Name: Anonymous 2006-04-20 16:09
If Republicans taught gun safety like they do sex education, they would:
allow everyone to own a gun (even more, they'd require it: gunlessness is an abomination), but they'd insist that kids could never, ever take them out of their holster, sheath or gun rack
it would be illegal to expose your weapon or even talk about it
exposing a gun on TV would outrage viewers, who would deluge the network with complaining phone calls
blanks, trigger locks, and even safeties would be forbidden
there would be accidental discharges every night in every teenager's home, but no one would ever talk about it
it would be a shameful sin to go off by yourself and practice shooting at targets
the only acceptable use would be to kill something, although it would be OK to miss if you were sincerely trying to kill something
most hunters would be desperately hoping to miss every time they went hunting, and would try to contrive situations in which they could fire their guns without actually hitting anything
It seems like a useful analogy to me. If it's common sense gun ownership to know how to clean and maintain the thing, to practice sensible gun safety rules, and to treat it as a responsibility that demands knowledge and care and good understanding of its operation, why not expect the same of people who own a penis or vagina? There's nothing about knowing how something works that is antithetical to the idea that one should refrain from using it for its intended purpose, whether that is killing something or getting it pregnant, and in fact, we know that understanding in detail how something works is the best way to prevent it from going off inadvertently.
As it is, they're in a situation where they are tacitly favoring accidental, unplanned accidents over the possibility that kids will intentionally practice safe operation of their equipment.
allow everyone to own a gun (even more, they'd require it: gunlessness is an abomination), but they'd insist that kids could never, ever take them out of their holster, sheath or gun rack
it would be illegal to expose your weapon or even talk about it
exposing a gun on TV would outrage viewers, who would deluge the network with complaining phone calls
blanks, trigger locks, and even safeties would be forbidden
there would be accidental discharges every night in every teenager's home, but no one would ever talk about it
it would be a shameful sin to go off by yourself and practice shooting at targets
the only acceptable use would be to kill something, although it would be OK to miss if you were sincerely trying to kill something
most hunters would be desperately hoping to miss every time they went hunting, and would try to contrive situations in which they could fire their guns without actually hitting anything
It seems like a useful analogy to me. If it's common sense gun ownership to know how to clean and maintain the thing, to practice sensible gun safety rules, and to treat it as a responsibility that demands knowledge and care and good understanding of its operation, why not expect the same of people who own a penis or vagina? There's nothing about knowing how something works that is antithetical to the idea that one should refrain from using it for its intended purpose, whether that is killing something or getting it pregnant, and in fact, we know that understanding in detail how something works is the best way to prevent it from going off inadvertently.
As it is, they're in a situation where they are tacitly favoring accidental, unplanned accidents over the possibility that kids will intentionally practice safe operation of their equipment.