The
Truth Squad at
www.guntalk.com has an article about the '
Metcalf Mess':
Unless you just got back from a two-week sheep hunt in the Wrangell Mountains, you know about the firestorm that blew up after Guns & Ammo magazine writer Dick Metcalf wrote (and the magazine published) an article which essentially says that not all gun regulations are infringements on our gun rights. As you might expect, the Internet exploded, with untold thousands of gun rights activists calling for Metcalf's head.
Last Sunday, Dick (whom I've known for at least thirty years) did his one and only media interview on Gun Talk Radio. We didn't have enough time (I'm not sure the entire three hours would have been enough), but he explained how the column came about, what he had hoped it would do (start conversations), and how the instant and vociferous reaction caught him and the editors at Guns & Ammo by surprise. You can hear Metcalf on last week's show at guntalk.libsyn.com. Also, we now put the archived shows on YouTube (more convenient for many listeners), so you can hear that hour of last week's show at http://youtu.be/mdG_a8nobHs.
Some listeners thought I should not have even offered Metcalf a platform from which to explain or discuss what happened. Others welcomed it, but disagreed with him and were glad he was fired. Still others thought his logic was flawed and his understanding of history lacking, but didn't think it warranted losing his job. You can judge for yourself when you hear the interview.
My take? I am of two minds on this. The first is that it's a shame we can't have an open conversation about pretty much anything. That's the journalist and lover of free expression in me. But, the realist in me says that this column, which was picked up and paraded by the Brady Campaign and many national media outlets as an example of what they have been calling "reasonable restrictions" were, in fact, reasonable, hurt gun rights and helped, if even slightly, advance the efforts of the gun banners.
Metcalf and his editors should have seen this coming. The fact that they didn't well may indicate that they really are not terribly plugged into the current culture of gun rights. The simple fact is that you can not give up hard-won ground in this fight, and agreeing to any form of restriction on what is a natural right (not given to us by the government) makes it more difficult for us to regain what has been lost.
In the end, the decision to fire Metcalf was one of economics. Readers were canceling subscriptions in G&A, and advertisers were serving notice that they could not remain in the magazine if Metcalf stayed. That's what sealed the deal.
Rico says the guy shouldn't have published his opinion in his own publication, but here's another reason to preserve our gub rights:
If you ever wanted to show a friend why we carry guns, this might be it. A man in Louisiana was helping search for his 29-year old cousin who had been kidnapped by an ex-boyfriend. While searching with a group, he heard screaming from an abandoned house, kicked in the door, and saw the kidnapper stabbing his cousin, Bethany Arceneaux. Did he call 911 and hope his cousin didn't bleed out? Did he ask the kidnapper to please stop? Not on your life. He shot the sorry SOB, who was rendered DRT (Dead Right There). Arecneaux is expected to recover from her injuries. The local sheriff pronounced it a good shoot.
Read the whole story from start to finish here http://huff.to/1alkoQZ and read about the cousin here http://cnn.it/1aMJZFf.
Rico says he loves
DRT, and will use it again...
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