{"id":55740,"date":"2015-10-19T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T17:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=55740"},"modified":"2015-10-19T15:17:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T20:17:07","slug":"challenge-accepted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=55740","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Accepted!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, I did something that has become almost as rote and perfunctory as showing that Nick Coleman is wrong about…well, anything; I fisked a Heather Martens op-ed<\/a>. \u00a0 It’s one of many, many such efforts<\/a>, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.<\/p>\n

But buried at the very, very bottom of the op-ed<\/a> was something…different.<\/p>\n

And Finally, Something Remotely True, And Historic! \u00a0<\/strong>We may have witnessed some history, here – Heather Martens closes out with something that is both substantial and true.<\/p>\n

Although not in the way she might think:<\/p>\n

Journalists ought to do their homework,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes. \u00a0If they did, they’d cut Heather Martens off from any further attention. \u00a0 I’ve built a long history on this blog, over more than a decade, now, of showing you something that’s almost up to the level of a Berg’s Law; that Martens has never, not once, said a substantial, true, original thing about Gun Rights or gun issues.<\/p>\n

But she’s finally said something that I agree with wholeheartedly. \u00a0And so should every shooter: \u00a0she wants the media to…<\/p>\n

…force the gun lobby and its friends to defend their indefensible opposition to important new policies, and stop misdirecting the conversation by setting up straw men to destroy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I agree! \u00a0It’s time for Heather Martens and the\u00a0Strib\u00a0<\/em>to get to the facts [1]!<\/p>\n

So on behalf of my friends in Minnesota’s gun rights movement, I accept Heather’s challenge; to set up a debate between Heather Martens and any gun-grabber activists or lobbyists she wants to bring along, and a couple of us from the Gun Lobby: \u00a0perhaps Joe Olson, Andrew Rothman, Bryan Strawser and\/or myself.<\/p>\n

There, the journalists and activists can\u00a0force<\/em>\u00a0us to defend the policies we support, live on camera! \u00a0Allow both sides to question, and cross-question, each other, live and without a net!<\/p>\n

Heather Martens; for all of the flak I’ve given you over the past decade and change, this is your brilliant, shining moment.<\/p>\n

This is too important to skip!<\/p>\n

Heather Martens: \u00a0Challenge Accepted!<\/p>\n

PS: \u00a0Naturally, we’ll charge admission, and donate the proceeds to a mutually agreed-upon charity.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

[1] And learn the definition of “straw man”, which I don’t think means what she thinks it does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, I did something that has become almost as rote and perfunctory as showing that Nick Coleman is wrong about…well, anything; I fisked a Heather Martens op-ed. \u00a0 It’s one of many, many such efforts, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But buried at the very, very bottom of the op-ed was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grass-roots","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55740"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55759,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55740\/revisions\/55759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}