Over the next while I will be summarizing the various projects I have worked on and written about these last 3 years, under “PROJECTS” in the title bar.
The first one covers my 10/22 rifle Captain America.
Enjoy, I know I did when I did them.
Author: Tom Lindsay
Just a regular guy who likes to shoot and cook barbecue. Leukemia survivor. Bourbon drinker. Chemical Engineer.
For Once, Hillary Is Right
In a recent CNN town hall meeting, Hillary Clinton, who looks more and more like the leading Democratic presidential candidate for 2016, said this about gun control:
“We cannot let a minority of people — and that’s what it is, it is a minority of people — hold a viewpoint that terrorizes the majority of people.”
When I read (and re-read) that, the image in my mind was the huge crowd outside the NRA convention in Indianapolis.
It was estimated at times to be as large as 30 protesters. This compared to the 75,267 NRA members and supporters inside.
Or the 5 people who showed up last August to protest the thousand inside the GeorgiaCarry convention.
Time and again, this numerical disparity is demonstrated. A minority of misinformed people ranting about
- Background checks – we already must have them
- Automatic weapons – already heavily regulated, unless you can manage to buy them in Mexico from the BATF.
- Gun Show loopholes – which don’t exist
Yes, for once, I agree with Her Majesty. It’s time for the minority to shut the hell up.
Why Flagrant Open Carry Hurts Our Cause
When I wrote about this 3 years ago, I entitled it “Open Carry – Does It Help Or Hurt?” I left the issue open as a question. At the time, I was satisfied to leave the question hanging. I thought I made my feelings know, but after a bunch of recent incidents underscored my premise, I feel I need to make myself clear:
Flagrant open carry hurts the cause of lawful exercise of the Second Amendment, and, unchecked, could lead to all of us losing our rights to keep and bear arms.
So when I say “flagrant open carry,” what am I talking about?
- A man in Forsyth County, Georgia, decides to open carry at a kids’ baseball game.
- A group holds an open carry “rally” at a Home Depot in Dallas, Texas.
- Restaurant employees allegedly hide in a freezer because of an open carry rally.
Examples pop up every day, and with every one, I cringe, and wait for the world to crash.
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Okay, first, let me say – again – yes, it is our right to carry a gun, and to carry it in the open if we choose. (Sometimes state and local laws infringe that right, but the right remains.)
But let me lay out as simply as I can why I think flagrant open carry is a bad thing, in reality, in today’s society.
I open carry at times, when I feel it is appropriate, but I never open carry with the intent of “making a point.”
Why? Because some people are afraid of people with guns. You can argue all day that they have nothing to be afraid of, but it does not change them, any more than arguing with an arachnophobe will make them see that most spiders don’t threaten them.
Why do I care if they are afraid?
Because they vote.
The day may come, beloved, when we need everyone we can get to vote with our cause. The day may come when enough crazy people have done enough crazy things with guns that our legislators do the unthinkable – pass some kind of law actually outlawing guns.
The day may come when enough Celebutards get on TV and demand that #SomethingMustBeDone. And then enough people make a big enough noise, that someone who people really pay attention to decides to get behind the movement.
Yes, we think that can’t happen, that we are protected by the Second Amendment. We are protected. But in a worst case scenario, with a crazy enough event, I, for one, would not put it past our society to totally ignore the Constitution, and tell us to line up and turn them all in.
If you think that can’t happen, then you have ignored the examples of Britain and Australia.
So, for God’s sake, open carry if you want, but please do so peacefully, and don’t be an asshole about it.
Edit: In case you think I am alone in this, think again.
Remembering One Hell of a Night – 5.1.11
I remember checking my Twitter feed on the night of May 1, 2011, and catching news that made my heart leap: the White House had called a press conference at 10:30 PM to announce that Osama Bin Laden was dead.
Twitter lit up. There were the normal speculations, but it also appeared that someone on Twitter had a front row seat. It turns out that a software consultant living in Abbottabad, Pakistan named Sohaib Athar had heard helicopters. Over the course of the evening, he ended up live tweeting the SEAL Team Six strike that took out Bin Laden.
Eventually, the President came on TV an hour late, and gave us the official word.
I ended up following the story, and joining in, on Twitter, until the wee hours of the morning. After almost ten years of anguish, after living through the torment of 9/11, it was one hell of a night.
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A week or so later, the Stonebridge Group made this print available for sale, with proceeds benefiting the Navy SEAL Foundation. My copy hangs proudly on the wall of the Man Cave.
Fill Yer Hands 