Gun Play (anti-gunner admits to lying)

NY Times Magazine ^ | September 30, 2001 | Randy Cohen

[angry beaver norbert]

"Unembarassed by zooicidal tendencies"It's PETA! People Eating Tasty Animals!

[CFW]

"Do you have a gun in your house?"

My answer: I'm having squirrel and dumplings for supper tonight. I hope your child is not one of those picky eaters.

Think the parents would let them stay?

[angry beaver norbert]

Didn't know they had a web site, thanks, added to favorites. Loved that version of PETA from the first time I heard it.Pass the Whitetail,please!

[angry beaver norbert]

I taught my daughter how to safely handle firearms, then taught her to shoot a few years ago.She'll be 16 in Nov., and really shoots well, particularly my big Colt Trooper. Does the ol' man proud.

[Britton J Wingfield]

That's the sort of thing that makes me nostalgic for my welder days... nothing like hot slag down your boot.

[Martin Tell]

Recently the wife and I took our eight year old in for her routine check-up. The pediatrician asked our daughter a number of usual questions, one I had not heard before ("do you always wear a helmet when you ride a bicycle?") and then "are there any guns in the house?" My daughter said no, as she does not know (partly because I do not want busy-bodies to find out that I bear arms by quizzing my daughter)about the firearms I have located in a secure but rapidly-accessable location. So, I said nothing, but I was floored. I have since wondered if I should have protested this invasion of privacy, lectured the doc about the facts of gun ownership and safety, inquired about her views on the US Constitution, etc. I think gun control is being cast as a public-health/child safety issue now (BTW I have started educating my daughter by telling her about the Minutemen and the Second Amendment - she certainly won't hear about this in school). I like the doc and she never struck me as someone who would support the state interfering in parent/child relations. Maybe this is part of the Oprah-izing of America. Has anyone else run into similar pediatrician questions?

[angry beaver norbert]

Way to go, Oklahoma! My kind of place.If you're ever in NC,c'mon over and shoot some of my stuff.

[jrp]

Accidental Deaths Age 0-14

Motor Vehicle - 3,059
Drowning - 1,060
Fires, burns - 833
Mechanical Suffocation - 459
Ingestion of Food or Object - 213
Firearms - 181

Figures are for 1995. National Safety Council, Accident
Facts: 1998 Edition, at 10, 11, 18.

[angry beaver norbert]

Keeps the worknight from getting dull.

[LonePalm]

Do you have a gun in your house?

Of course and right next to my Sloman's Security sign near the doors is another little sign. It says "Backup security provided by Smith & Wesson." I had to put S&W since most of the criminals are too stupid to recognize Sig Saur.

I have only been asked once when a guest commented on the sign. They didn't think it was a good idea. I asked if they would put a sign up by their house saying that there were no guns inside. They answered, "no." I replied that they made my point for me. No criminal would want to find out if I was lieing or not but would probably think that anyone that put up a "no gun" sign would be telling the truth. The person said that they still didn't like guns but that I had a point.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LoanPalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[baddog1]

Why yes Mr/Mrs anonymous we do have guns at the house. We also have power tools, garden tools, steps going up to the front door, electrical outlets, bathtubs with nonstick surfaces, etc. Only the guns are in the safe, is that going to be a problem?

On second thought just tell them their child and your child shouldn't be spending time with each other.

[DWSUWF]

"...one of the most wonderful things we noticed after we moved to Oklahoma..."

I was born in Oklahoma, and returned to it after wandering far and wide.

It's not the most scenic spot on earth, and the weather can try your patience, but I never found anyplace that I preferred to it.

[Maelstrom]

I headed off the doctor's questions by dropping my copy of American Rifleman off at the doctor's waiting room when I was finished with it.

Funny how those questions just magically disappeared, but then, so did the magazines...

[JWinNC]

I have some liberal friends (I'm working on them). They know I have guns. They have no problem sending their children to my house. They know they are safer here than most places.

JWinNC

[DWSUWF]

"...I have some liberal friends (I'm working on them). They know I have guns..."

Well, I commend you for the motivation to 'help the least of us' that you're expressing by working on them, but I'd suggest that, in most cases, this effort is an utter waste of your time.

Liberalism is like late stage inhalational anthrax (to use a timely metaphor)... It's a disease that's rarely curable.

Years ago, I used to be more tolerant of political wrong-headedness in the people I associated with, but I reached a point where I decided that it was preferable to 'clean house' and end any personal relationships with people whose political beliefs were, to put it simply, 'evil'.

Of course, the vast majority of us are obligated by circumstances to do business with at least some liberals, but I keep both the number, and the depth, of these relationships to the bare minimum possible. A good way to express my policy toward those in this arena would be to say, "I'll take a liberal's money, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to waste perfectly good pee on them if I happen to see them on fire."

And I have very strong reservations regarding your comment that your liberal friends 'know you have guns'...

I would caution you that this degree of openness with people who are, at the end of the day, mortal enemies of our way of life is perilous, and a mistake. If push ever comes to shove on this issue, they will betray you.