[quote=King Brown: Whatever Dave does with this dissolving phantasmagoria, my hope is that there's a cleanup of all the political partisanship and slogans, jingoism, imputing of motives and citizenship, and it's packed it off to another place on the board. I'm here to learn about doubles. I don't give a tinker's dam about someone's father or politician unless it relates to gun provenance or some activity in the shooting sports. [/quote]
King, the second sentence of your last post goes to the heart of why some of us are being so passionate about keeping gun control topics front and center. We don't wish to reach a point where the rights we currently enjoy are but a memory in 25 years or so. The only way to insure that does not happen is for more of us to become involved and remain engaged. None of us is perfect in that regard. I can do better. All of us can do better. Simply buying guns and shells and hunting licenses and even wearing an NRA hat will not get it done. Pretending there is no threat in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is stupid. There is no other, more polite, word for it. Sorry, but history proves my point. I harbor no illusions that we will ever get 40 million gunowners to act in one united front and send gun grabbing politicians packing to a place from which they will never again attempt to take us on. But it is our perceived weakness and apathy that gives them the heart and courage to keep picking away at us. Canvasback's excellent examples illustrate the foolishness of waiting until we are stuck in a hole. The first step in getting out of a hole is to stop digging.
I hate to keep dissecting your prior posts, but I have further reduced the one quoted here to illustrate my previous point. You have been at the forefront with several others to keep this forum pure DoubleGun. But you have strayed into Islamophobia, Rednecks, Anti-Semitism, Catholics and Birth Control, and various other partisan politics areas. Personally, I have no problem with this, but it is not me who has implored Dave to not allow it to happen. I personally enjoy a little heated discussion occasionally. It gets the blood flowing and makes you think. If I allow myself to get overly passionate and make a rash or incorrect statement, I have no problem stepping back and apologizing for it. No big deal... no blood shed. Some here act like having these sidebar discussions will degenerate this BBS and cause its' eventual collapse. They act like we are sucking up too much internet bandwidth or something and acting like that wouldn't happen if these topics were tucked away in Misfires.
I have been simply shooting holes in those falsehoods whenever I can. We have had these discussions here in the past and DoubleGunshop.com did not collapse. Never did this type of discussion threaten to dominate this BBS. Even the fact that this one has now dragged on for 25 pages would hardly be noticeable if those who claim disinterest would simply not click on it, or more inexplicably, keep coming back to it. Those who want it to go away are as guilty as I am at keeping it alive. There has been infighting and bickering and nobody shed any blood. I have been insulted and mischaracterized and have not lost a minute of sleep over it. Anyone who has ought to grow a set.
This is not SewingWithNancyBoy.com... we are mostly grown men who shoot guns and get into testosterone fueled discussions here, in school, at work, at hunting camps, and everywhere we go. We pound ourselves with the recoil of 100 rounds at trap or skeet, and pick up the empties so we can reload them and pound ourselves again. We walk miles over rough terrain following dogs in pursuit of a few birds. We have guys here who pick themselves up and push on despite cancers and chemo and radiation or a dozen other debilitating difficulties. Did you happen to read Jim Legg's last posthumous post that was submitted by his daughter? His last words to us confirmed what I had always suspected. He told us how much he enjoyed his time with us, and it confirmed that he actually enjoyed the verbal sparring matches he participated in. I admired that admission. And I laugh at the mock indignation that is being tossed about here in an attempt to suppress or hide gun control discussions.
