let the fallacy of need (a lovely phrase I picked up here recently) distinguish what a reporter has to say. After all, they did focus on his hardware and their ability with said hardware but slandering RF wouldn’t be difficult. I would even venture to say they went out of their way to be objective. Maybe they haven’t needed the hardware yet and the reporter is sure to note this but they did NOT say the thought was ludicrous either. That’s what I was looking for.
Reading too much into it? You’re paying attention and one of us is playing Devil’a Advocate. Time will tell which of us.
I found the article very fair and well written. And I am hyper sensitive to media bias. Good job, RF, Rabbi and the author.
OK, question about a stat in this story. On the last page of the link, the reporter brings up the CDC state of 31,672 “deaths from firearms” in 2010. I’ve seen this stat quoted elsewhere, including in a letter by my local (Dem) congressman. Meanwhile, the FBI, in its 2011 “Expanded Homicide Data Table” (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-11 ) states that there were 8,583 homicides caused by guns. So, assuming that both sets of stats from the two years are accurate, does this mean that anti-gunners are using a huge number of gun-caused SUICIDES to advocate for gun control?
Just trying to wrap my head around this… that taking away guns will reduce suicides?
Actually, rethinking this, I can see that it would include accidental deaths. Even so….
“…does this mean that anti-gunners are using a huge number of gun-caused SUICIDES to advocate for gun control?”
Yes. Over and over and over again. Every single time you see a grabber use a number between twenty-five and thirty-five thousand to represent gun deaths, you know that approximately two thirds of that number represents suicides. They will use that larger, total number every single time they get the opportunity to do so without being called on it. Which is why every time you see it, you need to call them on it. Study after study has shown that suicide is ultimately method-independent, and a reduction in gun ownership will cause a reduction in gun suicide, while the overall suicide rate remains effectively the same.
Absolutely. Although your factual assessment of the suicide situation is conspicuously absent in the WaPo article.
I was particularly disappointed that there was no mention of how suicide rate has been proven to be independent of method used.
What up with that, RF? Did the quote get cut from the final article so it wasn’t too stat-heavy or something?
AlphaGeek, I would suggest that the death rate vs suicide rate subject never had a quote to be cut. That would likely fall under the heading of information that was researched and inserted into the story while it was being written, after the interview.
Yes, anti’s usually include suicides (which exceed murders). That’s a large part of the “you or a family member are more likely to be killed by a gun if you have a your house” routine. So gun owners should start using a rope just like the anti’s?
I also have a problem with the passive construction of those claims, where it’s the demonic gun that does the killing.
I suppose it would be too much to ask for the confiscators to be marginally more honest and compare it to other forms of suicide, without the evil-gun BS.
Yes, that is one of their more notorious frauds.
If you mention it, they say people wouldn’t committed suicide without having the guns handy; the guns enticed them to kill themselves, or allowed a spur-of-the-moment decision to be acted on.
If you then show country after country suicide stats around a gun ban, where the overall level remained constant and only the method changed, they say the gun culture hasn’t faded away yet, and we will have to wait longer to see the result.
Yep. And Japan never had a gun culture, but rather a sword culture. So, because they haven’t gotten over the sword thing, they jump in front of trains. Has nothing whatever to do with social pressures.
OK, it’s pretty clear now. One more thing to add to the long checklist of fraud, deceit, and lies when it comes to the other side.
This particular bit makes me sick to my stomach because of how they are again dancing on the graves of dead people (like Sandy Hook) to make political points. I knew two people who committed suicide. One used (his own) gun, the other barbiturates. I know the one who shot himself would have killed himself even without any guns around.
Lets hope it gets printed just like the internet article, it will not be able to change the minds of all gun grabbers, but if it could change the mind of “just one”
RF, enjoyed the article, good job.
I would have expected a smear job, considering the source, but that was a very fair (and informative) article.
