Gotta vent: Just got off the phone with an old friend of mine. We've known each other for a very long time and pretty much "agree to disagree" on many issues already. But, when she asked if I had brought my gun with me on my recent road trip and I told her, "Yep, it was on my hip the whole time"; she replied with "OMG! That's scary!". When I told her how much that offended me, she was all - 'sheesh' don't take it so seriously! I proceeded to tell her how I'm so fricking sick and tired of hearing that people who want to carry for self-defense are 'scary'; that I'm sick of hearing spoon-fed media regurgitated crap about how gun-owners are evil and all they want to do is kill people. I asked her, "I didn't realize you think I'm such a threat to people?" And then continued with how I refuse to be a victim like a couple people I know who are now dead (one shot in the head and one raped, stabbed and strangled to death) because they didn't take self-defense seriously. "That's why I've been taking these classes and am planning on taking more," I told her. I refuse to let some f&*()g crack-head stab, shoot or harm me in any other way so that he can get his fix. Bad things happen to good people all the time and in every place imaginable. I finally ended with, after you buy your first home and are awoken by some strange sound in the middle of the night I just hope you'll still be around the next day so we can go gun shopping together. I doubt that this will end our friendship. I've been very patient with her in the past and she has even gone to the range with me once. Hopefully she will think a little bit before she speaks so ignorantly next time.

right on

Keep working on her, you may convert her to the dark side yet! Don't give up you've got a lot of liberal brainwashing to wade through, before you get to the rational mind.

mpthole, Good job. It never fails to amaze me how many "anti's" that change their tune when it gets personal. Hopefully thru your guidance she will become a convert. CIB, Thought the DU is the dark side. [:D]

A Liberal is a Conserative that hasn't been mugged yet!

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EDUCATE. Let's not beat up on our friends. I prefer the method of bringing the horse to water, it it's thirsty, it will drink. How about this approach. "Why do you think that is scary?" let her give her reasons and then educate her. -My weapon has an internal safety, it WILL NOT fire until I pull the trigger. You aren't afraid of me are you? If you were you shouldn't drive with me, my car is more dangerous than my gun. -When you are at the bank and you walk past the security guard with a gun on his hip is that scary? Or are you just scared of the "idea" that the media has portrayed, ie that anyone who packs a gun is liable to put you in their trunk, take you across state lines, and cut your body up. -Scarry? I thought a circular saw was scarry until I used on safely. Let me take you to the shooting range and show you how a gun can be handled with 100% safety. keep up the good work

This must be contagious. A "friend" of mine that I hav not seen in awhile who is a gun owner him self told me that I needed to do the responcible thing and get rid of my AR and my AK because no one needs an assult weapon. Shoot! The single shot Sharps was an assult weapon in the 1800's, Then the lever action, and the bolt action. Every improved gun design that that has come out over the years has been for assult purposes. Keep sticking to your guns!!

I hear ya. It's never good to get into it with a friend but I too am sick of the stigma we gun owners/patriots have been given. It's hard to argue rationaly against something so irrational. THEY never use viable statistics or reason, instead relying on buzzwords and emotion. All these years and look where our attempts at reason have gotten us. Got into with the sister-in-law last week, not so much about guns but about freedom. Her thought is if we're safer what's wrong with some lost liberties. Almost turned ugly so had to drop it. She's a conservative Christian (and a good friend) but her desire to protect her family blinds her to any sort of reason. Certainly family always comes first but I think that blindness is what we're up against, and is what the antis utilize so well.

Ever back one of those liberals into a corner? Finally they have to admit that you are a good person, then they have to start attacking you based on your willingness to kill a criminal. They end up defending murderers, rapists, etc. saying that they deserve to live even if they're about to take your life!

"When a fool and a wise man argue, it is difficult to tell them apart." -Ancient Chineese Proverb Chris, so true, you can't argue with someone that does not base their arguement on reason. So when this happens, do as I said above, ask them why? make them defend their position. As gun owners we are so used to defending our position that we are getting good at arguing our point, perhaps too good. It's time to make them start arguing (and trying to prove) their point.

I fiercly protect our God given, constitutionally protected right to bear arms. But I realized the other day that those who do not support our gun rights do not argue facts or logic, all they argue is feelings. Feelings are subjective and irrelivent. That is why people hardly ever change sides. They have to be willing to reason with facts and logic first. What many people also confuse is that it is not a right granted by the Constitution, it is granted by God and protected by the Constitution. Don't even get me started on homosexual rights or when these sheep around us celibrate our so called independance on the fourth of July. It makes me sick. Good job mpthole. Don't give up! Look at it this way, they will eventually end up comming to our side, it's just a matter of whether or not they die under tyranny before it happens.

Good show, mpthole. But it reminds me there are two kinds of antis. One kind of anti says that all guns are evil, and should be banned. The other kind of anti doesn't respond to mpthole (what does that mean anyway?) style arguments because they believe *they* should be able to own guns, just no one else should because other people are mentally unstable, immature, stupid, etc. Your friend may eventually even concede that it is OK that *you* have guns, but most people still shouldn't be "allowed" to own these implements of destruction. See, e.g., everyone's good buddy Feinstein. Anyway, you made a good start and best of luck in the conversion . . .

Thanks for the support everybody! I'll get this person to the range again and try to educate her more. I know what you mean, Ticonderoga, education about the real issue is key. Sometimes its just hard not to go off on people when they make absolutely no sense what-so-ever. Half the time, these people don't even make sense to [i]themselves[/i]! As far as what 'mpthole' means... well, I'd tell you, but that's classified. [;)]

Sometimes I think a good ass-chewing is nedded for those snotty little antis. They're so used to they're dolled up lifestyle of perfection and equality and feel-goodness, that they forget that the world isn't always such a wonderful place. While I agree with Ticonderoga that we should always strive to educate, sometimes they think they're already educated. I just recently had it all out with a really good friend (my little sis in my sorority when we were in college). she took a class on the bill of rights and believes that the RKBA pertains only to the militia. That "normal" citizens are not afforded this right. (of course, I asked her just exactly who made up this militia of hers if not the "normal" citiznes? and of course, she had no answer.) I tried educating her with the myriad statistics and anecdotes that show that the media portrayal is a buch of bull. And all she could do was come back with the question of "Well, who needs an AK-47 anyway?" I told her it wasn't a question of needing one, it was a question of God-given rights. And for that matter, if she was right, that it was a matter of need, I was going to come and confiscate her car tomorrow because she doesn't really "need" one and car accidents kill FAR more people per year than all firearms related deaths combined (except maybe suicide, but I don't really count those as accidents, even though HCI does). My point being that she though she had already been educated. So I was reduced to chewing her out for trying to make me a victim and if something ever happened to me and I wasn't able to defend myself because I couldn't carry, I was going to hold her personally responsible. And I am in the process of finding out who her prof was so I can attempt to "educate" him. Jenn