Help me out with this idiot!!

timberbeast

This will be pretty long, and the typo's will be mine. From today's Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, front page, by Jim Stingl. Email: jstingl@onwis.com ARMED AND OMINOUS: WE ALL MAY PACK HEAT It was nearly dawn when the state Assembly approved a bill allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. You have to assume that most of its members were sound asleep with their foreheads accidentally pressing the "aye" buttons on the desks in front of them. The argument that carried the day seems to be this: Criminals (the bad people walking around with guns) won't bother us (the good people walking around with guns) because they know they might get blasted. It's a little like the Cold War. If you nuke us, we're going to nuke you right back, sucka. Assume for a moment that the Senate goes for concealed carry,(which its leaders have vowed will never happen) and the governor signs it into law. What would life be like around here? Scenario 1: Bob (not his real name) is stopped at the airport security checkpoint when he makes the metal detector beep. A fingernail file is discovered in his pocket and immediately taken away from him. Later the same day, Bob sticks a Luger in his pants and rides a crowded county bus. This is perfectly OK. Scenario 2: "This is a stickup" Al barks at Jill in a dark alley. "What are you packing?" she inquires. "It's a .22 caliber revolver," Al repies. "I've got you beat," Jill says, pulling out her .357 Magnum. "Drat," cries Al, running away in search of a career in the law-abiding sector. Scenario 3: It's a lovely summer day, and people stream into Maier Festival Park. "Welcome to Summerfest," says a voice on the P.a. system. "No cans, bottles, fireworks, skateboards, pistols, rifles, shotguns, bazookas or rocket launchers are allowed on the grounds." Scenarion 4: A magician is performing before a large crowd. She decides to try some audience participation. "Does anyone have a gun I could borrow for my next trick?" Two hundred hands go up. When she says she's planning to make the gun disappear, all the hands are quickly lowered. The magician is arrested for violating the Second Amendment. Scenario 5: All Joe can think about is getting his next rock of crack cocaine. His family has disowned him. He has no job, no money, no hope. He needs drugs, and he needs them now. Then he remembers that Wisconsin has a new law that allows his potential victims to carry concealed weapons. "Oh shoot," he moans, not intending the pun. "Guess I'll just watch a little TV and turn in early tonight." BULGES, BULGES, EVERYWHERE Scenario 6: Lori is a police officer. Her husband worries about her safety when she puts on a uniform and goes out there to fight crime. As a cop, you never know when the person you stop will have a gun hidden is his or her clothing. Lori misses the days when that was illegal. She thinks about going back to school to become a pastry chef or something. Scenario 7: At a family picnic, Stan gets into a heated argument with his brother-in-law, Oliver. Both men have had scrapes with the law. But they aren't felons or violent criminals, at least as far as we know, and they don't seem crazier than the average person out there. So they were both able to obtain licenses to carry a concealed weapon. As the dispute escalates, they poke at each other with one hand and keep the other hand on the guns in their pockets just in case. Finally it's agreed they will have a duel like in the Old West when everyone walked around with guns. They stand back to back and count off 10 paces before they turn and fire. Luckily, they both miss. Then they run a sack race for the kids. Scenario 8: Wayne stops after work for a drink. It was fine and dandy that he had a gun hidden under his shirt all day at work just in case anyone tried a deskjacking. But he knows that the new law does not allow concealed weapons in taverns or for anyone who is drinking. So he hurries home and gives his gun to his wife for her evening shopping trip to the mall. Scenario 9: Gun-makers launch a catchy new ad campaign: "Deadly Weapons: Don't leave home without them." End This is the kind of stuff I have to put up with on a daily basis from the most liberal newspaper in the country. They have stopped printing my rebuttals. I usually got 10 letters on my side for one against me when my letters were published. I assume that the paper gets the same ratio. Guess they don't like me. Email this character!!! Thanks!

