{"id":72205,"date":"2021-09-17T09:42:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T14:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=72205"},"modified":"2021-09-17T09:42:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T14:42:06","slug":"72205","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=72205","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

David Frum is wrong: Guns save lives and sustain communities<\/a>
\nFrom self defense to funding fire departments, they\u2019re woven into the culture of red America<\/em><\/p>\n

The debate over guns in the United States could, until recently, be divided into two extreme camps: the liberal elites (invariably protected by armed guards) who call for ever-more restrictive control of firearms, the basic functionality of which they cannot even begin to explain, and the uber-conservative right, for whom guns are a way of life and are ofttimes life-sustaining.<\/p>\n

David Frum is evidently of the first faction, writing in\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0this month about how\u00a0\u2018Responsible Gun Ownership Is a Lie.\u2019<\/a>\u00a0Gun sales \u2013 especially among first-time gun buyers \u2013 surged between 2019 and 2020, and continue to smash records. This trend has Frum worried.<\/p>\n

As a card-carrying member of the second camp (I literally have a Sandy Ridge Sportsmen\u2019s Club membership card a\u2019settin\u2019 here on my desk), I\u2019d like to give Frum and other anti-gun radicals the benefit of the doubt, at least until they\u2019ve had the chance to finish reading this article. Let\u2019s pretend that their civilian disarmament schemes stem from innocent ignorance. Perhaps Frum and others like him simply do not understand the life-giving role guns play in society \u2013 especially in rural America.<\/p>\n

Guns can be scary. I get it. They are loud, and, with even a little power, capable of much destruction. They are not unlike elected officials in these ways.<\/p>\n

But in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, where Hunter-Trapper Education Certification was\u00a0<\/strong>part of my\u00a0<\/strong>required fifth-grade curriculum, and the opening of deer season always means two consecutive school holidays, guns are more than a political talking point.<\/p>\n

Considering this, the debate over guns should really be set against the backdrop of two different, apolitical sets: those who understand gun culture and those who do not.<\/p>\n

Those of us who grew up around guns know them to be tools useful in the procurement of food, the dispatching of predators, a unifying pastime, the prize showpiece of a collector\u2019s mantle, and, yes, an invaluable means of self-defense.<\/p>\n

Guns are more powerful than Frum thinks, but not in a bad way. In some places, firearms take on a vital role that sustains entire communities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My friend Wes, who I met years ago at Tuesday Night Trap League at the aforementioned sportsmen\u2019s club, is the supervisor of our local Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The closest hospital is at least 30 minutes away \u2013 if you live in town, that is \u2013 so the medics and ambulances serve a critical role in this remote part of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Here in rural PA, first responders must raise their own money to fund large portions of their operating budgets. The biggest fundraiser Wes organizes each year is a sporting clays shoot at the nearby Warriors Mark Wingshooting Lodge. Some 70 shooters and their guns gather on a Saturday, have lunch, shoot 100 times\u00a0each<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 that\u2019s 7,000 rounds in a couple of hours \u2013 then reconvene for beer, dinner, drawings, good-humored ribbing, and awards.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event raised $15,000, which Wes says will enable the EMS to replace worn-out equipment and purchase upgraded gear that would be impossible without the fundraiser.<\/p>\n

Some version of this event is repeated several times throughout the year at Warriors Mark for various charities. I attended the \u2018Shoot for the Magic\u2019 Sporting Clays Event in June and heard the director of our local Children\u2019s Aid Society chapter explain how the organization would have been defunct years ago had it not been for the annual sporting clays event.<\/p>\n

Other philanthropic entities to benefit from charitable shoots held at Warriors Mark include the PA Rural Water Association, the Wounded Warriors Project, a community soccer association, a memorial scholarship fund, Disabled Veterans, Habitat for Headwaters, and a local chapter of Future Farmers of America. In 2018, the Pennsylvania Children\u2019s Hospitals received $7,000 raised through a Pheasant Hunt held at Warriors Mark.<\/p>\n

This is just one shooting preserve in small-town America. A \u2018drop in the bucket,\u2019 as they say. In New York, the \u2018Glocktober\u2019 giveaway raffles off Glock handguns to benefit diabetes research. In West Virginia, the state incentivized getting the COVID-19 vaccine by offering lifetime hunting and fishing licenses and custom hunting rifles and shotguns. These types of events take place year-round and raise millions of dollars for charities that change and save lives.<\/p>\n

Then there are the gun raffle giveaways, extravaganzas I would pay to watch David Frum attend. These events are \u2018endless,\u2019 an employee of my local guns and ammo shop informed me. Every volunteer fire department, charity club, church, you name it, uses gun raffles as their go-to fundraiser.<\/p>\n

The fire companies buy the guns from the shop at a discounted rate and auction them off at what can only properly be described as a\u00a0hootenanny<\/em>. \u2018The one down in Snakehole is a big deal,\u2019 my gun buddies tell me. \u2018It\u2019s like a party.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for me, the \u2018Snakehole\u2019 raffle had taken place for the year. But the continual nature of these affairs afforded me the opportunity to attend the Mount Union Fire Company Fall Bash Gun Drawing instead.<\/p>\n

I donned my favorite Flat Dark Earth blouse, plaited my hair in the most tactical way I know how, and ventured to the old airstrip the fire company uses for their annual benefit. The place was packed. The town of Mount Union is home to only 2,200 people, but the woman selling the 50\/50 chances told me they ordered enough BBQ to feed 6,000.<\/p>\n