My only quibble was this line on page 3, where the author accidentally let “assault rifle” slip in there incorrectly: “The national debate about gun violence is often framed around the question of why anyone would need an assault rifle, or a 30-round magazine, to hunt a deer.”
Other than that, I thought it was a really good, fair, even-handed piece.
Yeah, +1. Having done the press thing myself, I can tell you that this is as good as it gets.
“Other than that, I thought it was a really good, fair, even-handed piece.” I will agree with you on that……..let us hope that it actually gets printed, and does not end up as detritus on the editor’s floor tonight. I will remain optimistic, but the press has not done a very good job on the pro side of the issue.
I had this from a disarmist recently. I told him that hunting season in the US is often during very cold periods and your don’t want to fumble about with numb fingers reloading all the time. An example where a ‘high capacity’ firearm is safer, I thought.
Jews have been systematically kicked around and killed in large numbers since before they even ever coalesced into a definitive ethnic group. The Holocaust wasn’t the first systematic mass murder of Jews and other “undesirables” in history by any means. Nor, sadly, will it be the last. RF and the Rabbi have every right to take “never again” seriously.
COMMENT DELETED
Sorry Matt but this is not going to be another thread about holocaust “bragging rights.”
It’s OK, he cross-posted the exact same comment into the comments section on the WaPo article, too.
As a Jew and former IDF member I take “never again” very seriously.
As a non-Jew I take it very seriously and swear I will be standing there right beside y’all.
I do always find it weird that [we] Jewish folk tend to be so liberal in general — voting Democrat, anti-gun, etc. For the reason everyone has mentioned, protection from persecution, but also for some other practical reasons like the fact that Democrats don’t support Israel like Republicans do. Like the fact that — and sure, this is a huge stereotype — Jews tend to be financially successful and would probably benefit personally from ‘republican’ tax policies.
I grew up in an area with very few other Jews, and pretty darn close to some major national hubs for white supremacist / neo-nazi groups. Still, I barely, barely ever actually saw or felt antisemitism. UNTIL RECENTLY. No joke, this talk of assault weapons bans and confiscation and such has spurred A LOT of it. Soooo many of the comments on Pro2A videos that I have watched on YouTube, plus blog/news comments (NOT on this site, however!), are extremely antisemitic. Claims that this whole thing is due to Jews wanting to disarm non-jews and “take over.” Really nutso stuff. I mean, sure, Feinstein is Jewish but claiming it’s some vast Jew-driven zionist conspiracy to take over the world is crazy. I would have been in on the invite and I got nothing in the mail about it haha. Anyway… I even stumbled across specifically anti-jew 2A-related videos on YouTube. Not a fan. It scares me to suddenly see so very much of this. I guess I’ll just cling onto my guns even tighter then.
Our Proprietor makes the Bigs!
Now, you’re infamous, Robert Farago.
Looking good, especially the photo of the AimPoint in front of your designer glasses. That communicates all sorts of modern casual tactical cool.
By the way, sorry, but couldn’t hold my funnybones together when I read this:
A grandson of a Holocaust surviving Jew, who owns a pro-gun blog, sends his daughter to the uber-pacificist peacenik-y Quaker school.
Always knew you had a cathartic zen sense of humor, now it’s confirmed!
And:
talk about teaching your daughter well!
I can just see the ‘um, no DUH, WaPo man!’ written all over her face, as your daughter Lola said this: ““So they can defend us?” she says.”
Overall, for an MSM scribe, it wasn’t wholly bad, despite the slight snarkedy snark snark, ender punctuation:
Suppose that’s as ‘neutral’ as a statist scribe can be.
As someone who’s never been interviewed by WaPo, so I have no reference to gauge other than an extrapolation of known reality and some familiarity with media business, must say, all in all, you were rather excellent in it; well done Herr Farago. Well done.
My father was a Holocaust survivor. My grandparents on his side not.
My grandparents on his side not.
That just brought a chill to my body and tears to my eyes.
