Step Right Up and Get Your Persuader, Folks!

OK, I guess today’s the day that I’m going to really take a flyer and talk about something guaranteed to make every bleeding heart love me and every passionate gun-lover despise me. Yep, I’m a great big stupid guy who’s going to talk about guns.

Now, I’m not going to get into the wording of the 2nd Amendment or the philosophical debate about what it really means. (Note that I used the high-faluting word philosophical because most people are as philosophical about this topic as a loud belch at a funeral).

I’ve got my own opinion but I’m not going to express it. Instead, I’m going to touch on a narrower aspect of it that drives me absolutely nuts.

Back in my younger days (in my mid twenties) I lived in Bismarck, North Dakota. In the fall, I dearly loved to go out with friends to hunt sharptail grouse and Hungarian partridge and pheasants. Three or 4 times each fall I would spend a day or weekend out in prairie country outside Bismarck with friends walking the fields, enjoying the gorgeous fall weather, enjoy the comraderie and, with any luck, knocking down a few birds which would end up on the dinner table.

The second year I lived there, I saved my extra money for months to be able to buy a shotgun. For $75 I went to a sports shop and bought a brand new Mossberg 500 pump. It was as basic a shotgun as you could buy. I couldn’t justify the extra $15 it would have cost to upgrade to a Remington 870. But that shotgun was mine. I lovingly cared for it for years. I used it on many a hunt. I taught my kids to shoot targets with it and to hunt with it. And eventually I gave it to my son who still has it. That’s what it was, a full choke, 12 gauge hunting shotgun.


Every week “outdoors” store runs ads in the Sports section of area newspapers with its weekly specials on firearms. That’s well and good. It’s the first amendment and commerce at its finest. Interestingly, often the ads are on the same page as ads for the Boston Clinic (erectile dysfunction and sexual performance). Now I’m not even going to make any Freudian suggestions about that but the coincidence is interesting.

Nope what drives me nuts is that the ads are for firearms which have virtually nothing to do with the “outdoors” or outdoor sports as I know them. Take a look:


Take a look at the 2nd weapon down. It’s a Mossberg 500 but it’s not like any Mossberg 500 I’ve ever seen. I doubt that it would be much use out in the field hunting for birds. It’s got an elongated magazine tube and no stock. Hmmmm, I wonder what’s it’s good for? Oh, yeah it says “Persuader”.

I know what this is for. It’s for killing. People.

And take a look at the 4th panel. The “Freedom Package”. Limited Edition. “Call for Price”. I don’t even want to go there. Maybe someone has seen “Red Dawn” one too many times and called out “Wolverines!”.

I guess here’s my point of view. If someone needs a “Pistol Grip Persuader” to be safe then they need to do one of 3 things:
Change your lifestyle.
Move
Both

And if you think you need the “DDXV Freedom Package” to preserve your freedom, please let me know because I don’t ever want to get within range of you—especially since I’m guessing that most of these probably get converted to full, rock ‘n roll automatic with “handy dandy” conversion kits that are available online.

"Red Dawn"

Now, I live in a not so nice neighbor in a fairly small city in California. Sometimes at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve there can be a short round of “guess that caliber” played with the revelers who have to fire their guns into the air in celebration. But I’ve never felt unsafe. I’ve never felt like there was a need for a weapon.

And I really don’t want to be part of a community where you have to have a “Persuader” or “Freedom Package” to feel safe or free. And I really don’t think that’s what those old guys believed way back when the Bill of Rights was attached to the Constitution either.

These Gun-Toting Folks Have to be Looney

Recently there seems to be a movement afoot to encourage people to “exercise their 2nd Amendment rights” and carry unloaded firearms in public. And, there were some pictures in our local paper yesterday of some folks doing just that.

North County Times photo

A columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune this morning called their reasoning just a bit suspect. Basically, who would want to carry an unloaded gun in public? Columnist Logan Jenkins wrote, “If the thrust of the Second Amendment is to bless the public bearing of arms for purposes of self-defense, then what’s the point of carrying unloaded guns?” Think about it. People (whether they’re regular “citizens” or bad guys) are going to assume that they’re loaded.

What can you do with an unloaded gun? Look like Magnum P.I. but without bullets? Hammer a nail?

They know they’re going to get stopped by cops who are going to check and make sure that the guns are unloaded. Just like if I drove down the street drinking from a pint Jim Beam bottle filled with ice tea. Why would I do that? To get attention? To get stopped by the cops? It doesn’t make sense.

North County Times photo

It’s kind of like a woman who wears a low cut top showing lots of cleavage and then gets offended when you look at the advertised “merchandise”. Come on, who’s kidding who?

So these gun-toters, ostensibly to make a point, are using their guns as the “newest bling”. I think I’d give them a wide berth and have someone make sure that they’re taking their meds.

WTF? Redneck Preacher Invites Flock to Bring Guns to Church

While you read this, you may want to be mentally singing the old gospel song: “Give me that old time religion. Give me that old time religion. Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me.”

New Bethel Church in Louisville, Ky is welcoming “responsible handgun owners” to wear their firearms inside the church Saturday, June 27. An ad for the event said that there will be a handgun raffle, patriotic music and information on gun safety.

"We're just going to celebrate the upcoming theme of the birth of our nation," said pastor Ken Pagano. "And we're not ashamed to say that there was a strong belief in God and firearms — without that this country wouldn't be here."

Pastor Ken Pagano, New Bethel Church, Louisville, KY

This is the church's way of celebrating the 4th of July and the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, according to Pagano, a former Marine and weapons instructor.

Guns must be unloaded and private security will check visitors at the door of the church.

A network TV Saturday morning news show interviewed Pagano today. He said during the interview that it was not uncommon during the time when the constitution was being framed for gunracks to be present at a church for parishoners to store their weapon while worshipping. While that may have made sense in the 18th century, it certainly doesn't today.

Here's a video from Suckstbeyoublog.com with some suggestions for today's festivities at New Bethel Church: