I used to be an Anti – Gun Liberal
There that feels good to get off of my chest. I have been reading the forum for some time now and I enjoy all the posts from you guys and gals. This site has been a great resource for knowledge, humor, and some like minded banter.
With the current political race going on I have seen a lot of postings on liberals, and I wanted to share my story of coming to the light…
I used to be scared of guns, never shot one, never held one, never even saw one in person yet I felt it was perfectly okay to have a stance against them. I used to believe that if you owned a gun you were just looking for trouble and that only criminals owned guns. Looking back I don’t even know how I formed that opinion, it was not from my parents, more than likely I just picked it up by wanting to be self-righteous, and watching too much liberal media.
All of that started to change as I went to college. In the past I tried to be politically correct and not to offend anyone, but I found the more I tried to not offend people the more offended they got. I learned a great lesson in college and it is this: “If you don’t respect another person enough to speak your mind, then they will never respect you.” I had become so focused on not offending anyone that I never really said anything of value. People just want to be treated as people, and that is something that some people don’t (or won’t) understand. I am an American, and as such I am allowed to speak my mind regardless of it being popular, politically correct, right or wrong. And as that knowledge started to sink in, I began my conversion to conservative.
Now as far as guns go, for the longest time I held to my belief that owning a gun was a sure fire way to get into trouble, again this was without owning, shooting, or even seeing one. I used to keep a list of rules to live by and I posted it in my dorm room. One day a friend came over and was reading them. She then got to one of my rules which was “If you live in a bad neighborhood, don’t buy a gun, Move” This was someone I respected and after she read it she looked at me and said, “You know you can almost hear the silver spoon in your mouth.” It was actually shocking for me to hear someone disagree with me, because after all I was a liberal, self-righteous, college student and if you disagreed with me then you were just wrong. And no sooner than that thought entered my head, than I realized that I could really be wrong. I spent a lot of time examining what I thought to be true and what I believed in, and when I got done, I realized that if your only defense to someone dissenting against you is “well you are wrong” then you have a problem. In my opinion, there is plenty of room for people to discuss issues, but my mindset was so focused on the idea that I was right, I never once took the time to see the issue from the other side. It was then I realized that I really needed to do some soul searching (I swear sometimes liberals soul search) and figure out what I really believed in..
Now onto the issue of guns. For the longest time, no one in my family owned guns, my father had his first rifle from when he was a youngster, but other than that no guns. A situation arose between my mother (who is one of the best moms in the world) and her best friends soon to be ex-husband. He was a bad, bad man. My mom had gone to her best friend’s aid and was helping her though a rough time. Well her ex-husband threatened to kill my mom, and if you knew this man, you would have believed him. My father decided it was time for mom to have a gun and know how to shoot it and operate it safely. He did his research, shot a bunch of different guns and found one to be suitable (at this point Mom was not on the gun band wagon so Dad had to do his research alone). My father brought home a glock 17 in 9mm, and I looked at it as if it was dangerous animal, ready to pounce and kill without notice. He showed me the basics, how to tell if it was loaded, chambered, etc, but I was not having it. I turned my nose up. He kept talking to me, and eventually he got me to go to the range with him. All it took was one shot and I was hooked. After proper training and just one shot, I became a gun guy. It all seems so silly to me now. To be afraid of an inanimate object is just silly. Don’t get me wrong a gun is something to be respected, but if it just sitting in a case, it is nothing more than an object.
Mom was trained as well and whenever she was helping her best friend out, she had her own protection. Thankfully, she never had to use it, but we all felt better knowing she had the ability to protect herself. Since that situation arose several years ago, the whole family has been handgun enthusiasts. We took our concealed carry class together and we often shoot together as well.
I was against something I had never experienced, and after experiencing it, my whole view changed. I really was once an anti-gun liberal, but I took the time to examine my values and thankfully I picked up a Glock 17 and fired a round.
I wanted to share this with all of you all, because not all liberals and closed minded idiots (just most of them…LOL). We can change, we can take our beliefs and be willing to really analyze them. I did. Now don’t get me wrong there are still some things that liberals believe in that I believe in…well wait…nope there ain’t.
If you have made it this far then I commend you. Just remember, Liberals can change….and should!
