Joan Vennochi; What I learned at the shooting range
Parachute cutie sent us a link to the Boston Globe written by associate editor Joan Vennochi describing “What I learned at the shooting range“. The short answer is “Nothing”, but she doesn’t get paid to write short, accurate answers.
This first-time shooter — an extremely near-sighted baby boomer wearing prescription sunglasses — fired five rounds that hit their mark 50 yards away. All it took was a Bushmaster XM-15 with Trijicon Reflex optical sight.
I had never touched a firearm before. My only gun-related experience involved childhood visits to a relative’s dairy farm in upstate New York, where my born-in-Brooklyn father would inexplicably spend a morning trying to shoot a woodchuck with a borrowed rifle. Thankfully, he never succeeded. That’s the way I feel about all hunting. As for guns, generally, I like to imagine a world without them. But offered a chance, with colleagues, to learn more about them, I recently spent several hours at a shooting range.
So, those pesky woodchucks, which do more damage to a dairy farm than they are worth, are free to multiply because her dad didn’t have the good fortune to shoot at the beasts with a Bushmaster XM-15 fitted with a Trijicon Reflex optical sight.
My prejudices came with me. A firearm, loaded or not, is menacing. A “cold” shooting range, with flags flapping to signal it’s safe to walk across, is still scary. But I did learn something. I started off believing there’s no reason for a nonmilitary person to own a semiautomatic rifle. After firing one, case closed.
So Joan, here, fired a scary, black rifle, and that makes her an expert on gun control, now.
Some firearms are definitely harder to use than others. For example, General George S. Patton Jr. called the M1 Garand rifle “the greatest battle implement ever devised.” But the World War II and Korean War soldiers who carried this semiautomatic military rifle had to continuously feed clips loaded with eight rounds. If not done quickly enough, the bolt slams on your thumb. Ouch. Meanwhile, peering through the iron sight line is tricky. I hit nothing but the berm – maybe — and my shoulder ached from the recoil.
She fired a Garand and couldn’t hit shit, but the scary black rifle scored a 5 for 5 series of target hits. So give each AR-style rifle owner a Garand in exchange.
Gun rights advocates believe semiautomatic rifles should be available for competitive shooting, where participants follow strict safety rules. Hunters use these weapons, too, and it’s easy to see why: A woodchuck wouldn’t stand a chance. Then there’s the NRA’s favorite argument: A good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun.
Yet if someone like me can easily hit a target, it’s terrifying to imagine the same weapon in the hands of someone on a mission to kill. Actually, there’s no need to imagine it. Just watch the news.
Um, Joan, a Garand is a semi-automatic rifle, too, they were the “assault rifle” of their era – for more than twenty years from 1936 – 1959. If you spent anytime with the rifle, you’d find it at least as accurate as the ARs, but that would cripple your point, wouldn’t it?
Believe it or not, the whole point of target shooting along with the other things rifles can do, is to “hit a target”. Missing a target is a terrible feature of marksmanship.
If you want all rifles to miss their target, you would be demanding that all ARs would be fitted with bump stocks.
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists
The comments section in the article is, as usual the most concerning to me. SMH
true, but inquiring minds want to know….would you still hit it?
So, even after that harrowing experience no one is insisting that you own one of them or become proficient with one, right? So what is the problem again??
The problem is the same as always: write an article maligning guns and guns people and you get paid for it.
The problem is that she believes that no one should own one.
…But she doesn’t want to take your guns away. Not at all…
I love the M1, and yes, I did mash my thumb a few times! I wish I still had one. I think I could still tear one down in my sleep! Maybe they should have given her a grenade launcher to get the woodchuck with??
I would take my ’43 M1 Garand with clips full of M2 ball, anyday over a 5.56 poodle-shooter.
What is cover for 5.56 is merely concealment for .30-06!
Would prefer the updated version with a box magazine.
You can still have one if you have the cabbage. They are available through CMP at relatively low prices.
I got mine through a private sale, at a very good price!
My M1 is a shooter not a collectible as it has a new barrel, been reparked and sits in nice new Boyd wood.
My first Garand—which I still have—is a Frankengun assembled from a crate of spare parts, so no GI serial number, and no two parts have a matching finish. Cost $300 at Big5 in 1998. Shoots beautifully. My very favorite rifle.
