Opinion
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- People who don’t like guns warned us of widespread and unprovoked violence once law abiding citizens were allowed to go armed.
The gun-phobes were wrong. They were wrong time after time. New and old gun owners prove them wrong every month. We know that gun-phobes are afraid of guns. But it still bothers me that gun-phobes are afraid of legally armed Americans.
Honest gun owners are supposed to hide so gun-phobes won’t be frightened.
Speaking as a licensed gun owner, it is not our obligation to calm their every anxiety. There are never enough “safe spaces” to calm the gun-phobes fears. Enough is enough. Let me remind you what it costs.
The gun-phobes said that our streets and shops would run with blood as more law abiding citizens got their permits and carried legally in public (now 10% of the total U.S. population). The opposite happened. We saw our homicide rates drop as the number of concealed permit holders soared. This is less remarkable than it seems. We’ve already lived with guns for a long time. We have many millions of man-years of experience with legal gun owners. We found out that licensed gun owners are probably the most law abiding segment of society.
First, you had to pass a background check if you bought your gun at a gun store or from a dealer at a gun show. You’ve had another background check when you received your concealed carry license. That license in your pocket means you had a clean criminal record as the FBI looked across the US and perhaps around the world. Your state probably ran a search to see if one of their license holders committed a crime out-of-state since the license was issued. That good-guy card in your wallet or purse says you’re a card carrying honest citizen.
That is only the beginning. Where we have data, licensed gun owners are many times more law abiding than the average person. Licensed gun owners are more law abiding than law enforcement, though both numbers are very small.
At first the gun-phobes said they want gun owners to get a license, but now they want to ignore the results.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why should you need another background check to buy another gun or more ammunition. You’ve already been cleared.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why can’t you carry your legally owned gun with you as you travel across the country? The FBI already examined your criminal record from coast to coast.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why are you legally barred from some churches, public schools, public parks, public housing and public transportation? I thought we were past that sort of bigotry, but I was wrong.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why are you told you can’t enter a restaurant that serves alcohol?
Maybe those regulations sounded like a good idea at the time. It is clear that the legislators were more interested in feeling good than in doing good. Honest gun owners pay the price for these crazy laws every day. I wish society were getting something in return for our sacrifice.
Please understand the insanity that politicians are selling. ‘These gun-free zones would keep us all safe if only criminals obeyed the law.’
The so called “safety regulations” are that crazy, and gun-phobes are becoming more anxious as their prohibitions fail. Pandering legislators shouldn’t tell us how to live. We shouldn’t pass bigoted laws to soothe baseless fears.
Legally armed Americans are great neighbors. Armed Americans don’t act like criminals, and criminals don’t obey gun laws and gun-free zones. Are the gun-phobes sane enough to recognize that criminals won’t respect their “safe spaces”?
That doesn’t explain why the gun-phobes are afraid of the rest of us. It isn’t possible to soothe their irrational anxieties. We shouldn’t try.
About Rob Morse
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.
The two great gun control Laws passed in 1934 and 1968 were passed at times when people felt the USA was a the edge of popular armed uprising. I do not say these perceptions were correct, I’m just saying check the history. Political misleaders and their media lickspittles tuned into these fears to push through are two main federal laws restricting gun ownership. Please note that the great danger in these people’s minds is guns in the hands of honest people who feel they have reached the point “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same… Read more »
Mr. Perez: If I may, might I offer the following. The fairytales that are the stock and trade of gun control and the paddlers thereof thrive when large numbers of The Body Politic, otherwise known as John and Jane Q. Public give up the sometimes painful, sometimes time and energy consuming it very necessary process of thinking for themselves, crawing their own conclusions based on mthe facts of matters, rather than the rants of media axe grinders and jack politicians. Unfortunately, it seems that a troublingly large portion find the aforementioned processes to painful to undertake, let alone to carry… Read more »
Mr. Perez:
Excuse my gone to hell typing. jack politicans, should read hack politicians, and crawing their own conclusions, should read drawing their own conclusions. Once upon a time, my typing was far superior to it’s current sad state. Of course, once upon a time, I didn’t have gray hair.
My typing frequently leaves a lot to be desired. Please remember crooked politicians and their media whores (apologies to honest hookers for the comparison) spend a lot of effort into telling us, “Let us do the mental heavy lifting,” to the tune of soothing music without minor chords.
I would think that the honest hooker deserves an apology, sometimes from me too. That said, when some stranger comes around offering to take the load of thinking from my shoulders, alarm bells start ringing, especially when I have not requested assistance.
I took a break from Ammoland as I was tired of so much one side info and somewhat slanted news. Here is why I took that time away: There are people that don’t like guns. They come in all shapes and sizes. But, The Dems and the Reps have very different views as a party, and most of the members have the same view as the party. Note I said most. Now my newest rant will be Let the gun lovers promoto their love. That is a better plan then downgrading those that don’t like guns. The NRA use to… Read more »
Thanks for being part of the problem, Dave.
And in all those years, he did not learn the basics about his nation’s Constitution, his own God given civil rights, or how those God given civil rights have been systematically subverted. Should have bought some education rather than all those guns, Dave, because it is more important to have the Civil Right to own a gun, than own a gun.