I have always been interested in history and ww2 especially, probably because my dad was in the army then and my mom’s 2nd and 3rd husbands too, so what they were fighting for was always at the fore in talking or thinking about that time. It took a long time into my adulthood to think “what if they never allowed themselves to be disarmed? Would that have stopped the murder of 12 million people?”
Pardon me Robert,
I distinctly remembered you writing about your father being a holocaust survivor (how could one forget with the very visual narrative of his wake-in-the-middle-of-the-nightmare bouts you so aptly described in the past, here @TTAG), so when I read the WaPo scribe referencing your grandparents, I presumed.
My apologies.
Quakers are also activists. They helped free slaves back in the day.
Funny how a 9 year old has more common sense and intelligence than the vast majority of the adult public.
Overall, very good. Kudos, Robert! When are you back in my neck of the woods (Florida)? Be sure to call!
Seemed like a good write up(nice dog BTW). The “is always on alert” sounded,how you say, over protective? Maybe I read that wrong though, Randy
I wish I knew where I read it, but it stated that the criminals target people who looked oblivious, hunched shoulders etc. Someone who is aware, walks with some authority would get a pass. This is the same for military targets. Do you attack the group that is armed to the teeth, aware and alert? Or do you attack the convoy with people asleep in their turrets? Being alert isn’t paranoia, it potentially may make you less of a target.
He may be an asshat, but you’re dead wrong about Indian population. His link showing estimates of 50-100 million is backed up by several anecdotal reports. I’m certain I have some of these details wrong, but the general gist is valid.
A spaniard, maybe Ponce de Leon, came up from Florida and traipsed all over before leaving elsewhere, maybe the Texas coast. One hundred years later, more or less, a Frenchman came down the Mississippi, and their paths crossed in Arkansas. Here the Spaniard had reported village after village visible from anywhere, and the Frenchman reported it almost empty, hard to find any villages.
In the 1500s, English fishing off the New England coast risked their lives trying to land to get fresh water of game due to the number of villages close to the coast. One of these landings included a battle where Squanto was captured and taken back to England, which is how he learned English. Many years later, trying to get back to his home, he got a ride on the Mayflower, and they found almost no villages of any sort. Squanto’s tribe had vanished, and tried to get the English to help a formerly-enemy tribe beat up a different enemy tribe, which is where a lot of misunderstandings came from.
Both population drops are attributed to disease.
By 1700 or so, only 80 years after the Pilgrims had landed, the Indian population had been subject to plague after plague every 10-20 years, losing something like half their population each time. The Indian population was so low by then that when histories were written, they dismissed as nonsense all the original reports from the 1620s of how many Indians there were, and when you consider how depopulated the 1620 coast was compared to just a few decades before, it’s pretty obvious there had been a whole lot of Indians before the white man’s diseases killed them off.
Expect more antigun pro democrate nut cases like OE to be saying how evil we are because we support the 2A and will oppose any take over by the media backed Fascists.
” including an AR-15-style semiautomatic (an FN SCAR-16 — Special Forces Combat Assault Rifle).”
Since when is a SCAR-16 an “AR-15 style” semiautomatic (redundant)
Not to mention the SOF’s have only stuck with the SCAR-17, for economy’s sake presumably.
Since when did you get an AR-15? I thought you only had the fish gun…
Great article, RF!
Please store all tinfoil hats and black helicopters for the next few days. We should start the new readers out with the easy stuff, before educating them to the larger and highly unpleasant complications that would arise under the proposed disarmament legislation. Baby steps, people.
If be happy if we could go a full week. Then another week. Then after that…
The Holocaust may not be the worst example of genocide by numbers, but it was the most industrialized and most modern of genocides to date. It takes whole new level of brutality and coldness to cage, work, starve, and then murder the survivors by the methods chosen by the Nazis.
Many genocides in history occurred in bursts of violence as part of warfare, but the Nazis killed the Jews slowly and coldly, not in the heat of battle.
