Thursday, June 04, 2009

Tennesseans look like backwards hillbillies today

Later, I will go after members of my OWN party who voted for the override of the Governor's veto of the guns in bars bill. First, I want to talk about guns and their place in American society.
I am just five months over the age of fifty, and I have been around weapons, particularly guns, for the entirety of my life. My father loaded his own shells and bullets, was a part-time gunsmith when I grew up in Weiner, and taught the gun safety course for their Boy Scouts. I have been hunting on numerous occasions, and received a .20-gauge shotgun for my 10th birthday, which made me the envy of the 4th grade. In short, I don't fear weapons and I understand them.
There are two types of people who own weapons, other than those who must keep one for the purposes of their employment: responsible gun owners, and the new breed, whom I will call gun FETISHISTS.
Gun owners teach their children at a young age how to handle a weapon, and never to touch it without their parent around. They use every piece of any animal they kill, and make sure their neighbors get any meat they can't use. Gun owners understand the incredible number of responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with owning weapons, including knowing the legalities involved, and understanding how to handle their weapons safely. They never worry that their weapons will be taken from them because they know that Americans would rise as one if any body, governmental or otherwise, tried to forcibly disarm. They used to belong to the NRA, but left as they watched it degenerate into fear-mongering shills for the arms manufacturers, trying to convince people that if they couldn't own an automatic weapon, that Clinton or Obama would take their guns away.
Then, there are what I call gun FETISHISTS, the Barney Fife types who live in fear that if they can't take their gun into a restaurant or a bar, they will be murdered by a Muslim/Commie/Homo/Liberal/Black/fill-in-the-blank just waiting to kill them. These are the type of people who have fallen hook, line, sinker for the NRA line. They scream that they have the RIGHT to carry whenever and wherever they want, and they inevitably trot out that same old video from the woman who survived the Luby's Cafeteria massacre. That's what, one out of a million?f
The truth is, unless they're idiots, robbers won't rob you unless they have the jump on you, which means, if you DO get to your gun, you will likely be killed. Ask a policeman or deputy.
Simply put, unless your employment requires that you carry at ALL times, you have NO business bringing a weapon into a restaurant, and ESPECIALLY a bar.
The FETISHISTS retort that "the law says you can't drink and carry". Um, the law says you're not supposed to drink and DRIVE, either; how's that working for you?
The truth is that one is most likely to be killed by someone you KNOW, and if you're in a bar, with a gun, and you think, "gee, one beer or whiskey won't hurt" and then the next thing you know, you've just shot you best friend for no real good reason (and this HAPPENS in Memphis, you know that) and your life, not to mention THEIRS, is irreparably destroyed.
So, my plan is work on developing a list of restaurants and bars locally that will NOT allow weapons in their establishments. Early word says Neely's BBQ and the P&H Cafe, among others, already have signs up. Great, because come July 14, I will REFUSE to enter any restaurant or bar that does not have such a sign.
This is made more idiotic when one considers that the top ten counties in Tennessee make up 55% of the populace of the state, so the "this is a rural state" comment is BULLSHIT. we are an urban and suburban state now, and we need to start acting like it.
I fully expect the gun FETISHISTS (Fifers?) will be prompted by the NRA to flood the site and call me every kind of name in the book. So be it.
I'll still be right, and they'll still be wrong. Who's with me?
More about our heroes in the legislature and the non-heroes, later.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very well said! Please make your "No Guns" restaurant list a State-wide project! I don't want to do business in an establishment that doesn't prohibit them, either.

Joe in Midtown said...

I am with you on this one, Cracker. It's not a matter of IF, but WHEN there will be a shootout in a popular nightspot. Brings to mind this verse from Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic:
Big jims been drinkin whiskey
And playing poker
on a losin night
Pretty soon, big jim starts a thinkin
Somebody been cheatin and lyin
So big jim commences to fightin
I wouldnt tell you no lie
And big jim done grab his pistol
Shot his friend right between the eyes

ramblings_river said...

Great post! I will not support an establishment that allows guns. It's dangerous and stupid. I'll email any signs I see.

Shane said...

Fantastic post. I'm with you all the way.

Austin Farley said...

The stats just do not support your assertions. These are your causes of death for 2002 and Assaults are at the bottom of the list. These are assaults as a whole and not just firearms. My personal experience as an Emergency Medical Professional mirror these results. Like I said earlier only 1 firearms related death in my EMS career. 100% of the suicides or attempts I have been on have involved drugs or other chemicals 0% firearms. http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html
Austin
I hate the NRA. They are not for gun-owner's rights. They are fun making money.

Anonymous said...

I found link to your saferestaurants site at the commercial appeal. It didn't take long for the "fifers" (that's a good one) to start chiming in.

Many restaurants are starting to announce in the media their intention to bar guns: Boscos, Patricks come to mind.

I'm confident that the majority of the public does not want guns and alcohol to meet while dining out. The fifers are a vocal, (paranoid) and well organized minority.

Let folks know how to help to build your database of info on restaurants' guns policies. If there is an economic impact, I'm confident that it will be attributable to those who don't want a smith & wesson next to them while dining out with their kids.

The yahoos don't have much discretionary cash. Bullets are expensive.

Beau said...

I think this is much ado about nothing. It is the result of the ridiculous NRA lobby, and yes, statistically speaking, the chances are not very high that you'd ever need a gun in a restaurant. But most of the permit holders I know are pretty decent people that most likely wouldn't bring their gun to a restaurant anyway.

I think you should also be careful about a lot of gross generalizations, and like Edward Abbey, I often worry more about the armed, bought and paid for constabulary than an armed citizenry.

And frankly, all it takes is one nut-case ex-boyfriend to walk in a place and start shooting it up for you to wish you'd had a gun. To protect yourself. It's not likely, but it happens.

Now, there is an nteresting side note, a little piece of history that actually supports your case....

Everyone thinks the wild west was a place of shootouts and showdowns where everyone was blazing away with their six shooters. Not true. In fact, famous cattle towns like Dodge City and Abilene actually had very few homicides and one of the reasons was gun control. Just like in the movie Unforgiven, you had to check your guns when you came to town.

There's a really good university text book (a collection of essays) with all sorts of stats on the subject and others called "Major Problems In The History of the American West."

Mark said...

Cracker,

I can remember the day I had to take a different route home because some lunatic was killing people in a McDonalds in San Diego. So, there are two examples of when carrying weapons could have made a difference in a restaurant, can you show me two instances of gunfights in states that do allow firearms in bars?

If you can, then all the more power to you. Until then, it's always a case of "better to have and not need than need and not have."

BTW, for those of you who are against firearms and such period, why don't you put a "gun free zone" sign in front of your home?