Usually just tell 'em they wouldn't have an opinion if it weren't for weapons.

Sad to say that a traumatic event is the only likely reason to change. Someone without a gun gets hurt and the person wants a gun now. Someone hurt by a gun causes the reverse stance.

In a traumatic event people like to objectify the cause. It's easier to glorify or vilify the inanimate object because it says nothing to dissuade the person. Call a gun a hero or villain and it sits there quietly accepting of its new role. Try that with people and they fight the new label.

I've seen it happen many times, unfortunately for the strong anti-gun believers it typically took needing a gun and not having it before they learned.

The only way one can argue a emotional argument is with emotion as well. You can open the door a little but typically it takes much more time and even some real event to convince them.

My SIL for example was as anti-gun as the day is long even to the point of threatening her husband to leave him if he bought one. She changed her tune fast after she was threatened and stalked by a known woman beater.

The battle we are fighting is the "Ideal World" that the liberal embraces. It takes quite a personal shock for them to realize their safe world isn't safe, their ideal world a fiction that will never happen, and they personally or someone they know may be directly impacted by their decisions. A cornerstone of their ideal world is everyone thinks just like them and if only the conditions were right there would be no evil in the world. It's a long road to convincing them "It isn't their world" but it can be done. Its just typically the guy who rapes, robs, or kills that finally convinces them.

Sadly by the time many will realize, "If only I had a gun.", it will be too late.

The real difference between us is a simple one. They are wrong in their thinking. Taking away a tool does not change who the criminal is and criminals do exist.

Tj

Well I agree with what G says but would also add if you could magically remove all the guns in the world ppl would still be killing each other with what ever they could get their hands on.


ETA: There will always be bad ppl in the world.

This post has been edited by BadKarma: November 2nd 2009 4:11 AM

Arguing with emotion is like teaching a pig to sing, it wastes your time and pisses you both off. Best thing to do is change the subject, move onto something you can see eye to eye on, religion, politics, sports or sex. If you can't find something in one of those areas to agree on, best just to just let it go you are not likely to find any common ground. Laughing at the other person only serves to make you look like an ass in their eyes and further entrench what they already believe. To end it, simply say "I will be there to protect you if I can be, where will all the unarmed people be?"

Pandoras box argument I like to call it, n then I break out a favorite quote "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." No cheating who said it?

Laughing in her face was the way to go. With me, it would have been spontaneous. Sort of like Tom Hanks in the Money Pit when the bathtub fell through the floor. I wouldn't have even been able to stop it. And if I am able to get control of it, there is usually a "Friggin' naive sheep" slipped in there between gasps.

I think that would be Albert Einstein

True as it gets. I've got a friend from south africa and he has no time for the "african" americans. I've met some of his Zulu friends as well and they're of the exact same opinion.

.yup.

Should have told her to shut her trap and get back to doing the dishes!

Seriously though, there is no changing those types.

Like the granola people that have the "You can't hug a child with nuclear arms" bumper sticker.

Great "Family Guy" episode BTW

If it comes up again just say A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. & ask her why it's only second to the first. Then walk away!

Go to the site referenced below and scroll down a bit. There's a nice chart outlining the results of gun control throughout recent history.

http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/deathgc.htm

You can teach a 90lb weakling martial arts or boxing, but they're still a 90lb weakling. A 90lb weakling that is armed and comfortable with the use of a firearm is a different situation altogether. God made man, but Smith and Wesson made 'em equal.

Villans will almost always be armed. My local police station has a nice display back in the conference room of homemade firearms they've confiscated over the years. Some of them are quite ingenious, but they're all more effective than bare hands, or even a knife.

This post has been edited by jeffreysw: November 3rd 2009 12:38 AM

That's the damn truth. I'm not as young, strong or fit as I once was. I shouldn't have to be either. There is no reason for anyone to have to train like a soldier or master "kung fu fighting" to be safe on the streets. A handgun, and the training to use it properly, measured in days, not months, should be enough. The Gadsen Flag is a classic for a reason. "Don't Tread on Me". I am probably considerably to the left of most folks here, a pretty serious (though by no means perfect) Christian and a college professor. All that said, I don't leave the house without a G26 and I am mentally prepared to use it. In the house, its an AR or or a 12 gauge Maverick. Being a social liberal doesn't mean you have to have "victim" tattooed on your forehead. It mystifies me how hard it is to convey that concept. I've never started a fight in my life and intend to keep it that way, but I am darn sure not going to be someone's victim either. Its a dangerous world and we have to live in it. Accept that or die confused.
FQ13 Who, like most Libertarians is easy to live with and dagerous to attack.

This post has been edited by FQ13: November 3rd 2009 2:19 AM

When someone brings up their support for gun control, I usually just say "how did that work out for Jews in Europe leading up to and during WWII?"

I was hoping this thread turn up again..

Her neightbor needs to put that "I'm armed, but my neighbor is not" sign with an arrow

Laugh at libtards. It makes them more insane, there's a GOOD chance if they get mad enough, they MIGHT detonate (think, "Mr. Creasote," in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" ), which in itself, would also be uproariously funny!

Besides, trying to argue with them is simply 'casting pearls before swine'...

Every one is entitled to their opinion... I am all for keeping guns out of the hands of untrained/unsupervised minors and psychopaths.
Also I believe a gun owner should keep 100% positive control on all weapons they own - even if it means getting trigger locks, gunsafes, removing firing pins... whatever it takes - I always have a fire arm within reach but they are always in home storage condition - Magazine inserted no round in the chamber, but I train to rack one in the chamber everytime...
My nephew killed a kid with a glock in the 80s when they first came out - looked like damn toys compared to what we were used to...
They (couple of 12 year olds at the time) came in after school and he saw it sitting on the kitchen table - picked it up and put one in his friends chest... Stupid ass step-father just left the damned thing sitting out ready to rock...
Not to many issues can get people in a huff quick - Religion, Politics and Guns are all taboo subjects when I visit my folks in Kalifornia...

Just my 2 cents

DRLCB

I did the reverse with the Glock. I showed my ex's son mine and told him it looks like a toy but it isn't. To drive that home we went to the woods with a pumpkin and a jug of water and I shot each. I told him not to play with a gun in case one was left out because something that looks like a toy would do the same thing to him. I kept mine loaded but out of his reach when he was there.

Not long after that he got introduced to hunting. I gave him my 10/22 and he used that until he got a shotgun.

I had access to guns my entire life but I knew what they could do and not to play with them. Kids are curious about everything, especially something that's forbidden and unknown.



TS

Very true TS. My son (2) is all about the airsoft pistol, thinks it's the greatest thing in the world that he can point it at the target and pull the trigger and hit it. He know's better than to touch a real gun (the airsoft is clear with an orange tip) In fact a couple weeks ago we were out targeting with .22s and he was right there watching with amazement so I put him behind the trigger and when I said pull it, he covered his ears.