Disappointed in the gun community

[338Shooter]

Oh, sorry, I thought we were talking about things that made us disappointed in the gun community.

Who said it was necessary to hunt with a suppressor? I would prefer to preserve my hearing while firing dangerously loud firearms in the field. I wear ear muffs at the range, it makes it hard to hunt while wearing earmuffs. Our sense of hearing is very integral to our way of life and makes the hunt more natural. My wife has been deaf in one ear her entire life. Through her I've come to have a great appreciation for the gift of hearing that I've been blessed with. A silencer offers me no extra advantage over the game in the field yet allows me the ability to utilize and preserve my natural hearing to ethically harvest game. How you can ignore the facts of the issue and maintain your opinion in the face of intelligent though baffles me. I believe that you believe you are a supporter of shooting, firearms ownership and NFA, but the rest of us see through the BS. It is laughable that you would tell me to grow up coming from as immature and closed minded of a point of view as you are.

That a gun owner would think a bill to expand our rights in the legislature is a waste of a vote, is disgusting and highly disappointing to me.

 

[RKM]

 

[vdub]

The main issue is the fact you stated that others should not have the freedom to exercise their rights to use one because you felt it spoiled the beauty of the hunt and is now evidently immoral. Not sure how using a suppressor is now immoral but I am not going to go down that road. What Dustin first posted and the thread over on arfcom, it showed that you evidently don't support gun rights as a whole because you are more than willing to force your beliefs on others. I believe by the end of thread on arfcom, you seemed to have changed to what you state now that if others want to use it that is fine but you won't.

This is the way it really should be with all gun rights and freedoms. Gun owners as a group should support all the rights and freedoms for all legal gun owners even if they will never have a desire to actually exercise them. This is why gun owners as a group are one of the harder groups to get on the same page. Hunters don't see the need for AR15's and AK's. Others like shooting them for recreational purposes, competition purposes, hunting purposes, or just to have something like they carried in the military. Same thing for open carry. Don't want to exercise the rights, that is fine. Don't exercise them!! However, you don't need to force your beliefs or lack of wanting to exercise them on others. That is why you always get hammered on topics like this.

If I had to rely on you to be the deciding, tie-breaking, end-all vote on a pro-gun bill that permits something you would never use personally, I would chalk up the defeat from what I have seen you post before and especially if it had to do with suppressor use while hunting.

The worst disappointment in the gun community is we don't support all rights based on the ideas of "I wouldn't ever do that" or "I wouldn't ever own that".

 

[Honey Badger]

This is the way it really should be with all gun rights and freedoms. Gun owners as a group should support all the rights and freedoms for all legal gun owners even if they will never have a desire to actually exercise them. This is why gun owners as a group are one of the harder groups to get on the same page. Hunters don't see the need for AR15's and AK's. Others like shooting them for recreational purposes, competition purposes, hunting purposes, or just to have something like they carried in the military. Same thing for open carry. Don't want to exercise the rights, that is fine. Don't exercise them!! However, you don't need to force your beliefs or lack of wanting to exercise them on others. That is why you always get hammered on topics like this.

Thanks for your input and I respect your point of view. However, I would like to state that I am not forcing my point of view on you guys. I wasn't the one who brought up the old topic, that was Dustin. I respect your points of view but hunting to me means a little bit more than having the latest tacticool gear. Call me a purest but I don't even wear camo when I hunt (blue jeans, and an blaze orange jacket with a blaze orange hat). Fred Bear wore overalls and a red flannel to hunt, and harvested some fantastic animals. I just can't help but think we are missing the point. That point being that you don't need all that crap to be successful hunter. If you are hunting to harvest animals exclusively then you're there for the wrong reasons. Yes the meat is a part of it, but being out in nature under a tree, freezing your a$$ off, watching some squirrel eat a nut, or having some yearling doe come in and stomp her foot trying to get you to blink is the fun of hunting for me. YMMV. I don't need a suppressor to enjoy it my way. If you do, then power to you. BUT, you will never convince me that it neccessary to have it. Sorry. That's how I feel. Love me or leave me..... The choice is yours.

 

[vdub]

While the only thing I have hunted lately is coyotes and hogs, I have done my fair share of deer, squirrel and bird hunting in my younger days. All animals I have killed were with unsuppressed rifles, shotguns or 22's. Most of that was done in what I wore to school that day as my brother and I went hunting after school. So the purest or just harvesting animals debate is lost on me. If you want to go for the purest argument, why don't you lose your rifle as that is an unfair advantage and go back to spears and handmade bows and arrows? Talk about pure hunting!!

Since I do not really hunt a lot now (although I would love to go shoot prairie dogs one day but this isn't hunting really), I do not really have a need to hunt with a suppressor. If I had the option I would use one while prairie dog shooting, and the few times I go coyote and hog hunting to reduce the noise. With the lack of focus on hearing protection from my dad, I have constant rining in both ears now from all the shooting/hunting I did as a kid. In my family, no one ever thought about it back then but it is a big focus now. It is not fun hearing that ringing in your ears all the time especially when you are trying to go to sleep.

However, I will not let that influence expanding gun rights to allow anyone who wants to hunt with them to do so. I have never said it was necessary to have them as history has proven that NUMEROUS amounts of animals have been taken without their use. Like I said that if I had to count on your vote, I would just chalk up the defeat as I know your opinion is not going to be swayed. That is why you are not as good of a friend to the gun community as you think. Your idea that "you don't need it" or "will never use it" will ultimately make the decision for you against expansion of these rights. Instead look at the gun community as a whole and say, "I won't use that but I bet others would like to use it. Is this really hurting me? No, then I will support it as it expands the rights of everyone."

 

[338Shooter]

It really has nothing do do with how necessary you think silencers are for hunting. I has to do with the fact that you don't support the expansion of our freedoms and you think the government meddling in the free market to control gas prices is more important than the expansion of our rights. That is what is disgusting and why I posted in this thread in the first place. You are in the same category, in my eyes, as the person you started this thread to whine and cry about.

ETA: No, not in the same category, worse. At least that guy is getting his wife a gun. He may be going at it the wrong way, but you have to assume he is trying to do something that is best for their situation which I doubt you know anything about (their situation).

 

[dennishoddy]

. Hunters don't see the need for AR15's and AK's.

This statement is quickly becoming obsolete. ALL of my latest hunting magazines are featuring hunts with the AR Platform.
5 years ago that statement was true.
Ok, back to supressors.

 

[vdub]

You are correct. It is becoming more and more not the case. However, that was a pretty big battle to get to this point. Unfortunately, it will probably be that way to expand everything else as well due to the in-fighting among gun owners.

 

[ldp4570]

Yup, Men lead and women follow.

Thats so she can slap you in the back of the head when you do something stupid!!!!!LOL

 

[338Shooter]

I hear that ldp!!