I’d love to know how an M1 would tear off the shoulder of anyone more ribust 5han the average 12-year ood girl.
God forbid she even LOOKS at a Desert Eagle.
MRS D saw a video of a guy firing a .454 Casull. Her response? “Why do we not have one?”
Reason #28563469.9 why I love this woman.
I’ve got one (.454 Cassie).
What’s telling is this; when running around the Canadian wilderness, far to the North, you are REQUIRED to be armed with a powerful enough rifle to drop a bear.
There are a few exceptions, one being the .454 pistol, and the other exceptions being similar large caliber pistolas.
It’s a monster. For off a box (50 rounds) and your wrists will be screaming like little girls. 😉
Hmmmm. 👍
That is what one would call an M-1 thumb when one would be a little slow lifting the thumb out. Flag came aboard the OKIE 3 and I was told to report to the hanger bay for honor guard practice and after my thumb was pulsating, GM1 Smitty comes up to me and says that I got an M-1 thumb. As I posted awhile ago, I was in boot camp sick bay with Pharangitis when the rest of the company were learning about the M-1 rifle so I missed it. Shot it numerious times up at Camp Smith when I was in the inactive Navy Reserves. Had a chance to own one without buying it from a friend who rebuilt them but at the time , I declined the offer.
Willy, you wish you still had a thumb?
Sorry, I could not resist that.
*sigh*
Another reporter, who’s dumber than a box of rocks I might add, thinks she’s an expert on firearms after shooting a scary, black rifle once.
Why aren’t you fired yet?
Any chance she’s related to Gersh Cuntman?
Speak of the devil….
The protection for his wiki page was lifted just yesterday. It gets the shit hacked out of it every time so here we go again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gersh_Kuntzman&action=history
Ok, she writes for the Boston Globe! They have never seen a gun control proposal they didn’t like. The scary black rifle was just sitting there all cold and blue and deadly! Jeez, if she couldn’t hit with an AR on a range, probably from a
sitting position with an ACOG I would be surprised. Also, no one is shooting at her.
You are not going to change a hard core liberal, facist with facts. The only thing that will change her mind is an experience that will make her wish for a firearm.
She is a Liberal, Massachusetts Type, One Each. She is smarter than you.
As a side note, I took my friend to the range, no shooting experience, fired my M1 and fell in love. He didn’t like the AR, he loved the M1 and the M1A.
Just glancing at the photo, she looks like a pretentious coont. Nuf Said.
ChipNASA, Exactly. To quote her “case closed”
I once took a girl I was dating with no shooting experience to the range, sat her down with my M1, and gave her her very first trigger time. She printed a 4-inch group at 100 yards with the iron sights. Copious sex ensued.
The next girl I dated also had no experience. I sat her down with my M1. She shot very well with it for a first-timer. Copious sex ensued.
The next girl I dated… You get the idea.
The last girl I sat down with that Garand married me, had my children, and won’t let me buy any more guns for myself until I get M1 Carbines for all three of said children. Sex with her remains plentiful.
You lucky dog! obviously I need to acquire a Garand…
I have occasionally considered carving “Panty Dropper” into the stock, but I don’t think my wife would let me get away with it.
Had a similar experience with MRS D and my 1911. She now has her own 1911.
At least she did not get PTSD like that other liberal reporter that went shooting in search of confirmation bias. So I guess she is more of man than he is even if the relatively light recoil of the M1 hurt her shoulder. If they really wanted to mess with her head they should have put an RDS on the Garand and explained to her how much farther it shoots accurately and how much more high powered it is.
She should read this site so as to see how often a good guy with a gun does stop a bad guy.
M1 sights adjusted properly will blow the balls off a mosquito at 200 meters.
A Trijicon sight, if not properly bore sighted for the desired range, and you won’t hit shit.
Next stupid fucking comment from the newsies?
Newsie has opinions and biases, and nothing changed. Fucking shocked face right here.
“If not done quickly enough, the bolt slams on your thumb. Ouch. Meanwhile, peering through the iron sight line is tricky. I hit nothing but the berm – maybe — and my shoulder ached from the recoil.”
I’ll just go ahead and say pics or it didn’t happen.
I never considered hitting “Fast Freddy” much of an accomplishment during weapons qual, but at least that fucker only stays up for about three seconds. And I was often trying to hit him with iron sights. This wench didn’t even have those challenges.
