Last year I began giving out an award for the dumbest gun law proposed in any state. The winner was Matt Gaetz, who proposed a law requiring owners of commercial spaces which didn’t allow guns to compensate any customer who was gunned down because a bad guy walked into the space with a gun, but no good guy was allowed to carry a gun.
I am now starting a new contest, which will give an award to whomever comes up with the dumbest idea for creating an organization that will promote gun ‘rights,’ something that I see happening more frequently, given the apparent demise of the NRA.
And the award this year goes to – The Center for Gun Rights and Responsibility (CGRR) founded by Dan Gross and Rob Pincus, an effort kicked off at a rally in front of the Capitol in 2019, attended it was said by ‘thousands’ of folks, even though the video of the event showed many less people milling about.
What does the CGRR want to accomplish? You can read all about the group in an op-ed published last month by Gross in (where else?) The New York Times, where Gross, the ex-head of the Brady Campaign, explains why what he and Pincus want to accomplish will work because it will “end the culture war” on guns.
Pincus, you should know, considers himself to be a champion of not only the ‘right’ to own a gun, but the ‘right’ to carry the gun around. He cloaks himself in the unquestioned mantle of being a gun ‘educator,’ because who would ever question the value of ‘education,’ right?
Pincus earns his living by selling what he refers to as ‘gun safety’ videos which allegedly educate gun owners how to walk around with a gun but only to use it in a ‘safe’ way. So-called gun trainers like Pincus have been inventing totally worthless courses on armed, self-defense since Jeff Cooper first published Principles of Personal Defense back in 1972. Here are the first two sentences of that book: “Some people prey upon other people. Whether we like it or not, this is one of the facts of life.”
To Coop’s credit, he makes it clear right at the outset that people who don’t want to protect themselves with armed response have no reason to read his book. And most of the folks who have bought and read this book (like me) don’t necessarily always go walking around with a gun.
But for those who do view human relations in terms of predators and prey, they will find plenty of fun and games in the videos sold by Rob Pincus and other scam trainers just like him. There’s a reason why more than 125,000 people get The United States Concealed Carry Association’s magazine every month.
Is it just coincidence that Dan Gross and Rob Pincus began ramping up their new approach to ending the gun culture war when the NRA began to fold its tent? I doubt it. If anyone believes there’s a whole bunch of Gun-nut Nation members just waiting to find ‘common ground’ with the tree-huggers on the other side of the gun debate, they are either delusional, totally unaware of how gun owners think about gun control, or both. Probably both.
I conducted a survey of more than 1,500-gun owners and non-gun owners to determine what types of gun laws were considered effective on both sides to reduce gun violence. More than 60% of all respondents supported CAP laws, more than 70% supported universal background checks.
Guess what? More than 50% of all respondents favored national concealed-carry and the same percentage supported eliminating gun-free zones. Since roughly 40% of American households contain guns, even some people who don’t own guns support gun laws that are the priorities of the gun ‘rights’ crowd. You can download an analysis of this survey right here.
Woodrow Wilson’s VP, Thomas Marshall, said “What this country needs is a good, five-cent cigar.” Let’s add to that statement what Dan Gross and Rob Pincus are saying about the gun ‘culture war.’
May 03, 2021 @ 14:05:04
The Second Amendment is a RIGHT not a ‘right.’ Get it through your head, Mike. Every real gun guy knows this and only the most hardcore antigun folks deny it. I can only hope that the NRA recovers quickly so they can go back to protecting our Second Amendment rights from people like you and the rest of the left.
May 03, 2021 @ 18:06:08
Ahhhh, Mikey…. that article pales in comparison to the personal attack you made against me a few months ago. 🤷🏻♂️
“ Subject: Rob Pincus appearing on behalf of AFFIRM.
Dear Friends:
Rob Pincus, a so-called gun trainer, promotes the idea that guns can be used safely and appropriately, and his definition of appropriate use is that a gun should be used for armed, self-defense. I refer to Pincus as a ‘so-called’ gun trainer because the gun industry does not have any process whereby a gun maker can certify anyone to use the gun maker’s products in a safe or effective way. Want to become an HVAC technician? The HVAC industry sponsors a standard certification course. Ditto if you want to administer a computer network – Microsoft will teach you how to run their networking software. Want to become a gun trainer? Call yourself a gun trainer.
Aside from the fact that Pincus is promoting himself with a degree of professionalism which doesn’t exist in the gun industry, he is also promoting a manner for using guns which simply cuts against everything that we know about gun risk from evidence-based research. And the result of the efforts by Pincus and other so-called gun trainers who promote armed, self-defense, is that the idea of walking around with an incredibly lethal product in your pocket has now become accepted as law of the land.
There are now 46 states which issue concealed-carry licenses which require nothing more than passing a background check and, at most, sitting through a brief safety course which in most states doesn’t even require the live firing of a gun. In Connecticut, the course requires that every student fire 5 rounds; in Florida, the minimum requirement is one live shot. Last week, Utah voted to allow residents to walk around with a concealed weapon if they just have passed the background check which is requited to buy a gun. What is referred to as ‘2nd-Amedment carry’ is now law in 16 states. There are now 26 states which allow students to come onto any campus of the state university with a concealed gun.
I can’t believe that anything someone like Rob Pincus says about guns could or should be integrated into what a physician tells his/her patients about gun risk. And what is worse, by endorsing Pincus’ appearance before a group of physicians, all you are really doing is allowing him to further validate his so-called training activities by telling his audiences or the purchasers of his online videos that he is now recognized by a national medical group in terms of what he knows and says about guns.
As the person who organized and ran the only CME-accredited conferences on gun violence, I understand why physicians may feel they lack the background and knowledge to conduct effective counseling on gun risk without availing themselves of help from someone whose background and experience qualifies them to talk about guns. But choosing someone for this effort who is consciously trying to make Americans believe that a gun is a proper and effective way to respond to a real or maybe not-so-real threat is contrary to what medical research tells us about guns.
I would hope that AFFIRM would think about this issue before committing itself to a relationship with anyone who promotes the idea of armed, self-defense, and I am more than happy to discuss this issue with you further if you like.
Michael R. Weisser
mweisser3@outlook.com
413-758-5185.
“
May 04, 2021 @ 01:39:24
Hey Rob, Don’t worry about what Mike says about you. Absolutely no one takes Mike “The so called gun guy” seriously. Not even the 4 or 5 people who visit this site.
May 05, 2021 @ 16:00:44
This site is visited every day by between 150 and 1,000 visitors, depending on the topic.
May 05, 2021 @ 16:08:07
There is not one ‘personal’ comment on the statement I made to AFFIRM. I was saying what I believe is true about your professional activity, namely, that you sell videos which promote armed, self-defense. I do not think that any medical organization should be hosting anyone who earns a living by promoting armed, self-defense. Did I say you shouldn’t earn your living doing what you do? No. My issue is with the medical organization which sponsored your talk.
If you believe that criticizing what someone does professionally is a ‘personal attack,’ then you obviously don’t consider your own work to be professional. I’m more than happy at any time to engage you or any other individual in a discussion or debate on professional terms.
May 05, 2021 @ 17:39:07
Thie is good.
M I K E. FIGHT.
I’LL PAY TO WATCH.