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Why I joined the N.R.A.
Townhall.com ^ | April 5, 2004 | Mike S. Adams

Posted on 04/05/2004 8:15:06 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed

It was just after midnight in January of 1993 when John and Tiffany left a party at the Sigma Chi house in Starkville, Mississippi. The band was winding down as the couple walked to their car in the parking lot close to where Highway 12 runs into Scott Field on the campus of Mississippi State University.

When they came upon a man who was trying to break into a car parked near their own, all hell broke loose. Before they knew it, they had been abducted at gunpoint. Words cannot describe the horror that John witnessed before Tiffany’s life was taken. Shortly thereafter, he too was murdered execution-style by the side of Highway 45. Many tears were shed on Monday night when our fraternity met to mourn the deaths of the two young students.

After the murders, I had to endure driving by the murder site every Thursday night at about six o’clock on my way to Tupelo, Mississippi. My band played once a week at a bar in Tupelo called Jefferson Place. That meant that I had to drive by the murder site again on my way home at about two in the morning. The images got to me after a couple of weeks, so I called my friend David and asked whether he was still selling his .357 magnum. It was a model 19 by Smith and Wesson. I bought the gun thinking that it would be better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.

After I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, I sold that .357 magnum. At the time, my friend Barry Whitehead told me that selling a gun was always a big mistake. Three years later, when I bought my first house in downtown Wilmington, I learned that Barry was right. Despite rampant crack sales, it took almost nine months to get the police to take an interest in the drug trafficking in my neighborhood. Later, I bought my second .357 magnum and a concealed carry permit to go along with it.

In the three years that I lived in that neighborhood, I rarely “used” my permit by carrying a concealed weapon. Nonetheless, it came in handy late one evening when I was walking in my neighborhood and accidentally stumbled upon a crack deal. When the dealer asked what I as doing there, I simply told him that it was my neighborhood. He smiled and told me his name. I suppose that he knew I was carrying a gun because of my confidence. Two months later, eighteen people were arrested smoking crack in his house. I should know because I arranged the drug bust. I told him it was my neighborhood. He should have listened.

For those who don’t know, the concealed carry laws that have been enacted across the land have had a clear effect on serious crime that most social scientists refuse to recognize. Serious scholars such as John Lott have shown that lives are saved as a result of these laws. Nonetheless, Lott has been shunned by academics more interested in showing their classes “Bowling for Columbine” than in actually saving people’s lives.

Less murder, less rape, and less robbery would be nice unless, of course, it interferes with the liberal desire to take another shot at Marxism. No pun intended, of course.

As an out-of-the-closet gun owner, N.R.A. member, and hunter you can imagine the comments that I hear from disapproving faculty members here at my place of employment. When one colleague learned I was in the N.R.A., he asked why “we” think that everyone should own an “assault rifle.” That discussion ended when I asked him to tell me what an “assault rifle” was. He didn’t know. He just knew he hated them because Dan Rather said they were bad. Oh, the intellectual curiosity.

Of course, giving up my concealed-carry permit and quitting the N.R.A. would never be sufficient to redeem me in the eyes of the anti-gun fanatics here in the ivory tower. My status as a hunter is alone sufficient to condemn me in their eyes. Many of my colleagues who fail to muster compassion for unborn humans are staunch defenders of the local deer population. The fact that the overpopulation of deer causes numerous highway fatalities is of little concerned to them. And most would rather see a deer wrapped around the grill of a Ford Expedition and dragged down the highway than to have it experience a clean, quick death with the help of my Browning A-Bolt.

I know that my membership in the N.R.A. helps to neutralize these extremists, some of whom would outlaw hunting scopes because they are “unfair” to the deer. If you think I am kidding, think again. I have actually heard it suggested in the faculty lunchroom.

Of course, I really don’t mind when the academic anti-gun nuts use the First Amendment to express their opposition to the Second Amendment. Every time they do, I just head down to the local sporting goods store and buy another gun that I don’t really need.

When I joined the N.R.A., I became part of an organized effort to neutralize the wacky ideas of the anti-gun lobby in America. I also believe that the N.R.A. won the last Presidential election for George W. Bush. Even Bill Clinton says so and we all know that guy never lies. He isn’t in the N.R.A.

Some people say that a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. Maybe an N.R.A. member is a liberal whose unarmed friends were killed by the side of the highway on a cold night in January.

Dr. Mike Adams (adams_mike@hotmail.com) is the author of “Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel.”


