The Crazy Things Pacifists Tell Me About Guns

By Rob Morse

Louisiana- (Ammoland.com)-  I don’t mention being a gun owner to strangers.  Sometimes people find out, and the way they respond is remarkable.  I assume that they are sincere in what they say, but that assumption isn’t easy.  Their comments are more of a confession about themselves than an honest question about me.  I usually bite my tongue because of the social situation.  Then it occurred to me that other gun owners must be hearing similar comments.  I’ve kept my answers to myself, but now I’ll share them with you.

I live on the safe side of town so I don’t need a gun for protection. I usually hear this from a well-to-do woman and it makes me smile.  Does she think criminals don’t have maps that show them where the rich people live?  Maybe she thinks criminals can’t drive.  The woman is obviously intelligent, but has a profound blind-spot when it comes to personal safety.  We didn’t meet inside her gated community, so why does she think she is safe everywhere?

Guns aren’t the answer. Maybe guns are not the answer, but then we are certainly talking about different questions.  I assume the speaker knows that the police have firearms for personal protection.  The first person who told me to go armed was a police officer.  I listen to professionals.

People don’t protect themselves with guns any longer.  That is just a fantasy from the old-west.  This one perplexes me.  I assume they read too many cowboy novels but they stopped reading too soon.  They never learned the real history of our western frontier.  Also, the speaker never bothered to learn the facts about armed citizens who carry in public now.  Armed towns on the western frontier were safer than our large democrat-controlled cities today.  Ain’t that right, Marshal Dillon?

Only the police should have guns. True, the police should have guns, but have you thought about what it is like to be a policeman?  Almost every policeman I’ve met told me to carry because of what they see every day.  Time after time, day after day, the police arrive too late.  They take reports from innocent injured victims.  That is a core part of their job and it has to hurt.  The police would much rather take your report that says you protected yourself and the criminal ran away.

Only criminals have guns.  This is really a statement about how narrow a group of friends the speaker has.  I’m probably the first gun owner they know.. and there are a hundred million gun owners in the US.  To be fair, they probably don’t know anyone who owns a pickup truck either.

You don’t need a gun.  That is true.  I don’t.  I guess I don’t need toothpaste and deodorant.  I don’t need a fire extinguisher at home or a first aid kit in my car, but I have them..just like I have a firearm.

My husband or wife has a gun, so I don’t need one.  This comment makes me bite my tongue.  I’m thinking they volunteered to be the designated victim..or maybe the designated hostage.  Must be an interesting personal relationship they have with their spouse, but I don’t ask.

Gun’s don’t belong in schools.  Lots of things don’t belong in schools, but I’ve seen them.  Cuts and broken bones don’t belong in schools, but we have first aid kits on scene for a reason.  I won’t pretend that bad things don’t happen.  I won’t lie to make you feel better.  What exactly is your plan when you see more things you don’t want in schools?

You just want to kill someone.  This person obviously has no idea about the costs of threatening to use lethal force, let alone pulling the trigger.  Ignorance must be bliss.

I couldn’t kill someone.  That is hard to believe.  Maybe the people who say this think they are gentle.  Would they really stand by and watch while their family is threatened or injured?  If I take them seriously, then either they don’t care about other people, or they look forward to seeing an innocent person hurt.   Has some village lost its sociopath?

People like you shouldn’t have machine guns.  I’ve fired a machine gun.  Not having automatic weapons hasn’t compromised my self-defense plans since I don’t feel the need to fight off a zombie horde tonight.

Why do you want another tool that kills?  I love this question.  I look around the room and see how many things I could use or improvise.  What can I say.  I’m an engineer so everything is a tool.

You’re more likely to be hurt if you have a gun because the criminal will take your gun away from you.  So you’re saying we’d be safer if we disarmed the police and gave guns to criminals?   That way the police would always have a gun when they needed it by taking the criminal’s gun!  It’s an interesting idea, but you go first and I’ll record the results from here.

I know I’m not alone.  You’ve heard similar things and you’ve thought similar things.  Thank you for sharing them.. here, and not saying them in public
~_~_

The original article is here.  Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.

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