Guns for the whole family!

NY Daily News ^ | 05.21.06 | Michael Daly

[Coleus]

Aw shoot, they're cute

The NRA's flyer at gigantic weapons fest screams: 'Acres of guns! Bring the family!'

Among the thousands of guns at NRA firearm sale, Emily Carlson, 4, jumps from her stroller to point out her favorite.

MILWAUKEE - The flyer for the 135th annual gathering of the National Rifle Association said to "bring your whole family" to see "acres of the latest guns." And a man behind the registration desk at the exhibition hall on Friday guaranteed this was no exaggeration. "You won't believe it!" he said.  He was right, for to enter the cavernous Midwest Airlines Center was to behold thousands of weapons, many of them handguns that have no real purpose other than to kill people and are produced in far greater numbers than the legitimate demand.  Just inside and to the left was the booth for Smith & Wesson, which manufactures two of the three most-prevalent guns among the 5,551 recovered by the NYPD last year. The list was topped by the Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver, a number of which were on display for anyone to heft.

"It's simple. It's reliable. And it works," said S&W representative Matthew Gibson. Among the gun lovers who had indeed brought their families was Peggy Irving of Missouri. She stood with her baby daughter cradled in a Snugli sling next to a display of the third-most-common gun on the NYPD list, the Smith & Wesson 9-mm. automatic. "I have a Smith & Wesson 9-mm. lady's," Irving said, meaning a smaller version. "I love it."

Her daughter is named Katie, and she is 16 months old, just a little younger than the Bronx 2-year-old who was killed Easter Sunday by a stray round from a 9-mm. Little Katie now reached out and touched a compact 9-mm. that was on display.  "Mama loves these," Irving told her.  Katie's tiny hand moved to a bigger gun, a .40-caliber automatic.  "That one's a little big for you," the mom said playfully. "We don't want you to get a .40 yet." The moment was all the more jarring for a New Yorker because the mother seemed to be as decent and amiable a person as you could ever meet. 

Terry Carlson of rural Wisconsin seemed just as pleasant as he pushed his 4-year-old daughter, Emily, in a stroller past a row of Taurus automatics.  Carlson paused and pointed to three pistols with pink handles. The girl clambered from the stroller and reached up to touch one with her right hand. "Girls like pink," a passerby remarked.  "Yes, they do," Carlson said.  Carlson pushed the stroller on through the acres of guns like the ones that have killed thousands of New Yorkers, hundreds of them children. The Glock booth was selling T-shirts that had an oversized picture of the Glock 17, the same model 9-mm. automatic pistol that killed NYPD Detective Dillon Stewart in Brooklyn last year. The stenciled message read:

"THIS IS MY GLOCK. THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT, BUT THIS ONE IS MINE."

A long line of overgrown boys waited to meet the Glock spokesman, character actor R. Lee Ermey. An even longer line stood by the entrance, where right-wing rocker Ted Nugent was signing copies of his books, which include "Kill It & Grill It."  Nugent wore a camouflage cowboy hat and looked not at all like somebody whose daughter lives in New York and whose brother was once Revlon CEO.  "I love coming to New York," Nugent told a reporter.  But at the gathering's opening celebration earlier Friday afternoon, Nugent had sounded exactly like what he is, an NRA board member - the NRA being the prime force blocking federal legislation that is our only hope of stemming the unending flow of illegal guns into our city.  "They wanted me to come to Man-hattan today," Nugent had joked to the crowd. "Mayor Bloomberg wanted me to come to downtown Man-hattan. I said, 'Mayor, [expletive]! I'm going to the NRA!'"

Those whose family had brought them along to the NRA get-together included a boy about 11 who picked up a pair of automatics. A salesman called out, "Not two at a time. ... Only one at a time."  At the exhibition's indoor air-gun range, 7-year-old Timmy Yackley and his 6-year-old brother Sean were plinking away with replica handguns. Sean hit a bull's-eye.  "Oh, look at that! Cool!" he exclaimed. Sean is not to be confused with 8-year-old Daesean Hill, who was killed by a stray round in Brooklyn in 2003. The bullet went right through him, so it was impossible to determine which of the three guns involved in the shootout was responsible.  But our city's horrors seemed completely outside the reality of such sunny souls as Peggy Irving, who watched her baby Katie's tiny hand reach from the big .40-caliber automatic to a little .22-caliber. "Ooooh," the mother said. "This is a nice one. That one's good for you."

[PeteB570]

I'm surrounded by my guns. Are they holding me hostage?

Naaa, they're looking over my shoulder reading FR threads.

[Felis_irritable]

I sent Mr. Daly a pleasant (No! Really!) email explaining firearms and their place in American society. It probably won't change his mind, but he'll have to go to the split second of effort to delete it.

I'll post any response I get if it's as intemperate as I would expect.

