by Robert Lyman
[email protected]

March 27, 2002

KeepAndBearArms.com � It is with great annoyance that I once again present, for your consideration and as a vomiting aid to those who have just swallowed poison, a threesome of anti-gun bigots. Here are the people who hate you and consider you just one step up from monkeys (actually, some of them love chimps so much they probably put you BELOW apes on the evolutionary scale).

GUN BIGOT #1

Feb. 24, 2002. Pittsburg Tribune-Review, Column by Mike Seate:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/columnists/s_19143.html 

�It was about what anyone could expect when they make an enemy of the gun nuts, a fanatical lobby capable of launching a fierce counterattack at even the slightest dis of their sacred "sport."� intended victims of robberies managed to fend off their attackers Charles Bronson-style�If every single Pittsburgher, every American citizen, from 8 to 80, were armed and ready to draw down at a moment's notice, a scenario the gun nuts commonly proscribe as heaven on Earth, would we really feel safer going about our daily lives? For every robbery deterred with a handgun, we're risking road-rage shootings, summary executions when the presence of strangers makes us nervous in our communities and miniature Mogadishus every time the ref makes a bad call down at the Igloo.�

Mike, there is an elementary distinction between self-defense (good) and vigilante murder (bad). Bronson�s movies were famous for the latter; the cases in question involve the former. Children have been known to understand the difference, so it is a bit surprising to see a grown man so confused by it. The implication that CCW holders are murderous thugs is not particularly appreciated, either, nor does any evidence exist that this smear is accurate. 

Oh, and Mike, I doubt you'd like it if I called you a "******." I don't like being called a "gun nut."

GUN BIGOT #2

Mar. 12, 2002, Arizona Republic, column by EJ Montini:
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0312montini12.html 

Regarding the expansion of a gun club where people can try out military-type machineguns and a tactical shooting house is being built:

�We wrote it like a news story, without passing judgment, because that is the job of journalists. If we were in the business of printing the truth along with the facts, however, we would call it what it is: sick.�

�Why not forgo the fantasy and put together an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel, where those who find house-to-house combat so entertaining can get a taste for the real thing?�

I wrote E.J. to ask: if enjoying shooting during wartime is �sick� and �ghoulish,� then is enjoying martial arts training when police wrestle dangerous criminals daily also �sick�? If shooting paper targets is somehow disrespectful of soldiers, then is shooting actual people at a paintball club similarly, if not more, �ghoulish�?

No reply after nearly a week (I wrote on 3/19/02, and I�ll post his reply on KABA if I ever get it). I won�t comment further; his silence is comment enough.

GUN BIGOT #3

Mar. 21, 2002, Seattle PI, column by Nicholas Kristof (published earlier in NY Times):
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/63106_kristof21.shtml 

�Americans who gripe about big government and high taxes, who believe the state that governs best governs least, would love Yemen. The central government controls the beautiful old capital, Sana, and a chunk of turf to its south and west. Beyond that is a delicate balancing act with local sheiks.�

Not content to merely abuse such evil anti-civilization tribalists as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, he adds two unrelated paragraphs at the end of his column, responding to freedom-loving readers who told him to take his anti-gun ideas to England or Japan:

�Thanks for the advice. And if you're so bothered by gun registration, and so convinced that guns don't kill people, then consider moving to a nice mud-brick home here in Suq al-Talh. With you and everybody else carrying around an assault rifle, with armor-piercing rounds in your bandoleer, with a couple of grenades in your pockets, you'll really feel safe. You'll love the freedom!�

Are we to believe that someone whose only response to gun owners' concerns over the dangers of gun registration involve telling us to leave our homeland is balanced? Does anyone find it intriguing to see yet another person tell us that guns kill people -- and that this person was given ink by his editor?

So there you have it: three more gun bigots, and we've only just begun collecting their insults. A big thanks to the iron-stomached readers who sent these in. Keep the gun bigot tips coming: [email protected].

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