Or Mike Cakora, either, for that matter.
Anyway, I thought they’d like this bumper sticker I saw when in line at Lizard’s Thicket today.
Here’s a closeup in case you have trouble making it out. Hmmm… It’s still not that clear. OK… It said, “Better To Have A Gun And Not Need It Than To Need A Gun And Not Have It.”
This car also had a sticker — on the back window — that said “got ammo?” and another that said, “NO HILLARY 2016.”
I got caught taking the picture. Right after I took it I saw the driver’s arm come out of the window and give me a thumbs-up. I waved back in a noncommittal way.
Now, here’s where I test your assumptions. See if you can form in your mind a picture of this driver.
Think for a moment. Got it? Describe the driver.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. But it was an African-American woman. Either that or a slender, dark-skinned man with long, straightened hair.
So add that to your picture of the world.
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The weekend after the Orlando shooting I stopped by a Columbia area sporting goods store to price life jackets (I’m told I should call them personal flotation devices or PFDs). I was amazed by the number of middle-class African-Americans at the gun counter.
Guessing they weren’t all gay or working for left-leaning media outlets to unearth racism in America’s gun culture. Suppose we could all re-examine our assumptions, myself especially.
The last time I was at Academy Sports, women were the predominant customer in line to talk to the sales reps at the gun counter (and it was very busy).
I asked one of the sales guys and he said women were close to 40% of their business and had been for a long time. As a result, a few of their sales folks are also women.
Freud would say they’re suffering from AR-15 envy.
Ba-da-BOOM-chick…
I’m not a big bumper sticker guy. In fact, I have zero stickers of any kind on my primary vehicle.
I do have stickers on my gun safe and ammo box, though.
Ditto, although I will soon make an exception when I mount the “Hillary for Prison 2016” sticker on my rear bumper.
Hillary for Prison? Fine. Just as long as she wins the election first. So I’d prefer you say 2017.
Although… come to think of it… if she picks Elizabeth Warren as her veep, I’d rather she NOT go to prison, thanks…
Gun safe and ammo safe?
You know me; ever hopeful.
No, it’s a gun safe and an ammo *box*. The ammo box isn’t a safe. It’s just a box with a latch. It’s for carrying the ammo.
My wife would kill me if I bought another safe.
Tell her it’s like (in my case) that must have cow print kid car seat.
I didn’t mean to imply, however, that I was the one in favor of the cow print car seats. So maybe not a perfect example; unless your wife would like an ammo safe …
I have both… stolen ammo is easier to sell than stolen guns. Problem is I have crates of 30-06 (thanks CMP) and cases of 5.56/.223 that will cause the burglar to have a hernia if he tries to take it without multiple trips. Forget gold and silver, the real money is in brass and lead.
What a fearful world it must be rattling around inside your skull.
Glad you keep everything locked up, however. Burglars and kids seek out both.
Brad, how can you allow comments such as this that insult other readers, yet deny me to respond? Mark implies that I must be mentally disturbed because I enjoy something he does not approve of. Should everyone be a gun fearing, Hillary Clinton supporting liberal such as Mark Stewart?
Tex, I don’t take Mark’s comments as being just about you. We have other pro-gun folks here on the blog.
Some of what Mark has said is borderline on the civility scale, but he’s a made guy here on the blog, and unless it’s egregious, I don’t block his comments.
Being established as a commenter, as Mark is, means I have to take positive action to delete one of his posts.
Since you’re a newcomer (and using something other than your real, full name) you’re still on probation, so it takes a positive action on my part for one of your comments to be posted.
And I’m not likely to go out of my way to approve a comment that continues a personal back-and-forth…
To become a member of a blog crew you’ve got to be one hundred per cent approved so they can trace all your relatives and IP address back to the old country. See, it’s the highest honor they can give you. It means you belong to a family and crew. It means that nobody can #$%^ around with you. It also means you could #$%^ around with anybody just as long as they aren’t also a member.
It’s like a license to steal. It’s a license to do anything. As far as Jimmy was concerned with Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made. We would now have one of our own as a member.
Henry, do you mind if I call you Hank? Are you also in the propane and propane accessories business?
The old country you say, good ol’ Norge. Now I’m hungry for lutefisk and pickled herring (Norwegian sushi).
I now understand how this place works, bud must be locked in a room chained to his desk the way he gets away with some of the things he writes.
“Henry, do you mind if I call you Hank? Are you also in the propane and propane accessories business?”
It’s definitely not Hank. And I’m not in the propane business. You could say I’m in construction. I’m a union delegate.
Hey, Henry, that was really cool the way you entered the Copa through the back, all in one long, uninterrupted handheld shot.
It was also cool when they repeated it in “Swingers.”
That was really money…
It wasn’t an insult and there was no implication; explicit or otherwise, that you are mentally disturbed. I did, in fact, compliment you for securing your ammo.
But my point still stands – what is the rationale behind stockpiling thousands (tens of thousands?) of rounds of ammo if it is not as a result of a fear-based outlook on the world around oneself? Am I missing another explanation?
How about a theological objection to storing up guns and ammo?
Back in the early-to-mid 80s, I represented my parish at an ecumenical (mainly Catholics and Methodists) conference in Memphis to study and discuss the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s landmark pastoral letter, “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response.”
It was about nuclear weapons and the moral implications of the arms race and the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction and such.
An interesting point was raised in the study materials handed out in connection with the conference.
The point was made that placing our faith for continued existence in missiles — as opposed to having faith in God, or our common humanity — was a form of idolatry. We were raising these weapons systems up as false god. It was even noted that some of the weapons had names taken directly from pagan mythology, in a sort of open admission of the fact — Poseidon, Trident, Atlas, Titan…
So I guess, if you extend that to guns, the weapons themselves are our holy objects, and our gun safes are like the tabernacles where the host is stored, or the Ark of the Covenant…
I think I’ve made this point before, but a firearm is simply a tool. Relying on it too much is folly. As David said “And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.”
The tools are certainly useful, as was David’s sling, but they are not ultimately something that should become an idol or talisman.
Or crutched as a psychic shield. Amen.
Tex –
My dad has those crates as well. I “borrow” from him from time to time when I get low on a particular supply.
I have a nice gun safe in my nightstand. Well, I say nice but it’s less than $50 but does the job quite well.
Same here on the ammo though as I have a ammo box I bought at Cabela’s.
My shotgun is stored in my closet and although my children never come in my room unless I am in there, I have a trigger lock on it just in case.