August 9, 2012

Hey, by your OP we're just trading "tips." Can't you handle one coming back?

My state has been described as "one of the most restrictive regimes in America" on handgun possession by John Lott. Despite that case of the vapors, it took a SINGLE hour of effort and a pathetically small waiting period for me to buy a handgun. Oooooooh, just smell that oppression!

I'll make the comparison again because you guys constantly love to detail the process that MUST be followed to buy a gun in excruciating detail (down to form numbers). In fact, that was the major theme of your tips 1 and 2 in the OP for example. Having lived through it now, I will forevermore be substantially unimpressed by that talking point -- sometimes the best bullshit makes the detail look formidable I suppose. Look Trixie, the forms were TWICE as long for me to get a recent medical specialists' appointment and I waited THREE TIMES the waiting period. So stop snivelling about how much of a burden you face.

So back to my tip. And I give this tip as "one of you" now, since I am a certified gun-owning member of the club, no matter how whimsically I became one.

1) Stop pretending that there is any rigor whatsoever applied to the purchase of a handgun. I have been through the process and found it startlingly convenient compared to just about every other modern administrative process I have ever been through. If anything, it begs for a greatly enhanced training and testing program that requires a demonstration of both dedication and minimum competency.

August 8, 2012

One big old tip back at ya for 2A apostles...

Your minimum training requirements to buy guns are a joke. *Never* try to imply that as a group you guys have gained any particular knowledge from the process cause I just joined your ranks. Yup, as a joke perpetrated on the liberal by a couple of right wing "2A advocate" buddies, I can now buy handguns and rifles in my home state. And the process leaves me with nothing but scorn because it took exactly a single hour of effort -- travel time to and from a local cop shop included. And that hour was completely intellectually devoid. Kind of like hours two and three (and four and dear god really? five? don't you guys get bored?) on the range were.... I do kind of like tweaking the scopes but honestly shoot/reload, shoot/reload, shoot/reload replace the target gets old fast. And amusingly I performed as good as my supposedly infinitely more practiced buddies when they wanted to compete. They were quite disappointed at that cause of course liberals can't shoot. But let's face it, inherent hand-eye coordination is something you got or you don't and it takes a LOT of practice to make up for lacking that. I also think they also were going to make jokes about me not knowing what to do, but 10 minutes with the Google and the basic mechanical operation of a gun is pretty simple. Ooooh the mad skillz I now possess...

Anyway, your training requirements are a complete and pathetic joke.

1) Gun safety training was less rigorous than my mandatory email training at work. Half the time requirement, no comprehension quiz. Pathetic, minimalistic check the box crap obviously arranged that way cause you bunch of whiners wouldn't probably shut up about it if you actually faced a situation where you could FAIL, now right? What. A. Crock.

2) Those "reams of forms" you need to fill out that sound so onerous? Yeah, got them. Less pages to fill in than the insurance and background forms for my recent SINGLE doctor's appointment. By a factor of two so it isn't even really close. Also, unlike the doctor's form I only had to look a single time at a supporting document for a number. Once again, I figure they had to tone down on the level of the stuff or they'd probably get several banker boxes of NRA form letters full of pathetic snivelling every day. Per office, of course. One thing about you guys, you can cut and paste with the best of them!

3) And then for a background check that takes on order of a single work week when I'm busy anyway. Ooooooo, what government oppression!

So let's recap: all the onerous government regulation you guys whine about and it took me like 60 minutes to complete it all and frankly I don't think I'm *that* much smarter than you. You guys make it sound like it's cleaning the flipping Aegean stables or something! Sorry, not by a long shot. If anything it is deliberately shoddy and I think it's because the regulators have been cowed by 40 years of your pissing and moaning. That needs to change!

Anyway, now I've decided to look into CCW classes too just so I can advance to the upper educational echelons of your little culture. Found one place that claims a single day is all it takes for the training. One class in a neighboring state claims to get that down to four hours "to meet the minimum requirements." And let's face it, the training is the only obstacle because I'm apparently REALLY good at your forms and my record is squeeky clean, yessir! So, after all that bragging by some about how CCW holders as a group have more training and discipline than many cops I can complete the training in a single day of effort? Really? Oh I can't wait for the endless line up of future "but I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night" jokes I am going to make once I got that little bit of paper too...

So. You're right. Grabbing guns is a bad thing. Of course, I have yet to see anyone actually seriously propose it but I figure you see it as a required starting position in a negotiation to "prevent the slippery slope" and all that. But I think training should have a minimum 80 hour supervised requirement including hands-on practicum before a person is allowed to even buy a 22 in Walmart. Including a RIGOROUS test at the end about safety AND law. Chapter and verse kind of stuff with trick situational questions drawn from 40 years of real world examples. Really mean assed trivia so you HAVE to know your shit and if you fail you don't get to try again for three months. Kind of like a driver's license which come to think of it took longer to prepare for as well. And I had to actually study for THAT...