interesting experiment...

[rog8732]

I think the lady mentioned her child. I hope to hell she does not need that Glock to protect the child, or anyone else, while parading around with what I expect is an empty firearm.... If she has a confrontation with a hardened bad guy ,he will likely figure it / she is ready for use, and do something brutal.

 

[rwsmith]

My response:

"Your fear of guns is fueled by your lack of knowledge, which you are maintaining by choice, which is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. After you finish your stupid experiment, go get some training and see if your attitude changes. It often does."

 

[BaaBaa]

The "awaiting moderation" is not being used to block one point of view.

I'd think that might be true if comments made after mine were not already posted but mine and others from here are not.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Well let's see...

Heidi Yewman is on the board at the National Gun Victims Action Council. She is Washington state president of the Million Mom March/Brady Campaign. She wrote a book about gun violence and victims, and she's organized a boycott of Starbucks due to their in store gun policy. She reportedly regularly meets with legislators, parent groups and school administrators to promote safety campaigns. Heidi's crusade apparently began in 1999 after Columbine.

It's interesting that Heidi feels qualified to tell others about gun safety, yet she admits to knowing nothing about guns. And when she does purchase a gun for the first time, she purposely keeps herself ignorant of safe operation of the gun.

The organizations Heidi has aligned herself with are anti-gun zealots. We all know about the Brady Campaign, and the National Gun Victims Action Council has the typical hoplophobic nonsense on their website... open and concealed carry is a serious threat to public safety... NRA wants mentally ill people to have guns... on and on and on...

Bias?

 

[CoMF]

Arguing aside, purchasing and carrying a handgun with no training or operational knowledge is foolhardy at best, hazardous at worst. With her contempt for any kind training, this individual is a disaster waiting to happen. Hopefully if/when she experiences a ND the person she unintentionally shoots will be herself and not an innocent bystander.

The really infuriating thing about that is if and when that does happen, she'll likely treat the experience as empirical evidence of why the general public should never be trusted with something so dangerous as a firearm rather than do the intellectually honest thing and owe up to her gross negligence without blaming the firearms owning community for it.

 

[Xtasy]

She passed everything to own a gun, now handling a gun is different. If you buy a new gun there is a manual inside the box explaining you different steps. Why didn't she read it?

Can you buy scuba or sky diving equipment without having any knowledge? YES
Do you go scuba or sky diving without any instructions / experience? NO

So why would you buy and walk around with a gun without getting instructions on how to handle a firearm?

 

[Protected One]

Something like that. For example, is she really telling the truth about Tony? Maybe he offered to show her the basics of how to handle the Glock and she declined because it was above the "minimum"? Clowns like this lady are always good at stacking the deck in the favor of the point they want to make and ignoring some pretty simple stuff that might make their picture a little less rosy.

If she dresses as shown in the picture, all she is doing with her 1-month campaign is risking being disarmed and increasing the chances she will put another gun on the street that shouldn't be there.

That was EXACTLY my thought!

 

[Protected One]

She passed everything to own a gun, now handling a gun is different. If you buy a new gun there is a manual inside the box explaining you different steps. Why didn't she read it?

Can you buy scuba or sky diving equipment without having any knowledge? YES
Do you go scuba or sky diving without any instructions / experience? NO

So why would you buy and walk around with a gun without getting instructions on how to handle a firearm?

because she's an idiot.

 

[mc5aw]

I liked the anecdote about approaching the LEO with a loaded handgun claiming ignorance of how to operate it.

 

[Old cop]

This woman started out as merely ignorant, no crime in that. Now however, she's an armed and dangerous idiot.

 

[carpe pugna]

Whether or not some folks keep a gun at home and don't practice or train is not the same as someone who deliberately chooses to carry a firearm around on their person, not train, and brag about it to the world. Apples and oranges, anyone?

More like two types of apples.

While the motives are certainly different, the outcomes of the decisions are the same...

We in the gun hobby have to realize that we have many who "keep a gun at home and don't practice or train" as well as a group which carry but don't train...that is to our determent.

 

[carpe pugna]

I'd think that might be true if comments made after mine were not already posted but mine and others from here are not.

One of my two was just posted this evening [Sunday] though I wrote it prior to the 20th.

Who knows.

 

[speedyquad]

the one i posted here is not there...i wonder why?

and by some of the comments, it seems she was bullied by us gun nuts into ending the experiment...at least for the orginal publisher...she's going to continue it on the huffington post...

the bullying amounts to some one posting her address and the were "afraid a gun nut was gonna hurt her" since we are all the violent type...BBBBBBBBBBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTT it's ok to publish the names and addresses of concealed carry permit holders

 

[DigiRebel]

I know this won't be a popular opinion, but I am sort of going to support Carpe Pugna here...

