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My gun rights are being trampled by my wife(NJ)
trentonian.com ^ | 14 July, 2012 | JEFF EDELSTEIN

Posted on 07/15/2012 6:20:51 AM PDT by marktwain

I am not allowed to have a gun.

And that’s the truth. Literally, not allowed. My wife won’t let me have a gun. Not sure I want a gun, but it doesn’t matter. Not allowed. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’d sooner be granted my lifelong wish to frolic in a chocolate pudding bath with Jennifer Love Hewitt before my lovely wife would let me wrap my hands around a Glock Magnum 747.

I don’t know much about guns. But I do know there’s a part of me that wants one. Not because I want to shoot it, or because I’m clinging to the second amendment (which was written when it took 15 seconds or so to reload a musket), or because I’m some gun collector who wants to own every gun ever produced.

Nope, I kinda-sorta want a gun so that if someone ever puts me or my family at risk, I can shoot them dead.

That said, even if my wife said I was allowed to own one, I still don’t know if I’d get one. Without sounding too much like a pansy, the fact remains: Guns are scary.

But I have been thinking about it lately, especially after I found out a childhood friend of mine recently become a gun owner. He has it for the same reason I would want one: To protect his family.

And while for a majority of readers out there, a friend owning a gun isn’t cause to write a column about it, trust me: Where I come from, with my background, it’s the equivalent of a lifelong NRA member deciding to purchase a nuclear weapon for protection.

At the risk of stereotyping myself and a few thousand years of one of the world’s major religions, American Jews from middle to upper middle class backgrounds don’t normally grow up with guns.

An example of the anti-gun life I grew up in: The same high school friend of mine, along with a dozen or so other buddies, decided to engage in plastic pellet gun war during our junior year in high school. This went on for weeks, at malls, at school, sneak attacks at home, wherever. It was fun. But know this: when shot with these — even at point blank range right into an unblinking eye — the risk of injury was about the same as having a wayward molecule of oxygen go up your nose.

Yet despite the non-threatening nature of these devices, we managed to upset all of our mothers with our gunplay, including one mom who was convinced we were (very literally) sniffing glue when sitting at her kitchen table decorating our faux-weapons. Yes that’s right. Decorating them. Personalizing them, really. (This little anecdote really tells you all you need to know about me, guns, my youth and Jewish mothers of a certain generation.)


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Philosophy; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: banglist; constitution; gun; nj
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To: Incorrigible

I can’t imagine telling my husband he can’t have a gun—or just about anything else he wants.

That being said, I bought him his first gun—LOL!


21 posted on 07/15/2012 6:41:28 AM PDT by basil (Second Amendment Sisters.org)
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To: carriage_hill

It’s either a plane that shoots bullets, or a gun that flies.


22 posted on 07/15/2012 6:41:41 AM PDT by occamrzr06
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To: marktwain

Jeff needs to take his wife on a vacation.

To Israel.

before long she will want an AR in pastel with a Gucci sling.


23 posted on 07/15/2012 6:43:23 AM PDT by Eye of Unk (Going mobile, posts will be brief. No spellcheck for the grammar nazis.)
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To: muir_redwoods

VERY well written.


24 posted on 07/15/2012 6:43:57 AM PDT by Doctor 2Brains (If the government were Paris Hilton, it could not score a free drink in a bar full of lonely sailors)
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To: Eye of Unk
Photobucket
25 posted on 07/15/2012 6:44:11 AM PDT by baddog 219
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To: Vaquero

Exactly.

This. guy. is. an idiot.