The serene scene I encountered was not the wild spectacle reminiscent of a mountain man rendezvous for which I\u2019d prepared. On the contrary, thousands of gun-loving patriots had arranged themselves in orderly rows of tents and chairs and campers.<\/p>\n

I strolled through the sea of camouflage and American flag regalia, watching my step, as one does after a parade of horses, so as to avoid stepping in discarded wads of chewing tobacco. Despite some aggressive-sounding slogans on graphic tees \u2013 \u2018These colors don\u2019t run, they reload!\u2019 \u2013 these people ambled peaceably from raffle tables to the \u2018Suds Pumper\u2019 (a self-serve beer wagon painted to look like a firetruck) to the port-a-johns without so much as a raised voice, let alone anything that could remotely be construed as violence.<\/p>\n

This single-day event draws people from hours away eager to win one of the 130 guns raffled off. One winner was from West Virginia. Another from Philadelphia. The raffle brings in some $300,000, about $200,000 of which profits the fire department. The 50\/50 generates, on average, $8,000 for the winner, though one year the prize topped $23,000.<\/p>\n

\u2018We don\u2019t do anything else,\u2019 one of the chiefs informed me. \u2018Whatever we make here is our operating expenses for the year for the fire department. We have to make that money last all year.\u2019<\/p>\n

Sure, there are other items auctioned off to appeal to redneck sensibilities \u2013 a Silverado pickup truck, gift cards to Rural King, an ATV. But nothing draws people in or gets them excited like guns do. The idea of spending $5 or $10 for a $600 gun is thrilling, and it\u2019s a small way people who lack disposable income can contribute to important causes.<\/p>\n

For us, firearms are security. The can-do attitude of \u2018country folk\u2019 means protecting and providing for yourself, your family, and your property. And guns are invaluable in being able to do so.<\/p>\n

Frum mocks the two thirds of American gun buyers who say they bought guns to protect themselves. That\u2019s easy to say for a Harvard-educated Canadian\/Washingtonian like Frum who lives in an urban area with a well-funded police force. Perhaps Frum has never lived in a remote place like rural Pennsylvania, where homes are in wooded, isolated parts have little or no cell service, and the only law enforcement is the State Police, whose barracks are 45 minutes away. Confronted by a trespasser late at night? By the time the staties show up, it\u2019s only to take a report, if anyone is left alive to give one.<\/p>\n

There are more places like this in America than one might think. If you grew up shooting guns, why would you give them up, only to rely on an absentee government to protect you?<\/p>\n

Frum\u2019s article is an emotional plea about something he doesn\u2019t understand. His arguments are fraught with so many glaring inaccuracies and illogic, it\u2019s hard to know which to address first.<\/p>\n

But I did find one item particularly striking:\u00a0Frum points to how effective Mothers Against Drunk Driving\u00a0(MADD) has been in getting police to enforce DUI laws and in affecting a cultural attitude shift toward drinking and driving.<\/p>\n

MADD\u2019s campaign, as Frum notes, \u2018convinced American drivers that they were not weak or unmanly if they surrendered the car keys after drinking too much.\u2019 The organization did not, however, presume to prove to people that alcohol itself is evil, or demand that Americans give up either drinking or driving. Rather, MADD\u2019s goal is to have people do these things in a safe and responsible manner.<\/p>\n

Likewise, owning a gun for sport, hunting, or self-defense, or using it for charity is not dangerous. Quite the opposite. What Frum should be saying is that using guns improperly \u2013 like using alcohol when driving \u2013 is dangerous and evil. His campaign should not be about banning guns or trying to convince people that \u2018owning a firearm makes the owner, the owner\u2019s family, and the people around them\u00a0less<\/em>\u00a0safe.\u2019 You\u2019ll never convince millions of Americans who grew up going to events like the Mount Union Fire Company Fall Bash Gun Drawing of this. They know better.<\/p>\n

A better use of Frum\u2019s time would be to advocate for aggressive gun safety. I was raised never to touch a gun if I came across one while playing \u2013 whether in my parents\u2019 house or at a friends\u2019 \u2013 but many children never learn this. I can also attest that having Hunter-Trapper Education class in elementary school helped bolster very important rules about firearms that have stuck with me. And I\u2019ve never felt safer than I do when I\u2019m at Warriors Mark, surrounded by 100+ guns controlled and handled by men and women who know how to use them. And will, if the need arises.<\/p>\n

Frum also points to the number of guns used for suicides, a tragic statistic by any account. Why not focus his efforts on addressing the reasons people resort to suicide or to violence with a gun in the first place? As a researcher concluded recently in\u00a0a study published by\u00a0Injury Epidemiology<\/em>, the recent surge in gun buying has not led to a surge in gun violence.<\/p>\n

\u2018We need to be looking at other factors, like job loss, economic change, the closure of schools and community organizations and nonprofits, and civil unrest,\u2019 Julia Schleimer, the study\u2019s author, told the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Presuming Frum\u2019s concern truly is untrained people using weapons irresponsibly, accidental shootings, suicides, and gun violence, then he ought first to familiarize himself with law-abiding, responsible gun owners. And I\u2019d suggest he start by visiting a gun raffle, sportsmen\u2019s club, or fire department in a little hick town and see first-hand how these people are not only\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a \u2018problem,\u2019 but are the lifeblood of America.<\/p>\n

See you in Snakehole, David!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Frum is wrong: Guns save lives and sustain communities From self defense to funding fire departments, they\u2019re woven into the culture of red America The debate over guns in the United States could, until recently, be divided into two extreme camps: the liberal elites (invariably protected by armed guards) who call for ever-more restrictive … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72206,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72205\/revisions\/72206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}