Fort Worth Weekly link sent to me by ssgmarkcr who thought the Michael B mentioned below might be me. It's not. The part I liked best is where the mom denies the kid's finger is on the trigger. Who's that remind me of?
Her kids said they’d like a photo with a gun, and she asked OCT members if she could take a photo of her kids holding the weapons. But she wasn’t the only one taking photos. Other photographers snapped away, and the internet did the rest.
“I was standing there and they took a picture, and I’m going to own that,” she said.
Police officers were nearby, the guns weren’t loaded, and it seemed like a fun and safe thing, she said.
“My father was a federal officer,” she said. “I was raised around guns. My kids are well educated. But they don’t own guns. They had nothing to do with the Open Carry. They just took a picture and it’s gotten all blown up.”
She was particularly annoyed by a commenter named Michael B. who wrote that, “for people claiming to love guns and their 2nd Amendment, they are doing a horrible job raising their children. Look at the boy with the rifle. Bolt closed, finger on the trigger. At a public event. Look, if you feel inadequate and want to compensate by carrying a weapon in the open that’s just fine. Given the strength of the argument given by Open Carry, I gather more than a few of them don’t qualify for concealed. But poor trigger discipline is appalling.”
The boy’s mother said the photo is deceiving, and said his finger was never on the trigger.
More parents who think it's just fine their kids become worldwide, viral heroes with guns in their hands. Are these parents nuts? I wouldn't let my kids become worldwide, viral heroes if they were holding muffins.
ReplyDeleteIt's called education. The only people that made it viral are the gun control bullies that think exposing kids to guns equates to child abuse. These parents are the heroes for showing their kids that the sight of a gun isn't something to fear. Train your kids in the safe and responsible carry of a firearm and they'll never use it for ill-intent.
DeleteGet with it CJ, besides the gun issue it's just not smart to preview your kids faces all over the world. They easily become targets for perverts, kidnappers, or the violent side of an opposition. I see very little education going on in this picture, except for the bad education of holding a gun with your finger on the trigger when not aiming to shoot.
DeleteMikeb, you love to worry about fingers and triggers, but if you're going to adopt Jeff Cooper's rules, you should take his whole program. Notice how the gun is pointed in a safe direction?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that these children are being educated in firearms. That's much better than raising compliant sheep.
So, finger on the trigger is ok with you as long as the muzzle is not pointed at someone? Are you such a contentious baby that you can't even agree on safety rule violations?
DeleteI must start out by saying that I'm envious of the little girl. I'd love to have an M1A like that. Oh well, I'm going to come out and say that Open Carry Texas didn't do themselves any good with this little shindig, though there was the potential.
ReplyDeleteThere are venues out there where you can dress up in period costumes and pose for photos with guns. I get that, don't do it, and its not bad. This event wasn't that though.
I'm going to assume that this was some sore of thing aimed at showing firearms to be not inherently evil, and give people some sort of, pardon the pun, hands on experience. All they had to do to make this a success would have been to instill a bit of safety and proper handling into the encounter. Since mom didn't mention it, I'm going to assume it didn't happen.
Not sure if anyone else noticed, but besides the finger on the trigger, and yes, it counts. There's a damned magazine in the M1A. Yikes. If you're trying to sell a concept that is on one hand controversial, and on the other one in which taking shortcuts can get people hurt, you take on the responsibility to take a real close look at yourselves to look good in the spotlight you'll be under.
Yes, Mike, it looks like the boy in the photo has his finger on the trigger. If you look, there's a pronounced curvature of his finger that you can see--a curvature that was not there in the photo where Greg and I pointed out that the woman's stubby finger wasn't on the trigger, but was indexed along the bottom of the frame (and suggested that she should have indexed it higher on the frame for better safety).
ReplyDeleteAt least you got this one right. Was it hard? Notice Greg's comment above. He's incapable of agreeing even when we do agree.
DeleteWhat's up with the juvenile taunting about "was it hard"?
DeleteYou know, good and well, that if I agree with you on something I'll say so--often enthusiastically such as on the private prison issue last week.
It's really a juvenile response when you taunt like this.
DeleteMikeb, I didn't say it was okay. You're twisting words.
Delete