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Old October 20, 2013, 04:00 PM   #1
Beretta686
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Texas Embarrasses Itself. Again.

I love being from Texas and have only moved away when the Army made me and got back as soon as I could. We have great weather, good people, low taxes, amazing food and you can own all the guns you want. A place where when I'm shooting machine guns and the cops show up, after looking at the paperwork, the usual follow on question is "can I shoot it?". However unfortunately we have many gun-owning clowns down here in addition to our wacky politicians.

Recently is San Antonio a bunch of those clowns got together for another one of those stupid "let's walk around with our guns and make a big scene" rallies in San Antonio. Best of all the invited infamous crackpot Alex Jones to their little party.

Aside from mass shootings, I can't imagine anything else doing more damage to the image of gun owners in America. A bunch of people waving guns around in public, cheering for a crazy person, calling police "tyrants with badges" and rambling about "2nd Amendment solutions" doesn't endear us to the public at large.

If we want to win over supporters, it's not by confrontation and other counter-productive, emotional outbursts. Rather it's by acting like adults and being anything but the guy with the tin-foil hat or Founding Father costume and "Keep your government hands off my Medicare" sign.

Be a proud gunowner, but not a confrontational one. Know someone who doesn't like guns? Take them shooting and show them guns aren't evil. Doing so I've turned quite a few people from anti-gunners into people who at least understand why you'd want to own one.

Ranting and waving guns around may make you feel good and get attention, but it doesn't do us any favors as a group.
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Old October 20, 2013, 04:09 PM   #2
Bezoar
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hmm we have to be socialliy polite and reasonable, but the anti crowd can be as stupid, emotional, irrational as they want?
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Old October 20, 2013, 04:19 PM   #3
Closing The Gap
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Yep. Assuming you want to further our cause rather than hinder it.
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Old October 20, 2013, 04:24 PM   #4
Double Naught Spy
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How can you blame the whole of Texas when it was a group of gun owners that did what you considered to be ...

Quote:
a bunch of those clowns got together for another one of those stupid "let's walk around with our guns and make a big scene" rallies in San Antonio. Best of all the invited infamous crackpot Alex Jones to their little party.
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Old October 20, 2013, 05:26 PM   #5
Beretta686
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How can you blame the whole of Texas when it was a group of gun owners that did what you considered to be ...
I'm not blaming the whole of Texas, but rather that it makes us look like a bunch of cranks down here and feeds into the stereotype of Texans.

It's no different than when Rick Perry made those idiot succession comments. It's odd that you'd want to be President of the United States, when you're not so sure about the whole "United States" part of the United States.

As gun owners I think we should denounce anyone who says crazy ignorant things that make us look bad. Just look at Ted Nugent and his off the hinges comments. Rather than gun owners saying "this dude is nuts", he's on the NRA's Board of Directors.

The best representative of gun owners we can find is chicken-$%#@ draft-dodging, washed up rock-star wanna-be who spouts literally crazy things? Really? That's the best we can find?

Quote:
hmm we have to be socialliy polite and reasonable, but the anti crowd can be as stupid, emotional, irrational as they want?
So your solution is to just be more "stupid, emotional, irrational" than the opposition?
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Old October 20, 2013, 05:29 PM   #6
Glenn E. Meyer
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This isn't really a civil rights or legal issue. Also, saying that the entire state is embarrassed is a bit of a stretch.

I'm not closing it yet but I caution folks from going off the deep end.

Is there anything more relevant to L and CR?
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Old October 20, 2013, 05:54 PM   #7
4runnerman
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I don't think the whole State of Texas is in this group. I feel where you are coming from though. Being a Minnesotan and the we went for Obama thing. You just have to grin and bear it knowing that most gun owners feel as you do. There are always going to be bad apples in every group. We as responsible gun owners are no different. Also I don't feel Nuggent is bad He is just a little out spoken and chooses, Lets say- bad ways of expressing his thoughts.
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Old October 20, 2013, 06:00 PM   #8
Beretta686
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Quote:
Is there anything more relevant to L and CR?
Yes, it's the idea that with rights come responsibilities. If you're going to exercise your legal and civil rights, you should do so in a reasonable manner, instead of confrontation for the sake of confrontation.

Sure, it's legal to do things like armed rallies, open-carry walks and such but that doesn't make them smart.

Every one of us is an ambassador for gun owners and you can either help us or hinder us by saying something or doing something stupid. We as group should denounce people who go off the deep end. And especially not let our movement be associated with Alex Jones and his ilk.
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Old October 20, 2013, 06:14 PM   #9
Glenn E. Meyer
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Don't see this as productive. Once the OP is avoiding the language filter- that's a close.
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