Veterans’ strong voices in Maryland gun debate
Pat sends us a link from the Washington Post which does a fairly good job, surprisingly, representing Maryland veterans in the gun debate;
Since he has returned from Afghanistan, A.J. Wynne, 24, who was a corporal in the Marines, has spent countless hours shooting in the farmland north of Frederick. On a recent Sunday, he picked up his semiautomatic rifle, put down his demons and let muscle memory take over.
Breathe. Focus. Squeeze.
The weapon erupted into a violent cacophony — 30 shots in 11 seconds — and sent the crows in the treesbolting skyward.
The smile made his beard rise. He reloaded.
“It’s not yoga — it’s not graceful in any sense of the word, but I could do this all day long,” he said. “It’s just something that you go do to relax, to calm down.”
Wynne knows there are those who would argue that he is perhaps the last person who should be given unfettered access to high-powered, semiautomatic rifles that are designed to emulate the weapons he was trained to use in battle.
According to the article, some delegates to the legislature are rethinking a total ban on scary black rifles because of veterans and competitive shooters who have entered the debate. But, of course there are idiots in the article like Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, a colonel in the Army Reserve who says;
“It’s nonsense,” said Brown, the highest-ranking U.S. elected official to have served in Iraq. “The military trains us on these military-style assault weapons to perform a combat mission, and that combat mission does not exist in the communities of Maryland or anywhere in this country.”
But, I’ll bet you that the dingus has a scary black rifle in his den. I didn’t realize how much I missed my M16 until I bought an AR this last year and that familiar feel of the pistol grip, my thumb knew right where to go for the selector switch and it felt like coming home. I didn’t need a foregrip on it, because the plastic handguards felt so good, but when I read Dianne Feinstein’s bill and discovered that she thought a foregrip should be illegal, I bought one. When I read that the Department of Homeland Security warned surplus store owners that anyone buying bipods for their rifle might be a terrorist, I immediately went out and bought three bipods.
The Post actually admits that veterans are are influencing the vote in Maryland with facts;
But the plight of veterans is one lawmakers, especially in the House, have heard loudly.
Veterans were a heavy presence among more than 1,300 people who on March 1 amassed in Annapolis to testify against O’Malley’s plan. Many cited federal data to stress that their rifles are for good, not for harm: Out of 398 Maryland homicides in 2011, two were carried out with rifles.
Yeah, so guns are a veteran issue, especially judging by the links that y’all send me dealing with the gun issue, and because the NRA and other gun groups keep us supplied with links and information, too, since we’re primarily a military-issues blog with a large audience of veterans.
Category: Veterans Issues
Governments prefer to deal with unarmed peasants.
An Army O-6 using the term “assault weapon” is disgraceful, let alone hiding behind the same “Military style” weapons his security uses to protect him and saying us “peasants” don’t need them.
“…and that combat mission does not exist in the communities of Maryland or anywhere in this country.” Well, it’s like this Mister Lieutenant Governor Brown: When the mission does exist, we’ll be ready. AND THAT sentiment is what really scares these folks.
Was a proceedure in the Marines When I was in. When an Officer picked up Major (O-4) they no longer had to Qualify with a rifle. A Lot of these Generals haven’t fired a weapon or humped a ruck in over 20 years, That results in Shrinkage of testicles. Political Aspirations further shrink their already diminished sack and the placement of their heads up their asses reduces the ability to think clearly.
@4 One might wonder if such folk ever had any testicles to begin with. “Political” officers always suck.
The “esteemed” Lt Gov Brown might want to check with a few of his colleagues in Oxon Hill and other communities near the SE part of DC. Rumor has it that some of those places are kinda rough.
Did anyone point out to Lt. Governor Brown that the military trains people on real assault rifles, the kind that are capable of automatic fire? They aren’t military-style rifles.
This guy sounds about as intelligent as Tammy Duckworth.
I wonder, does any police department in Maryland have full-auto fire AR’s? Does a “combat mission” exist in those Maryland communities that equip their PD’s with them?
UpNorth: SE of DC, maybe. From what I hear maybe ditto a few neighborhoods in Baltimore, too.
The rest of the state – not so much.
The article also fails to mention the thousands of 2nd Amendment supporters who have attended the Annapolis hearings, offered testimony, and filled state senators’ and delegates’ mail boxes, in-boxes and voice mail accounts with views opposing that of our “esteemed” Governor, and reminding them that 2014 is not too far away.
If you guys really want to see stupidity in action, read the Comments section of the article for a good cross section of armchair therapists, gun banning douchebags (look for some clown screen named “Digital Quaker”), Liberal pants-wetters, and a whole host of other buffoons. T
“that combat mission does not exist in the communities of Maryland or anywhere in this country.””
Perhaps Colonel/Lt. Gov Brown can explain why there is a LEO exemption in all these laws
Or why his Department of Transportation needed a bunch of these rifles made by LWRC. If the mission doesn’t exist, was his DOT juts wasting taxpayer money?
A few weeks ago, Beretta announced that they were exploring their options on relocating from MD to another State becausr of the Gun Laws there, current and pending. Their statement? On of their top echelon was quoted basically saying that they didn’t see any reason to continue production in a State where their employees weren’t even allowed to own what they were producing, the M9 if I’m correct.
Check out Col Brown’s bio. Commissioned AVN, transfer to JAG, with CA as a JAG/POLAD in Iraq. A bit of distance from carrying around one of those scary assault thingys.
@13 Oh, THAT explains a LOT.
My experience is somewhat dated (out in ’86) but I do recall that when I was in, what I would describe a water-head liberals were FAR more common in the officer’s corps than enlisted ranks. We enlisted had a high percentage of college educations, but it seemed far fewer of the disconnected-from-reality types. I remember one major (who later made general and national news when she filed a sexual harassment complaint) who advocated doing away with range fire because she knew all future conflicts would be push-button and nasty guns would be unnecessary.