Photographers and Marksmen

Photographers and Marksmen

  • Yes

    Votes: 181 51.1%

  • No

    Votes: 173 48.9%
  • Total voters
    354
  • Poll closed .
I think by my avatar everyone knows where I stand. Fine women,guns and cameras go together like Fred and Ginger. When I caress either one it sends chills up my spine. I am holding a fine old S&W triplelock .44 right now. I just put up an original Winchester Hi-wall .45-110 and to close tha barrels on my LC Smith double is heaven. Iget the same feelings from a fine Canon F-1 or my Letz lens. or a nice Victonox knife and watch
BTW an armed citizenry can not be terrorized
 
This website:

www.a-human-right.com

should be read by all anti-gun folks. I did, about five years ago, and it really was an eye-opener for me. The site has some very convincing artwork.

I feel that the general European criticism of the American (so called) "gun culture" is largely based on ignorance, and fuelled by liberal media bias. Anti-gun agit-prop like "Bowling for Columbine" is heralded as a milestone "documentary"while writers like Lott, Malcolm and Kleck hardly if ever get any attention over here. Arguments such as "thousands of children end up as firearms victims each year in America" go unchallenged - the media "forget" to tell us that most of these victims are youthful gang members who end up getting shot by their competitors.

I'd say, be proud of your 2nd Amendment and protect it...
 
Once again the content and meaning of the 2nd amendment are taken out of context. The term "well regulated" does not mean trained. In 18th century venecular it meant well equipped. Most militia were not trained. But were requiered to show up with certain essential equipment. Like there own firearm. And while we are at it why does no one in Europe ever mention Switzerlands gun ownership
As to the statement of firearms causing more accidents and deaths. Since Louisiana went to a right to carry law violent crimes, rape murder and even break ins have taken a drastic reduction while the number of firearms related accidents/ deaths have also gone down.
The moral never bring a knife to a gunfight. If you meet me out in public justknow that I am armed.
I do not question your right not to carry/pocess and you should not mine. If a terrorist/rapist/murderer threatens,with bodily harm, me, my family or an honest citizen I will shoot. I will shoot quickly. I will not plead or ask them to stop. I will shoot to kill and do not expect to give any more quarter than they give.
 
My own experience confirms this coincidence between shooting and photography. I have only ever shot at targets -- rifles .22 and 303, and pistols, mostly IPSC. I was delighted when the referendum here in Brazil -- intended to prohibit the "legal sale of arms and ammunition" (without doing anything about the illegal sales) -- was roundly defeated a couple of weeks ago. Headlines in the country's biggest newspaper about a week before the vote: "Bandits recommend voting Yes" :rolleyes:
 
I just saw the poll. Since I'm not a shooting "enthusiast" I voted NO. But I do own a .22 rifle which I used on occasion to dispatch woodchucks (damned rodents keep burrowing under the house!) so I'm not anti-gun per se.

To me, a rifle or pistol is a tool. Certain people use the tool more than others - just like carpenters use hammers more than weekend "thumb smashers" like me.

We own about 15 acres in upstate NY and while I don't hunt - gladly let my neighbor onto my land to do so. He enjoys it and if he's lucky I get venison or turkey. Further, with him having permission to hunt the land I have a built-in gameskeeper who will prevent others from tresspassing.

At the same time, I also have little sympathy for "gun nuts" and do believe that private gun ownership should be seen as a prviledge, not a right - just like automobiles. I think we get it about right in New York State and that's that.
 
I'm a bowhunter. Wooden bows, wooden arrows. As a college kid I was on the University of California rifle team, the year after it went to the Olympics. I was very good. But shooting's a staggering bore, it's like listening to paint dry by comparison to running around in the woods under any circumstances, and especially by comparison to flinging arrows. Archery's athletic, unlike gun sports.. it's almost orgasmic when one releases an arrow...a shock to the system when a 600g shaft launches at a mere 160fps from a bow that's pulled at 60#. Far more jazz than wheel bows with 400g @ 200fps .
 
JohnL said:
I was delighted when the referendum here in Brazil -- intended to prohibit the "legal sale of arms and ammunition" (without doing anything about the illegal sales) -- was roundly defeated a couple of weeks ago.
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John, congratulations on the sane outcome of your referendum! As we are individually responsible, ultimately, for our own safety as well as that of our families and companions, we obviously must not be barred effective tools to accomplish it. Fortunately, my state's constitution is even more explicitly clear about this right than the national constitution.
 
Well, just to throw a monkey-wrench on the "balanced" discussion: Afghanistan didn't bar anybody from owning a gun; everybody owned guns, and it was indeed for their own protection. Everybody agrees that that didn't make the country any safer. It's not an argument against the U.S. Constitution's 2nd Amendment, but it's also a very...weak, argument for it too.
 
djon said:
I'm a bowhunter. Wooden bows, wooden arrows. As a college kid I was on the University of California rifle team, the year after it went to the Olympics. I was very good. But shooting's a staggering bore, it's like listening to paint dry by comparison to running around in the woods under any circumstances, and especially by comparison to flinging arrows. Archery's athletic, unlike gun sports.. it's almost orgasmic when one releases an arrow...a shock to the system when a 600g shaft launches at a mere 160fps from a bow that's pulled at 60#. Far more jazz than wheel bows with 400g @ 200fps .
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djon,

Interesting observation. This may explain why my neighbor has also taken up bowhunting in recent years. Although I suspect it's mainly to lengthen his hunting season.

Funny story he relates is that the Autumn turkey season overlaps with the first part of the Deer season, the latter of which is bow only - and by regs - you can only have a rifle or a bow in your blind - not both.