26 posted on 07/15/2012 6:44:11 AM PDT by RepRivFarm ("During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell)
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To: marktwain
I think lots of men restrain themselves from various purchases including guns out of respect for the wishes of their spouse. In this case a nice .22 pistol would be an excellent introduction to shooting for the gentleman. Compromises can be reached about storage of the weapon and the nice argument, even if not completely true, is that a .22 just for target shooting is a good one being very believable as a half truth. If he wants to engage in outright lies he could tell his spouse that his boss target shoots and to get ahead he should join him. Greed is an amazing motivator but much simpler with less moral issues is for the guy to just grow a set of balls and buy one. Easier to beg forgiveness then get permission sometimes. Once one gun is in the house and the spouse starts to see it as a harmless sport, perhaps the wife even enjoying trips to the range herself, further purchases can be made.
27 posted on 07/15/2012 6:45:11 AM PDT by dog breath
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To: marktwain
all you need to know about me

His 3 favorite topics: me, myself, and I. What a narcissistic fruitcake. These mental cases are always leftists, consumed with vanity and envy.


28 posted on 07/15/2012 6:45:28 AM PDT by Reeses
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To: marktwain
Jeff.

Get thee to a doctor.

Your estrogen levels are farrrrr too high.

29 posted on 07/15/2012 6:46:32 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Borg Zombies walk around groaning "Commmppuutteerrrrssss......Commmppuutteerrrrssss......")
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To: ConservativeInPA
Jeff is a major project, like too many American males. They were never taught to be men.

It's a little bit more complicated than that.

All his life he's been around people who didn't understand guns, and who feared guns because of that.

His mind is open enough that he's questioning all that, which is a good thing. He needs to learn about guns, so that he knows the truth about them. He needs somebody to take him shooting, so he can understand how much fun it is.

30 posted on 07/15/2012 6:46:42 AM PDT by Kenton
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To: marktwain

There is a world of difference between purchasing a gun to use occasionally at the range and being mentally and physically prepared to use that gun to defend yourself and family in a crisis situation.

Nothing is gained, however, in having the populace scared of firearms. I agree with the recommendation to send him to the range, but he should also take his wife. She’d gain a lot from seeing that firearms can be handled safely, that most people are responsible with firearms, and that among responsible firearms users, safety and responsibility is the rule, not the exception.


31 posted on 07/15/2012 6:46:54 AM PDT by jz638
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To: marktwain
You can act like a MAN!
32 posted on 07/15/2012 6:48:59 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: baddog 219

33 posted on 07/15/2012 6:52:33 AM PDT by Eye of Unk (Going mobile, posts will be brief. No spellcheck for the grammar nazis.)
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To: marktwain

Jeff turned his gold dubloons in when he got married.


34 posted on 07/15/2012 6:54:16 AM PDT by bboop (Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? St. Augustine)
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To: marktwain

I’d never dream of marrying a woman that didn’t like guns. That’s a deal-breaker right there....


35 posted on 07/15/2012 6:56:40 AM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: marktwain
And that’s the truth. Literally, not allowed. My wife won’t let me have a gun.

That's why they are democrats for they follow instead of lead.

36 posted on 07/15/2012 7:01:56 AM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: marktwain

Jeff, here is a clue....your wife is your partner not your master...

If you want to buy a gun, first educate yourself, go to range rent a weapon to get a real life experience of handling a weapon, tell your wife you are buying a gun for these very good reasons....take her to the range to reduce the fear factor programed into her liberal mind that guns in fact are not to be feared....

Buy the correct weapon...

Be a man and not a pussy...

Your wife will thank you in the end.... That you care enough about your family to be the protector of her and your family

Did I say stop being a pussy....


37 posted on 07/15/2012 7:04:23 AM PDT by Popman (When you elect a clown: expect a circus...)
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To: baddog 219

Ummm. Empty magazine wells so basically, since I don’t see any magazine packs anywhere, they are carrying around clubs. Kind of like no loaded weapons on bases except for the MP’s. When seconds count the cops are only minutes away.

Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years


38 posted on 07/15/2012 7:05:38 AM PDT by rktman
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To: Vaquero

Yep, if he found his manhood pretty good chance his wife would appreciate it too.


39 posted on 07/15/2012 7:07:19 AM PDT by prov1813man (While the one you despise and ridicule works to protect you, those you embrace work to destroy you)
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To: Eye of Unk

Now I see some magazines. Ya gotta love Israel and the whole IDF. Hopefully they aren’t being PC’d to death too.


40 posted on 07/15/2012 7:08:52 AM PDT by rktman
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