The position of the Jewish people is not the same as the the heated assaults in Rwanda, or the misguided attempts to convert the Native Americans. The Nazi death camps were well-organized machines of the modern age.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand the comments about how you are a paranoid right winger are already coming in on WaPo.
People will never believe something will happen to them… until it does. It is pathetic how reactionary our society has become. Why have personal responsibility when the government can do it for you!
*sigh*
I laughed when I read the comments of people asking not to be helped because they don’t want to be shot by “inadequately trained” citizens. I wonder if they would feel better being shot by “trained professionals” instead?
By the way RF, like the glasses. Reminds me I’m due for a new set soon.
The same people who will never be in a car accident.
CONGRATS.
Way to go Robert!
I love Lola’s answers! Great nine year old, it is so simple and easy to understand isn’t it..
I have to admit, that this whole gun blog, and second amendment rights thing does infringe on my marriage, but down deep she also understands it’s important.
I hope and pray we will continue to grow and and get out the good word.
CONGRATS! Printing to read later.
They said visceral pleasure….heh heh heh
Robert, I am not sure how much you have shared of you’re life before I joined TTAG but thanks. I came across The Truth About Cars while typing TTAG in my browser, I always thought the name was a coincidence.
Do you ever eat at Fire and Ice outside the Providence Place Mall? Good food and experience. I used to take my ex-wife there when we lived in Connecticut.
Thank you as always for the hard work.
I carry a gun everyday and while I’m generally pretty aware of my surroundings I don’t make too much of it. It’s as natural as carrying a set of car keys to me. This author made you guys sound paranoid, probably intentionally.
+1
For at least the past 2 years, I’ve regarded TTAG as “ground zero” for everything related to the overarching issues of guns in America. There are blogs and forums that are more specialized and localized, but TTAG gets it from the 50,000 foot view right down to ground level.
This is the pulse.
I thought it was a fair article despite a few lines in there designed to appeal to anti-rights folks and to try and undermine the subject.
I took issue with the phrase “the gun fundamentalists” which was linked to an article about how the NRA was turned from a marksmanship group to a gun lobby. Also, the term “fundamentalists” immediately brings to mind undertones of terrorism, furthering in the minds of those already convinced, that we are “domestic terrorists.” Subtleties such as this I cannot ignore and find at least slightly destructive to any positive light that may have been shed in the article.
Second, the very last line of the article (an echo from other parts of the article) stating “Even though, so far in his incarnation as a gun guy, he’s never had any reason.” is another subtle erosion of any legitimacy that had been offered previous. The implication is that we are indeed crazy people, toting guns for the love of guns, and not for any legitimate need. Again, they use “need” as a means of framing the issue.
I thought it was a more fair article than usual, however. Kudos to the author for at least trying.
Would it be too soon to take odds on how many threats
get leveled at the readers, and writers (RF in particular)?
How about how many get an interview from a Holder
justice lackey? Let’s hope it doesn’t happen but I doubt
many of us will be surprised if it does.
Let’s setup a program to donate $1 or whatever for every
threat to a group that trains kids in proper firearm handling
like the Eddie Eagle program. It also may not be a bad thing
to record and post threats and shear lunacy on a weekly
basis.
Robert,
I first discovered your blog years ago at thetruthaboutcars.com a bit before the GM bankruptcy. I came to TTAG after you left TTAC.
I have to say, I like what you’ve done with the place.
I too have become a 2nd amendment “absolutist”. In the space of less than a year, I went from not thinking about 2A and firearms to a gun safe full of stuff and the realization that the 2nd amendment protects, not only my family, but the entire constitution and nation.
I owe this realization partially to one of my gun enthusiast friends and to you.
Thanks for the great work.
-ted
Just read the article…and the comments. its entirely liberals trying to earn tough guy rights by bragging about how guns are useless in self defense, how they can rely on the police to stop the bad guy before he strikes, and using their “logic” to mark RF as a paranoid terrorist.
