I never thought I'd see myself actually liking a CNN journalist

[rondog]

Pretty good shooting for someone trained to be a liberal sheep, who was desperately trying to find something "evil" about guns. She did seem to open up her mind about it, and would be a good reporter to continue studying the phenomenon of guns and gun owners. She should travel the country, visiting people nationwide for their perspectives. She should visit trap and skeet competitions, high-power rifle matches, 4H/Scouting/Eddie Eagle training for kids, and some of those "alphabet" competitions like IPSA, etc. She should also visit with female shooters, gun owners, and competitors. Also visit with people, especially women, who have had to use a gun to protect themselves or their loved ones from the REAL evils of the world.

If someone like her would investigate the firearm culture in this country from front to back, with a fair and open mind, and try to find the TRUTH about guns and why Americans love them, I'd be all for it. I mean, it's a huge and complex subject, and the stories need to be brought into the light and told. People need to know the truth about EVERYTHING gun related, from competitions, to self-defense, to collecting antique guns, to collecting military guns, to hunting, and just plain old plinking because it's FUN! It's a sport that nearly everyone can enjoy, that doesn't require a lot of physical abillities.

I mean, just ammo & reloading alone could be a segment in itself! From showing the commercial manufacturing process, to Joe 6-pack doing it at home. Reloading your own ammo for basic target shooting, for high-volume trap/skeet shooters, for specialty hunting rounds, to specialty high-precision target ammo. People need to know and understand how a cartridge is constructed and how they operate, so they won't fear them as "explosives". How many people have you met that would nearly shit themselves at the sight of a live round?

I actually think this would be a good premise for a new "reality" show, American Gunowners or something. It's a huge and complex subject, with a LOT of history behind it! People all over the world have been enjoying and using firearms for centuries, not only for warfare, defense and crime, but for hunting and sport. Target shooting competitions are as old as guns themselves. People started shooting those primitive matchlocks, and immediately started competing to see who was the better shot! God only knows how many firearm museums there are in the US alone.

A "reality" show like this would also have to tell the other side, the ugly side, about gun control - especially in other countries and throughout history, and the effect gun control has had on the citizens/societies that it was inflicted upon. Hitler and the Nazis disarming their citizens, and then what happened. What the 2nd Amendment is REALLY about, and why the Founders created it and added it to the Constitution. Go to Great Britain and Australia, and other countries, and ask their citizens what effect gun control has had on their lives.

Bert brought up a good point to me the other day - about how much of an influence the manufacture and perfection of firearms over the course of history really had a HUGE impact on the advances of manufacturing and technology in general! If you think about it, the drive to build better firearms in larger quantities really DID have a major influence on the advancement and perfection of manufacturing and the machine tool industry.

Jeeze, I could blather on about this forever, but you get my points. I think CNN did good on this, but in reality they just chipped a flake off the iceberg.