Today Show Gun Bias

[dwight_frye]

The last three segments of the today show..1.NRA

   BLACKLIST 2.Runaway Jury Movie with Dustin Hoffman

   (movie about sueing gun manufactures)3.Patterson

   Book..Gun Lobby bullshit. I called and complaint

   to the show(212-664-4602)...not that it will do anygood...i even suggested that they should a segment by John Lott..i won't hold my breath..

   Give them a  call if you would like to complain

   also. Nothing like objective reporting!

[lynnkcircle]

NBC has consistently taken an anti-gun stance in both its news and fictional series. So, it's no surprise to find the Today Show following suit.

   

   There was even a scene on the West Wing a few years ago in which a Congressman supporting the President said of guns, "I think anyone who wants to own one is crazy, anyway."  (But I still watch the West Wing because it is otherwise a pretty good show.)

   

   Our problem is this:  most of the people now running television grew up in urban environments.  Their only exposure to guns themselves has come from horror stories in the news and from Hollywood slaughter movies.  The few who have served in the military or who grew up with guns at all are rapidly becoming geriatric cases like Andy Rooney and Dan Rather (as if I have any room to talk!).

   

   The best way to fight anti-gun bias one person at a time. Take a non-shooting friend shooting.  I can guarantee that 3 out of 4 will love the experience.  If your shooting range is anything like the one I use -- American Shooting Center in Houston -- all the better.  Your guest will see with his or her own eyes that the people around him are not crazies, but very ordinary people of all types.  On any given weekend we have a real American crowd -- all shapes, all sizes, all types.  The stereotype of the shooting enthusiast as a wild-eyed drunken redneck quickly evaporates in the light of our mix of Asians, Hispanics, blacks, and whites, men and women, children and old folks (like me).

   

   So do what you can to fight the anti-gun bias.  Writing letters doesn't help much; they just get trashcanned. But take a friend to shoot and you've made a convert.

   

   Just my two cents.

[dwight_frye]

Lynncirlce...the shooting ethusists angle is secondary to me...the 2nd amemdement and the right too defend yourself(including and most important the government)...is what guns are for...If the people beleive that guns are more

   dangerous than a Hobby!,then we surely will lose.

   You have to convince people that it is nessecary

   for a free country. I think the hunting,sport shooting etc...shouldn't even be brought up.

[darvell]

Yep, one at a time, we can convert the world. ;)

   

   I once had a co-worker from the Australian office of my company who came for a training session to Las Vegas. He had never held a gun in his life and due to gun restrictions in Australia probably never would.

   

   He half-heartedly agreed to go out shooting with me at an outdoor range near Las Vegas. He wasn't very good at first and couldn't figure out what he was doing, but he had loads of fun. By the time we left, he had shot around a half-dozen handguns (.22, .32, and 9mm) and could almost hit the target he was shooting at.

   

   Too bad he lives in Australia. He did say that you can belong to a shooting club and I think he said you have to keep your guns at the club, but I'm not too sure about Australian laws.

   

   But I brought one into the fold from the other side of the fence (and the other side of the world). You should have seen his grin after shooting. He had me take a photograph of him aiming a 9mm handgun to show the folks back home. What a blast he had!

   

   Darvell

[lynnkcircle]

Dwight, I agree with you in theory. But the truth of the matter is that as the US population has become ever more urbanized, it has also become increasingly anti-gun.

   

   When I was in 8th grade back a couple of eons ago in 1956, I had a civics teacher who said this (and I've never forgotten it):  "The fact that Americans are constitutionally guaranteed the right to own guns proves their government trusts them. A government which doesn't trust its own people doesn't deserve the trust of those people."

   

   Now what are the chances that ANY teacher just about ANYWHERE in the US would dare say anything like that today (and especially in gun-unfriendly Illinois)?

   

   Principles and ideals are great. But we are a democratic republic which means if most of the people eventualy support a Constitutional Amendment nullifying the Second Amendment, then that's what is going to happen.  That's how a democratic society is supposed to work, like it or not.

   

   Our job as gun owners is to do what we can to counter the feelings which could lead to such a thing. Sure, we can talk all we want, but most of the time we (like the NRA) are "preaching to the choir." (Like on the message board).

   

   Every person we interest in the shooting sports is one more vote against the future I described above. That's real politics.

[dwight_frye]

I think with urbanaztion and big goverment..the

   right to arms...is ever more important! If we

   change a right..or amend a right it never was a  

   right in the first place.

[billinpittsburg]

The increasing success with getting concealed handgun licensing laws enacted combined with the increasing unwillingness of the Democrats to talk openly about their position on gun control shows that the pendulum may be swinging in our direction.

[bgragucci]

Just to spite all those anti-gun bastards/bitches,I'm going to treat myself to a new handgun on their behalf! I'm also gonna "pack" it.  Carry it proud, and dare anyone of them bastards/bitches to take it from me. This issue gets me fighting mad.