In ~1992/93 I lived in Reno Nevada. Around the corner from my house was a gun store, owned by this Chinese guy. I liked guns and military stuff (my brother is Colonel in USAF) and so I would go in there quite frequently. And I was on friendly terms with the owner...
He had a huge cannon that you could pay him $500 to drive out into the desert and shoot [0]
I was 17, it was early 90s and Nevada. He had just imported two shipping containers of new (mfr date 1968) Chinese made SKS rifles and was having a special on them, $99.
I bought one - and was talking to the guy and he pulled out a three ring binder and said "want to see what that can do?"
And he opened it up and he had effectively a catalog of pictures of the fatal wounds various weapon rounds would cause. (pictures of dead people)
I was deeply disturbed. I never went back in there...
(He also offered to sell me claymore mines which he had up on the top shelf all around the store... [THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY])
This reminds me of the time I stopped in a knife store off the highway while on a road trip in perhaps Arizona or New Mexico. The shopkeeper approached me and asked if there was anything he could help me find. I jokingly said something like "whattya got that can kill a man?" Without missing a beat and completely deadpan he said, "Oh, you'll want to look at these over here," while leading me to a large case of butterfly knives. I couldn't tell if he was playing along with my joke or not, kinda spooked me.
I didnt mean it like that - I enjoy guns, and knowing how to use them, be safe with them etc...
But pre-internet, actual printed out physical pictures which were developed in a 3-ring binder to a 17-year-old in 1992 was a disturbing dose of reality.
The vast, overwhelming majority of guns in the US are bought for target shooting or hunting, and will never be fired at a human target. So I can totally see feeling blindsided by this.
ironically how there are guns designed exactly for target shooting, for example, the models used by Olympic shooters are even cheaper than some rifles, yet all the people with a gun hobby will promptly ignore those and buy the ones specifically designed to kill people instead, while claiming the killing purpose of gun means nothing to them. sounds like the reasoning of someone buying a yellow hummer because they need a minivan.
I think we need tighter gun control in the US, but I really wish people would stop acting like literally anyone who owns a gun is a dangerous maniac. It's childish and not constructive.
And I wish gun owners would stop ending conversations about gun control by threatening to put me and mine against the wall when the revolution comes.
Both sides could stand a dose of empathy and common sense. Its true that not all gun owners are dangerous maniacs, but guns are dangerous and a lot of them are used in crimes by irresponsible people. It's also true that not all advocates for gun control are neo-communists who just want to confiscate all guns and put Christians into camps.
Gun policy should just be a public safety issue, but politics and the catch-22 nature of the 2nd Amendment have turned it into an intractable religious war.
He had a huge cannon that you could pay him $500 to drive out into the desert and shoot [0]
I was 17, it was early 90s and Nevada. He had just imported two shipping containers of new (mfr date 1968) Chinese made SKS rifles and was having a special on them, $99.
I bought one - and was talking to the guy and he pulled out a three ring binder and said "want to see what that can do?"
And he opened it up and he had effectively a catalog of pictures of the fatal wounds various weapon rounds would cause. (pictures of dead people)
I was deeply disturbed. I never went back in there...
(He also offered to sell me claymore mines which he had up on the top shelf all around the store... [THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY])
[0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/61-K_Aut...