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: Mississippi; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; mikesadams; nra
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Adams has become one of my favorite columnists.
1 posted on 04/05/2004 8:15:06 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed
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To: *bang_list
Bang
2 posted on 04/05/2004 8:15:50 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your Friendly Freeper Patent Attorney)
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To: Beelzebubba
Nice story.
3 posted on 04/05/2004 8:17:27 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Life Member NRA)
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To: All
Rank Location Receipts Donors/Avg Freepers/Avg Monthlies
14 Oregon 320.00
10
32.00


95.00
6

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

4 posted on 04/05/2004 8:17:45 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (If Woody had gone straight to the police, this would never have happened!)
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To: Beelzebubba
Interesting post.
5 posted on 04/05/2004 8:19:05 AM PDT by donozark
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To: Beelzebubba
Adams has become one of my favorite columnists.
 
His column is just what the Dr. ordered, I think the only thing he left out is "An armed society, is a polite society"

6 posted on 04/05/2004 8:23:08 AM PDT by TexasTransplant (Only fools, cowards, criminals and terrorists are afraid of good men with guns.)
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: Beelzebubba
I bought the gun thinking that it would be better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.

Bump!
8 posted on 04/05/2004 8:26:56 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Beelzebubba
I will join the NRA when, come this Sept., the AW Ban no longer exists.

I will also become a Kool Aide drinkin' Repub.

Until then, color me a swing voter (swing between voting Repub or staying home).
9 posted on 04/05/2004 8:27:52 AM PDT by Peter J. Huss
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: Beelzebubba
While his story about the MSU frat brother is moving, and true, having a CCW wouldn't have help them if they were in a bar, consuming alcohol or on campus. All three of those are against CCW permit guidelines and if found carrying under those conditions, a probable felony would be the result.

P.S. Carry permit and SP-101/.357 Mag keeps me warm too.
11 posted on 04/05/2004 8:29:38 AM PDT by fuente
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To: Beelzebubba
I decided to stop being a 2nd Amendment supporter just in theory and became a member online yesterday. Eagerly awaiting my first issue of American Hunter...
12 posted on 04/05/2004 8:30:54 AM PDT by Welsh Rabbit
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To: Beelzebubba
Every gun owner should join a gun Rights group.
Every gun group member should shut the heck up concerning which gun group is "better" so we can all work together.
Every gun owner should work to vote the anti-gun democratic party out of existance.
13 posted on 04/05/2004 8:33:06 AM PDT by Shooter 2.5 (Vote a Straight Republican Ballot. Rid the country of dems.)
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To: Peter J. Huss
"I will join the NRA when, come this Sept., the AW Ban no longer exists."

Great!
You can expect a note from Sarah Brady any time now, thanking you for your support!

14 posted on 04/05/2004 8:34:35 AM PDT by Redbob
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To: Peter J. Huss
Sitting home nets us hanoi john. Then where will our 2nd amendment rights be with the anti-2nd amendment judges and the 2-4 supreme court justices he'd appoint?

This election is about the WOT and the activist liberal/socialist/commie/marxist judges that will effect our way of life for 30-40 years.

hanoi john's gun control votes

15 posted on 04/05/2004 8:35:20 AM PDT by GailA (Kerry I'm for the death penalty for terrorist, but I'll declare a moratorium on the death penalty)
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To: Shooter 2.5
Take a Kid to a Gun Show
16 posted on 04/05/2004 8:35:32 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Peter J. Huss
Staying home is not the answer.
17 posted on 04/05/2004 8:35:44 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (What?)
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To: Beelzebubba
I attended Mississippi State at the same time as Dr. Adams. Unfortunately, our paths did not cross because we were in different departments and fraternities. However, I also remember this awful event. It was the talk of the campus for months.
18 posted on 04/05/2004 8:39:42 AM PDT by TheBigB (Why yes, I AM the bomb-diggedy! Thanks for asking!)
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To: Peter J. Huss
So, you're doing nothing now and you may well do nothing in the future.
Congrats. You're either apathetic or lazy.
19 posted on 04/05/2004 8:41:01 AM PDT by Rocky Mountain High
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To: Rocky Mountain High
I just checked the calendar. The month of September comes before November.

So.....

Like I said, AW Ban exists = no support. No AW ban, I vote Republican for life. It is that important to me.

I am an ignorant one issue voter. There are millions of us on the gun issue.

Ignore us at your political peril.
20 posted on 04/05/2004 8:46:30 AM PDT by Peter J. Huss
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