"Dick's" Topic

In my part of the world, a chain of stores – Dick's Sporting Goods – made news when they announced they would no longer sell certain types of firearms.

A competing chain of gunshops locally has a new tag line for their commercials: "We're not Dick's!"

I've read that before.

Love it!

Support your FLGS (Friendly Local Gun Shop)

I have since stopped doing business with Dick's sporting goods because of their politically correct policy.

Capitalism is awesome. Stores may chose not to sell some stuff, but others will if there is a market.

Stopped doing business with them & any store that is a "gun free zone" . I make my purchases at a local gun shop/range.

The Second Amendment is there for a reason. English and Australians don't get it. You live your way. We'll live ours.

+1 Neil. And no one is able to show that any of the currently proposed solutions ("enhanced" background checks or reg flag laws) would have prevented any mass shootings. Mentally ill people do these kind of things, and no one wants to discuss how to deal with that.

- No guns under age 21, period, have your parents teach and show you how to use guns under supervision.
- ALWAYS secure your guns, don't give the code to your 12-year old nephew.
- Stop selling "service holster guns" to people who will toss them without thinking on a nightstand or handbag for inquisitive/stupid/immature/little people to find.
- Stop the idea that a gun is an extension of your personality. Nobody walks the street with a chainsaw thinking "I'm a big man now.", people think you've gone daft, everybody knows it's dangerous and you shouldn't do stunts with it. Guns ? Hold my beer and watch this !
- Don't ban guns, give access to better mental health care, teach coping skills ! Never mention a shooter's name, make them a non-person, ban publicity and sensationalist media, no more "holocaust TV" showing only murder and crime 24/7. Decriminalize some basic activities and demilitarize the police, reintroduce proper police schools and ban "Bulletproof Warrior" style political/paramilitary courses

I remember Archie Bunker's 1970's cure for airplane hijacking. He said all they needed to do was issue every adult a pistol when they board the plane.

I haven't shopped at Dick's since they made the changes.
Most of the people I know won't shop at Dick's for anything.

If you really want to save lives, more drivers education.

I refuse to listen to the opinions on my guns from anyone willing to give up their kitchen knives for safety.
Some of those 'under 21er's you want to take guns away from have been in the military for 3 years already. And again-I don't really care what some foreigner has to say about American policy on ANYTHING.

Patrick R. again makes sense. Without taking guns away from the 99% of responsible gun owners.

If you really want to save lives, more drivers education.

So very true. Also remember some jihadis use cars and truck to commit mass murder. Not fire arms …

Some of those 'under 21er's you want to take guns away from have been in the military for 3 years already

Also true but for that reason there should be some sort of stipulations. Most of my Rifle Plt and Mech Co. were teens or in their early 20s. We were trained and in turn trained them to be Infantrymen … to yes kill large numbers of the enemy as often as possible. That is the job …

99% of those Vets have not become mass murders, e.g. like Tim Macvey[but he used a very big car bomb IIRC]. And yes a few others of the mass shooters were Vets. But most are just lunatics with a warped sense of reality, etc. And never served in the Military. Playing video games don't count.

But if you want to let hysteria drive your actions, that's your business.

Great point !

And yet for all of America's problems, people from all over the world still want to immigrate here both legally and illegally.

See Venezuela for how things work out when one gives up their guns to the government, and only they have guns.

It is not pretty.

And again-I don't really care what some foreigner has to say about American policy on ANYTHING.

Well frankly I was pretty upset when I heard some Aussies ate Kangaroos ! I wish they would stop ! I like 'roos !

Yep, let's rejoice in the ready availability of guns with some puerile "humour" while still in the shadow of yet more massacres of innocent people.

Well many of us think what some here are proposing is almost laughable. And yes, it is very, very sad and unfortunate that some people in the US are killed by guns in the hands of lunatics. Taking guns away from law abiding gun owners Won't fix that.

less guns, less dead schoolkids. Pretty simple.

Well for better or worse we could say the same about cars. Many kids die in car accidents every year as well, sadly …

Mentally ill people do these kind of things, and no one wants to discuss how to deal with that.

+1

Even then Gun Shops will still sell them. There is one about a mile away from me now.

I'm a gun owner and a strong supporter of the 2nd amendment but I'm not sure what the point is of having topics like this on this forum. My hobby is a refuge where I go to get away from acrimonious bickering about every political controversy under the sun.