Hey I have an idea, since logic seems to be the liberals worst enemy, why don’t we hit them with so much it kills them? Because like the rest of you im so sick of hearing morons shout legislation and bullcrap about a topic they know nothing about.
Given the biased and somewhat less than factual press on the gun rights lately, this article is about as good as it gets. Also, interesting to get a bit more information on your background.
It will be interesting to see comments here over the next few weeks, though I expect when anti’s are confronted with real facts they will disappear quickly.
Fair as far as articles like these go, and it sounds like RF did a great job not only representing the TTAG community, but the gun rights community as well. I’m also impressed that RF and Rabbi were able to convince the WaPo reporters to come to the range with them!
As for TTAG getting more traffic, I forsee it being a mostly good thing. Yeah, we’ll probably get an influx of trolls, but large amounts of WaPo readers, who remain open to the TRUTH about guns, will be exposed to the wealth of articles here on TTAG (which like the NY Times, has a large readership outside of the city in which the paper resides). I call it a PR win.
I suppose the use of biased terms like Weapon and “Special Forces Assualt Weapon” less than a dozen times points to the author’s attempt to be “fair”
Well, I got as far as the part under the picture where the reporterette says you’re against banning automatic assault rifles…..
Nice write up and bold of you and Rabbi to be so “out there.” I am wondering why they did not talk about David’s law enforcement background?
For such a time as this indeed.
Eric
As a former frum Jew I love the fact that the article revolves around places to eat 🙂
“Once you put a gun on, you gain situational awareness”.
What a joke and full of misguide. There are tons of morons out there that do not gain this.
I’m curious; the article mentions you are a second-amendment absolutist, but when asked about bazookas it quotes you as saying, “we’re not crazy.” Wouldn’t being an absolutist mean that you would think it’s okay to own a bazooka, or a select-fire rifle, or a Mark 19, etc.?
Absolutely.
How is that “crazy?”
It means no back ground checks, no BS clauses due to shipping across state lines.
Small arms whether fully automatic, or semi auto should all be available to the public. Historically cannons were privately owned, so if we look at modern times, an RPG, and an M-16 would be considered equivalent.
The idea of owning an RPG, and being able to afford firing one even to practice is out of reach of most, if not all of the American public.
It really is a compromise on our parts not to push for that, and in general minus full out war on tyranny there is really no reason for it.
To that end if a civil war were to break out, and this is just theory, take the tin foil hat off. If this were to happen, the people devoted to the citizens and the Constitution would clean out the national guard armories, and the citizens would now have control of such weapons. Many enlisted would also join ranks taking their arms with them.
I read through the linked story. Lola handled herself with maturity and she was able to articulate herself very well.
Great article. The comment section below the article has already started the stupidity. It’s the usual fare.
MAN the posts on that website are horrible! Just crazy, crazy anti-gun stuff that’s totally baseless in anything resembling reality. Talk about shooting from the hip haha
Also, that article just really kept driving home the fact that you are financially well-off. I can’t believe how much focus is on that, and I’m not really sure what the point is and whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing or if the author is just crazy or jealous or what. But the house, the dogs, the neighborhood, the restaurants, the ‘job,’ the nanny, the blah blah blah it was really weird to see this much effort spent hammering home this image when I don’t see how it’s related to the subject matter. Whatever.
JMS you forget that success is now measured on how much government teat your sucking on. Critical thinking skills, working in the private sector, and actually making money is frowned upon now, unless your a big time donnor to the political class.
You must sacrifice to support those that choose not to work. Obviously your not apart of the group think these days. The comments at WaPo are ugly.
You have a mental problem if you do not think like they do. Funny if you have ever traveled or lived in other countries, you will find multi generational familes but in the USA it is ok to kick your mother to the street and have the government take care of her.
there are a lot of nasty comments on the washington post article about you RF. we stand behind you 100%. keep up the good work to all the TTAG staff.