But hey, don’t let that stop you from proclaiming yourself the new Carlos Hathcock, girl!
I hope she never has to walk through the hammer aisle at Lowe’s. An entire wall, full of implements of murder and mayhem. And no background check required.
Or a used car lot????
IMHO, “she” looks like Bradley Manning and Bruce Jenners alternate reality world…
(What..too mean?)😈
#metoo
Twat
Now she’s an expert on all things metallic and black that fires bullets. She is nothing but a harp, echoing the party line about the horror of weapon ownership and their use. Please, not another liberal expert on gun ownership.
Bitch, PUH-LEEEZZZ! Stop. Just stop. Get your empty head out of your 4th point of contact and pay attention to the following words:
NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO OWN A WEAPON OF ANY KIND.
Did you snort LSD before you went to the shooting range? You are SO dumb, you make Kuntz Gershmann look nearly alive and almost aware.
She made this point: “All I could think about was what it would be like to be on the other end, at a church, a nightclub, or a concert; or at a school, where children are the target and the shooter is feet, not yards away.”
How disturbing is THAT?!
Did she actually envision herself being the shooter in a mass shooting, or does she expect people to sympathize with her subjective bullshit point of view?
Clearly, she has no understanding or respect for firearms – and less understanding that dangerous people shouldn’t have access to them.
Reporters write these kinds of stories all the time. The specific purpose here isn’t to provide new information. It’s to provide confirmation for the liberal anti-gun tribe. Vennochi knew exactly what kind of story she was going to write before she ever went to the gun range. She might as well have just mailed the piece in from a beach in the Bahamas.
It’s also interesting how she mentions her born-in-Brooklyn dad and the woodchucks. The Brooklyn reference acts as a tribal dog whistle to establish bonafides. Obviously, according to the tribal zeitgeist, almost everybody who lives west of the Hudson River is a pathetic hillbilly who kills adorable furry creatures with a gun in one hand, and a bible in the other.
And, at least to some extent, that’s okay. Vennochi is allowed to have smarmy and narrow-minded opinions based on ignorance. What’s not okay is that she is not only ignorant but also apparently proud of it. What’s also very much not okay is that the Boston Globe has somehow seen fit to shove Vennochi’s willful ignorance at the Globe’s readers.
“That’s the way I feel about all hunting.”
Bet she still likes her filet mignon rare though. As long as someone else kills it for her.
Twatwaffle
My Grandma was born and raised in Queens NYC, with her family well-established there; her father was a senior USPS guy, and her Uncle Otto (his first name was Adolf, which he hated long before anybody ever heard of Hitler, so he went by Otto) was the Priest of St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church in Queens (we have some pictures of him, and I look *exactly* like him with darker hair). She married my Grandpa, who was Illinois-born, San Diego-raised Irish in 1943 and moved to California at the end of the war with him. She didn’t shoot much, but she could hit what she aimed at when she did. And whatever Grandpa shot (and Grandpa was an incredible shot; I am a lesser son of greater sires when it comes to marksmanship), Grandma made into a damn fine meal.
Since Joan Vennochi attributes so much to being Brooklyn Italian, maybe she would attribute my Grandma’s superior abilities and intellect to her being a Queens German?
Well, to be honest, Italians are known for dropping their rifles before firing… La Cosa Nostra seems to be the only group of Italians more interested in using weapons than dropping them….
I heard she’s going to sue the range for not selling Gender Neutral Hygiene products & is claiming PTSD. jk/lolol
I would think that using a reflex sight at 50 yards, if she missed it would be more noteworthy. At 50 my long rifle MUZZLELOADER will easily centerpunch the target.
Even Brown Bess could hit a target at 50 yards
My little sister flips coffee cans at 50 yards with her Inglis HiPower. Cool gun, by the way, with RCMP stamps. I gave it to her (not without regrets) when I bought my first 1911, and I’ve been threatening to repossess it since she’s started making noises about committing plastic Austrian heresy.
Plastic Austrian Heresy. I’m SO stealing that. (SIG fan myself). 🙂
A 1911 is just like a Glock. Except for men.
I will admit to owning both… the Glock sits in the nightstand, the 1911 is my EDC…. draw what conclusions you will
Strictly in jest, Fyrfighter. I too own a plastic gun. Taurus 357 Poly protector.
Springfield XD .45 full-size.
