Biden his time
Heh:
Biden reaches out to ‘gun lover’ guy from CNN/YouTube debate
[…]
In an interview with Reason magazine, Townsend later invited Biden up to Clio to discuss the matter.
Despite questioning whether or not Townsend was mentally qualified to handle his “baby” during the debate, Biden said today that he emailed Townsend and gave him his phone number, saying he would be happy to get together the next time he is in Michigan.
Biden even told The Crypt he would be happy to go hunting with Townsend, though the senator said he couldn’t equal Townsend’s firepower.
“All I have is a 20 gauge and a 10 gauge shot gun. It won’t match his automatic weapon,” Biden said.
Townsend called the Bushmaster “a good varmint rifle” in his interview, saying he uses it to hunt coyotes.
Still, Biden, who helped craft the 1994 assault weapons ban, said Townsend would have to lose the Bushmaster before they went looking for varmints together.
Still got the hoplophobia, huh? The Bushmaster is not an automatic weapon. It’s a semi-automatic.
Via insty.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:11 am
So you gotta give your rights to engage in a licensed activity with Biden?
I wonder if he thinks the same about the miltiarized police with their real “automatic” weapons around Washington D.C. ? Oh I suppose they’re OK ’cause they are guns paid for by us to protect the likes of him and shoot citizens who are engaged in terrorism.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:13 am
He has a 10 gauge and he’s squawking that the Bushmaster is more powerful?
He’s not hoplophobic; he’s ignorant. He is the worst type of gun owner (even if he is one and the shotguns are not borrowed). He should go out and hunt with Townsend bringing along the AR. Once he sees the Bushy only fires one round at a time and isn’t a buzzsaw, bullet-throwing man-killer, it may cut through his ignorance.
On a similar note, my Dad is visiting from Canada. He is (now was) of the opinion that no one needed an assault weapon. So I took him to the NRA Range in Fairfax with a couple of my AR-15s. He learned quick they weren’t machine guns, fired a small bullet and were pretty gentle on recoil (more bark than bite). He commented afterward that my Lee Enfield was more dangerous. One evening on the range with the real thing undid a lifetime of liberal conditioning once confronted with the reality of the object and what had really been banned.
If my Canadian liberal father who used nothing more than a pellet gun can get it, so can Biden. Biden may still hate Bushmasters and “scary looking” military-styled rifles but at least he’ll be honest and hate them on appearance and cease to be ignorant on function. Once he thinks about it in his private time, he may realize his shotguns are no different (especially if one is semi-auto) and realize that what he is wanting to do to Townsend’s Bushmaster, someone could demand of him with his shotguns.
Get that idea into his head or any other gun owner like him and you begin to chip away at their platform and they’ll start to support your rights. Maybe not openly but it may be simply in stopping to support, sponsor or comment on gun control legislation because they’ll see it as wrong.
I only wish the media and politicians who demonize my “babies” would come out and coddle them sometime. But to do so would be tantamount to admitting they were wrong and if it is one thing most politicians and media both lack in equal measure is integrity.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
As I pointed out, the conflation of full and semi auto is perhaps the greatest trick the antigunners have ever pulled…
July 26th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Try as I might, I could not find that article in the Constitution qualifying the Second Amendment, giving Congress the power to restrict personal arms based on features or performance.
One blast from Biden’s 10 ga. shotgun at close range is almost sure to kill, so I guess we are supposed to wonder aloud: Just why does the senator think he needs such a powerful weapon, anyway? Is he fantasizing about killing people? What particular character defect would compel him to obtain such a deadly weapon?
July 26th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Am I being overly cynical or are other people wondering about Senator Biden’s claims to gun ownership?
A 10 gauge shotgun??? Yes, I know that they are around and people use them, but 10 gauge isn’t exactly the most popular chambering around for shotguns.
I have to wonder if he just spouted a couple of numbers he’d heard before rather than actually owning shotguns in said chamberings.
I suppose it’s possible that he owns grandad’s old goose gun but that doesn’t mean he’s ever fired it.
