A little while ago in this blog, I wrote about an anti-gun lady who did a strange and incredibly stupid thing for the MS magazine blog. You can find it here: https://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyoob/2013/06/17/false-flags-false-premises/#comments
Someone walking around carrying a gun she admitted she didn’t know how to use was so scary a concept that I still consider it both a false premise and a false flag. The lady in question did so because she is an avowed anti-gunner, and wanted to show the world how dangerous guns are.
Well, in hands like hers, they are.
Go to the links to her MS magazine blog, found in the link above, and also to the comments on both that site, and the above-linked entry in this Backwoods Home blog. You’ll see that in each, many people warned her of the danger she was presenting to herself and others.
Apparently, MS Magazine agreed: they have stopped her insane experiment, at least under their aegis, but it appears that the madness will continue in the Huffington Post.
Kudos to MS magazine for dumping it. I’d be very much interested in hearing the real story from those folks why they wisely aborted this obviously dangerous and doomed mission. I would particularly like to hear from Gloria Steinem on that.
There aren’t a whole lot of anti-gun people I can say I admire, but Gloria Steinem is one. Hers is the name most associated with MS magazine, and I well remember when she burst on the American scene. Her writing was one of the reasons I became an early and unlikely feminist. (Yes, I was in my early twenties then, and yes, she was “hawt” as they say today. She’s 79 now, but hell, I’m going on 65, so she’s still in my dating range.) But that’s not important: the important thing to me is that Gloria Steinem embodied an ethos that has served me well for my entire life: the realization that strong, capable, confident women are the most interesting and valuable women. (Funny thing: that works across both genders, doesn’t it?)
And, I strongly suspect, Gloria Steinem and her true heirs understand how embarrassing it is to everything they stand for when “a clueless woman with a gun” becomes a grotesque stereotype of hysterical incompetence. That is nothing less than anathema to everything they have spent their lives fighting for.
Ms. Steinem was a pioneer in what was called then the Women’s Liberation Movement. She was and is an avatar of female empowerment. At about the time she co-founded MS magazine in 1972, women were already past baby steps and taking long strides to penetrate previously male-oriented job markets. In the construction industry, they didn’t do it as manual laborers and hod carriers, they did it at the hydraulically-operated controls of Caterpillar tractors; in law-enforcement, they didn’t do it with fists but instead with guns and expertly-wielded batons. As one of the first police PR-24 baton instructors, I was able to point other cops to female officers like Missy O’Linn, who later became a great police defense lawyer, and petite Florida cop Pamela Miller because they could make that baton absolutely sing: pound for pound, a woman with more limber upper limbs and 30 degrees more flexibility in the pelvic axis could get more power into a properly-executed PR-24 strike than her brother the same height and weight.
FORCE MULTIPLIER was the operative term.
And it still is. Check out this video of a young mom being savagely beaten by a home invader – in front of her three year old child – recently caught on a “nanny-cam.” http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/watch_home_invader_savagely_pummels_hxiWhv2uYrbF0uIPD680BL .
Excuse me all to hell, but I would like to believe that any woman I loved would have been better off with a gun in that situation, explaining to her child how the big man’s white tee-shirt suddenly turned all red and he fell down and stopped trying to hurt decent people, and honey, it’s going to be all right now. It’s easier to explain than the horror the mom in the video will have to explain to her little one.
And, you know, I would like to believe that Gloria Steinem and the other pioneers of women’s empowerment can recognize that
I’m of the opinion that what that woman taught her daughter is to endure abuse. Absolutely the wrong message to give the child.
Happy upcoming 65th. A good way to celebrate is some range time. If you can squeek it in.
I was most annoyed with Heidi Yewman’s posting because comments were moderated. I know not a single one of my were approved and they were not inappropriate at all but it makes me wonder how many other comments were not approved for viewing by the public, that whole thing was wrong but even more wrong that they were subjective about the comments.
Mas – Talking of dangerous: “She’s 79 now, but hell, I’m going on 65, so she’s still in my dating range.”
Does ‘The Evil Princess’ read this blog?
-g-
I think it’s great that you respect Ms. Steinem, and even greater still that you consider yourself a feminist. It’s a stance thin on the ground among prototypically machismo gun enthusiasts.
Given that you do think of yourself as a feminist, I thought it odd that you commented parenthetically that Steinem is “hawt”. It’s my understanding that one of the struggles of feminism is to recognize that a woman’s attractiveness is not tied to her power, or place in society. It is not contrary to a feminist attitude to point out a woman’s attractiveness, necessarily, but it had no bearing on the conversation at hand, so pointing it out is only to reinforce that a woman must be inexorably tied to her physical attractiveness.