Boomerang

Well said Saxonpig. Apparently this fellow is a fear monger, and believes himself to be the only sane person on Earth. Does this not sound like the typical liberal? Little does he know he is an idiot as well. The facts do not support his fanatical scenarios.Boomer

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Protect our Constitutional Rights.

offeror

You might point out that he writes comedy well, you duly noted the fact that he couldn't come up with any realistic scenarios whereby law abiding citizens would be a significant threat to order, and thank him for the laugh. I would then invite him to feel grateful and tremendously lucky that the anti-Second Amendment crowd hadn't successfully convinced our representatives at the federal level to pass legislation overturning that particular Constitutional Right before 9/11, and remind him that the Founders had the foresight to create the Bill of Rights to withstand many different sets of social circumstances throughout the ages. It would be quite typical of our self-serving generation to make ourselves feel more secure in our docile, superstitious fear of firearms, at the expense of our children and grandchildren who may be defending against terrorists within our borders for years to come. Remind him that before 9/11 the argument that America might still need defenses within its borders was regarded as antiquated and pro-gun-rights people characterized as out of touch with current events. Remind him that all that changed when Flight 93 went into the ground and thousands were killed in New York and Washington. Remind him that terrorists usually resort to low-tech methods against civilians like us rather than against armies, and that they will have an easier time taking unarmed hostages than armed ones. Remind him that one armed Israeli killed a would-be suicide bomber in a public place after a detonator had misfired and before the bomber was able to set off the bomb by other means. Ask him if he ever could have imagined some guy with C4 in his tennis shoes being overpowered by American civilians before the fact. And explain to him that if he weren't too busy thinking up funny scenarios to deprecate the new law, he could probably stretch his limited imagination and come up with half a dozen scenarios in which one citizen with a gun might make the difference in how many innocents die like sheep. Remind him that the one woman who left her gun in the car at Luby's in Texas had to watch the systematic executions of restaurant patrons, including her parents, when she might have brought the rampage to a halt. Sorry, I do ramble on.

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"The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."

offeror

If you'll publish their e-mail address for the managing editor, I'll be glad to tell them myself.

offeror

Oops. You did. Sorry.

offeror

I just e-mailed the author. Hopefully, he will get something out of it.

salzo

Offeroro- Writes comedy well?I thought it was a pitiful attempt at trying to be funny. Some of those liberals out there say some pretty funny things that I cant help but laugh-but this guy aint funny.Just tell him that the constitution says that the people have a right to bear arms, which shall not be infringed.The one thing I have learned when arguing with anti gunners is they do not care about the statistcal evidence that suggests carrying is a benefit to yourself, and society. I just assume point out that the constitution says that my right to bear arms is guaranteed, and that is the only thing we should be concerned about.

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Happiness is a warm gun

varmit hunter

Just point out crime rates in states with carry, And without.We had a reporter in Texas write the very same words.After two years of no O K corrals,John Waynes,And a drop in crime rates.This same reporter actualy wrote a article that he was wrong.Wish I had saved it for this very purpose.

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A unarmed man is a subject.A armed man is a citizen.

offeror

The "writes comedy well" was actually sarcastic, and I assume that even though he is trying to ridicule the law, as a newspaper man he will find the comment irritating because his self-importance was couched in phoney humor. I stopped short of telling him it will be people like us that save the butts of sheep like him when Al-Quaida parks their van on our street and starts to set up their destructive devices. I don't expect to change minds. All we can do is keep their Constitution-meddling, short-sighted, self-serving a$$es out of office.

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"The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."

