Interesting quote

[dariks]

I found this quote on, of all places, a Fark thread. Did a little googling and it seems that this quote is from an article in American Handgunner.

Those who fear inanimate objects — tools like guns and knives — and believe them to be intrinsically evil or capable of inspiring evil, are clearly psychologically crippled. They cannot think rationally about arms and their lawful use. Those who cannot differentiate between armed, trained, dedicated guardians of their fellow man, and twisted, predatory, psychotic killers, based on shared use of firearms, are clearly emotionally unbalanced. Those who so morbidly fear physical confrontation they preach submission and surrender, even unto death, in preference to fighting for life — and seek to enforce that condition upon others — are moral cowards.

[Mr. Brooks]

I think thats my new favorite quote!

[mac12]

[Magiccarpetrides]

Yeah thats pretty bad ass.

[Marswolf]

I like the quotation, but if it didn't come from someone certifiably qualified to judge the "psychologically crippled". it doesn't mean much.

The source is important, and American Handgunner is not exactly an objective source. People can write any nonsense they want to write.

[Guest REDDOG79]

I think Massad Ayoob wrote that. I think it is in his book "in the gravest extreme"

[strickj]

Sigmund Freud as said something similar to this but I think this is where the OP story originated from

A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.

This is not is not a statement that appears in any translation of any of Freud's works. It is a paraphrase of a statement from the essay "Guns, Murders, and the Constitution" (February 1990) by Don B. Kates, Jr. where Kates summarizes his views of passages in Dreams in Folklore (1958) by Freud and David E. Oppenheim, while disputing statements by Emmanuel Tanay in "Neurotic Attachment to Guns" in a 1976 edition of The Fifty Minute Hour: A Collection of True Psychoanalytic Tales (1955) by Robert Mitchell Lindner:

Dr. Tanay is perhaps unaware of — in any event, he does not cite — other passages more relevant to his argument. In these other passages Freud associates retarded sexual and emotional development not with gun ownership, but with fear and loathing of weapons. The probative importance that ought to be attached to the views of Freud is, of course, a matter of opinion. The point here is only that those views provide no support for the penis theory of gun ownership

[Guest tnmale46]

[towerclimber37]

To me, the source provides an insight into the person who quoted it.

I figure, if it makes sense to me after I parse it out, then hey...I'll go with it.

I have no doubt that there are other folks that are smarter than I am..then again, I've seen folks with doctorates run from grass snakes. I've also seen the most humble of folks say things that just fit in with the way the world actually works.

I REALLY like the quote.

no matter the source.

[Marswolf]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[strickj]

Says Mr. CLinton....

[dariks]

To me, the source provides an insight into the person who quoted it.

Are you profiling me? :tinfoil:

I tried to do a little more digging into who actually said it and so far all I can come up with is a guy named John Connor. No, not the kid from Terminator. .

Apparently this guy writes for American Handgunner, but I haven't found any biography information on him so I have no idea what his background or qualifications are. Sorry Mars.

[Marswolf]

It just seems to me that someone who is making judgments that others are "psychologically crippled" or. "emotionally unbalanced" had either better have something beside his own opinion to back him up or he might be accused of pandering. It sounds like it was written to impress the masses.

While I agree with him in theory, I'd probably have just said that people who are so afraid of weapons that they will not use them for their own protection and insist that others must follow them are as dumb as rocks.