So, what better way for someone who is clearly scared of and vehemently against firearms to make a point than to strap one on for a month and share all her worst fears and burgeoning neuroses with us? In Ms. Magazine no less!
Take this for an example: "Tony told me a Glock doesn’t have an external safety feature, so when I got home and opened the box and saw the magazine in the gun I freaked. I was too scared to try and eject it as thoughts flooded my mind of me accidentally shooting the gun and a bullet hitting my son in the house or rupturing the gas tank of my car, followed by an earth-shaking explosion. This was the first time my hands shook from the adrenaline surge and the first time I questioned the wisdom of this 30-day experiment."
Did you ask if it was loaded? Where would the rounds have come from? Did you buy ammunition? Ejecting a magazine will fire the gun? If you could not answer these questions then you were unprepared. That is on you! How dare someone selling a product assume that someone buying it is not a moron. You really thought that the best way to learn about firearms was to be stupid? So much for personal responsibility.
Then: "I needed help. I drove to where a police officer had pulled over another driver. Now, writing this, I realize that rolling up on an on-duty cop with a handgun in tow might not have been fully thought through."
No shit! Strike two!
"I told him I just bought a gun, had no clue how to use it. I asked him to make sure there were no bullets in the magazine or chamber. He took the magazine out and cleared the chamber. He assured me it was empty and showed me how to look. Then he told me how great the gun was and how he had one just like it."
I bet he knew all about it before he got his.
"The cop thought I was an idiot and suggested I take a class. But up to that point I’d done nothing wrong, nothing illegal."
Strike three! Nothing illegal, but plenty wrong. Did you ask questions about it? Were you at all inquisitive about this potentially dangerous weapon? God forbid that anyone buying a product be expected to ask questions about it if they were ignorant. It is easy for people who are clueless about guns and the gun culture - who are not only unaware of the norms of that culture, but actively antagonistic to them - to think that this is the modal gun buying experience, that most people simply wander in to a gun show or shop and buy a pistol with no prior knowledge, like going through the drive-through at McDs. One of the norms in that culture is that if you are not going to train and become proficient with the use of a firearm, then perhaps it is not a good choice for you. One of the lessons you clearly missed is that carrying a weapon is a terrible responsibility not to be taken lightly - as you have done. No one can take that responsibility for you. Did that LEO tell you how often this happens? I suspect you are the first person to ever do this to him...and that should tell you something.
But I am not sure what is worse - reading her blog or the "you go girl" comments that follow it. I suppose it is a side-effect of both how gun issues are covered and the sheltered lives that some people lead, but the people who are commenting by and large seem to think that there are old-time western shoot-outs in the street (or at Starbucks) on a regular basis. If the law with regard to training and knowledge required to obtain a firearm is so egregious, then why aren't people accidentally shooting up Starbucks and everywhere else all the time (again, many of these commenters probably think they are!).
Another commenter notes how easy it is for criminals to disarm an open carrier. If it is so easy for criminals to take away openly carried sidearms, then why doesn't this happen all the time in states with open carry? Are there any data this person would like to cite or is steadfast but unsupported belief sufficient?
This is sadly destined to be a lost opportunity - this person who could, if she chose, learn about pistol handling and the culture that surrounds it seems very likely to simply present a caricature of it. I hope that as this month goes by she will try a little harder to find out what being a gun owner means and being a gun carrier is all about, instead of imposing her stupidity on it. She could show a different picture of law-abiding gun owners to her audience than they are used to seeing if she wanted to do so.
The gun will not make you smarter; it is a tool and like any other tool, YOU must learn to use it well and safely if it is to perform for you. They do not require me to show I can be safe with a chainsaw, knife, lawn mower (like the one a dad ran over his daughter with), or whatever, before I buy one.
If you do not want to learn what it takes to be safe and proficient, to not become an ignorant gibbering wreck who has to drive until she finds an LEO on a roadside to get her pistol cleared, then you should stick to harsh words for your self-defense.
I hold out little hope.
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