The only thing I see wrong with the picture is she’s certainly violating rule #2 and thus rule #1 (doesn’t seem to be violating #3 and #4 is arguable).
One reason I debated having a blog is because I know how people can be. Xavier hits it on the head about why many gun bloggers blog anonymously. The sad thing is, it’s out of fear — a justified fear, but a fear nonetheless.
I have opted to not live in that fear and make it clear who I am. If I’m going to say something, I’m going to stand behind my words and stand up for myself. Might it get me in trouble? It might. Might I piss some people off? I might. Might some people be “shocked” to hear such things from me, thinking they knew me? They might. Might I lose some friends, I might. But go ahead and judge me, I can’t stop you. All I can do is continue to be me. Be honest, have integrity, be patient, be devoted. If I suffer for my actions, I just have to have faith that it’s all for a greater good. And the best I can hope for is that folks would be willing to engage me in discourse and at least make an informed choice instead of an ignorant snap judgment.
I love my children. I’ve apparently been blessed with a talent for teaching, especially with children. I take my work with children very seriously, especially when it comes to protecting them: both my direct protection of them when they are within my care, and teaching them how to care for themselves.
A common line of reasoning you hear these days is “if it saves/helps/protects/aids/etc. just one child, then it’s worth it.” No, I’m sorry but that’s not a sound line of reasoning. Is abridging the rights of millions of people the right thing to do if it might save just one child? So injure millions to save one? I’m not saying it’s welcome to injure the one, but life isn’t perfect and without pain, and I just don’t believe it’s right to save one and injure millions… the math doesn’t add up for me.
The past few days the gun blogging community has been talking about this particular blogger and their interactions with her. Here’s one of her posts, and as an example of gun blogger responses, I give you SayUncle’s response to her particular posting.
I agree with Catherine. That is a horrible story, and it breaks my heart that an innocent 2 year old child was killed through negligence. And what’s worse, it appears the negligence is on the part of the parents. I agree those parents should be held accountable for their actions.
What I don’t agree with is Catherine’s final statement:
I could show hundreds of statistics on why tough gun control laws should be strictly enforced, but the best argument is that one child’s death is too many.
(And I gotta agree with SayUncle, show those statistics, and be sure to answer Just One Question while you’re at it). The thing is, there are already laws on the books about this (e.g. Texas Penal Code §46.13). But how is enforcement going to prevent such things? The law is now only going to apply after the fact. This isn’t to say the law shouldn’t be enforced, but passing more laws won’t stop more death. What will stop more death? Call for increased responsibility. Call for education. Accept no less.
Take a look at the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe program. This is a fantastic program that teaches children if they come across a firearm to:
Stop
Don’t touch
Leave the area
Tell an adult
Drill that mantra into your children. Even if you detest guns above all things, don’t leave your child ignorant; they may encounter a gun at some point in their life – give them at least the minimal knowledge necessary to keep them alive. If you wish to go above that, teach them the basic rules of gun handling safety (source: Jeff Cooper, Commentaries, Vol. 11 No. 4, 2003):
All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1).
Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60% of inadvertent discharges.
Identify your target and what’s behind it. Never shoot at anything you have not positively identified.
This doesn’t mean you have to teach your child how to handle a firearm, but safety rules are always good things to teach (e.g. walk on the left side of the road, facing traffic; keep your fingers curved back when slicing vegetables). And teaching respect for the power of a gun is worthwhile — they are tools, not toys. We agree that education is so important, we teach our children the dangers of strangers, drugs, alcohol, sex, but for some reason our society accepts ignorance about guns. How does that keep our children safe?
But on the same token, we have to accept that the world isn’t a perfect place. We have to accept there are and always will be people that are going to do stupid and irresponsible things, or just make mistakes (and I believe each and every one of us is guilty of this in our past and will be again in the future… such is being a human; if you’re perfect, please drop me a line!). But we don’t have to be complacent with this either. Instead of abridging people, why not teach them? educate them? lift them up?
Updated: For those that like statistics, here are some.
This morning is the Texas Boy Scouts annual Report To State Parade. Every year during February (the month of Scouting’s birth in the United States), Scouts from all around Texas converge on the state capitol.
For one day, downtown Austin becomes a sea of Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturers and Sea Scouts from all over Texas marching down Congress Avenue to the Capitol. From there, special Scout delegates from each council in the state go to the floor of the House of Representatives and report to member of the state government about Scouting activities from the past year, and plans for the future. The Capitol Area Council’s organization and execution of this program has become the standard for other councils across the country. It is a unique opportunity for the Scouts that take part.
