Monday, April 16, 2007

Bay Area Newspaper Writer gets Dumbass Award.

Can you trust anything this media outlet says when they get the basic facts wrong?

Women & Guns

Women with guns a growing phenomenon
By Christine Morente, STAFF WRITER

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO - KIMBERLY SHRUM grips a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver and aims at a target 25 yards away.
Bang.
A hot shell casing hits the floor, joining hundreds of others littering the concrete at Jackson Arms Indoor Shooting Range in South San Francisco.

Shrum centers herself and aims again.
------------------------

I've shot a lot of revolvers, never had one eject a shell casing.

Obviously the writer is ignorant of her subject and is writing for effect.
Was she even at the range?
Any article that starts with such a glaring error is very suspect.

And I was expecting either a rant against guns in general or a villification of 2nd Amendment rights... and I was suprised. The article was fairly balanced and informative.
Except for a decided slant toward the Gun=Power mentality...

A lot of people believe that a gun is a magic wand: If you point it at someone, they have to obey you.
Sadly, that's not the way it works. And just because you know HOW to use one, doesn't mean you will be mentally capable of using it when the time comes.

Back in the day (1991 or so) when I owned Computer Services Inc in downtown Jacksonville, we often worked long hours preparing our systems for shipping or doing other prep work.
Since our offices were down on Union Street it was de rigeur to carry a firearm in the office after business hours. This practice started after the third break-in attempt while we were in the office.
After that, we started carrying pistols.
The Woman Who Knows Most Things had initial misgivings on this practice.
My argument:
"I can carry this gun, and if circumstances call for it, I will use it. And then we'll hire an attorney to defend my actions.
Or, I can not carry it, and instead of hiring an attorney, you can come to the morgue to identify my body and buy a nice casket."

She never said another word.

Oh well... Revolver owners- watch out for those hot casings...

TBG out (at the range)-

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good points all the way around Uncle Jay...

Here are some stories of average people using legal firearms to defend themselves/others

http://www.nrapublications.org/armed%20citizen/Index.asp

March Hare said...

Well, it wouldn't be the FIRST time a "Bay Area" writer got things wrong. Like what city the Cow Palace is in, for example.

BTW, you've been memed:
http://marchhareshouse.blogspot.com/2007/04/booked-by-3-meme.html

Figure it would give you something else to write about. ;) And I'm always interested in what the other half reads!

The Big Guy said...

Other half of what? ;)

TBG

Luc said...

This will be interesting ....