First let me say, that anyone who decides to take on the responsibility for the safety of both themselves and the ones around them, is a hero in my book. I think its a good thing that she is *trying* this. I can hope that she is being above board, and will reserve my judgement until *AFTER* she finishes her series of articles. (I've read a number of articles where a woman previously terrified of firearms decides that she needs to learn more, and goes out to do so, and ends up liking them, or ends up still not liking them, but walks away with better understanding (and no fear)).

Do I think this is what is happening here? Do I think that she already had her final article written before she went to meet Tony? Do I think she may be simply lying through her teeth to make a political point?

I don't know for certain, but I think she probably is... I will let her have her rope though, and I will let her hang herself with it if that's what she wants.

I believe that Carpe's point initially was that we shouldn't start with condemnation when someone chooses to encounter guns (hell even Feinstein has a CCW). Reserve your concerns that she's nothing more than a shill pushing her agenda, but don't start from outright condemnation. Give her the rope and a chance, then see what she does. (And then, if she DOES prove to be a shill, tear into her as much as you like. But until that point be cautious but reserve judgement. We don't want to attack someone who *MIGHT* be changing their mind and push them farther into the idio... ahem enemy camp. [Yeah... I know, she couldn't be much farther into their camp.])

All that being said, Boo on her for being SO involved in any political subject that she clearly knows so little about though. Bravo to her, if she really is giving this an HONEST chance though. Maybe she will walk away with the opinion that she could support CCW if people had proper training. (It is a darn sight better than where she sits now.) Am I holding my breath? Nah, but I would like to see it, and don't want my doubts to be a roadblock if she is being honest about it.

 

[CoMF]

the bullying amounts to some one posting her address and the were "afraid a gun nut was gonna hurt her" since we are all the violent type...BBBBBBBBBBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTT it's ok to publish the names and addresses of concealed carry permit holders

As far as I can tell, there are two ways to look at this:

1) What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

2) Two wrongs don't make a right.

I'm sorely tempted to pick option one, but the better part of me says that option two is the more proper way to look at things.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

The really infuriating thing about that is if and when that does happen, she'll likely treat the experience as empirical evidence of why the general public should never be trusted with something so dangerous as a firearm rather than do the intellectually honest thing and owe up to her gross negligence without blaming the firearms owning community for it.

She's already taken that route. Notice that in Heidi's last paragraph she says that her being allowed in Starbucks with a gun proves that she was right to have protested Starbucks' gun policy. See how nicely this fits together....

 

[GerSan69]

More like two types of apples.

While the motives are certainly different, the outcomes of the decisions are the same...

We in the gun hobby have to realize that we have many who "keep a gun at home and don't practice or train" as well as a group which carry but don't train...that is to our determent.

Oy. Again: keeping a firearm at home or parading around with it like the columnist in the original story are not the same. Where's the "detriment" in keeping an inanimate object locked up - or even displayed, such as in a shadow box - in one's home? A collector who never carries a gun or someone whose gun never leaves the nightstand drawer cannot possibly be "detrimental" to firearms ownership in general. That's just ludicrous.

In any hobby or any serious endeavor there will always be nitwits that do stupid things, bringing unwanted attention on the group. It's human nature. You can't legislate them out of existence nor can you anticipate their foolishness and preempt their boneheaded moves. For my part, I trust any member of this forum far more than I trust the nitwit columnist whose Darwin Award-class stunt inspired this thread. I'll follow the story as it evolves if I remember to. I'm happy with that.

 

[CoMF]

She's already taken that route. Notice that in Heidi's last paragraph she says that her being allowed in Starbucks with a gun proves that she was right to have protested Starbucks' gun policy. See how nicely this fits together....

She fears possibilities that only exist in her own mind, but you and I both already know this.

The fact of the matter is that anyone, no matter how many hoops they need to jump through, has the capability of committing acts of negligence if they don't exercize due caution. However, I'm not willing to sacrifice my civil liberties or throw the U.S. Constitution under the bus to mitigate the possibility of someone getting harmed or killed by said negligence when such incidents are hardly an "epidemic" by even the greatest stretch of the imagination. While no more or less important than negligent injuries or deaths that occur via other means, they are nonetheless a statistical "drop in the bucket" compared to the latter.

Much as Heidi hates me and others like me, I support and will continue to support her civil liberties even if she wants to take away mine. Just because she abuses her First Amendment rights through intellectual and journalistic dishonesty does not make me have a knee-jerk reaction to do everything in my power to legislate her civil rights away.

 

[ASA335]

Heidi first posted on June 12th as "Week One". Today is June 25th. No updates from her that I can find. What happened to "Week Two"? Me thinks her experiment may not be going well.

 

[mc5aw]

Heidi first posted on June 12th as "Week One". Today is June 25th. No updates from her that I can find. What happened to "Week Two"? Me thinks her experiment may not be going well.

Me thinks her "experiment" may have been a cheap PR stunt to draw attention to herself.

Or possibly she's been holed up at the local gun range working on her CCW skills and how to unload her new Glock.