I’ve done this numerous times in the past when my older son was a Scout, and now I’m doing it again with my younger son as a Scout. While the morning is long and boring because you do a lot of waiting for your turn to walk, it’s really cool to see Scouts from all around the state, their floats, where they’re from. It’s actually pretty neat. It’s also cool to watch the kids, because now they get to be in a parade, and that’s pretty neat for them. Weather should be nice too. Of course, I am going on about 4 hours of sleep….
Update: Back from the parade. Good turnout. Was a lot of fun. As an unexpected bit of fun, Austin Chief of Police, Art Acevedo happened to be by our float while we were waiting to go. He hopped into the trailer with the boys and had a little fun with my son. Unfortunately I cannot figure out how to get WordPress to embed this video, so you’ll just have to click here in order to see it.
I just returned from seeing Tesla play at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas. The show was good. Shorter than I expected (only one opening band, which I didn’t pay much attention to), but still a good show. Very straightforward, not much banter between songs, just music music music. I can’t put my finger on it, but I didn’t enjoy the show as much as the last one. Don’t get me wrong, this was a good show, but it felt like the last show/tour was just a lot of fun for the guys playing cover tunes and jamming. This show felt like “work”, and that’s understandable given they have a new album to promote (Forever More), and promote they did – they played 6 songs off the new album. The vibe just felt different, not bad, just different. Still, the show was good, glad I went.
Here’s a setlist:
Forever More
I Wanna Live
Modern Day Cowboy
Song & Emotion
Breakin’ Free
Hang Tough
Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)
So What!
One Day At A Time
Fallin’ Apart
Acoustic Guitar Duel
Love Song
Try So Hard
What You Give
Signs
Little Suzi
Electric Guitar Duel (Encore)
Cummin’ Atcha Live (Encore)
And remember…. it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you give.
Updated: Check it out. Someone made a high-quality video of the entire show and posted it to YouTube.
It looks like the person taking the video was standing at the “back” of the room, behind where the sound and light boards were. I was watching the entire show from just in front of the boards, since they had a bit of a wall/ledge in front of them that made it nice to lean and hang on. Looking at the user icon for teslajunkie’s YouTube channel, I remember seeing her back there. Didn’t know she was taping the show tho. Awesome!
Music has always been a part of my life, be it performing it or listening to it. I’ve played piano, violin, trumpet, french horn, guitar, a little bit of bass and drums. I’ve played in rock bands; played my acoustic guitar on the street in Denton, TX; various jam sessions; was in “band” from 5th grade through 8th with trumpet, and 11th and 12th I played french horn; I was drum major in marching band my senior year. I’ve actually had thoughts about picking up the french horn again — of all the instruments I played it was probably the most expressive and versatile. I recall in high school playing in a woodwind quintet, and that was a lot of fun… playing with 4 gorgeous girls didn’t hurt either. 🙂
Then there’s all the concerts I’ve been to. I can’t remember them all, but I’ve seen Mötley Crüe a number of times, White Zombie, Pantera, Wrathchild America, Cyclone Temple, Last Crack, Kix, Sepultura, Sacred Reich, Sick of it All, Napalm Death, Corrosion of Conformity, Down, Crowbar, Alabama Thunderpussy, Suplecs, Warrant, Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell, Motörhead, Testament, Stu Hamm, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, White Trash, Lucy Brown, Kage, Dave Matthews Band (before they were signed), Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Coup De Grace, Scorpions, Trixter, Great White, Child’s Play, Trouble, G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band, Aerosmith, 4 Non Blondes, Collective Soul, and I know there’s been many many more.
So tonight I’m going to see Tesla in concert. I saw them the last time they came through Austin about a year and a half ago and they were awesome. They are not a washed up ’80s band trying to reclaim their former glory. They still make albums, they still tour, and they seem to grok the whole Internet thing and know how to work with it instead of fighting against it. I’m happy to support them.
Thing is, all day long I’ve been excited about going to the show and I found myself reverting back to my old high school concert-going habits. Things like how you have to listen to the band all day long. Of course when you’re driving to the show, you have to have their music cranked. What clothing am I going to wear? Why my Tesla t-shirt of course, and jeans. I’ve been thinking about how much cash I need to bring so I can buy a t-shirt. As the story goes: “An old hesher once told me that you gotta get the best shirt because they only come around once.” 😀 And then of course, you MUST wear the shirt to school the next day to prove to everything that you were there.
