Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I am constantly reading on the Net and in the media about so-called “gun rights" and "gun control.”

Some examples;

“The final briefs seeking to shape the Supreme Court’s coming decision on the reach of the Second Amendment’s protection of gun rights suggested Friday that states might be free to violate other parts of the Bill of Rights…”

“The National Association for Gun Rights, often referred to as "NAGR", was founded to assist the growing movement of pro-Second Amendment organizations, especially state-level gun rights groups.

“The National Rifle Association is the largest gun rights lobbying organization in the United States.”

On one hand, we preach that guns are mere machines, inanimate objects and tools. On the other, we appear to be attempting to give ‘rights’ to these inanimate machines.

I submit to you a request; that we remove the phrase “gun rights” from our vocabulary and replace it with the more human, and more accurate, “gun-owner rights.”

The First Amendment does not guarantee rights to printing presses as machines; it guarantees the rights of people to use printing presses, radios, televisions and the Internet without restriction.

The Second Amendment guarantees no rights to guns themselves, as they are mere machines. However, it does guarantee the right of the people to keep and bear them.

The psychology behind what may appear as a minor ‘grammatical nit’ should be clear.

It is relatively easy for most people to hate an object. You can make up lies about an object, demonize an object and attempt to regulate and control objects. You can do so without fear of insulting the object, hurting its feelings, being sued by the object or facing any repercussions, it’s just a defenseless, soulless object.

When we replace gun rights with gun-owner rights, however, the issue becomes personal. Where many people and politicians [as opposed to people] find it easy and guilt-free to demonize guns as objects, it is far more difficult to for them to demonize a large segment of the population, gun-owners, as people.

Laws can not control inanimate objects, only what law-abiding persons do with those objects. Therefore, it's technically not gun control, or a war against guns, it's gun owner control, and a war against gun owners.

So let us end this futile battle for so-called, non-existent gun rights and gun control, and renew the charge in support of the very real and very important rights of the people who own defensive and recreational firearms.

It may seem like a grammatical nit, but impressions are everything.

That’s my opinion, and you’re welcome to it!


Egg

I like your opinion here, Eggman. There are a lot of cases of "Grammatical nits" in our world today that tend to skew people's perceptions of a great many issues. Politicians and the MSM say things exactly the way they intend to say them, specifically to make people think one way or another about a specific topic. I can appreciate your opinion here and I, personally, will start referring to Gun-owners Rights and Gun-owner Control in my discussions.

On one hand you can think political correctness and on the other semantics. I'm definitely not for the first and because of my background place alot of emphasis on what you meant by what you said or wrote. IMO semantics are important especially in this day. Too much is being read into what we say and write. And because guns are being demonized it causes us to fight harder to get the truth out.

I like it too, great idea. If nothing else, lets at least use the king's english properly...

+1 Good point!

Very nice! I like it. It goes nicely witht he movement to refer to AR-15 type rifles as "Sporting Rifles."

It all ties into Stereotyping:
Of course they're sporting rifles, when you go to the range, you're 'sportin' an AR!
It's not just the guns that are being demonized; it's the stereotyping of the caucasian male. Seen the Broadhead Security/ADT ads on TV? Caucasian Males are angry and dangerous!! If you own a gun, you're suspected of all kinds of sick motives. My stepmom grew up in Britain and is absolutely scandalized by my hobby and avocation, I work for two different FFL holders as a salesman. if an anti gunner finds out what I do for a living, they look at me like I've got two heads. I go out of my way to be as matter of fact about it as possible, if somebody asks what I do for a living I tell them "I'm in Sales." "Sportin' Goods" My wife says, "Just tell 'em you're retired." But honey I'm workin' 6 days a week!

coltman wrote:It all ties into Stereotyping:
Of course they're sporting rifles, when you go to the range, you're 'sportin' an AR!
It's not just the guns that are being demonized; it's the stereotyping of the caucasian male. Seen the Broadhead Security/ADT ads on TV? Caucasian Males are angry and dangerous!! If you own a gun, you're suspected of all kinds of sick motives. My stepmom grew up in Britain and is absolutely scandalized by my hobby and avocation, I work for two different FFL holders as a salesman. if an anti gunner finds out what I do for a living, they look at me like I've got two heads. I go out of my way to be as matter of fact about it as possible, if somebody asks what I do for a living I tell them "I'm in Sales." "Sportin' Goods" My wife says, "Just tell 'em you're retired." But honey I'm workin' 6 days a week!

"it's the stereotyping of the caucasian male. Seen the Broadhead Security/ADT ads on TV? Caucasian Males are angry and dangerous!!"

I don't think we should pick the scab off this wound.