You expect any less from them? Why would people who don’t respect or like themselves enough to even desire the most basic implements of self-defense show any respect for others?
For your own sake, don’t read the comment section. It’s bad enough that they project some kind of laughable paramilitary image on to anyone who owns anything more threatening looking than a slingshot, but to bring his kids into the discussion is down right despicable.
The comments on WaPo make me sick; what has happened to freedom and our country?
The article depressed me because of the level of writing. The article came off as rather simplistic and the author gave off an element of “I’m only doing this because I was told by my editor to do an article. Therefore, I will merely transcribe the interview, so I can move on to something more aligned with my world view.”
My two cents. That and 98 cents will get a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Man, those people in the comments really, REALLY don’t like you…..
What a bunch of mouth breathers….
Considering the source, RF, this was a love letter. And I’m not talking about a Frank Booth love letter.
Kudos if you dig the “Blue Velvet” reference.
+1 on the Blue Velvet reference.
I’d rather be a paranoid Jew, then a forgetful mindless Jew.
Dear God, the comments section on the Washington Post site…
I agree the haters are out…
One even said RF needs more Viagra LMAO! It is really sad…
I think we all have pretty much been called killers, and racists, with small male members..
Brother, I thought you lived in Texas?! Pack up your stuff and come on. We’re a friendly bunch and we welcome defectors from more oppressive states.
If off topic inflammatory comments are so bad, then why dont you speak out about the anti-leo, anti-government, anti-obama, anti-liberal, caliber wars, brand wars, etc comments?
Matt, we could say the same thing about your off topic postings about the Holocaust, Israel, and the American military.
What? Where is there a Starbucks with 1$ coffee…lol. That’s like telling me DiFi owns an AR…just can’t be true!
Take the WaPo comments section as a badge of honor, RF. We’d know we were on the wrong path if sub-human trash like that actually agreed with you.
Remember, to be despised by the despicable is akin to being admired by the admirable.
Can’t wait to see all the “non-violent” and “tolerant” posts that come from the antis because of this.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot by reading this blog and many of the thoughtful comments here over the past year+. Unfortunately browsing the comments following the article at the WashPo site I feel a little dumber now.
Great website RF, keep up the good work! If this site ever goes away I’ll have a good chunk of free time back I’ll have to figure out how to fill.
I’ve only started reading TTAG in recent months, so that provides an interesting look at how it came about. Good stuff!
I always wondered if TTAC and TTAG had some sort of relation besides the name…
Many in the comments section of the Wapo article didn’t care for u, but that was to be expected. U really put parkas on your dogs?
please foreign commenters, come on here. Im awaiting huffpro and washington post creatures.
ill offer a free surgery for a new asshole.
Florida begs to disagree. No state income tax, sunny weather year round and scantily clad gorgeous women, or good looking men if you’re into that, running around 9 to 10 months out of the year. 1M of them carry concealed
And Jacksonville isn’t as hot as the rest of Florida…nor do we get pelted with hurricanes the way much of the rest of the state does 🙂
Very nice article btw. Nice to learn a bit about the man behind the monitor. Cute daughter too 🙂
always good to know about the management.
A weapon is like your Fire Extinguisher, or first aid kit. Its not appropriate for all uses but can handle a lot of little stuff and if you have a big problem, its better to have some resources.
Reading the comments at the Post site reminded me of listening to discussions from people I’ve known about automobile malfunctions who have never even had their heads under the hood of a car. Arguing with anti-gun fanatics is pretty fruitless because they have an an instant imaginary scenario to support each of their presuppositions. The fact that the 2nd Amendment exists is ultimately a fearful reality that the bury-your-head-in-the-sand crowd is emotionally and mentally unprepared for. The Constitution cannot, and does not guarantee our safety, but the 2nd Amendment provides a better means of protection than rocks or clubs.
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