I am deadly with a rock at rock fifty yards.
That article demanded that I either link to facebook or give them an email address so that I could read the story.
I signed her up~twatwafflevennochi@lefty.com
That is her email, right?
One more piece of confirmation that most reporters are a bunch of biased IDIOTS that are full of TARD these days.
So guns are bad, but woodchucks are worse, hunting is a thing, but the author doesn’t like it…
I’m so confused.
Does this moron eat meat?
Enjoy liberty?
whatever. I’m DONE..
“Does this moron eat meat?”
Yes, but she buys it at the grocery store where no animals are harmed.
I see her as one of the type who holds a placard saying something like “MILK IS MURDER” while attention whoring at a grocery store.
Like at Whole Foods? Ethically raised meat!
Anyone that is anti-hunting and eats meat is a fool.
Woodchuck evictions are a thing, right?
Just take the eviction notice to the local woodchuck sheriff and they’ll be outta there in 2 weeks!
No woodchucks here in California, but the fucking ground squirrels are a goddamn biblical plague. Little bastards ruin landscape, destroy vegetation, and chew any wire they can find. I know guys whose vehicles have suffered thousands of dollars’ worth of damage over a single weekend from those fucking pests. And yet there’s still plenty of idiots who cry about how they’re “so cute” when we kill the damn things.
LTC D used to attach a flexible exhaust hose to the lawnmower, run it down an accessible ground squirrel hole, and run a full tank of gas through the mower. No muss, no fuss, no incriminating rodent corpses.
Well, I’m pretty proficient with my M1 Garand, and familiar enough with the AR-15 platform. Here’s a few things I took away from this: 1) Her daddy is a lousy shot, and she’s a bleeding-heart who can’t bear the thought of killing destructive varmints that breed faster than rabbits. She’s likely the type of person who thinks “Bambi” was a documentary and doesn’t believe that the animal kingdom is violent and uncaring, and that animals (predators and herbivores alike) kill eachother (even their own species) for the hell of it without bothering to eat the carcass afterwards. Movies like to claim that humans are the only creature that commits murder; more like we’re the only ones who bother to feel bad about it. 2) Optical sights, magnifying or otherwise, do not automatically make you a better shot. Joan here (assuming she’s telling the truth) is either one of the rare individuals who possesses a natural talent for aiming via glass, or she was just lucky. She clearly has no comprehension of the relationship between point of aim and point of impact, doesn’t understand the concept of a zero or this new thing called “ballistics,” nor does she get any of the basics of marksmanship. Most people do not shoot well with magnifying scopes (such as a Trijicon ACOG) without training and practice. I’ve practiced quite a bit, and I’m still a better shot with iron sights than with a scope. 3) She’s evidently read about the M1 Garand, but still knows jack shit about it. The Garand’s bolt cycles faster than you can move your hand. Therefore, there’s no question of “pulling your thumb out fast enough,” because you can’t. That’s why the Manual of Arms is very clear about keeping your right hand firmly against the charging handle to keep the bolt to the rear while loading, and not releasing it until your thumb is clear. Plus, most Garands (including both of mine) have a sticky bolt that must be slapped into battery. If your thumb gets pinched, you did something stupid. 4) The .30-06 Garand is much, MUCH… Read more »
The Boston Globe?
Well, if memory serves me correctly, I do recall other stories shared by Vennochi’s fellow Bostonians about the use of a weapon.
The first one was “What I Learned at the Dike Bridge in Chappaquiddick Island.” This story, discussed in 1969, explained how using a Black Oldsmobile Delta 88 at Poucha Pond can be a painful experience to a driver and passenger and can cause so much trauma that a person can lose their memory for 8 hours.
Because we all know an automobile on its own can be used as a deadly weapon and not the person operating it.
The second story,shared in 2013, was “What I Learned at Culinary School”. Discussions included the dangers of using pressure cookers, especially at local marathons. Because we all know that kitchen appliances and utensils can be used as deadly weapons and not the persons using these items.
Last is ” What I Learned at Journalism School” with various dates. We all know pencils on their own can be used as a deadly weapon (especially if they have been newly sharpened) and not the person holding it.
(sarc)…
“As for guns, generally, I like to imagine a world without them.” Sure, but make certain that imaginary world contains no rapists, murderers, and Hitlers, to name a few. Or just go ahead and pretend that there are no guns and go about your business. “It’s easy if you try.” (Imagine: John Lennon) Of course, when it comes to imagining things and guns, Lennon isn’t the best example.
