In case the guy has signed up for the site, and in full fairness, let me say the following:
If you are listening, we are teasing you primarily because the person you met is known well here and is not a scary person. He's actually a great and kind person. Now, he does have hands that can crush rocks, but I can only hold that against myself for not having worked out harder at the gym myself. Can't blame him for that.
As for your article, you seem to have found what you were looking for in the gun community including some evidence of the fears outsiders have of our community. What can I say, other than every home has a crazy uncle George and if you come to Thanksgiving you will get to meet the whole family - all of it - and there you have it.
But that one glimpse is not an understanding of us in any real sense. I would instead invite you to get to know us better and then write a second article. This time you went looking for racists, nutjobs, rightwingers, and nazi daggers and you managed to find them. I would invite you to come and meet all the people and things you missed: Jews, Blacks, middle class business owners, Social Conservative, Gays, Boy Scouts, Libertarians, and even some progressives. That may only be one part of our community, but you came to the table and focussed on uncle George and missed the variety of people sitting at the table as well.
I come from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party and was raised by people who you would find easy room to joke with and feel comfortable. I know where you are coming from and would make a great bridge to talk with you and show you a better understanding of the full gun community which is what you missed in your fast visit to a gun show. You just cannot get to know people that way (too many strange folk and personal baggage). Hell, I write this from the very active gun community of Bloomington, Indiana. That last sentence alone should begin to break your stereotypes of our community.
So, let's try something different. Let's talk. Let's eat a meal together. Heck, let's run out to a range and do a bit of shooting. I can do any of the above. I could even make room for you at a rifle clinic and bring a gun for you to shoot and ammo to boot.
Why would I do that?
Because you deserve it and so does the real "gun community". You obviously want to know more, and have an interest in guns but are hampered by your concerns about us. I can help you with both. And I can do it without trying to change your politics one iota. As my wife likes to say, "You changed my politics on guns without changing my politics."
And why did I do that with her? Because she deserved it as well.
So, what do you say? Come on in, have a seat, we can get to know each other far better than at Thanksgiving dinner, or at the 1500.
Let's make some time and perhaps someday you will write another article as a followup!
So who has an account there that can personally extend techres' invitation??
That boy needs a role model.
Why don't you take him in? I know you've got the room...
Invite on twitter "Come shooting with us. Someone going to a range every weekend. Just tag along. http://tinyurl.com/mpx8x4"About Me
Born and raised in Indianapolis, I've spent my adult life trying to understand where I came from by living in other places. I worked for the International Herald Tribune, in Paris, The New York Times and the Queens Chronicle, in New York, and I studied in Dublin. As a freelancer, I've written about books, cars and travel for those and other publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and Publishers Weekly. I've reported from Dubai, Bahrain, the Philippines and Kentucky. Since October, I've lived in Los Angeles, with several month-long stints in Indianapolis mixed in for good measure. Somewhere along the road I got the Indiana state flag tattooed on my left arm.
My current project -- a documentary about the horrific 2006 slaying of an Indianapolis family of seven -- is pulling me back home, where the first seeds of my angst-ridden wanderings were planted.
And I am very serious about breaking bread with him and taking him to the range. I love to do both.
I know you are serious, and you'd be a great representative of INGunOwners.com, as well as IN Gun Owners in general!
That's why I'm waiting on Shooter or Fenway to corroborate that. I know we had the Joker Obama stickers on Friday.
No literature of any kind, "birther" or otherwise, on Sunday. Just T-shirts, hats, patches, stickers and business cards.
Hmm I suppose those 6 on duty IMPD officers were all taking a break at the same time.I approached the “security” table, which consisted of a couple of teenage-looking girls at a folding table. “Do you have any loaded guns?” they asked.
“No,” I said. I went to open my bag, assuming they would want to take a look inside.
“Go on in,” they said.
“Don’t you want to check my bag?” I asked.
“No it’s fine,” one of the girls said. “Just go on in.”
are you calling him a liar? Misrepresenter?
Hmm I suppose those 6 on duty IMPD officers were all taking a break at the same time.