Over 100 Republican Campaign Ads This Year Have Featured Guns - Ring of Fire

[Rhiannon12866]

In more than 100 campaign ads that appeared on TV so far this year, Republican candidates were featured either shooting guns or talking about their love of guns and the 2nd Amendment. This is a large part of the problem with America's gun-obsessed culture, and it doesn't in anyway reflect the country's views on the subject. Most Americans of all political backgrounds are in favor of common sense gun laws that keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals, but Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains why Republicans still love to use this imagery.

[Kablooie]

1. The party of death is so proud of themselves.

Life for fetus' but death for everyone who's emerged from the womb.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. As George Carlin said: "Once you're born, you're on your own..."

[OrangeJoe]

3. Photos

Look target shooting is fun. Blowing up targets with tannerite is even more fun. But when bullets hit human flesh the fun stops. Very few people have ever witnessed the horrible bloody mess that results from high velocity modern weapons of war, like the AR 15.

Independent expenditure organizations need to start running ads showing the impact of bullets on people. It's probably too gross for candidates to put up these ads, but the gun humpers should be made to own the violence they are advocating. Otherwise we cede ground to clowns who talk big and punch holes in paper as if that's all these guns do.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. When I was in my teens, I used to shoot competitively

I learned how to shoot at summer camp and it turned out I was good at it, so I shot on the team there (all girls) and in high school I shot on the team at school where I was the first (and only) girl. We shot with .22 rifles, only at targets, no clips, and of the many rules we had to learn and understand before we were permitted to even pick up a gun the one unwritten rule was to never shoot at anything living.

However, this was in the '70s - I have never had a gun at home, they were always locked up safely either at camp or in the range at school. Yes, we actually had guns at school and there was never an incident, we took the responsibility seriously. And I know that there is no longer a rifle team at my former school and the rifle range is long gone at camp. I even looked up some of the schools we used to shoot against - including military schools - and they no longer have rifle teams, either. Times have irrevocably changed.

Do I still own a gun? Not on your life - even though I was trained to use one. No one needs a gun, especially at home, and those that keep one for "self defense" make my blood run cold. Most are untrained and we hear about fatal accidents every day. As you said, those guns that can shoot holes in paper can do fatal damage to the untrained or in the wrong hands. As for those that keep "weapons of war," we've seen what they can do and no one ever needs one of those unless they are in the military and trained to use them in combat.

[elleng]

6. HEY, I learned at summer camp too, and then TAUGHT riflery!

with .22 rifles, only at targets (and archery, later.)

In the 60s, never owned a gun or rifle.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. So did I!

The main activities were riding and swimming (on Lake Champlain in Vermont), but there were numerous other activities and I mainly participated in the camp theater. But my friends were at the rifle range and I went with them - and the guns kinda freaked me out. So the counselor said I had no reason to be afraid of guns, and she had me stay afterwards and taught me to shoot. Turns out I was pretty good at it, so I eventually joined the team. And when we turned 16 we became junior counselors, my friend chose riflery and canoeing and I chose riflery and theater.

And we taught the younger girls - they had to be at least 13 and learn and understand 8 specific rules before they were allowed to even pick up a gun. And we also had one strict unwritten rule - never shoot at anything living. I can remember only one "accident," there was a bamboo curtain that came down over the open part of the range at night and one day when one of the older girls prepared to shoot, the curtain accidentally fell. So there was a line of evenly spaced holes in that curtain.

They also had a rifle team at the high school I eventually attended. My mother (and I have to give her credit, she was always pushing me to participate in activities she was interested in, like tennis or dance *sigh*) spoke to the rifle team coach (and chemistry teacher) at a PTA meeting, asked him if he ever had girls on his team. And he said that they didn't, but there as no reason why they couldn't. So I joined the team at school as the first and only girl, I was the "pressure shooter," the one they put in at the end if they needed to make up points. I even participated in state championships, 16 and under.

But that was a long time ago, they no longer have a rifle team at my old school and I once looked up some of the schools we competed against and none of them still have rifle teams, either, even the military schools. Times have irrevocably changed. And I don't have a gun, either, I no longer have any use for one.

[Aussie105]

5. Understandable.

People with low IQ and poor social skills need a prop of some sort to make them feel equal to those who can think straight and talk sense.

In America, that prop is a gun. It's got to be black, military, and have a huge magazine fully loaded.

MTG needs a gun. Lots of guns.