A signature line quote I'd like to share with you (firearm related)

I ran across this signature line quote on another web page and it sort of jumped out at me. Here it is:

"Gunfighting is one part technique and three parts attitude. It is the man, rather than the gun, that matters." -Col. Jeff Cooper, U.S.M.C.(ret.), Founder, IPSC"

Now I have no idea who Colonel Jeff Cooper is or what the IPSC is and I have no intention of finding out, but the quote interests me. In its way it recites the old "pro-gun" advocate line of 'people kill, not guns' but it does so in a much more menacing way, implying that a killing attitude is required for success, but without dismissing ardent practice with one's firearm. It is a chilling line, but instructive.

Look at the gun-toters at Town Hall meetings, the problem isn't the gun they so proudly display so much as the attitude of the guy carrying it and when you think about the closest comparison that becomes clear. Who is more heavily armed with the latest of equipment than the Secrete Service Agents who are closest to the President? Its attitude, not machinery.

So, where should the solution to gun problems start? If the attitude is the problem that is where we should focus our attention, and you won't change many attitudes by calling gun owners fools or malcontents of every sort.

What a wonderful quote.

You know what the greatest fears of gun owner's really is? Its so easy to put your finger on that it just amazes me. They, each of them as an individual (and me too to some extent) is afraid they won't be the last one to still have a gun. Its an attitude that makes some sense, in fact a lot of sense. If there were a national effort to remove guns from our streets and homes they are quite right to point out that its effect would be to leave criminals armed and honest people essentially defensless - anyone who thinks there is anything at all like police protection from crime in rural areas is sadly mistaken. Taking a more liberal point of view its also easy enough to note that the final result of that same effort is an armed Government lording over a disarmed populace - the least desirable of all situations.

he was a marine colonel who fought in both WWII and the Korean Conflict.

the philosophy around his quote is one primarily for combat situations and in combat (kill or be killed) the the opponents' mindset are far more important than the weapons involved. This has been played out in many conflicts throughout history; take Viet Nam as an example: the US forces had superior firepower and technology yet still lost to a determined, under-equipped opponent. Why? the mindset of the 2 forces.

its that damned macho attitude I fucking HATE.

There really are batshit crazy gun obsessed kooks out there who believe they should have a right to carry a firearm wherever the hell they please.

These same people would mock anyone who wanted the right to carry a grenade or a SAM anywhere they please. The irony is they believe they are sane and lucid and "well trained" to correctly identify trouble and take action against it using their weapon. They also believe there could easily be a reason in any situation you can think of to have to play hero against a wild eyed gangbanger. At the grocery store. Obsessed.

There are other gun owners who are in fact reasonable, are not lard-ass hillbillies, and who aren't the kooks who believe they should have one strapped on at church, six flags, and your local drinking establishment because of the gangbangers lurking under every rock.

Unfortunately the loons are the ones who give everyone a bad name, and even better for the gunjeon obsessed: the reasonable ones will fold ranks if you go after the insane ones. It is pretty easy to differentiate between the two on DU. The reasonable ones don't respond. The batshit ones take it upon themselves to try to teach us militia hatin' gangbanger lovin' gun grabbers a lesson, personally. The idea "Do Not Engage" when faced with no possible win apparently did not stick.

Then when you wipe the floor with their asses they start pissing and moaning about how persecuted they are and everyone else is a "bigot". I wonder how easily those people get frustrated in real life, when they have a weapon. I know all about gun laws myself. They were made for people like me. I would not trust me to have a weapon, if I were the kind that felt the need to have a weapon, and I promise there isn't a single qualification I couldn't pass with one eyeball tied behind my back.

But arguing about guns on DU is like arguing with a four year old, it's not even sporting, and damn nearly a complete waste of time except for getting to show everyone else how frikkin' crazy some gunjeoners can get.

The population of gun owners is not homogenous, but I heard from someone a long long time ago that the gunjeon was not really for DU'ers, just a place for gunjeon trolls on DU to go have their daily circle jerk and stay out of everyone else's hair.

:popcorn:

:P :evilgrin: