It was said with conviction and fervour; Maybe even zeal would be a better word. It hung in the air for a moment as my head turned towards the speaker; I knew there was more, there's always more. And...There it is...She began to tell me about all the reasons she hates guns and I just listened, as did the others in the small group she had approached. It's the same old story and nothing new.
Image is mine
I was at a function on Monday and three of us were having a discussion about control mechanisms used by governments and corporations as I've been having some issues around using flight credits with an airline; I'm feeling a little hard done-by and abused right now. Anyway, right at a critical point of the conversation the gun hater, lets call her Sophie which is not her real name, approached just as someone had mentioned firearms control as an example. She latched onto it like a koala hugging a tree and proceeded to tell us how much she hated guns and why.
For the record, I never get into this conversation...For thirty years I've been a firearms owner and have done a lot of shooting in many different formats and situations. I make my own ammunition, study the science behind shooting at long range and engage with it almost daily; I enjoy it. There is simply no argument one could make to persuade me otherwise, and I simply don't care if a person likes guns or not; So I don't waste my time trying to convince them.
After Sophie got done ranting at us with her anti-gun information she'd gained from Facebook and propaganda she'd been fed on the mainstream news services, I asked her if she'd ever handled a gun, shot one or seen one in real life other than holstered on a police officers hip and the answer was no, no and no exactly as I'd expected.
I then asked her if she wanted to come shooting with me and whilst her initial response was a fairly firm no, after a few minutes she changed her mind. I offered her the chance to shoot some guns, to understand the safety aspect of shooting in a range scenario and to understand firearms a little better generally. To her great credit she agreed and we are going on Saturday morning.
I'm taking her to my range, a military run range, where she will have the chance to learn about a rifle, a shot gun and a semi-automatic handgun that I'll bring. I will explain how each works, the safety features and protocols, how to shoot them and to improve accuracy and I assume we'll get to talk about firearms in general. She will get to shoot them all as much as she likes. It could be a lot of fun or she could hate it with a passion.
My reason for asking her to come shooting was simply to give her the understanding about firearms that she currently does not have. I have no intention of turning her mindset around and making her pro-gun, just to give her some more information which the anti-gun people generally don't have. It may make her less ranty when she goes about denouncing guns and their owners and maybe, just maybe, she'll begin to see a little more broadly around the topic.
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Her reason for accepting my offer is that she finds me attractive and just wants to be with me and how could anyone blame her? No, that's not it at all! 🤣
Her real reason for agreeing to shoot with me is that she is an intelligent adult who came to the realisation that she was being somewhat ignorant in respect of the topic, uninformed and rather closed off; She realised that speaking strongly and with conviction about something she didn't really understand at all made her less-convincing. I thing she deserves some credit for saying so and whether she likes shooting or not I will be happy for her to go away and voice her opinion based on just a little more understanding.
I've known this girl for nine years or so and whilst I'm not friend-close with her I'd say we are close acquaintances. To this point she didn't know I have firearms as I don't talk about it much in the real world around non-firearms people. She was somewhat surprised but, I think, felt comfortable agreeing to come to the range with me because of our acquaintance-status.
I have never taken someone to the range or shooting in the field that didn't like it a lot and I have a suspicion that Sophie will love it too; Maybe she'll be the first that does not though. I think if she does love it she'll not change her mind on being anti-gun but maybe she'll temper her dialogues and attitudes towards firearms owners a little. We'll see I guess. I will report back no matter what happens and let y'all know what she thought of it and where she still thinks all gun owners are mass-murderers.
So how about you? Are you an anti-gun campaigner? Do you fear them, see no reason for someone to have one? Would you prefer that just the government and criminals have them? Maybe you see a place for them but have an opinion on gun control measures as do I? Let me know in the comments. There's no right or wrong response, just your response, so comment away with impunity.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
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The images in this post were taken by me of my wife whilst out on a cattle farm I perform culling duties on; That is, the control of pest and feral animals by way of shooting them.