A few thoughts..

[darkwolf45]

These thoughts have been simmering in my head for some time now, and something 2in2out said this morning in a thread about today's hearing motivated me to try to put them to paper. If it's too sappy, my apologies:

I’d like to share a story of how I was raised, hoping it will add a little insight. I grew up straddling two worlds. On the one hand, my father was a police officer, a patriot in a true sense of the word, and man of principle in the traditional sense. When our church began to advocate against singing our “amen’s” at the end of hymns, my father spoke up loudly, and when the minister would not lead the “amen’s” my father would. He picked his battles, and when he fought he did so with conviction. He was my source of understanding of right and wrong, for my family he was our sentinel, and as my sister so simply put it when he died, he was “my guiding light.” I grew with weekend getaways to ranges and the booming echoes across loud speakers of “READY ON THE LEFT. READY ON THE RIGHT. READY ON THE FIRING LINE.”
On the other hand, my father strongly encouraged me in music, and in Jr. high I joined the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS). There I learned much about myself, my abilities, my strengths and weaknesses. Of interest were the people I associated with there. They wore the trendiest clothes and shoes. They had the finest, most expensive instruments and had had the best private instruction on them for years, whereas I had only just begun private instruction weeks before on a rented horn. When my peers and I turned 16, they began showing up to rehearsals driving BMW’s, Lexus’ and Mercedes’ which they also drove to school everyday and I heard many snickers regarding the 1984 Plymouth Reliant station wagon I was sometimes allowed to borrow to bring myself there.
Meanwhile, many of my father’s friends from that earlier time in my life would have proudly forced their children to cobble together a Frankensteinian vehicle from assorted non matching pieces with only the money from a minimum wage job and their own two hands. Looking back, I was very spoiled to have that station wagon to borrow as well as many of the other amenities I had at the time. And though I knew this for the most part, I had no appreciation of how spoiled I really was. I am thankful, though, that I at least had the knowledge of my privileges, even if I completely lacked any appreciation for them. Because that at least was something I had that my peers in GTCYS did not have.
At rehearsals and concerts I was met with constant judgement. Most would not associate with us outer burbers from lower middle income households and those that did, it almost felt like the way one would look at a pet dog. I would be engaged in conversation, but never really part of it. From this, I learned conceit, but also how to recognize conceit (something which to this day I still struggle to recognize and combat in myself). Persons often advanced through their social status in the group rather than their skills.
Following high school I drifted further from those more modest roots of the days playing in open fields and traversing the state for pistol matches and I made a decision to attend a private college on a hill in Northfield that shall remain unnamed. Here, the attitudes I encountered in GTCYS were magnified ten fold and I couldn’t simply brush them aside anymore. I lasted one school year there.
From my earliest memories on I have always been struck by the stark differences in the worlds I straddled (and in some ways continue to). When I began my development in music, I was very moved by the intelligent way people spoke, their trendiness and their personal magnetism. I began to feel somewhat ashamed of my earlier days living amongst those whose parents did not go to college or work in white collar, high paid jobs. I moved away from these earlier activities and tried to put them behind me. But in the end, in those earlier days, I was never left wanting for other kids to play with or spend time with at the shoots. We would make instant friends when we would arrive. I and my family were welcomed with open arms. Parents never looked at me with a sarcastic smirk on their face and turned away rolling their eyes.
I love music, and though I am an accountant now instead of going into a career in music, I still love playing and staying involved in the scene. I will leave it to you, however, to determine which of the two worlds I describe here I look back on with more of a sense of longing.
I realize this unfairly generalizes people between the “sophisticated” and those that are not. There were, after all, those who were very unintelligent and as far from suave as you can get in GTCYS and even at that unnamed private college. Similarly, there were those at the shoots who definitely broke the stereotype of the right wing isolationist conspiracy theorist nut job in spades that I often hear about on the news.
I didn’t write this to over generalize and force people into stereotypes. The point is to point out the strengths as I saw them growing up of those who believe in this past time and believe in their God given right to enjoy it. Charleton Heston called this a cultural war, and I am convinced he was right. I am also concerned that it is a war that is being lost badly.
Several years ago I was talking to my father, whose enjoyment of life in general was noticeably degrading. I knew how much he loved shooting and competing (my mother has more pistol shoot trophies than can fit on the family room wall). I asked him why he didn’t go to weekend long pistol shoots anymore (I was feeling nostalgic about those days spent playing on the fringes of the range and in the camp grounds and those evening surrounded by friends telling stories and joking around bonfires). He told me the “because they don’t have shoots like that anymore.” City councils and sophisticated local citizens had systematically made it more and more difficult to hold these events, made the competitors feel less and less welcome. More and more regulations had not helped either. The people who loved the sport so much were growing older. More tired.
For years this revelation has left me with an empty feeling. These were good people. Welcoming. Imaginative. Resourceful. Helpful. Caring. Mindful and conscientious. They were mentors to each other as well as others. Perhaps I am still seeing these events through my own 7 year old eyes but it seemed like there was little anger or angst at these events even though I knew many of these people disagreed on a great number of things. And the revelation that these events where people seemed so happy was a thing of the past really broke my heart. Sure there is Camp Perry, but the name “Perry” never even entered into my lexicon until my late teens. These were local events, here in Minnesota, and I and my siblings were constantly looking forward to them.
With all this said, I am hoping that I have illustrated my point well enough now to simply say that you, those who believe in your second amendment rights, those who love to shoot and love your time at the range.. You’re better than this. You offer things in this world that are desperately needed in this world, and that almost seem to be dying out in an endless stream of regulation and desire to control events that are beyond our influence. My father is gone now, but I know many of his colleagues are still here, and I know they could teach those of us from newer generations a thing or two yet. I’m getting more involved in shooting now, making it a regular thing, and I’ve even introduced my girlfriend to it, or at least the parts that I can see that are still there.
Calling your representatives is necessary, letting them know how you feel and that you will not tolerate further infringement on your rights is imperative. Talking to your anti gun opponents and leaving them an open invitation to the range to try to open their eyes to your view of the world is also necessary, but I don’t think this is where the culture war will be won, if at all.
Anti’s will look to severe tragedies partially created by their own societal negligence to create a fervor to wipe out the firearms scourge they believe can be erased from this world once and for all. But the anguish from those events will fade over time and the wounds will heal. Hearts and minds are not changed through a few moments of carnage and destruction, they are molded over time to a point where a few weekends here and there filled with good people, good times and open hearts will cling tenaciously to you for decades.
At work, on the street I am told that you are anarchists and akin to terrorists. But that isn’t what I remember, and that isn’t what I am seeing every weekend at the range. Maybe this is too sappy of a thought, but I think where this is won is not a constant defense in the legislature against new minds that work their entire lives to squirm their ways into a position of near unlimited power over the lives of others. It’s not with those who argue with you until they are blue in the face in opposition of your human right to keep and bear arms hoping that one day they may possibly open themselves up just a little to trying an AR-15 themselves. The war is won through taking this back into the mainstream, no longer hiding it from others and ascertain to yourself first and then to others that you do not deserve to be pushed out any longer, that your beliefs mean something. I’m a strong believer in maintaining politeness as appropriate (as in “you have no right to my courtesy, I am simply offering it to you in the hopes that we can work together”), but there can be no question that the message needs to be loud and clear that “You have taken too much already and you WILL NOT take any more, no matter the cost.” The message also needs to be one of welcoming. This is not just our heritage, it is our birthright, all of ours, and we would like more people to share it with.
As for me, after years of shunning this part of my upbringing for so long, I honestly no longer know how to really connect with members of this community anymore. And because I waited too long, I will be rediscovering it on my own. This is the price of my pridefulness.
But as for you all.. You’re better than this. You deserve better than living in the shadows and constantly on the defensive for your natural rights. You can run to other states where those who oppose you are not in power, but they will follow you. Remember, they do not want to hurt or kill you. They simply want to dominate you, every day of your lives. Why wait to push them back? Forget the constant defense and fear over what others want to subject you to. You deserve better.

