So I had an interesting night last night courtesy of Twitter. It all started when I posted the ThinkProgress article, "NRA Tells Parents To Keep Guns In Kids' Rooms For Safety." The article, which was written by Kira Lerner, states this:
"During seminar on 'home defense concepts' at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Louisville, an instructor encouraged gun owners to store firearms in their children's bedrooms.
Rob Pincus, who owns the popular firearm instruction company I.C.E. Training, paced across a conference room stage as he repeatedly warned against the threat of violent home invasions. After establishing that filling one's home with weapons is the only solution, he then recommended that gun owners store firearms in their kids' rooms for easy access.
'Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room?' he told the few hundred NRA members in attendance. 'It's the first place I'm going to go! As I've said...many times, if your kid is going to break into the safe just because it's in their room, you have a parenting issue, not a home defense issue.'"
The NRA troll-mob then came out in force. Here is just a sample of what they had to say on the matter:
- "Kids are curious. If you keep guns a mysterious taboo, it's going to cause problems."
- "More kids die of drowning than guns."
- "Guns in the kids' rooms is the safe, smart thing to do!"
- "Well, this was a Think Progress article, so what did you expect?"
- "There's nothing more cowardly than blocking someone on Twitter!"
- "I see you've gone the way of selective douchebaggery!"
- "Your sense of humor is like Dyson. It sucks."
Like I said, it was an interesting night. Well, since it's incredibly difficult to engage in a constructive debate on Twitter due to its character-limit, I thought I'd respond more thoroughly here. First off, while ThinkProgress leans left when it comes to its opinion pieces, the source is irrelevant when it comes to publishing Rob Pincus' quote. Whether it was ThinkProgress or Fox News, Rob Pincus uttered the same quote. It's not like this would happen:
Original quote: "Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room? It's the first place I'm going to go! As I've said...many times, if your kid is going to break into the safe just because it's in their room, you have a parenting issue, not a home defense issue."
ThinkProgress: "Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room? Guns are scary and almost as dangerous as the monster hiding under their bed!"
Fox News: "Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room? Because as soon as a baby is born, they should have a gun in one hand, a milk bottle in the other, and a pacifier or a nipple in their mouth!"
I'm sorry, but quotes don't work like that. Secondly, of what relevance are child-death-by-drowning numbers when the issue is whether or not parents should keep guns in their children's rooms? Are they trying to say, "Hey, having a gun in a kid's room is safer than a pool"? Also, the poster's numbers are askew to put it lightly. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2013, 1,126 kids aged 24 or younger died by drowning, whereas 6,493 kids died via gun, and last I checked, 6,493 was greater than 1,126. Perhaps I'll need to check with Flonase on that. Also, even if the poster's numbers were correct, it'd be a faulty comparison for the simple fact kids are exposed to water (swimming pools, bathtubs, etc.) at a much greater clip than guns, so mathematically speaking, the odds are far greater of kids dying via drowning than via gun, but even then, the actual numbers say otherwise.
Thirdly, I found it ridiculous to hear someone actually say, "Kids are curious. If you keep guns a mysterious taboo, it's going to cause problems." Yes, kids are naturally curious, but that's no reason to expose them to things which could inflict permanent damage upon them. It's called common sense. When parents engage in the birds-and-the-bees talk with their kids, they don't just hand them a prostitute and say, "Let's see what happens," or a crack-pipe and say, "Hey, it was bound to happen sooner or later, right? It's better he learns now." Here's a crazy idea - how about negating the temptation altogether by not having a gun in the house? Oh, and if the child was overly curious about a gun, what makes you think he or she won't try to find the combination to the safe in which the gun is lodged? Oh, but that's different, right? But of course...
Lastly, the Dyson comment was cute. Apparently, while guns can't kill, people's senses of humor can suck (literally). Not only that, but "selective douchebaggery" is a thing, but I suppose it's better to be a "selective douchebag" than to be a constant douchebag, full douchebag, or permanent douchebag. Oh, and so there's nothing more cowardly than blocking someone on Twitter? You may want to tell that to NRA-lover Ted Nugent, who crapped his pants to dodge the draft.