Filthy-rich John Lennon seated at a $50,000-dollar custom handmade grand piano and getting paid millions to sing a song about the wonders of socialism. Leftist bullshit at its finest!
Not to mention taken out by a cheap Charter Arms Security Six, in the hands of a whack-o, in front of his own home. Maybe he shoulda spent some of the piano money on security!
Charter, yes, but Security Sixes are very solid guns made by Ruger.
John Lennon was a leftist, stalin loving no talent hack! The only reason he ans his band were successful is the hippie movement in the US was looking for anything that pissed off their parents, and the commie loving beatles fit the bill.. hell, the first producer they went to turned them down, because he saw they had no talent… they were just a bunch of commie punks… To hell with them all… John just got there first…
Never liked the Beatles myself, though Lennon got shot long before I was born. From that era, Elvis and CCR, to name two, are far superior.
It’s a shame she didn’t work the “Trijicon has been known to inscribe biblical references on their hardware” bullshit into her story in order to get her followers more agitated.
Having had my life saved by a firearm at least twice, I can attest to the value of a firearm in the right hands at the right time.
The Sutherland Springs shooting was interrupted by a neighbor in his jammy’s and wearing a pair of flip flops, BUT, carrying an AR.
Stephen Willeford was an unlikely hero and very shy about the incident.
Had it not been for him, there were still a lot more people in the church, unarmed.
“Who shoots up a church”,
There are approximately 3 million, give or take, uses where just the sight of a firearm defuses a situation and sends a bad guy running as was the case at a Walmart somewhere in the US that was written about here as three people decided they were not going to be victims and sent the carjacker fleeing only to get captured by some other good guys with guns….
Basically, the real interpretation of her entire article is…
“I am a dumb bitch, I like being a dumb bitch, and I am going to show everybody that knows anything about guns that I deserve to continue to be a dumb bitch…
Joan’s last name is frequently and purposefully mispronounced as Vennochio. I don’t know whether her nose grows when she fibs, but she did get into hot water several years ago. The Globe ran an editorial which borrowed from another person’s piece, without attribution. It wasn’t verbatim theft, but it was nearly so. Guess who wrote the editorial and was suspended for two weeks? Here’s a hint. If you mispronounce her name, it rhymes with Pinocchio.
Apparently so. Reportedly there were “similarities” between one of her unsigned editorials and a local NPR article back in 2012. The Globe later acknowledged the “error” and reportedly suspended her for 2 weeks.
http://www.imediaethics.org/boston-globe-apologizes-for-similarities-to-local-npr-report/
Oh, and I’ll just leave this link to a 2010 article by Vennochi-o Given her later apparent plagiarism, it seems to me just a tad ironic.
http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/12/30/a_liar_enabled/
I’ve come to Conservativesus. Thanks Jonn, you’re a true minister of Conservativesus.
Jonn 3:16 “For Conservativesus so loved the world he legalized AR15s”.
“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.”
Revelation 19:11
And yea though I walk through the valley of death I have my AR and 1911A1 to comfort me.
And the faithful disciples of Brother John Moses Browning said “AMEN”.
Ms Joannie, your way of thinking makes almost as much sense as demanding that other people have their gall bladders removed if you or I are having trouble with ours.
You, Ms Joannie, are one very sick person. Normal, healthy, sane people don’t fantasize about harming school children. Yes, we are probably much better off if you don’t get near any kind of weapon. Maybe you should surrender your drivers license just in case.
But she has to get paid.
Joan “Plagerist” Vennochi, one of the stars of the Boston Glob… the paper that sued the victim of sexual harrassment by the editor; home of plagerizing columnist Mike Barnicle; home of fiction column writing Kevin Cullen who developed second hand PTSD from NOT being at the Boston Marathon bombing; and finally home to Tsarnyaev apologist columnist Gish Jen who said we were to blame for what Flash Bang and Speed Bump did by failing them as a society. That rag isn’t fit to wrap fish or line bird cages, it’s a waste of perfectly good trees and ink; the libs who work there are as deluded and dishonest as the day is long. Anti-gun piece? I’m not surprised, the fact she actually deigned to touch one is surprising.
Curious as to if she cam shoot when someone is shooting back.