Jim Lehrer (journalist and US Marine) quote about guns

[RSherman]

Jim Lehrer, US Marine, wrote in 1992: “I learned to fear and loathe guns. Having been trained to use body-splitting automatic and semiautomatic weapons–I find it impossible to see them as anything but tools of death and injury. They are made to cut people in half, to blow holes in their chests, to splash their heads. In my opinion only the untrained and ignorant play word games about the manliness of holding a gun.”

[rickford66]

1. I don't find any references to this. Got one ?

[RSherman]

2. Jim Lehrer

It's from his book "A Bus of My Own" which I recently read.

[dflprincess]

3. My dad was a rear gunner on a Mitchell bomber during WWII

before the war he had done a little hunting, mainly pheasants. Never touched a gun again after he got home. The story goes that when my uncle tried to get him to go hunting again, his only comment was that he had "had enough" of guns.

He died long before we were able to have an adult conversation about these things, but I would guess his feelings were similar to Lehrer's.

[Grins]

5. Same true with Marine and author, E.B. Sledge.

His memoir books became the HBO movie “The Pacific.” At the final scenes he is home in Alabama and his father takes him hunting.

On the hunt he breaks down. He can’t do it. He’d had more than enough of guns.

[Chainfire]

6. That is a common theme for WWII combat vets.

Neither of my Marine Uncles, one wounded on Iwo and the other on Okinawa ever touched guns after returning home.

[Jedi Guy]

7. Not sure I'd agree that it's a common theme for vets, WW2 or otherwise.

Broadly speaking, nearly half of veterans (45%) own guns. My grandfather kept guns after the war, both of the tool and the souvenir variety, but he was a farmer and had to deal with varmints.

The souvenirs he kept were his Colt 1911 sidearm (which he'd modified with a picture on the grip using glass salvaged from a downed B-17), a Walther P38, and a Karabiner 98k. He sold all of them a few years before he died. I'd have loved to have the Colt 1911 to go in my case with his Bronze Star, but probably no way in hell they'd let me bring it into Canada, sadly.

[Chainfire]

8. There is, of course, a difference in common and universal.

I postulated that it was common based on reading of scores of biographies of vets who were awarded the CIB.

[Jedi Guy]

9. Just saying it's equally common for vets to keep firearms after they've mustered out.

I'd be curious to know if there's a significant disparity in firearm ownership between veterans who served in close combat vs. those who didn't.

Like a USAF fighter pilot and a USMC lance corporal are both "veterans" if they served during wartime, but their experiences of the war would be vastly different. It'd be interesting to see how it shakes out based on MOS.

[Hekate]

4. Jim Lehrer is one of the greats. Thanks for this quote, RSherman.