NRA trolls, NRA trolls,
Go away,
Come again when you're neutered or spayed.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/05/31/3782497/nra-kids-shooting/
http://gawker.com/5983634/patriotic-american-ted-nugent-shit-his-pants-to-avoid-the-draft
"During seminar on 'home defense concepts' at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Louisville, an instructor encouraged gun owners to store firearms in their children's bedrooms.
Rob Pincus, who owns the popular firearm instruction company I.C.E. Training, paced across a conference room stage as he repeatedly warned against the threat of violent home invasions. After establishing that filling one's home with weapons is the only solution, he then recommended that gun owners store firearms in their kids' rooms for easy access.
'Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room?' he told the few hundred NRA members in attendance. 'It's the first place I'm going to go! As I've said...many times, if your kid is going to break into the safe just because it's in their room, you have a parenting issue, not a home defense issue.'"
The NRA troll-mob then came out in force. Here is just a sample of what they had to say on the matter:
- "Kids are curious. If you keep guns a mysterious taboo, it's going to cause problems."
- "More kids die of drowning than guns."
- "Guns in the kids' rooms is the safe, smart thing to do!"
- "Well, this was a Think Progress article, so what did you expect?"
- "There's nothing more cowardly than blocking someone on Twitter!"
- "I see you've gone the way of selective douchebaggery!"
- "Your sense of humor is like Dyson. It sucks."
Like I said, it was an interesting night. Well, since it's incredibly difficult to engage in a constructive debate on Twitter due to its character-limit, I thought I'd respond more thoroughly here. First off, while ThinkProgress leans left when it comes to its opinion pieces, the source is irrelevant when it comes to publishing Rob Pincus' quote. Whether it was ThinkProgress or Fox News, Rob Pincus uttered the same quote. It's not like this would happen:
Original quote: "Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room? It's the first place I'm going to go! As I've said...many times, if your kid is going to break into the safe just because it's in their room, you have a parenting issue, not a home defense issue."
ThinkProgress: "Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room? Guns are scary and almost as dangerous as the monster hiding under their bed!"
Fox News: "Why would you consider staging a firearm inside a child's room? Because as soon as a baby is born, they should have a gun in one hand, a milk bottle in the other, and a pacifier or a nipple in their mouth!"
I'm sorry, but quotes don't work like that. Secondly, of what relevance are child-death-by-drowning numbers when the issue is whether or not parents should keep guns in their children's rooms? Are they trying to say, "Hey, having a gun in a kid's room is safer than a pool"? Also, the poster's numbers are askew to put it lightly. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2013, 1,126 kids aged 24 or younger died by drowning, whereas 6,493 kids died via gun, and last I checked, 6,493 was greater than 1,126. Perhaps I'll need to check with Flonase on that. Also, even if the poster's numbers were correct, it'd be a faulty comparison for the simple fact kids are exposed to water (swimming pools, bathtubs, etc.) at a much greater clip than guns, so mathematically speaking, the odds are far greater of kids dying via drowning than via gun, but even then, the actual numbers say otherwise.
Thirdly, I found it ridiculous to hear someone actually say, "Kids are curious. If you keep guns a mysterious taboo, it's going to cause problems." Yes, kids are naturally curious, but that's no reason to expose them to things which could inflict permanent damage upon them. It's called common sense. When parents engage in the birds-and-the-bees talk with their kids, they don't just hand them a prostitute and say, "Let's see what happens," or a crack-pipe and say, "Hey, it was bound to happen sooner or later, right? It's better he learns now." Here's a crazy idea - how about negating the temptation altogether by not having a gun in the house? Oh, and if the child was overly curious about a gun, what makes you think he or she won't try to find the combination to the safe in which the gun is lodged? Oh, but that's different, right? But of course...
Lastly, the Dyson comment was cute. Apparently, while guns can't kill, people's senses of humor can suck (literally). Not only that, but "selective douchebaggery" is a thing, but I suppose it's better to be a "selective douchebag" than to be a constant douchebag, full douchebag, or permanent douchebag. Oh, and so there's nothing more cowardly than blocking someone on Twitter? You may want to tell that to NRA-lover Ted Nugent, who crapped his pants to dodge the draft.
NRA trolls, NRA trolls,
Go away,
Come again when you're neutered or spayed.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/05/31/3782497/nra-kids-shooting/
http://gawker.com/5983634/patriotic-american-ted-nugent-shit-his-pants-to-avoid-the-draft
Comments
Post a Comment