offeror

I tend to stay away from the often-quoted remarks when I write to someone like this because I don't like buzzwords from either side -- "the wrong hands" being one example. Lately I have become more impressed by the Founders' foresight in crafting a document that was meant to withstand a whole array of legal challenges and unforeseeable social circumstances. Each generation seems to have a different set of problems. What if we changed the Bill of Rights at the "convenience" of each generation? I'm grateful it can't be done. Just when I started to see a lot of articles claiming that we pro-gunners were simply pioneer-era anachronisms, out of touch with modern living, we have 9/11 change everything. Suddenly people on TV are talking about all of us being "drafted" by terrorists. The horrific irony of this change of the winds impresses me because it so thoroughly proves our point -- that if you mess with the Constitution and take away freedoms based on temporary circumstances, it's tough to get them back just when you need them the most. Now the anti-gunners are reduced to asking silly questions like, "What are you going to do--shoot an anthrax spore?" while the rest of us are thinking in far more practical terms. We memorialize heroes who were so thoroughly disarmed, both physically and mentally, that they were overcome by box cutters and empty words.Every time the "head of homeland security" goes on TV he asks every American to remain on alert and please never tire of it the repetition. Although it is reasonable that concealed carry will not be possible in all venues, still the right to carry under these circumstances has become more important than ever before. I just keep thanking our lucky stars that we have the administration we have during a time like this. The Democrats are already worried about our "exit strategy." The administration is thankfully concerned with our victory strategy. If the Dems had had a chance, they'd have stripped us of defensive weapons altogether by now within our borders and reserved the right of effective defense to cops and the National Guard. Meanwhile, terrorists would have been able to enter any unsuspecting building with a load of C4 in their tennies while we all stood around with our thumbs where the sun don't shine. Suddenly there is a quantum shift. Instead of being pure fiction, outlandish scenarios of terror on a personal level are more in the nature of practical what-ifs. While the anti-gunners have to use the wild examples in order to criticize us, for a change, we have the burden of reality on our side. I can't help wondering how much greater would have been the chances of survival for the heroic passengers on 93 and maybe the other flights if they had been able to put a Glaser frangible in each terrorist's head or belly rather than engage them all physically in a cockpit melee, or sit like prison camp victims awaiting their fate. It makes me sick that people like the Brady Bunch would have us remain helpless cattle.

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"The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."

Evil ATF

Sent mine.

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Stand And Be Counted

dakotashooter2

Get some of your friends togeter, get a copy of the paper with the article, call the local tv station and tell them you are going to burn a copy of the paper in front of the papers business office, don't forget to get a permit(if required) for your protest or for burning, and hopefully if/after the media shows up torch the paper in protest making sure the name of the paper can clearly be seen. People tend to take burning things more seriously.

mudge

This is the letter I wrote Mr. Stingl.Dear Mr. Stingl,I read your article regarding concealed carry with great interest. I kept expecting there to be a paragraph that explained that the scenarios you described were the ones that had been put forward in every other Statethat had passed a concealed carry law and how they had never happened. As you must know, they haven't. If you'll check crime statistics for the 30+ States that have "shall issue" concealed carry laws, violent crime has gone down markedly. There have been "journalists", like yourself, who have written similar "doomsday" articles only to be proven wrong. After having been proven wrong, some of them have even had the courage and honesty to write follow up articles happily admitting that their "doomsday" scenarios had never come true. I hope you'll join those courageous folks who are big enough to admit a mistake when you are proven wrong. And you will be. You will be.Sincerely,Brad EneyThis is his reply.Maybe you're right, Brad. I've been wrong before. It makes me sad to think we've come to a point where a person needs to carry a gun to move about safely in our state. Thanks for reading,Jim StinglDon't get many replies from these folks.Mudge the amazed

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I can't come to work today. The voices said, STAY HOME AND CLEAN THE GUNS!

Boomerang

Mudge - You should have followed it with a statement. Yes Brad it is sad, but we probably would not be in this situation if it were not for the fact that criminals have been given a green light to commit crimes by the liberal abuse excuse scenarios.Boomer

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Protect our Constitutional Rights.

travelor

Timber Monster...Glad to see you are still posting...Being a Wisconsin Resident also...I have been watching this closely..Did you go to the Waukesha show this weekend? There was a table set up offering free prestamped blank post cards that you could fill out your senators name and address, and personalize it with a few words about your opinion as to why this bill should be passed...I hope that if you were there, that you took the few minnutes to send your message...

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keep lots of extra uppers for your ar..you can change often enough to keep the thing from over heating...what ever caliber fits the moment..~Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets~

offeror

I recently got on the NRA site and found that if you enter your locality you can send either letters or e-mails not only to your representatives but ALL THE LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS IN YOUR AREA. I immediately fired off half a dozen e-mailed letters to the editors regarding an anti-gun Republican who wants to defeat our incumbent in this year's primary. It's a neat resource, check it out.

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"The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."

daddo

1- ask him if he would put a sign on his front door stating "I own no guns".2- ask him-if his car broke down in a bad section of town at 2 a.m.- would he rather be with someone who is carrying or one who is not?3- if someone broke down his door in the night would he- call 911 and tell the criminal to wait until police arrived? Or- throw a lamp at the criminal and yell at him to leave? Jump out the glass window to escape, leaving your wife or kids behind to fend for themselves?4- ask him to get educated more on guns and make a list of all the lifes saved by them!