I grew up in the Washington D.C. area, and I was just at that right age when this documentary was made. It brings back so many memories. So many shows seen at The Capital Centre. Man, that was a time.
The filmmaker, Jeff Krulik, used to have all of his movies available for free on his website, but no longer. You can buy the DVD of HMPL (which I have done, and it’s pretty funny to see some of the people today, especially Zebraman), and I managed to find the full video here, tho who knows how long it’ll remain.
First, who wrote this? There’s no name attached to it. All I know is “we think” and I’d like to know who this “we” is. Maybe it’s the same “they” that call him Vader (obscure reference).
There’s no need for ordinary citizens to be armed with such lethal firepower. Hunters don’t need them. Gun-toting urbanites don’t need them, either.
So what should us ordinary citizens be armed with? spitballs? kinda-lethal? things that send strongly worded letters to the guy breaking into my house that might kill my children and rape and kill my wife? But apparently, there’s no reason for me to need such lethal firepower. So please tell me, just what do I need? just what will you allow me to use?
Those who say that outlawing these lethal rifles will only mean that criminals will have access to them are flat wrong. All that legalization does is make it easier for crooks to get them, and make it necessary for police to play catch-up in a costly city-street arms race.
No, we’re flat right. You see, a criminal by definition doesn’t obey the law. So if you outlaw these “lethal rifles” then certainly the law-abiding citizen is going to continue to obey the law and will now not have access to them. However, the criminal will still go about their merry law-breaking ways and can get whatever they want. And as it is, a criminal cannot obtain a firearm through legal means (go look up the BAFTE 4473 form), so how are the criminals today obtaining their firearms? They’re sure not going down to the local sporting goods store like Joe Law-Abiding Citizen is. So pass all the laws you want… it doesn’t stop a law breaker since, by definition, that’s what they do. But it sure stops us law-abiding citizens, and that’s why we don’t like this – it’s not right to punish the good guys and put them at a disadvantage.
No one is trying to trample on Second Amendment rights.
How is calling for a renewal of “the assault weapons ban” not a trample upon Second Amendment rights? Have you read the text of the ban? Have you read the SCOTUS DC. vs. Heller ruling? have you been able to reconcile the two?
But there do not seem to be many examples where honest citizens stopped a crime, or caught a criminal, by brandishing an AK-47 or some similar brand of assault rifle. However, there are too many examples of the opposite — criminals using these weapons to kill people or law-enforcement officers.
Here we agree. But why does this happen? Some may say media bias in selecting what to report. I think it’s also because the stopping of a crime doesn’t instantly become a newsworthy event. Someone staves off a mugger in a dark alley, that doesn’t mean we need to call Channel 4 and get a news team down here stat. This is one place where statistics and perception are skewed, because what you mostly hear about and gets reported are when things get heavy, police are involved, someone got shot. But believe me, law-abiding folks defend themselves every day.
What gets me about these things is that the object is demonized. We want to ban guns, we don’t look at the behavior. Do we need to ban alcohol because people drink then drive? We tried that and it didn’t work very well. Should we ban TV because our children don’t go outside and are getting fat? Should we ban sex because people commit adultery? Why do we demonize the inanimate object? Why aren’t we working to deal with the behavior? A gun itself isn’t a good thing nor a bad thing, it’s just a thing. What is done with the gun determines if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. If I’m able to use a gun to keep my wife and children from being injured or killed by an attacker, I’d say that’s a good thing — but then, it was my actions that were really the good thing, the gun remained just the gun.
I don’t like violence. I agree with the article that when senseless death happens it’s an unwelcome thing. But how is banning guns going to stop that violence? Look at the UK where guns are essentially banned? Violent crime is rising, especially with knives. So what next? ban knives? Ok. Then the criminals will just find something else to use (pointed sticks?). The article speaks of “a city-street arms race” but that will never go away, only shift. So truly to solve the problems we need to attack the problem, not symptoms, not accouterments. But in the meantime, there are still bad people out there and I’d rather they didn’t have the advantage over me.
So once again, we come back to Joe Huffman’s “Just One Question“. Still waiting on an answer.
The crux of the article is something I felt throughout the 2008 Presidential Campaign: one of intellectual elitism. I dealt with this a great deal back in undergrad (and somewhat in my K-12 years and in grad school), and it always turned my stomach. I believe if you want to be a big person, build yourself up; don’t cut others down.
