[BearwWthoutBorders] Thoughtful letter on guns from a thoughtful guy

[Hunter Gray]

Chip, who lives in a small town in northern Vermont, is active in good causes, and is a Pete Seeger fan, is a former student of mine and a good friend who goes 'way back to the Goddard College days -- and that is a long time.  At Goddard, he and I were among the few who displayed crew cut hair styles and tended to wear Levis.  No negative reflection on the others who were good friends of both of us. He was an NRA member even then -- as was I, of course.  (H)


Good day Hunter,

    As always, I an delighted to read your thoughts and observations. Needless to say we are in agreement when it comes to 2nd Amendment rights. If you look at photos in my "This and That" album you'll see a photo of my .22 customized Winchester Model 52 target rifle along with a recently acquired M-1 Garand. That was an experiment to see which firearm viewers thought was the one that should be restricted or banned. The shooting friends knew the trick of course, and a few non-gun friends said "both", but as expected, a number thought that .22 target rifle was actually the lethal killer assault rifle. And this confirmed what I've found over many years of discussions with those who would ban some firearms: They judge strictly on looks. Pistol grip, flash hider, black color, or just "it looks evil" are enough to set the anti-gun folks off. (And I, you too I expect, have encountered this with how PEOPLE look as well: Dark skin, baggy pants, a hoodie, facial hair, or even a swagger walk are enough for the individual to be judged as someone bad, a troublemaker, someone to be avoided. It's human nature I guess, and I don't know how you change that. But whether you ban a firearm just because of how it looks, or stop and frisk just because of skin color or how someone looks, it's just not the way to deal with crime or gun shootings in my view. 
   
When I summered in Vermont as a kid, I was fortunate to freely shoot- woodchucks, paper targets, tin cans, even "dump rats". As did the kids on the farm across the way. Their Dad had a Mossberg semi-auto .22 with a front fold down stock- you may be familiar with this model: Very plain, very basic. The kind of firearm common on farms. That Mossberg took all kinds of small game, plus woodchucks, farm rats and pigeons. And we did a lot of target shooting with it as well. Turns out that was one of the rifles that was to be banned under Clinton's Gun Ban Act. I don't know if it ever got exempted, but I can tell you the sole reason it got on the list was that it was an autoloader and it had a fold down stock. I'm unaware that ANY bad guy ever used this model in a robbery or gang shooting. But it LOOKED evil with it's short barrel and fold down stock. Again, decisions made on looks alone.
   
Well, enough of a rant for now. But I wanted to share with you my frustration with people wanting to ban something strictly on looks. The big .50 caliber anti-tank rifles that some enthusiasts like to shoot aren't something I'd rush out to buy- They cost an arm and a leg as does the ammunition, but they got banned in California partly on looks I suspect, and because of the fear the bad guys would use them in crime. Not a one, pre-ban, had ever been used in any kind of crime in California- What kind or criminal would lug around a 30 plus pound gigantic rifle that sells for 3-4 thousand dollars? Oh well, "politician logic" rarely is.

All for now my friend,

Chip in Vermont


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands.

See my extensive Movement Life Interview, done by Bruce
Hartford of Civil Rights Movement Veterans:
http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm
And see my reflection ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE:
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded in Fall 2012. Photos. Material on our Native
background.)  And see Personal Background Narrative: 
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm  (Updated into 2012) 

For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.
 http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mayfirst.org/pipermail/bearwithoutborders/attachments/20121221/ef49cbb5/attachment.html>