An Ex-Soldier at an NRA Banquet

Cartoon source: http://www.usdemocrazy.net/2010/12/01/gunning-for-schools/

Alaska has historically been a Republican State and is well-known to be extremely conservative when it comes to gun ownership.  Those in the lower 48 either thinks or jokes that the everyone in Alaska owns a gun.  Well, it doesn't seem to be far from the truth.  There is a lot of hunting opportunities in Alaska, and some enjoy it for the sport.  Then there seems to be the folks that have them because they are right-wing nuts.  As a liberal, I have been fortunate to have been sheltered from most conservative rhetorics, aside the occasional democrat-bashing or god-worshipping spam I receive from an acquaintance or a friend.  I try to overlook a person's political views in making friends, especially since I do disagree with some aspect of Democratic views, like excessive free handouts (i.e. welfare and unemployment).  My dislike with Republican politics stem mostly from their constant theme of trying to make the rich richer and trying to impose their religious views in deciding what's good for the nation.  I never really had an issue with their stance on guns though, since I stand in the middle on gun control.  Last night, however, my husband's experience at an NRA banquet only reaffirmed my view of Republican politics as self-serving and out of touch with rest of the nation.

My husband is an ex-soldier in the British Army.  He also currently works in an environment that requires him to carry a firearm.  As such, he has had a lot of experience with various types of weapons and has an interest in them.  Therefore, when a colleague invited him to an NRA Banquet evening, he was excited to go.  For whatever reason, we've had difficulty making many friends in Juneau, so I had hoped he would have an enjoyable evening out.  Well, he came home a lot sooner than I expected and told me the evening was more than disappointing.  Turns out he spent the entire night being picked on by rich old men for coming from an unarmed country (England) and not having had a "collection" of guns.  He managed to hold his own by emphasizing he had other priorities at this stage in life, yet he got the sense that some were offended at him putting the importance of guns down.  My husband is also somewhat of a conservationist, so he was quite irked by all the boasting of who killed what.  When asked how many animals he killed, my husband could only reply, "Can that number include humans?"  Everyone he spoke to assumed he had no knowledge or experience with guns, but the fact is my husband could probably outshoot 90% of the people there.  The evening got a little better with some support and backing from the friend who invited him, but there were other aspects of the event that left a bad taste in his mouth.

The most offending part of the night seemed to be the celebratory attitude they took towards guns.  They touted the Second Amendment and claim "gun = freedom".  The NRA chairman said firearms are "peacekeepers" and that they save lives.  At that point all my husband could think of were his squadmates that got their legs shredded by 50 caliber rounds and will never walk again, or of the mothers of his dead combat buddies.  My husband agrees that the Second Amendment is a mark of freedom and is something to be preserved.  However, he does not think that guns should be valued so much that people must make void and thoughtless comments to try and justify their use.  In my husband's words, "No gun is a peacemaker.  Anybody that has seen combat will tell you that a gun is a tool of death.  It is designed to kill, nothing more.  Must we hold celebratory events in order to brainwash gun owners into believing that guns are instruments of peace?"