[kittymyrib]

LOL...Sissy Boy Daley was having the vapors watching real Americans have fun at the NRA convention. He can thank fathers, mothers, and grandparents for passing along shooting know-how to the next generation. That's how we keep our freedom, so that Sissy Boy can write his little articles. May the NRA's numbers increase. And isn't it odd how all these shooting atrocities he mentioned occur in NYC, where no guns are allowed? Outlawing guns must not be working out too well there in spite of Bloomberg and the other liberals being in charge.

[kenth]

You can practically hear him wetting himself.

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

No doubt enjoying today's posts as mine is.

[verbal voter]

Nice post which enlisted great responses for the most part. Is everyone on this thread watching the UN/SOROS GUN BAN TREATY. Get on the backs of your legislators. We need the UN out of our constitution; The UN out of the US; and then, the US out of the UN.</p>

[paul51]

"That one's a little big for you," the mom said playfully. "We don't want you to get a .40 yet." The moment was all the more jarring for a New Yorker because the mother seemed to be as decent and amiable a person as you could ever meet.

LOL. Who could have guessed she is such a monster. Run for your lives.

[lrb111]

Well at least he had his prejudicial agenda laid out before arriving. All he had to do was note certain manufacturers locations on the convention floor. Then act like it was an article.

What a puke..

[arthurus]

You missed his planted assumption, that other states' permissiveness is what is getting New Yorkers killed.A total gun ban should be national. Actually the imposition of a worldwide gun ban would probably get liberals' support for war.

[ccmay]

I've been looking at the Spartan shotgun by Remington. They have O/U and side by side models in all gauges and with single and double triggers.

These are Russian-made, but reportedly of good quality, and should be around $500. They also have good cheap hammerless single-shots including a youth model, but like you, I am interested in the double for my boy.

I'm thinking of getting a side-by-side 28 ga., and spending another couple of hundred to get the stock and barrels cut down and my kid's name engraved on it. It would be a family heirloom that his great-great-grandchildren could enjoy shooting.

-ccm

[SUSSA]

"The great objective is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun." Patrick Henry

[Liberty Valance]

Barney Fife could whip Michael Daly.

And that's with only one bullet and even taking into consideration the fact that Barney is dead.

[msg-84]

the same model 9mm. automatic pistol that killed NYPD Detective Dillon Stewart in Brooklyn last year.

He was killed by a pistol? As I understood it, he was killed by a criminal who had no more respect for the officer's life than he had for the traffic laws that the officer was trying to enforce. For that matter, he did not have much respect for New York's gun control laws either. Which is to say nothing about the laws prohibiting murder.

Being a Liberal means you get to factor out the criminal who refuses to be regulated and just focus the blame on an inanimate object, like a gun. It is similar to when SUVs go bad; there is never a driver involved - at least from what you read.

[teeman8r]

michael daly did not write this story... this story was written by his apple computer word processing program... a misguided statement here or there and no individual had anything to do with it, just like the innocents killed by stray bullets or evil guns.

teeman

[hadit2here]

Xcamel: An armed society is a polite society, especially after they get finished with the mouthy press.

I'm sure Mr. Daly would throw conniption fits if he were to be around some of those violent, contrary old white men who founded this country. Who not only pledged, but gave "our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor" to create a country where the likes of Mr. Daly have the right to spew their ignorant venom in the guise of "jounalism".

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
--Thomas Jefferson.

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
-- George Washington

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes....Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
--Thomas Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in "On Crimes and Punishment", 1764

Mr. Daly also exhibits the stultifying lack of intelligence, common sense and common courtesy that today's "journalist's" seem to strive to outdo each other in displaying their said lack. Mr. Twain had a much higher opinion of such than I can certainly dredge up:

"Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoe making and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poor house."
-- Mark Twain

The only disagreement with Mr. Twain that I have on that note is that I really can't see either ditching or shoe making to be such lowly level occupations compared to "journalist". In fact, I figure that there probably were- and are- more people of intelligence, honor and common sense in the poor house than in most editorial suites.

But then again, I consider journalists, politicians and lawyers to be the dregs of society, far below the occupations of crack whore and rapist. And they seem to strive daily to display behavior to confirm my judgement of them.

[Fido969]

All I can find is a cheap Italian single barrel 20 gauge.

Italian shotguns tend to be decent, but I don't know what gun you looked at. Also, a single barrel should be OK to start trap shooting, for singles we're only allowed on round in the gun at the line at a time.

The suggestions for 28 gage were pretty good, Dick Cheney used that gun to pepper lawy.... errr, hunt pheasant.

[GovernmentShrinker]

many of them handguns that have no real purpose other than to kill people and are produced in far greater numbers than the legitimate demand.

Because we all know that those pink-handled pistols are very popular with the Bloods and the Crips and the Latin Kings and MS-13. Yep, NYPD is forever catching the gang-bangers with those things.