Advice for 2016 from the Duo: Don’t be a Dick

January 1, 2016  
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Categories: Lifestyle
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Bring it in and take a knee. We’re going to lay some knowledge on you and give you some advice for the new year. Don’t be a dick in 2016.

If that sounds really similar to the advice we gave you on New Year’s Day in 2015, well that’s cuz it is.  Being a dick doesn’t do the pro-gun community any good. Plus (and this is important) it makes you a dick.

The effort required to avoid being a dick is negligible, and does more than benefit the pro-gun community. It benefits America. You may think that supererogatory hyperbole but it’s not true. If aren’t willing to try to understand that, well…you’re on the way to being a dick.

Grunts: supererogatory.

There are many ways to be a dick.

Today we’re talking specifically about how it relates to firearms and the Second Amendment. Some of those ways include:

·Telling a new shooter what specific gun someone should buy without ever getting them on the range or into a store to get their hands on different model.

·Suggesting a new shooter should worship at the altar of a single instructor or training methodology to the exclusion of all others.

·Using the phrase stopping power. Ever.

·Suggesting the only caliber a new shooter should own is the .45.

·Suggesting a new shooter should take advice from the guy working the gun counter.

·Telling a new shooter they should just get a shotgun ‘cuz it’s “easier to aim.”

·Spending any effort explaining why open carry is a great idea.

Know what might just be the worst though? Having fun at a new shooter’s experience.

We’re talking about the guys who take new shooters out for a day on the range and set them up for failure ‘cuz “it’s funny.” You know who you are, asshole. You’re the guy being a dick. You’re the one taking that new girlfriend, reluctant wife, friend from work, or younger sibling to the range for the first time and have them shoot a 3 1/2 turkey load through a pump shotgun. You let them stand all wrong and contorted, hold their face off the stock and pull the trigger for the first time knowing full well what’s gonna happen…probably even standing by with your cell phone to get a funny picture. Be it a revolver filled with 5 rounds of .38 special and just 1 round of .357 +P, a 300 win mag bolt gun, or a 30/30 scope held too close to the novice’s eye….you’re a huge bag of shit and you need to stop.

Doesn’t matter that you justify it by saying you were going to teach them correctly next. The damage is done.

YouTube is full of viral videos wherein people (usually a girl) hurt themselves shooting a shotgun and proceed to drop it as the cameraman laughs. Sometimes it’s a powerful revolver and the front sight comes back to cut the person’s face. Other times it’s “pirate eye” from the scope being too close.

Congrats, you tricked that new shooter. Well done. Now they are scared (or too embarrassed) to ever shoot again.

don't be a dick, scopeeye

Lying to the shooter that its “not a big deal, its just a small cut” is not going to help them embrace the shooting sports. The laughter and humiliation will make them never want to ever pull a trigger again. “Don’t be a pussy!” is not the phrase of encouragement a 13 -year old kid needs to hear when shooting something bigger then a .22 for the first time. Fact is, they’ve probably already seen the same videos on YouTube, are already scared of guns in the first place, or maybe just don’t know what to expect at all. That anticipation has them already nervous.

Just why the actual fuck do we so often see this kind of fuckery at a public range? Is being a dick seriously that funny? If you gave someone a chainsaw, knowing that they didn’t know how to use it, and they took off their foot, would that be funny? You, the “experienced” shooter are handing someone a device that has the ability to take life in the blink of an eye. You take something that should be handled with reverent safety, respect and caution, and you let them proceed to be dangerous with it. Dropped guns, bruised shoulders, cut faces, and embarrassment instead of a new disciple to what is one of the greatest, most rewarding rights an American can have.

shotgun-shoot-fail

Wow. That’s some funny shit. Way to forget the responsibility incumbent upon you as the guy who already knows how to handle a firearm.

Here’s a thought: teach them the right way.

Set them up for success. Teach them to shoot a .22 before moving on to the big stuff. Guide and mentor them. Enable that new shooter to learn at their own pace and gain confidence. WIN THEM OVER TO OUR SIDE. Make supporters of the Second Amendment of them. Create another armed responsible citizen who can defend themself or their family. Help them be proud they’re exercising one of the great rights of our country. Teach them to be safe, responsible and accurate.

Don’t be a dick, and don’t just rely on us. We reckon the majority of you reading this think along the same lines we do, so we enjoin you – fix the problem when you see it. You don’t even have to be a dick to the guy being a dick. Kill ’em with kindness.

Today is a holiday and it’s a weekend. Unless you’re underwater or snowed in somewhere, why not get to the range?

FYSA, you may see some more Don’t be a dick articles in the days and weeks to come. We’re counting on you to help spread the word.

Friends who aren’t dicks don’t let their friends be dicks.

dontallow this

Mad Duo, Breach-Bang& CLEAR!

Ashley_front_sight_Duo

⚠️ Some hyperlinks in this article may contain affiliate links. If you use them to make a purchase, we will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. It’s just one way to Back the Bang. #backthebang 

 

Mad Duo

Mad Duo

About the Author

The Mad Duo are the most renowned, scholarly, door-kickingest action figures since...well, ever. They, their wretched minions and other abject flunkies are an improbable (and awesome) tale unto themselves. Read more about them here.

4 Comments

  1. Galen Burgett

    Thank you for your efforts at eliminating assholery and dickness…I am afraid it is an uphill battle. I will continue my efforts to educate and help new shooters learn the gun wonders of the gun world in a safe and sane manner.

    Reply
  2. Doug Dennison

    Not to be a dick, but which word did you leave out here:

    Suggesting a new shooter should advice from the guy working the gun counter.

    Reply
  3. Joe

    Spot. Fucking. On. Happy New Year.

    Reply
  4. Wilson

    The advice on having people shoot a .22 first is actually really, really good advice.

    I’ve taken a lot of people to the range for their first time and I learned this particular jewel of advice the hard way. An ex-girlfriend of mine wanted to go. Awesome, smoking hot chicks with guns are AWESOME! (Especially if you get to bang them afterwards.)

    Not thinking too much, and based of having taken mostly newbie guys to the shooting range (I wasn’t trying to bang them afterwards, I swear!) the first gun I give this poor girl is a full size, all steel, first gen 941 Jericho in .40S&W. I didn’t even think about the fact that they had put on the far right lane up against the right side wall of the range, making the gun’s report seem much louder and insuring that casings come back at the shooter.

    After the safety speech, showing her how to hold it, how the controls worked etc etc. She fires a single shot under my watchful eye. Nothing unsafe happens, but the noise scares the bejesus out of her and then the casing bounces off the wall and comes back hitting her in the head making everything worse. She places the gun on safe and puts it on the bench in front of her and turns back to me crying and in need of a hug.

    She’s never going to touch another firearm because I was a moron and gave her something that scared the heck out of her when the Ruger MKII, which I had with me, would have been much more appropriate starting place.

    The cherry on top? She hit the bull at seven yards dead-fucking-center with the first, and probably only, shot she’ll ever fire. It seriously could not have been a more perfectly centered shot.

    Reply

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