Most people I would give the benefit of the doubt to, but how much credibility does someone have who, in the same sentence, mischaractarized an AR-15 variant as an “automatic weapon?”
Until proven otherwise…I’m throwing the BS flag on that one.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Good point, Sailor, but we can take heart in the fact that today politicians are lying about owning guns, and faking being gun guys, in order to gain favor with the American public.
That’s very good news when you think about it. It proves they know they need us. Now is the time to redouble our ridicule of them!
July 26th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Now here’s what a real American is doing for a party fundraiser– a machinegun shoot:
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=GOP+fundraiser+to+feature+machine+gun+shoot&articleId=dff9058f-d867-4f10-8894-8ce94d13268b
They’re actually talking about sub machineguns and assault rifles, but what they hey.. Myself, I’d like to try a beltfed M2. Its safer than handing a little MAC-11 to a kid, too.
Now if the Republicans REALLY wanted to get support from the gun-owning public, they’d get rid of NFA ’34 and take all the credit before SCOTUS gets to it. The BATF people would shit bricks of course, and start joining violent gangs, until they heard of my plan to give them a fat retirement for the bargain (hey, it solves the probelm of AFT agents Going Postal all over the place, don’t it?)
July 26th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
“Myself, I’d like to try a beltfed M2.”
Ma deuce rocks! I used them a lot when I was in the Army Guard. (Mech Infantry) They’re heavy as hell but fun to shoot.
July 27th, 2007 at 4:42 am
Howsabout Townsend ditches Biden, instead. Who wants to go varmint hunting with a varmint?
July 27th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
The problem with people disliking (fearing) “assault rifles” stems largely from ignorance. Case in point: recently Outdoor Life’s (then) gun editor – Jim Zumbo- wrote on his blog, that he didn;t like so-called “black guns” and saw no need for their existence. The standard wood and steel rifle and shotgun, preferably bolt action or double barrelled – was the “right” type of weapon for hunting and the “black guns” had no place in te sport.
This resulted in an overwhelming internet response that was so vociferous that it resulted in Zumbo loosing his job at Outdoor Life, having his TV show cancelled and loosing the sponsorship of a number of prominent national brands, Remington and Coleman among them.
Basically, he really shot himself in the foot! However, although I’ve met Zumbo on a couple of occassions, and found him to be overbearing and prone to pontificating (basically don’t like the man) he nonetheless was cricified unfairly.
He spoke from a position of ignorance which is deadly for any journnalist. I don’t think he really hated AR’s etc, but was unfamiliar with their function (not to mention their performance) and spoke out of turn. They are different from what he had used for a lifetime and thus to be viewed with suspicion.
Sinve then, he has hunted with Ted Nugent and now supposedly appreciates AR’s for their accurracy and effectiveness.
Now, here’s the point. If a longtime, supposedly knowledgeable gun writer is unable to see the good points of the AR’s and seemingly is unaware of their use in the Camp Perry matches, how can we show the everyday citizen that these things are not inherently evil, but rather just a technological advance in firearms.
Agreed, to a laymen, the looks of the AR is much more frightening than a conventional bolt action rifle, for example. What they fail to see is that both have one underlying purpose – to kill something (as do all firearms since their invention). None are inherently evil. That distinction belongs to an evil-doer using the tool.
As Alan Ladd explained in the movie “Shane” “a gun is just a tool; no better nor worse than the person using it” Perhaps our legislatures should watch that movie.
July 27th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I must diagree with Ed R. on Zumbo being “unfairly” crucified. I think it was perfectly fair. One should not hold himself out to be an expert when is so abysmally ignorant of which he speaks.
If we grant him solace for his specific brand of hoplophobia, should be not grant solace and surcease for the BATFU, Shumer, Clinton, Giuliani et.al. when they misrepresent, and spread falsehood? After all, if we allow them to write the laws should we not expect expertise enough to know WTF they are talking about. I think so. Ergo, what Zumbo got was fair. Way more fair than his treatment of owners of “black rifles” and much better informed.
I do not believe Zumbo would have ever said any different if his ox had not been gored. Nor will any of the others still spreading the same screed until their oxen are gored.