I don't care what someone's politics are when I encounter another enthusiast in this very niche hobby. I want to see what projects other people are up to, hear about the great game they played the other day, drool over expertly painted minis, ask people advice and give advice in those rare instances where I actually might be an authority on something. Too much to ask? Guess so.

3000+ deaths every day from automobiles, why not ban them first?

Beef up light rail and public transport and thusgive us more bike parhs… I could see it. Health benefits would be another plus. Many cities are charging congestion taxes to restrict cars in the center of town. It's not a bad idea.

I tried riding my Ruger to work yesterday, but my butt cheek depressed the clip release and I 9mm'd all over the highway.

Now that's funny right there…

Because there are huge benefits from automobiles, very few from guns. Admittedly there aren't many bears or rattlesnakes where I live, but then there aren't any where most Americans live, either.

+1 BrockLanders

I tried dropping a bear with my Ruger last year. I put 10 slugs in him. He rears up on his hind legs, looks me in the eye and says.

"Really?"

Wouldn't the noise of a shot tend to drive away a bear ? If not, then guns have even fewer uses, even in America.

Normally you'd be right. After I got to talking with him for a while it turns out he suffers from a hearing loss.

I see him a lot. I bring him honey. He helps me get chicks.

I haven't been to Dick's sporting goods since their decision, and it's not 3 miles away.

I think I was in a Dick's once, many years ago. I was looking for Yak Traxx. They didn't have them.

Of course the closest thing I'm ever likely to come to in sporting goods is buying figs for a Blood Bowl team.

Instead of being angry to take away guns at 18 because SOLDIER, maybe one should rethink the idea of being in the military at 18 …

I find it humorous listening to those from other countries telling us how much more civilized they are because their politicians restrict their firearm ownership.

Newsflash. According to the FBI, during the past 20 years there were 320,524,675 NICS background checks performed. Let's assume that some sales are duplicates and some checks did not result in sales (say that number is 2/3) That's still 100,000,000 firearms. Guns are not the problem. Nor are they ever going away.

For the record there are only about 330,000,000 people living in the United States. Taking into consideration the number of firearms and population numbers, the total number of people killed with firearms is tiny.

More people are killed by medical malpractice, automobile accidents, and murder by blunt object than are killed by guns.

I don't think the murder by blunt object is a real stat. Care to cite a real source?

As wargamers we are a relatively small group.

Why is a topic like this, which has nothing to do with wargaming, been started which will only serve to divide the community?

Experience has show that a topic like this invokes strong feelings in people. People who i would imagine this site wants to bring together through their enjoyment of this hobby.
And right on the heels of threads discussing negativity/harmony in our community too!

Homicide by blunt objects is a stat on the FBI website.

And to all those folks who like to criticize the USA, we have more people wanting to immigrate to America than any other country in the world despite our problems. Are we perfect, no. But we still are a beacon of hope and freedom to people all over the world.

MrMagoo is correct, more die by blunt objects than semiauto carbines ( like hammers)
And watch statistics that lump in suicides with murders, to me it's dishonest.There are countries firearms are hard to come by with suicide rates higher than in the US.

"I tried riding my Ruger to work yesterday, but my butt cheek depressed the clip release and I 9mm'd all over the highway."

Thank you-- I nearly busted a gut when reading this. Maybe we all should lighten up a bit.

Bought my then 9 year old niece a Cricket youth model .22lr at Dicks.

Have no intention of doing business there again after their policy change.

Again – knowing a woman who was sexually assaulted in her own home by an intruder (serial rapist) who firmly believes that a firearm would have prevented the rape, how many of the gun control advocates here want to take away her best means of self-defense?

Regardless of how out of shape or how old the bulk of male TMPers are, they are extremely unlikely to ever have to worry about being sexually assaulted or the victim of domestic violence.

Something strange has happened. I remember this thread being 2 pages. The post count reads 51, which would be 2 pages…

But there are only 40…?

Now the count is 41. The 40 I counted + my latest.

Instead of being angry to take away guns at 18 because SOLDIER, maybe one should rethink the idea of being in the military at 18 …

After being a Rifle Plt Ldr and Mech Co Cdr, 18 year old males make very good soldiers. And have for decades. No matter what we still need soldiers and the military …

And yet for all of America's problems, people from all over the world still want to immigrate here both legally and illegally.

Yes … what about that ? Clearly the USA is a better place to be than many other places on the planet.

