When Among Piranhas, Don’t Smear Self With Lard
By Mitch Berg
Listening to anti-concealed-types talking – four years after the Minnesota Personal Protection Act was first passed into law – you’d still think that we concealed carry types were a bunch of blood-lusting troglodytes, stalking the world looking for innocent targets.
Of course, it’s rubbish – the MPPA has been an incontrovertible success by any rational measure.
Of course, the antis were never about rational measures – at least, not in terms of their public statements.
But Joel Rosenberg notes something about Heather Martens, head (and only employee) of Citizens for a Supine “Safer” Minnesota, at a recent gross mismatch “debate” at the U of M:
I guess it could be argued — save for one thing — that she felt that her activism was important enough to take the risk of being in a room with dozens of people carrying, as they say, “loaded, concealed handguns”, which the CSM folks have assured us is a very dangerous thing to do. I guess it could be argued that she should be commended for her bravery, to take those risks to debate awkwardly (and it was awkward; Heather doesn’t do all that well in an interactive forum) against the commonsense notion that somebody who is licensed to carry a handgun in public can do so properly at the U if they’re a student or staff member, rather than just a visitor.
I guess she could congratulate herself on that courage, taking those risks. Except for the one thing that makes it clear that even Heather doesn’t think there really were any risks in arguing with and among dozens of armed permit holders . . . one thing that makes it clear that even Heather knows that being around armed permit holders isn’t risky at all:
. . . she brought not only her husband, but her three-year-old daughter. Cute kid.
Wow. With all those guns, in the hands of permit-holders?
Seems…out of character with years of CS“S”M’s propaganda, no?
Rosenberg:
I’m certainly critical of Heather, but she’s not an irresponsible mother — if she really believed that there was any danger from the permit holders, she would, of course, have left the child at home.
We’ve come a long way, when even Heather gets it.
Now if only she’s cry “Uncle”…
June 21st, 2007 at 5:39 am
I wonder if she is brave enough to go to Twins games or the State Fair. Recall the radical anti-gunners who said we’d have shootouts at those events if Conceal & Carry passes.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:52 am
Interestingly enough — or perhaps not — I told just that story to Isaac Peterson III, who interviewed me yesterday for an upcoming Minnesota Monitor story on background checks and the gun laws. (Hey, if I’m willing to talk to the Strib, I should — and do — have no compunctions about being interviewed by Minnie Mon…)
Can I brag for a second? (If not, delete this, please.) We did it over lunch at Cap’s, on Hiawatha. Nice place.
At one point, I was asked — on background; if this doesn’t appear in the story, nobody should be critical of Mr. Peterson — why I’m so passionate about self-defense/gun rights issues, and I, err, hit him with both barrels: personal experiences, experiences of folks who have needed emergency permits (I’m peripherally involved in another one, again; I do training for free for folks who get emergency permits), civil rights, and so forth.
I was so focused on what I was saying that my situational awareness had gone all to hell, and I didn’t notice the guy from another table walk up to where we were sitting and stick out his hand, until his hand was right in front of me. I looked up, and took it.
“Sorry to interrupt; I just wanted to thank you for putting all that into words for the rest of us, and for what you do, Joel,” he said, and left.
Never seen him before. (Wish he’d hung around — I’d have said, as I’ve said many times before — that in my strongly-held opinion, there are three-count-’em three nonpoliticians without whom we wouldn’t have had the MCPPA: David Gross, Joe Olson, and Alfred Fingulin. I’m not on that list; it wouldn’t have happened, sure, without lesser lights like me, and John Caile and Tim Grant, and thousands of others, including you, but any one of the rest of us could have sat it out and we’d still have won — twice; David and Joe and Alfred were and are those political rarities: irreplaceable men.
(But I digress.)
June 21st, 2007 at 5:54 am
Chuck: of course she will. As this thing with her daughter shows, even Heather get it, finally. And yes, pace Mitch, it would be better for everybody — including her, karmically, if she admitted it . . .
. . . but while I do ask for miracles, I don’t expect them to be granted.
June 21st, 2007 at 6:47 am
Very nice article. Joel let us know when Minmon does its article. I would be very interested in seeing how they treat the subject.
June 21st, 2007 at 7:09 am
Will do. As I understand it, it’s supposed to be up on their website today . . . but it wasn’t when last I checked.
It’ll be interesting to see. If the subject is treated fairly — I get to decide what I thinkis fair, and I do know the difference between fair and favorable — I’ve got several interesting stories I’d love to point the reporter at — not just Coon Rapids and Ramsey, but stuff that hasn’t yet gotten a lot of attention.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:09 am
Joel and Mitch – This is Randy. I got into CCRN late in the process also (8th inning of a 12 inning game if you count the disreputable court challenge). I let people know all the incredibly hard work that all the people you mentioned have accomplished (don’t forget Lon Haas). After the bill was passed and signed I wrote an email to Lynda Boudreau telling her that there will be assaults that didn’t happen, rapes that didn’t occur, cars that weren’t car jacked because the bad guys were given reason to think twice. And all those criminal attempts that were not reported or did not come about as the intended victim “displayed”(the Kleck study and subsequent revised FBI study showing that Kleck may have been low in his numbers). And all those people who don’t carry who benefit from those of us who do (when the wolves can not tell the difference between the lions and the sheep, the sheep and lambs are safe).
And yet, in a lefty world, willful ignorance (which I condemn as criminal) abounds.
And an admission of error, or any admission of error of any sort, would put the winds of fact based truth in direct assault on the lefty house of cards.
And you know that could never be allowed to happen.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:36 am
jpmn: I’ve had some further communication with Mr. Peterson, some of it quite good, one exchange rather appalling.
More on that after his piece comes out. I’ll be fair with it — but fairness does include pointing out exactly when the writer had been given black-and-white documentation of an error he went to press with.
Randy: I think Lonn was terribly important, and I’m embarrassed to have left him out of the second tier — he certainly belongs there more than I do.