There that feels good to get off of my chest. I have been reading the forum for some time now and I enjoy all the posts from you guys and gals. This site has been a great resource for knowledge, humor, and some like minded banter.
With the current political race going on I have seen a lot of postings on liberals, and I wanted to share my story of coming to the light…
I used to be scared of guns, never shot one, never held one, never even saw one in person yet I felt it was perfectly okay to have a stance against them. I used to believe that if you owned a gun you were just looking for trouble and that only criminals owned guns. Looking back I don’t even know how I formed that opinion, it was not from my parents, more than likely I just picked it up by wanting to be self-righteous, and watching too much liberal media.
All of that started to change as I went to college. In the past I tried to be politically correct and not to offend anyone, but I found the more I tried to not offend people the more offended they got. I learned a great lesson in college and it is this: “If you don’t respect another person enough to speak your mind, then they will never respect you.” I had become so focused on not offending anyone that I never really said anything of value. People just want to be treated as people, and that is something that some people don’t (or won’t) understand. I am an American, and as such I am allowed to speak my mind regardless of it being popular, politically correct, right or wrong. And as that knowledge started to sink in, I began my conversion to conservative.
Now as far as guns go, for the longest time I held to my belief that owning a gun was a sure fire way to get into trouble, again this was without owning, shooting, or even seeing one. I used to keep a list of rules to live by and I posted it in my dorm room. One day a friend came over and was reading them. She then got to one of my rules which was “If you live in a bad neighborhood, don’t buy a gun, Move” This was someone I respected and after she read it she looked at me and said, “You know you can almost hear the silver spoon in your mouth.” It was actually shocking for me to hear someone disagree with me, because after all I was a liberal, self-righteous, college student and if you disagreed with me then you were just wrong. And no sooner than that thought entered my head, than I realized that I could really be wrong. I spent a lot of time examining what I thought to be true and what I believed in, and when I got done, I realized that if your only defense to someone dissenting against you is “well you are wrong” then you have a problem. In my opinion, there is plenty of room for people to discuss issues, but my mindset was so focused on the idea that I was right, I never once took the time to see the issue from the other side. It was then I realized that I really needed to do some soul searching (I swear sometimes liberals soul search) and figure out what I really believed in..
Now onto the issue of guns. For the longest time, no one in my family owned guns, my father had his first rifle from when he was a youngster, but other than that no guns. A situation arose between my mother (who is one of the best moms in the world) and her best friends soon to be ex-husband. He was a bad, bad man. My mom had gone to her best friend’s aid and was helping her though a rough time. Well her ex-husband threatened to kill my mom, and if you knew this man, you would have believed him. My father decided it was time for mom to have a gun and know how to shoot it and operate it safely. He did his research, shot a bunch of different guns and found one to be suitable (at this point Mom was not on the gun band wagon so Dad had to do his research alone). My father brought home a glock 17 in 9mm, and I looked at it as if it was dangerous animal, ready to pounce and kill without notice. He showed me the basics, how to tell if it was loaded, chambered, etc, but I was not having it. I turned my nose up. He kept talking to me, and eventually he got me to go to the range with him. All it took was one shot and I was hooked. After proper training and just one shot, I became a gun guy. It all seems so silly to me now. To be afraid of an inanimate object is just silly. Don’t get me wrong a gun is something to be respected, but if it just sitting in a case, it is nothing more than an object.
Mom was trained as well and whenever she was helping her best friend out, she had her own protection. Thankfully, she never had to use it, but we all felt better knowing she had the ability to protect herself. Since that situation arose several years ago, the whole family has been handgun enthusiasts. We took our concealed carry class together and we often shoot together as well.
I was against something I had never experienced, and after experiencing it, my whole view changed. I really was once an anti-gun liberal, but I took the time to examine my values and thankfully I picked up a Glock 17 and fired a round.
I wanted to share this with all of you all, because not all liberals and closed minded idiots (just most of them…LOL). We can change, we can take our beliefs and be willing to really analyze them. I did. Now don’t get me wrong there are still some things that liberals believe in that I believe in…well wait…nope there ain’t.
If you have made it this far then I commend you. Just remember, Liberals can change….and should!