So of course (I mean we've all seen the cartoons) if he goes up to the blind with a rifle intent on getting bird - the only thing that walks by are deer. So, obviously, he treks back to his car - changes his cammo gear and goes back to the blind with his bow. And yes, as you might figure, then the only thing he sees going by are turkeys!

Maybe this helps explain why our freezer is empty? :bang:
 
Interesting thread, I’d suggest that the thread may be more an ‘acquisition/hardware’ fetish. I know many hunters who have more than one gun and it’s not because they hunt with them or infrequently if they use them at all.

There are quite a few ‘fishermen’ at this forum, I know because we had a photo thread earlier this year. I think if you were to ask them they would talk all about hand machined reels, fly tying vices, hand planed bamboo rods. Not too dissimilar from the hunters who also expose film.

I used to shoot and hunt but gave it up. Guns I decided were really for killing things for sport or otherwise. It wasn’t a big step. The licencing and storage issues in Canada were not a factor for me. I have to get a licence to drive, own a car neither were any more a barrier or denial of my rights. Having said that I will cynically enjoy a meal of game from a friend. Go figure. Still I fish and kill a few for the pan when I am on a trip with friends. You all know how good it can be.

So in a roundabout way I think you should re-poll but with a topic of ‘hardware fetish’ I think that is going to get even more positives on a poll. Because we are all a bunch of sick puppies in denial about Leica Lust. LOL (joke for all us Yashica/FSU owners)
 
Hmm, I like it: "Hardware fetish" :) We've seen the fairly inept attempts by some in the FSU to decorate certain Zorkiis and Kievs as collectible Leicas and Contaxes, and I wonder to what extent there are real experts counterfeiting real Leicas and others as certain rare and valuable models. This sort of thing has become a real danger in collecting historically rare and interesting Luger pistols; it's virtually assumed the item is a forgery until proven otherwise. Even honest expert dealers have been fooled. It's all about the money...
 
I'm convinced that gun enthusiasm (as opposed to hunting, which is generally athletic) has a lot to do with personal insecurities, and often accompanies middle age, poor physical fitness and tendency to heavy drinking.

I have a couple of rifles and a 12 ga pump shotgun here. I used frequently to carry a S&W .357 (3"bbl) until I realized that the mere fact of carrying was blinding me to smarter alternatives...such as avoiding anticipated risks and remembering that I could kick most ass that was actually a peril.

As I get older that ass-kicking potential declines, but wisdom increases. I certainly don't want ancients wandering the world with handguns, any more than I want them on the highway. I'll be the latter, but I won't be the former.
 
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DJon,

I contend there's various levels of gray with regard to "gun enthusiasm" like there is with all enthusiasms.

I personally own maybe 20 firearms from dueling pistols to an AR-15 and none of them are loaded on my person nor in reach of my bedstand. I can't say the same for my cameras. Perhaps I am just insecure about my photography.

Though I do understand your point but I figure it has more to do with testosterone than anything. Men do like to thump their chests. Assertive prowess is how men determine the pecking order since their sandbox days. Guns can express it, physical fiteness can express it, but then so can a Leica MP with an Aspherical Summilux.

FWIW,

In all areas, enthusiasts run the gamut from duffers to poseurs to collectors to artists. Most of enthusiasts are duffers. Testosterone creates poseurs. GAS creates collectors. And if I really knew how to be an artist at anything, I'd be one.

Rather than just being anti-gun, I'd say that I'm anti-poseur.
 
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Jason, you're right of course, but you left out several classes of gun owner: nutcases, druggies, criminals, wannabe-traitors (militias), incompetents: the same classes do exist among photographers, but I suspect they're less a problem to their neighbors.

I've been shocked and infuriated by the gross ignorance of shooters at our very highly disciplined and beautiful public shooting range (Albuquerque). Lice who resent having to open their actions and dump cartridges when the range master orders it (in order to check targets).

Hang out for a few minutes in the gun dept at Walmart. That alone would create anti-2nd-amendment agitators if they actually understood what was being discussed.

I recently visited an archery/gun shop in Texas...had to spend a couple of days in the particular town...I had bow, boots, camo and gear in the car...I asked "what do you hunt around here?" It was classic south TX, just rock, stickers, and mesquite..I figured there'd be pigs and other varmints that would just require a cheap varmint license. The shop owner's answer to my question was, however, "Mexicans." Another class of gun enthusiast is what we conservatives like to call "bad people."
 
DJON wrote "I'm convinced that gun enthusiasm (as opposed to hunting, which is generally athletic) has a lot to do with personal insecurities, and often accompanies middle age, poor physical fitness and tendency to heavy drinking. "

Wow, that's not prejudiced or anything. The two biggest gun collectors (you would call them nuts) are a woman pediatrician and a 6 foot 4 250lb guy who everyone calls "sir".

You don't need a gun to be a belligerent idiot, have you seen some people's road rage?
 
I realize that comments about what kind of person I must be to own guns are designed as insults to make me come roaring back with some kind of counter-attack, and then we can turn this into a warzone around here again.

Rather than respond in kind, I'm just going to let everyone realize who is showing their ass around here this time. Maybe I'll be the asshat next time, but today you win the prize.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
sfaust said:
There are no moral aspects of firearms with me. That lies squarely on those that use them inappropriately, and shouldn't be a burden on those that don't. I feel the same toward knifes, rope, hammers, autos, bricks, or any other object used inappropriately to harm others.
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So I guess you would have no problem in letting anyone buy a B1 bomber with nukes providing they have the money for it.
 
LOL Gabriel, no it was just to point that the statement

"or any other object used inappropriately to harm others"

Is quite extreme, and that you have to draw the line somewhere.
 
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