[NMRMN]

Thanks for sharing.

[pondrast]

thought provoking, thank you.

[Tronster]

Thank you for that insight.

Fundamentally, what we are fighting is an urban mindset. Today more people live in cities than rural areas, and living in these cities conditions people to think differently. When I interact with new people and they ask what I do for fun, I sometimes feel like I need to hide my gun hobby from them. I shouldn't have to. I shouldn't automatically be labeled something bad simply because I like collecting guns and shooting. Nobody attacks a sports fan, or a fishing enthusiast, or a coin collector, but if you like guns there must be something wrong with you.

Why do those who know nothing about guns (but think they do) feel that they are the perfect experts to dictate what we can and cannot own, based on what they "feel".

How do we change this overall "anti" sentiment against guns? I wish I had the answers...

[CarryCauseICan]

Saw this post and the length of it, and thought, dam that's long and don't want to read it! glad I did. thank you.

[darkwolf45]

Word of mouth Tronster. I was very encouraged by how my girlfriend reacted to her first time at the range. She was scared to death, but i mananged to coach her into it, and started her out with a ruger .22. It was newrly an instant reaction with the first shot. She admitted to me that shooting was nothing like she imagined. She said she felt empowered, and the evil, destructive force she had been conditioned to think guns were about; it just wasnt there. And whats really cool is that shes really good.

Her friends were surprised- shes a petite dainty little fashoinista Pretty girl, but they were also supportive and even excited for her.

I have another friend who said hes interested in trying shooting for the first time and may join me this weekend. Like I said above: one of the very best aspects of the gun culture is the people and sharing shooting with them. This has been true of each match ive been to and every time ive been to the range.

[Tronster]

It surprises me how many people my age in their 30's have never even fired a gun once in their life. We didn't own guns growing up but I shot in summer camps and such and I just figured everyone had tried guns, apparently I was wrong.

My wife has an LCP for carry (better than nothing) and a coworker asked her "It's so small, can it hurt someone?". She was shocked to learn it can KILL someone.
It's not that people are stupid, it's just that most people today have never even been exposed to shooting guns period.

[minnhawk]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to express your thoughts. You have a strong command of the language and know your way around it. That isn't too common anymore. I am still digesting what you revealed, and replaying what you said in my thoughts.