Doly wrote:Do you have a personal objection to folks having hobbies?
I do, when the "hobby" consists of collecting stuff specifically designed to kill, as opposed to some other things you mention, which aren't specifically designed to kill.
So grandad hurting bears in Alaska, and me collecting his firearm, is something object to? Unfortunate, but your idea isn't all that uncommon. That ol' Winchester is a beauty for having been once a daily working firearm.
Doly wrote:I have a hobby of learning about medicinal plants and mushrooms, and people find it distasteful when I describe the various poisons I know, in spite that I do not extract or collect poisons. I would find it understandable, if I did extract and collect poisons, that my neighbours would feel some objections to the activity, and maybe demand that I offer some sort of guarantees designed to stop me and others from murdering people willy-nilly, just because it's possible. Such as, for example, clearly labelling the jars as deadly poisons, and publicly stating that I would take the utmost care not to poison anyone, accidentally or otherwise.
I've got a big warning sign on the door to the spare room containing the closet with my collectible (and other) firearms in it. Seems fair, in the vein of what you might do with creating deadly toxins.
Doly wrote:Do you gun owners ever have any sort of ceremony where you publicly state that you clearly understand the consequences of shooting people and will do all you can to avoid it? I don't think so. Why not?
Well you should have asked before assuming then. Training for a concealed carry permit includes an explanation of the law and rules of the road as it were, and the consequences of getting it wrong. No ceremony for common gun owners though, any more than for personal poison manufacturers. And you don't indicate you need a ceremony to make poisons, why would you require it of the individual gun owner?
Doly wrote:Oh, because it might give someone cold feet to even describe the reality of your "hobby", and that's bad for the business of some people.
The reality of my hobby....firearms sitting quietly in the closet for decades, sometimes the better part of a century? Not bad for any business I am aware of. Anyone who doesn't understand what firearms are for needs to stay away from them. Full stop. You've made it clear that folks who aren't aware of how your gardening hobby can turn out, should stay away as well.
Doly wrote:If your "hobby" is training to kill, you better get real about what your "hobby" is and who that makes you.
Yes, at the age of 11 when I went to my first hunter safety course, so 3 days after my 12th birthday I could go deer hunting, I was salivating at opportunity to wreck mayhem upon the whitetail population. In that context, sure sounds my hobby puts food on the table no different than yours. So our hobbys make us both food providers!
Doly wrote:Hopefully you are training to kill animals, not people, and you are training to be a hunter, not a soldier.
More than a little ironic that you mention this last, because your bias is so confirmed as to what YOU think people do with guns, rather than what a vast majority of their owners do.
Doly wrote:But if you are training to harm people, then you should not ask or expect any mercy, least of all in words, since you are training not to be merciful.
Well, I believe handing out mercy to be a God given instruction. If someone unleashing murder and mayhem on my family or friends doesn't respond to my pleas, is it okay with you that I follow the last resort principles of how to keep others from harm....by rapidly deploying the best close quarter combat weapon of the 20th century, otherwise known as a 1911 loaded with 230 grain Hydra-Shok ammunition that the gentle and good folk might be saved from the Devils own henchmen, come to life?
Doly wrote: You call your activity a "hobby", and that's asking for mercy. I call it sheer un-mitigated irresponsibility, when you are not even able to admit, perhaps not even to yourself, if you are planning to possibly harm people or not.
Seriously, guns locked up is irresponsibility? Why? I've got safes and footlockers, with the usual inability of random folks to enter them. As far as harming people, only once in my life did I need to point a firearm at someone. Turns out, burglars don't like being confronted by armed residents. And not a single beetle or lettuce stalk was harmed in the protection of myself and my mom that evening. What would you have done, asked them nicely to drink some hemlock before deciding to pillage the place and people? How DO you handle people who don't take no for an answer? Because they exist. A cloistered life you must lead is all I can think.