Opinion
Montana – -(AmmoLand.com)- I am asked why some people fear and hate guns – why others think we shouldn’t be allowed to have firearms. One answer has to do with poor impulse control and the psychological phenomenon of projection.
We know some people have poor impulse control. They have potent urges to fly off the handle with minimum provocation – perhaps are offended by the smallest thing. They know themselves and also see that they shouldn’t have a gun because sooner or later they’d run amok and misuse a gun in a sudden fit of anger matched with their poor impulse control.
With projection, people genuinely believe that all others are like them. One example used is that a person colorblind from birth will always believe, deep down, that everyone else sees the world in shades of gray or with limited colors. That is their own experience, the only experience they can *know* for themselves. They project their personal experience onto everyone else when believing that others seem like they do.
People with poor impulse control project that characteristic onto others too.
They cannot grasp or admit that there are other people so stable that we wouldn’t run amok and injure innocents if we are allowed to possess guns. Therefore, they want laws to prevent everyone from possessing firearms, ostensibly to protect the public from the poor impulse control they witness in themselves.
Let me offer you an example of poor impulse control by an anti-gun person. I testified on March 12th, 2019 as an opponent of HB 477 before the House Judiciary Committee. Much of that testimony was describing MSSA’s (Montana Shooting Sports Association) long history pushing Be Safe, our gun safety program for kids. Later that day, a former Democrat candidate for the Legislature from Helena posted this on Twitter:
“Marbut isn’t human. He is filled with black sand and NRA hush money. Cut him open and it gushes out.”
This outburst might not have seemed such a good idea to this guy in a more sober moment, but he was overcome with anger that anyone would oppose a bill he liked. He just couldn’t contain his unseemly outburst.
Others criticized this guy on Twitter for his irrational, possibly slanderous comment. He emailed me, asking if I insisted that he pull the comment. I responded that the comment said more about him than about me and that if I were him, I’d be embarrassed to have made such a comment in a public place. But, I informed him, I wear big boy pants and can stand criticism even if it’s an irrational display of poor impulse control. Pull or leave the comment for your reasons, not mine, I said.
So, many anti-gun people with poor impulse control project that onto everyone else. Therefore, they truly believe that nobody should have guns because it’s just a matter of time until everyone with a gun misuses it in an uncontrolled fit of anger. And, there is simply no way to inform or persuade such people that most others don’t share their poor impulse control.
Best wishes,
Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
www.mtssa.org
Author, Gun Laws of Montana
www.mtpublish.com
About the Montana Shooting Sports Association:
MSSA is the primary political advocate for Montana gun owners. Visit: www.mtssa.org
The picture will be replaced with one of Hillary in a jump suit soon, She’ll have the same look, it’s the electrical short due to moisture, soap bar “prison substitute” look.
Question being….. Who will it be carved like, Bill or Huma ?
Unfortunately, I don’t think we will have the pleasure of seeing Hillary in an orange jumpsuit, with that “I’m innocent,it’s all Bush’s and Trump’s fault” look on her face and scream from her mouth. I certainly would like to see it. Everything that she and her president and their followers have done to try to get rid of the 2nd Amendment is both ridiculous and useless when it comes to “gun violence”. It has not and does not address the core problem, which is a lack of respect for life and the psychological inability to deal with personal problems of… Read more »
Leftists – Demonrat politicians in particular – are scientifically PROVEN to be unstable, psychotic, authoritarian, and prone to promoting tyranny. Leftists used to claim it was the other way around, but the study they cited had it EXACTLY BACKWARDS – someone (intentionally??) flipped the script… but the study was essentially correct in its findings. https://nypost.com/2016/06/09/science-says-liberal-beliefs-are-linked-to-pyschotic-traits/ What Leftists say about conservatives and gun owners are definitely projection. And it’s a warning signal which tells us that if given the chance, they would do all manner of evil things to us if we do not maintain the ability to resist them! Let’s… Read more »
I have not been getting emails from ammoland for months now. What is happening? Have the anti-gunners found a way to block them ??? I went to the website but did not find a way to contact them or resubscribe. HELP I miss the articles.
Try this link:
https://www.ammoland.com/subscribe/
I’ll assume that you’ve checked the spam bucket at your ISP’s website as well as the one on your pop-client, if you use one.
The gun banners are all mentally unstable and think only the government can protect you.
I’ve said for years that the reason anti-gunners want to ban guns is because they know that they can’t be trusted with them. You just explained it better.
My youth from 4th grade through 12th grade was spent in Fairbanks Alaska. This was ’64 to 73′. I know of only one person under the age of 18 who was killed by gunshot during that time. He happened to be a boy a couple of years older than me who was either a Junior or Senior and I did not know him personally. If I remember correctly he had been caught shoplifting and was brought down to the Fairbanks Police Department. While standing in front of the Sergeant’s desk he snatched an Officer’s revolver out of the holster and… Read more »
I was there 49 to 55 and it was wild west. Two women actually shot it out on the street with one dying. A family friend was shot in the back by a 22 that missed it’s intended victim. Stood outside a theater while my Dad was stealing back my stolen bike. Suddenly two shots rang out and some screaming started. A guy ran out and down the street. The usher was lying one the floor and the ticket taker gal was holding her abdomen and screaming like crazy. They did catch the guy. He had just receive a dishonorable… Read more »
Larry, that is more common in the “Civilized” East, look at all the urban areas and their rates of violent crime.
Was that the theater on Second Street? Fairbanks and its environs were a great place for a boy to spend his youth back then.