Dealing With Haters

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My coworker was having a discussion with me about whether or not semi automatics belong in our society, mainly using the incident at Sandy Hook as their backing. When I tried to explain the benefits of using semi-automatics for hunting violent game such as feral hogs safer, their only response was that "anyone who uses semi automatic weapons to hunt is a pussy." After once again mentioning the safety aspect of it all, they just asked "how can you lack compassion for human lives lost thanks to those things?" I could have kept arguing, but I felt like my point was made. How do the rest of the members of our organization feel about people like this? Especially when some of us are current, former, and/or future members of the armed forces or law enforcement agencies that focus on preserving human lives. Because of my future in law enforcement and previous experience in natural disasters and good samaritan assistance provided to people in need, his response was one that caused me a large amount of emotional grief and agony.

Re: Dealing With Haters

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Note that the new weapons of choice for mass killing are either explosives or large trucks, or the two combined. The trucks probably have automatic trannys.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
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Re: Dealing With Haters

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^^^ Therein lay the lesson of your quandary. Learn to recognize when people are asking a question in order to learn something new, or asking a rhetorical question because their mind is already made up.

You will never convince someone who's mind is made up. It takes skill and maturity to maneuver around folks like that with a smile.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Dealing With Haters

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deltaboda wrote:My coworker was having a discussion with me about whether or not semi automatics belong in our society, mainly using the incident at Sandy Hook as their backing. When I tried to explain the benefits of using semi-automatics for hunting violent game such as feral hogs safer,...
Seems like a weird argument for you to have made with so many better ones available.
deltaboda wrote:...their only response was that "anyone who uses semi automatic weapons to hunt is a pussy." After once again mentioning the safety aspect of it all, they just asked "how can you lack compassion for human lives lost thanks to those things?"
^That should have been your lost cause indicator.
deltaboda wrote:Because of my future in law enforcement and previous experience in natural disasters and good samaritan assistance provided to people in need, his response was one that caused me a large amount of emotional grief and agony.
If how another person feels about the mechanism a tool uses to operate can cause you "a large amount of emotional grief and agony" a career in law enforcement is a poor choice.
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Re: Dealing With Haters

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I work in a very liberal office and yeah people give me weird looks when i bust out my knife to open boxes etc. I try to limit my conversations and not be that guy. I also usually just agree with a a discussion rather then start a huge argument. I dont associate with these people out of work so why bother imo. They give me crap for just carrying a backpack and having a bunch of useful stuff half the time. But the second they need something like scissors or a bottle opener, they come to me. Seem to think I'm some crazy prepper when I'm not. I just like having a bag on me with useful stuff I run into daily.

OP's person sounds like a lost cause in an argument. They are just arguing to argue.

Re: Dealing With Haters

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Simmer down wrote:Arguing and listening aren't the same things.

Understanding and agreeing aren't the same things.
Fran Lebowitz, the NYC curmudgeon and full-time atavist had great line:

"People think the opposite of talking is listening. The opposite of talking is waiting...." Cynical but funny--and true!
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Dealing With Haters

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The Sandy Hook kid was mentally ill and was fed guns by his own mother. Do you really think he would not have done what he did if the only guns available to him were shotguns and single-action rifles? It just would've taken him longer to do what he did. He was going to do it no matter what. And what of serial killers, many of whom didn't use any kind of firearm to kill an equal number of people, if over a period of years instead of a single afternoon? Did the University of Texas tower shooter use a semi-automatic? Nope. Hunting rifle with a scope. If a nut determines innocent people must die, and he get his hands on the implements to do it, he's going to do it. The whole thing is terrible.
"The last thing right-wing nuts, fascists and haters want is liberals owning guns and knowing how to use them." - Wise Liberal

Re: Dealing With Haters

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Trek wrote:The Sandy Hook kid was mentally ill and was fed guns by his own mother. Do you really think he would not have done what he did if the only guns available to him were shotguns and single-action rifles? It just would've taken him longer to do what he did. He was going to do it no matter what. And what of serial killers, many of whom didn't use any kind of firearm to kill an equal number of people, if over a period of years instead of a single afternoon? Did the University of Texas tower shooter use a semi-automatic? Nope. Hunting rifle with a scope. If a nut determines innocent people must die, and he get his hands on the implements to do it, he's going to do it. The whole thing is terrible.
Exactly. It's not the "what". It's the "Who" has access to firearms and the "Where" one can carry them.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Dealing With Haters

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Those who wish to blame the rifle sometimes seem to imply that the mass shooting problem started with access to semi-auto rifles. They need to be reminded that that type of firearm became available shortly after the turn of the last century. I remember back in the 60's and 70's there was the M-1 Carbine and knock-offs of that type. Lots of cheap 30 carbine ammo available along with high capacity magazines.

That being said, I really wish the NRA had said more about gun owners being careful about who has access to guns in their house.....rights come with responsibility.

Re: Dealing With Haters

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What I like to point out is that self-loading rifles have been available since the turn of the previous century. Given the lack of mass shootings until fairly recently, the only explanation is that something changed in the late 1970 and early 1980s. That something is corrosive neoliberalism.

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