Homicide by blunt objects is a stat on the FBI website.

Yes that is a fact …

KPinder: The count is wrong because posts that are gun-opposed (or gun-ambivalent, like mine was) are being systematically deleted.

Pointless exercise in futility to attempt a rational discussion regarding guns, guns, guns. This topic is, in my opinion, entirely irrelevant. Belongs in a Constitutional Law class, not on a toy soldier forum.

Early in 1941, when I was 4 years old, my father started talking me with him to work. He ran the projector at one of the 3 local movie houses, and worked 6 days a week. I was at the Saturday matinees.

In newsreels, I saw some history of the Spanish Civil War; of the Russian invasion of Finnland; and then the rape of Nanking, China. As I got older, I saw Japanese soldiers throw a Chinese baby up into the air, then catch her on their bayonets.

Our forefathers here in the US were educated men, who remembered many of the lessons of history. They remembered Louis IV's "dragonnade," where he placed individual soldiers of his 13 dragoon regiments into the homes of French Protestants. They were to (1) convert the Protestants to Catholicism; (2) force them to leave France; or (3) find a good excuse to simply kill them. (Frederick the Great's father benefited from (2) by forming the Itzenplitz musketeers completely from French Huguenots!).

Typical for Royalist Tyranny. They gave us the 2nd Amendment to allow us to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government.

Plenty of fodder for toy soldier games! Urban warfare among uniformed soldiers; 2nd amendment patriots; anti-gun Nazi, communist, fascist socialists; and even some possible rogue military units! What a mess!

GdeP

"Something strange has happened. I remember this thread being 2 pages. The post count reads 51, which would be 2 pages…"

Yeah…disagreeing with the editor does that to a thread…

"They gave us the 2nd Amendment to allow us to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government."

I don't think the 2nd really reads that way. Something about regulated militia. I think it's pretty clear that that the right exists to insure there will be armed citizens available to populate said militia.

Surely, there are people who believe the 2nd means, or should mean, "An armed populace being necessary to insure the blessings of liberty, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

I'm not a huge gun fan, but I think there is a valid argument to be made for the "blessing" read. Either as an interpretation, or a model for a revised version.

My problem is a practical one. In 1775 the primary difference between the Minutemen and the Brits was leadership, training and a bayonet. Otherwise smoothbore muskets all round. Call in all the reinforcements you want, apart from artillery and Long Rifles, the arms profile is going to stay pretty much the same.

It isn't 1775 anymore. Consider Waco. They were armed well enough to fend off the first raid from the FBI and the ATF. Then what happened. Helicopters, tanks, overwhelming numbers. From then on PR was their only real protection.
How'd that turn out?

Anyone who thinks a bunch of weekend warriors with assault rifles, a few beer filled coolers and enough ammo to get into trouble is going to be able to meaningfully frustrate a determined central government, is kidding themselves.

Look at the world. If you want to engage in an effective insurrection, you're going to need, "An armed populace, being necessary to insure the blessings of liberty, the right of the people to keep and possess the elements necessary to construct IEDs shall not be infringed."

And now we're back to Oklahoma City.

I have no answers. Guns can be dangerous. People can be dangerous. People with guns can be doubly dangerous. People without guns are less dangerous. How many people could that yutz in Las Vegas have killed if all he could have gotten was an SMLE?

Total disarmament of the US is a pipe dream. Background checks are a warm and fuzzy fantasy. A background check would have stopped Adam Lanza, but it didn't keep him from accessed his mother's guns, killing her with then, then leaving for Sandy Hook.

I have no answers, but any nation state that has backed itself into enough of a corner that we are now buying our kids bulletproof backpacks has seriously got its' head jammed way up it's bunghole.

I find it rather perplexing how any forum with a focus on military (miniatures, gaming, etc) can even remotely draw those who are so contradictory.

Perhaps it is a sign of our times. It is said that a good working definition of insanity is to be out of touch with reality.

The dictatorship of relativism.

The best real world definition of insanity that I've ever encountered is:

Doing the same thing over and over, hoping, somehow, that the next try will produce a different result.

This is the century of polarization. Blue v Red, Stay v. Brexit, Populism v. Nationalism. Coke v. Pepsi. (although I have yet to meet ANYONE who thinks that Orange/Vanilla crud is anything but an abomination). Why would one think us immune?

As long as we can leave all this 25 feet from the dice cup, we'll be fine.