The Smallest Minority

Well, bless you for your patient, cordial, more flies with honey approach to Her Ignorance.

I'm sure that it's more effective than my restrained desire to simply slap the living shit out of someone who is willing to so blythely and dismissively condemn me to 'defenselessness'.

That's "Her Admitted Ignorance."

Some of these people can be reached.

I need to learn to calm down when I write stuff. While I'm not belligerents, I'm very sarcastic when I write to people I disagree with and it comes off as condescending (which means to 'talk down to').

Anyway, bad jokes aside, I have seen countless stories of anti-gunners 'braving it' to the range only to find their stereotypes completely augured into the dirt. Unfortunately, not too many of them are journalists who write in big papers, so we've got our work cut out for us for sure.

Thanks for doing a wonderful job. If I ever master English, I really should try to do the same thing you do.

I'm not sure I'd take a journaist on an outing to the range. I remember one story where some guys invited a reporter to the range so he could get acquainted with shooters and their guns. The reporter even got to shoot some. But when the story came out, it made them look like mad dog killers, crazed militia members, and inbred rednecks. They never let a reporter near the place again.

Crotalus, that sounds remarkably like the AR15.com Casa Grande, AZ shoot at which a German TV crew showed up. (Local videographers, but the on-screen talent was the German version of the pneumatic bubble-headed bleached-blonde. Her producer was suitably Teutonic Male. They arrived in a rented Passat.) We were friendly, answered their questions, allowed them to shoot a variety of firearms, and left on what we thought were decent terms. However, when the piece aired on Deutsche Welle, the German-speakers on AR15.com informed the rest of the board that it was absolutely a hit-piece on "American militias" and eeeeeeeevil "assault weapons."

From that point forward, no press at any AR15.com organized shoots, and I don't blame them.

I had written a similar email to Ms. de Boer after reading her commentary.

She did respond.

Yeah, the "bring a reporter (or a politician!)" to the range thing can and does backfire spectacularly every now and then.

There was a story passed around in NJ from the times before I got involved of a group bringing a politician to the range with an eye towards making a convert. The group was politically naive, the politician's mind was completely closed on the topic, but wanted the "gee, look how open minded I am" photo opportunity, which bolstered the "fairness and legitimacy" of her decision making regarding arms.

There were p0wned.

the "gee, look how open minded I am" photo opportunity

Like the shot of Chuck Schumer grinning like an idiot (but I'm being redundant) while shooting a Tec-9?

I was going to say you forgot to mention http://www.alphecca.com/ (gay Vermont gun-nut) but then, that site appears to be down.

I didn't forget him, but when I'm writing an email to someone I'm trying to persuade, I try to keep it short - well, short for me. Zendo Deb is where I saw the piece in the first place, and James Rummel lives in her state. Two was enough.