[Leica] Armed America on the Road

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

B.D. I'd be upset too except I know where the "delete" key is. :-)

At 06:33 PM 6/24/2006, you wrote:

>So once again, we read a thousand words of MJS's opinions on a subject, only
>to be told the rest of us should confine our opinions on the same subject to
>the Forum?
>It would be funny, were it not so sad....
>
>
>On 6/24/06 7:56 PM, "Marc James Small" <msmall@aya.yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > At 04:39 PM 6/24/06 -0400, Jim Shulman wrote:
> >> I understand that's the whole point of this project--that gun 
> ownership is a
> >> lot more "normal" than most of us non-owners would imagine.  While the 
> usual
> >> media image of a gun owner is some wild-eyed fanatic living in a garret,
> >> Kyle is showing otherwise--that it's as ubiquitous as owning a Toro 
> >> riding
> >> mower or Veg-o-matic.
> >>
> >> That's not to say more desirable than owning the mower or Popeil 
> items--he's
> >> not making judgments about that--but it is rather remarkable in that 
> >> he's
> >> putting faces on what had been anonymity.
> >
> > A number of us on the LUG are gun owners.  I don't hunt but I do target
> > shoot on occasion.  (My rifle is a 1909 Argentine Mauser rechambered to 
> > .30
> > - '06 I picked up years back from my Secretary's father as part of a fee.
> > I had a 3X-9X by 30mm scope mounted on it -- the scope was made by the
> > Arsenal folks in the Ukraine, the guys who gave us those Contax RF 
> > clones,
> > the Kiev cameras, for so many years -- it even has the oblate triune 
> > sphere
> > logo on it.)  I don't own it for intimdiation, I don't own it for 
> > machismo,
> > I don't own it for self-defense (though my wife came equipped with a.22
> > Ruger target pistol along with a whole aresenal, so our differences tend 
> > to
> > be VERY peacefully resolved <he grins> -- but, then, she is a Michigan
> > farmer by origin and grew up around guns much more so than I did.)  I do
> > take my rifle out every couple of years with a couple of boxes of 
> > 280-grain
> > ammunition (have to use the high-power rounds as there is the barrel is a
> > tad larger than the regulation .30 - '06 one, tehcnically it's a 7.62mm
> > round in an 8mm barrel, though the actual measurements are a bit 
> different..
> >
> > There were no firearms in my house when I was growing up but my father 
> > was
> > retired from the Army and had commanded an anti-aircraft battery in 
> > Alaska
> > in combat during the Second World War.  I learned to shoot when I was 12
> > and taught marksmanship when I was a Boy Scout camp staff member and 
> > later
> > as a Scoutmaster (along with teaching campcraft, pioneering, map work and
> > orienteering, first aid, lifesaving and so forth).  I consistently shot
> > Marksman in the Army, generally on the M1 or M14 or M16 but on occasion 
> > on
> > the M1911A1 .45 automatic or on a substitute such as a .22 target pistol.
> > The Army allowed me to fire a LOT of weapons from small-bore rifles and
> > pistols up through 81mm and 4.2" mortars to 90mm and 105mm tank guns and
> > even 105mm and 155mm and, on a few occasions, 8" howitzers.  I never had 
> > a
> > desire to own a gun despite an intense interest in military history:
> > during most of my time, I was much more concerned with the maintenance
> > cycles and MTBF for, say, the M1 tank or the CUCV than I was on popping 
> > off
> > rounds downrange.
> >
> > I own a gun just because I own a gun.  Very few of my friends know that I
> > own a gun and that my wife has an arsenal that would choke the average 
> > pawn
> > shop.  We do not belong to the NRA or the like, we do not have
> > bumper-stickers on our cars (well, at election time, I generally sport
> > something along the lines of OCTAVIA JOHNSON FOR SHERIFF or the like), we
> > do not go to demonstrations.  I know a bunch of other gun owners who are
> > much of a sort with my pattern, and I suspect that most US gun owners 
> > just
> > own guns and so be it.  It is not the central part of our lives, it is 
> > just
> > something we do and, yes, my wife came equipped with a riding mower which
> > seems a bit of an overkill on my small yard and I tend to do my cooking 
> > on
> > cast iron.  The only Cuisinart I use is our coffee maker, though I prefer
> > to grind the beans in a Krups grinder proving that even a mild 
> > techno-geek
> > can go low-tech on occasion.  (I do have my late mother's Cuisinart
> > processer but my wife simply refuses to use it, preferring the old ways 
> > of
> > doing it by hand.  We are having strip steaks and blanched asparagus and 
> > a
> > bottle of Chilean red wine in a few minutes:  we do eat simply but well!)
> >
> > USian citizens have rights derived from the common sovereignity and
> > expressed in our Constitution.  The Bible does not provide any "rights" 
> > to
> > Chirstians as Paul makes clear that anyone saved -- and he does not
> > restrict this to "Christians", interestingly -- is saved but through the
> > infinite Grace of God.  We Christians do have a lot of obligations, most 
> > of
> > which we miss -- how many of us have ever gone down to Skid Row on
> > Thanksgiving Morning and brought it a couple of hungover street folks 
> > for a
> > meal in the haven of our home? -- but at the same time we have no
> > guarantees with Christ other than that if we throw ourselves 
> > wholeheartedly
> > into his service, we shall earn His happiness.  But, again, there are 
> > only
> > the haziest of guarantees in the Bible and I get fidgety when folks start
> > talking about a "God-given right" to bear firearms.  The right came from
> > the forefathers when they developed our common polity by drafting the
> > Constitution, and is only as strong as we make it.  (I can discuss Second
> > Amendment rights all day long but, as I note below, that is not a proper
> > topic for discussion on the LUG., so contact me off-List, as I am not a
> > member of the Forum.)
> >
> > We can argue the radical fringes all we want but that probably belongs on
> > the Forum and not on the LUG itself as we would soon be discussing ALL of
> > the radical fringe elements and then we'd be into the sort of general
> > donnybrook which makes my Riley blood elated but which causes my Hielan'
> > ancestors to roll over in their graves at the wasting of a good fight on
> > something which cannot be resolved.  So, the Forum is probably the place
> > for the discussion of the social aspects of firearm ownership, while a
> > discussion of these fine pictures is, of course, at the heart of the LUG.
> >
> > Sorry to have rattled on so long, but I am responding in fine to a bunch 
> > of
> > comments from other members and just wanted you guys to realize that 
> > there
> > are gun owners on the LUG -- for that matter, our Senior Member, was 
> > taught
> > BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) by William Tell shortly before he did that
> > magnificent book of combat photographs taken during the Wars of the 
> > Roses,
> > though I don't know that Ted has ever owned a firearm.
> >
> > Marc
> >
> > msmall@aya.yale.edu
> > Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
> > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
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// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
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