Bringing “gun phobes” into the fold is probably impossible, largely because they aren’t really afraid of “guns” per se, they are afraid of the average citizen in general. They do not typically oppose cops and military having guns for example, only average citizens. The nature of TV news (the “if it bleeds, it leads” syndrome) makes it highly likely that, whether the news is politically slanted or not, it will always tend to highlight the stupid actions, or illegal or irresponsible misbehavior, of members of the public, rather than the far more common (and therefore, by definition, not “news”) good… Read more »
The NRA always has been about education and competition. But they were FORCED to become a politically active lobby because of the media anti-gun coverage beginning about 1968. The NRA-ILA is the NRA lobby. But the MSM only says NRA and doesn’t mention the ILA. The NRA-ILA is effective, not because they speard money and perks to legislators in the same way as big pharma [for example] does, but because there are millions of educated NRA members who follow the issues closely, know the history and facts and don’t make up fake news. Alcohol prohibition created organized crime and that… Read more »
“The 1968 GCA was a result of the violence associated with free love, drugs and rock and roll [maybe not the rock and roll].” The 1968 GCA would not have been passed were it not for the killing of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy earlier in the year. The US had already had a number of years of Urban unrest each summer and the killings were the icing that the antis used to get it passed. The NRA has not always had “clean” hands: “At the hearings NRA Executive Vice-President Franklin Orth supported a ban on mail-order sales, stating,… Read more »
Look at the template used to draft the 1968 Gun Control Law. Hint – it was enacted in 1938 in Germany. And if you read them side by side, the wording of the 1968 version is almost exactly the same.
As a long time life member of the NRA, I have more than once wondered concerning some, possibly many of the actions of past NRA leaders.
While the NRA did change it’s tune, it was overly late in coming to it’s senses, a failing that has cost law abiding gun owners dearly.
Spoken like a true brain washed liberal gun owner.
Gotta insult people you disagree with instead of systematically listing your points vs his.
You are a big part of the problem, I for one will never bend to kiss some gun haters ass. I can not phantom your kind of fascination about appeasing any enemy and that includes gun haters. The next time these clowns need help tell them to get a few of the BLM thugs to help
Gun Phobes is an interesting phrase, depicting, as I understand, a person or people with an irrational fear of/dislike ofinanimite objects, they being guns. As is the case with other phobias, medical/psychological attention would likely be appropriate. In no way should others bow to the phobias of some,
The correct term as listed by the American Psychiatric Manual is ” Hoplophobe” . Hoplophobe is taken from the ancient Greek Hoplon which was the battle shield that they carried. It could be termed as an irrational fear of weapons. Like the weapon will do damage all by itself.
I live in N.J.. Don;t for one minute, think 100% of the states allow legal concealed carry
NOTE: This is a reiteration of an earlier comment of mine, but still very relevant and worth repeating. You may notice an interesting “common thread” among answers from posters of different political perspectives. While there are many on each side who simply state their opinion, often in vehement terms, when you see a logical argument, it is virtually always put forth by a “pro-gun” poster. There is a good reason for this; there are no logically sound arguments on the opposing side. Those that have been put forth are all logically refutable or clearly contrary to easily established facts. This… Read more »
I think that the word to be used is “hoplophobe”, a non-medical term that describes the irrational fear of firearms and the people that own them. Some of these people actually go out and shoot a gun for the first time (I have seen a few) and either work to embrace the gun culture or they “drop” the gun and run back to their safe space. Either way, the results are quite interesting to observe. A number of “gun-haters” are just plain crazy in their dislike for firearms and should seek psychiatric help if they can find a psychiatrist who… Read more »
IMHO gun rights haters is a better name for them than gun-phobes. More than fear it’s hate & anger that drive them.
Mr Morse, You’ve missed my personal favorite. When you purchase a silencer you pay $200 and wait 6 to 8 months for a background check and purchase approval. Then when you go to pick said equipment up you must go through ANOTHER BACKGROUND CHECK. Oy…
if the dealer you picked it up form ran you through a 4473 WITH another background check he did it needlessly. The 4473 from the dealer is merely for their record that you picked it up, no background check is necessary.
… and you wait however long the line is, I waited 4.5 months, and i know someone who got their approval in 3.
These are the same people who will be screaming for our protection when the SHTF. If I know someone is anti 2A. I will let them face the consequences of their choices when that time comes regardless of the situation. Choices due have consequences and people need to find this out. Either the easy way or the hard way. If you are unwilling to protect yourself. Why should someone else risk their life. I don’t expect someone to come to my rescue. I handle my own problems. That’s why I carry. Remember Keep Your Powder Dry…
Gun-phobes… how diplomatic. The proper term is shirker, sissy, chicken or coward. When the SHTF, they will be called long-pork, and will be harvested for the sustenance that their body will provide.
No we shouldn’t try, because if they know you are pro – gun then they will “Swat” you or some other such crap to try to get your guns taken away. Let them be unarmed until they are the victims, then watch how they change their tune.
In the mean time lets just keep fighting the crooked legislators and Democratic Liberal Socialists.