I’m not calling you a chauvinist, or calling into question your feminism; I am only asking you to think of the implications when you comment on a woman’s physical attributes when the subject is her thoughts or actions.
A final thing I leave you to think about: in my years of reading your columns, I have read you mention countless men (both in praise and criticism): and not once in my memory did you mention whether they were attractive to look at.
Massad,
I’ve followed your work for a some time, and it has really helped me get comfortable with my firearms. You’re a gentleman and a scholar, and this article’s polite chastising of what most gun owners would turn red over is evidence of that.
Thank you for all your contributions to the community. Not many people teach contemporary revolver tactics!
Ethan, you’ll notice that I was also the one who said that wasn’t important.
Fruitbat, the Evil Princess did indeed notice, and is not amused… but life with her is life on the edge anyway. 🙂
Another great article Mas. As usual, you hit the target right in the sweet spot.
I would think that the “Evil Princess” knows by now your incorrigible 🙂
I saw the video on line today of the woman being beaten by the home invader and showed it to my wife and family this evening.
I am actually glad that the victim agreed to allow it to be aired and let people see what the real world is like with monsters like this preying on us. People need to harden their homes to give them some reaction time, have alarm system and have a plan how to defend themselves should something like this happen. Being unarmed is placing themselves at great risk.
Try to do a follow-up with the victim, maybe in six weeks, and determine what steps the family has taken to better protect themselves from a repeat home invasion. I would hope some type of effective weapon and training has been added rather than waiting for a 911 response. Could be a useful article for readers later this year if she’ll allow an interview. Maybe Gail could do it with you and give the female victim her perspective and advice… and help bring you back from “the edge” at the same time?..:-)
Be safe Mas…
“Fruitbat, the Evil Princess did indeed notice, and is not amused… but life with her is life on the edge anyway. :-)”
Holy Crap! That’s Funny!!
Steinhem & Co sadly would never publicly admit recognizing it. They are fully committed Khmer Rouge. The “cause ” is EVERYTHING.
As a friend put it at the time, there’d have been no doubt whether O.J. was guilty if his ex had been carrying a .380 that night.
SAD. Anti-gunners living in an anti-gun states often have to reap what they have sown. Gives them the opportunity to yell for the rest of us to help them.
Watching that video of the beating in NJ is not easy to do. I’m sure that even seasoned LEO’s are tempted to look away. I feel for the husband, having to watch after the fact, wondering what he could have done to prevent it. I wonder if they realize how lucky she is to be alive.
But I also observed from her comments, “I made the decision to just take it”, that she is perhaps a poster child for todays victim culture. How many of us have heard talking heads on TV advise “just let them do what they want” when coaching (mostly) women regarding violent attacks. I would hope that this couple snaps out of that mentality after this.
Israel: Civilian Disarmament Continues
Posted on June 28, 2013 by Robert Farago
“When licensed gun owners in Israel receive their renewal, they are now informed they will have to justify the reason for holding a handgun,” theyeshivaworld.com reports. “Minister of Public Security Yitzchak Aharonovich and others appear determined to reduce the number of handguns held by citizens.” Yes, you heard right. Politicians in the Jewish homeland are implementing a “may issue” policy of civilian disarmament. This is not news to regular readers [e.g., Israeli Gun Rights]. Still, it is shocking, appalling and revealing that Israelis are continuing to de-tool citizens, even if the [former] gun owner is a soldier or officer serving in the IDF reserves. Are they angling for an entry into our This is What Happens to A Disarmed Populace category? Strangely (if stereotypically), theyeshivaworld.com focuses on the financial cost . . .
Unlike in some countries when one is given a license and one can purchase handguns, in Israel, it is a license for a specific handgun and only for that handgun. In addition to losing a licensed weapon, there will be a financial loss as well for a pistol such as a Glock which can cost upwards of 5,000 NIS in Israel will then have to be forfeited or sold. A store buying a second hand weapon realizing the owner must sell is unlikely to pay a fair market value for the weapon. As more and more people are compelled to get rid of their weapons, there will be a surplus of handguns, resulting in the value dropping even more.
As I’ve said to many a newbie looking to purchase a gun for self-defense, why are we talking about money? How much is your life worth? Anyway, funny how the words “never again” have gone out of vogue. Although not in these parts
Some of the commenters seem to be of the opinion that “hate-mongering right-wingers” were posting some nastiness in the comments section, and that was the reason for Ms. dropping the series. I also find it interesting that the victim-disarmament crowd, when they choose to troll pro-gun websites, exhibit some distressingly violent tendencies themselves. The pro-defense posts on the Ms. story were generally well put, and polite, with the firmest statements having to do with the above, the ill-advisedness of strapping on an unloaded gat and wandering out into public like a cat with paper claws.