The culture is shifting.
The father is proud.
Proud.
Why is the father proud of a daughter, that’s only 4, wanting to shoot? Is it because he is some fringe-clingy lunatic gun nut? I don’t think that’s it. He is proud because something is rubbing off on daughter. Something that has remained dormant for a few decades in wide swaths of this country. It is a revival of a part of the American spirit. A demystification of a normal thing. A thing that never should have been mystified in the first place.
We’ll have won when it’s an embarrassment NOT to know how to shoot and not to own a gun.
Sorta like the way some people are ribbed for not knowing how to drive a manual transmission car.
When a professor looks down his nose and says to a student, “oh you are one of those Neanderthals with genital size issues” turns to a class a students looking at one of those professors and thinking, “you are one of those namby pambs afraid of his own shadow and ignorant of firearms.” When THAT happens, then we will have won. When most every American thinks the professor is the odd one. The eccentric. Then he, and those like him, will be harmless cranks.
Further comment on the JayG letter. It’s good to see the adherence to strict safety and supervision procedures. These is no reason to not let a 4 year old shoot if the right precautions are observed, both on range and with storage. Obviously, the 4 year old possibly sneaking her gun into school for show and tell is probably a very bad idea, but there is no reason to think that the firearm will be accessible to her for sneaking at 4. Or 14 for that matter.
I hope the cultural trend continues to swing our way for the rest of that 4 year olds lifetime. I'm optimistic.
I thought only 15 year old girls with learners permits were the only ones out there that don't know how to drive a manual transmission car. Odd and somewhat shocking.
ReplyDeleteIn 1972, I was 12 years old and my elementary school had firearms training in gym class. Boys and girls all took the then mandatory class. It was a combination of classroom and range.
ReplyDeleteWe even had an indoor rifle range in the school.
When we have that again. We win.
And yes. In another 12 years when daughter turns sixteen, her first car will have a manual transmission. And she'll be allowed to drive it on her own after she's removed and replaced at least one tire on it.
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