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Anti-gun reporter goes to a gun store
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Mullen: U.S. Constitution Is Alive and Well at Your Friendly Neighborhood Gun Store
Thursday, July 4, 2002
BY HOLLY MULLEN
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE COLUMNIST
Between firing up the backyard grill and avoiding setting fire to the neighborhood with an errant bottle rocket, we might pause today to consider what qualities make this country great.
My own favorite: the healthy combustion that results when two or more competing constitutional rights collide.
However highbrow that may sound, it is easy to see these collisions in real life, every day. The U.S. Constitution, being the beautiful, living document it is, affords us many examples.
Try this: A citizen sues to have the words "one nation, under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. The plaintiff believes the phrase violates this country's guarantee of separate church and state, and a California appeals court agrees. Meanwhile, a mass of Americans goes bananas, bemoaning the country's tumble into godlessness. While they are at it, they could thank God for the right to criticize the government -- courtesy of the First Amendment.
Stay tuned; this one is just getting legs.
Sometimes I get the notion to test the power of these clashing constitutional rights. See, I seldom fly the flag from my front porch, and I have never bought a CD of Orrin Hatch's hymns to America. But a little experiment like the one I performed this week is my own display of fervent patriotism.
I drove to Doug's Shoot 'N Sports in Taylorsville. A gun store would not typically draw me. I do not own a gun. Charlton Heston is not my president and I am not insured by Smith & Wesson. But sure as shooting, I know one thing: I love the passion of gun owners and their absolute zeal in defending their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Something else I knew: The folks inside would not appreciate a visit from a reporter. This country's well-armed citizen militia and members of the press have a long and bitter history. It has some foundation. Too often, reporters make dumb mistakes like calling a semiautomatic weapon an automatic. But we also have a pesky reputation for presenting more than one side to an issue, like conceal-and-carry laws and whether guns belong on college campuses.
Ah, a struggle between free speech and gun rights. I sensed friction. And fun.
Manager Dave Larsen, and his mother and store owner, Pam, generously gave me access to the store and customers (as private property owners they could have kicked me out). Then they started firing.
"The problem with talking to reporters is you write down what we say and then make it all up anyway," said Pam Larsen. I told her I wouldn't -- make it up, that is. She turned me loose.
The conversation was free-wheeling.
"Why would you need a handgun at school?" I asked Troy, a father of four from Bountiful who had stopped in to sell a handgun.
Because, he said, a woman might need a weapon to defend herself from an abusive husband or boyfriend who was stalking her.
Gun owners have been defending their right to pack heat for two centuries, and they are as vocal as ever.
"I can see a reasonable amount of tracking" gun sales, said Dave Larsen. But lengthy background checks of buyers and waiting periods "are a pain in the butt."
I don't exactly feel his pain. And this discussion went about as each of us expected. I know we all fell asleep that night with the same opinions we woke up with. I also know this: It was a lovely way to actually live the Constitution; a perfect birthday gift to the greatest country in the world.
hmullen@sltrib.com
http://www.sltrib.com/07042002/utah/750818.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Thursday, July 4, 2002
BY HOLLY MULLEN
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE COLUMNIST
Between firing up the backyard grill and avoiding setting fire to the neighborhood with an errant bottle rocket, we might pause today to consider what qualities make this country great.
My own favorite: the healthy combustion that results when two or more competing constitutional rights collide.
However highbrow that may sound, it is easy to see these collisions in real life, every day. The U.S. Constitution, being the beautiful, living document it is, affords us many examples.
Try this: A citizen sues to have the words "one nation, under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. The plaintiff believes the phrase violates this country's guarantee of separate church and state, and a California appeals court agrees. Meanwhile, a mass of Americans goes bananas, bemoaning the country's tumble into godlessness. While they are at it, they could thank God for the right to criticize the government -- courtesy of the First Amendment.
Stay tuned; this one is just getting legs.
Sometimes I get the notion to test the power of these clashing constitutional rights. See, I seldom fly the flag from my front porch, and I have never bought a CD of Orrin Hatch's hymns to America. But a little experiment like the one I performed this week is my own display of fervent patriotism.
I drove to Doug's Shoot 'N Sports in Taylorsville. A gun store would not typically draw me. I do not own a gun. Charlton Heston is not my president and I am not insured by Smith & Wesson. But sure as shooting, I know one thing: I love the passion of gun owners and their absolute zeal in defending their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Something else I knew: The folks inside would not appreciate a visit from a reporter. This country's well-armed citizen militia and members of the press have a long and bitter history. It has some foundation. Too often, reporters make dumb mistakes like calling a semiautomatic weapon an automatic. But we also have a pesky reputation for presenting more than one side to an issue, like conceal-and-carry laws and whether guns belong on college campuses.
Ah, a struggle between free speech and gun rights. I sensed friction. And fun.
Manager Dave Larsen, and his mother and store owner, Pam, generously gave me access to the store and customers (as private property owners they could have kicked me out). Then they started firing.
"The problem with talking to reporters is you write down what we say and then make it all up anyway," said Pam Larsen. I told her I wouldn't -- make it up, that is. She turned me loose.
The conversation was free-wheeling.
"Why would you need a handgun at school?" I asked Troy, a father of four from Bountiful who had stopped in to sell a handgun.
Because, he said, a woman might need a weapon to defend herself from an abusive husband or boyfriend who was stalking her.
Gun owners have been defending their right to pack heat for two centuries, and they are as vocal as ever.
"I can see a reasonable amount of tracking" gun sales, said Dave Larsen. But lengthy background checks of buyers and waiting periods "are a pain in the butt."
I don't exactly feel his pain. And this discussion went about as each of us expected. I know we all fell asleep that night with the same opinions we woke up with. I also know this: It was a lovely way to actually live the Constitution; a perfect birthday gift to the greatest country in the world.
hmullen@sltrib.com
http://www.sltrib.com/07042002/utah/750818.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
If You Can't Buy a Pair, Get a Spare!
Excuse me Ms. Holly ma'am, but exactly when has this alledged reputation ever been displayed publicly? Is presenting only the anti side of the argument the basis for this reputation? Because as far as I've seen the only time you reporters present the opposing side, i.e pro gun, is when you can twist it around to make the speaker look like an idiot. So quit pattng yourself on the back and find out what the real world really thinks of your "reputation for presenting both sides". Stop listening to your fellow liberals they are probably at least as big a liar as you are.
Nil Illegitimus Carborundum
- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Eric S. Williams
If I'm wrong please correct me, I won't be offended.
The sound of a 12 gauge pump clears a house fatser than Rosie O eats a Big Mac !
Like in the NFL, defense is the key.
I have never understood myself the point of mentioning whether it was a revolver, semi-auto, or even a full auto. What difference does it make which system launched the bullet, once the primer is struck the results are the same are they not? Maybe this is the same kind of thinking that the anti gun crowd used for a while, "you can't outrun a 9mm." So what, you can't outrun a single shot black powder dueling pistol either, or a thrown rock for that matter. Or as the
"comedian" George Carlin uses when he asks "have you ever heard of a drive by stabbing?"
Well yes George I have, they are called Pogroms, where men on horseback use swords to kill jews who are usually unarmed. That does make it safer alright, for the killers.
Nil Illegitimus Carborundum
- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878