Guntards.net

Latest in thin thinking from Freedom States Alliance

Posted by simonov on 7 March 2007

Alert guntard Van today draws our attention to the website of Freedom States Alliance, whose mission is, and I quote, to change “the way America thinks about guns.” Well, if that’s what they are trying to do, how come they continue to roll out the same tired old intellectually dishonest arguments?

On their site (hosted, as you may notice, at Democracy in Action, motto: “Wiring the Progressive Movement, while hosting bigoted messaging and sloppy thinking“), they have worked themselves into a righteous frenzy over a commercial posted on YouTube for Don’s Guns of Indianapolis, in which the firearms retailing industry’s answer to Colonel Sanders utters the outrageous statement, “I just love to rent guns.”

Holy shit! He said that on teevee?

Now, any guntard would be annoyed by where Don keeps resting his right index finger during the course of the video, but that’s not what got the Freedom States Alliance people all steamed up. Apparently, what bothers them is that some of Don’s customers have been known to use the products he sells them in a reckless, negligent or criminal manner. And for some reason, even though every one who buys one of Don’s guns certifies in writing on a Federal Form 4473 that he or she has no history of using guns or anything else in reckless, negligent or criminal manner, these guys think Don should attend the funerals of everyone who is killed by one of Don’s customers.

I might be a simple guy, because I can’t make the connection. I’m pretty sure Don doesn’t have the time for that. But he would have a lot more time than, for example, the sales managers at your local car dealerships. After all, people operating automobiles in a reckless, negligent or criminal manner manage to kill twice as many Americans every year as are murdered using firearms. Those sales managers would be so busy at funerals they wouldn’t have any time to sell any cars!

And what about bartenders or liquor store clerks, whose customers cause all kinds of mayhem when their alcohol consumption causes them to behave in a reckless, negligent or criminal manner? And let’s not get started on everyone involved in the marketing and retailing of cigarettes, whose customers drop dead by the tens of thousands every year from using their products exactly and precisely according to the instructions!

Honestly, I think this proposal by Freedom States Alliance is just impractical. And their reasoning behind it is, not to put too fine a point on it, pretty dumb.

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