Passages: Dick Metcalf Fired from Guns & Ammo

In an article in the October issue of the magazine Guns & Ammo, Dick Metcalf, a well-respected gun writer, wrote: "All constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be."  This was like waving a red flag in front of the bull that is the firearms industry and a month or so after that he lost his job.  And his television program.  And some other stuff.

All of which has caused a bit of a stir.  The quote of the day comes from Richard Venola, a former editor of the magazine.  "We are locked in a struggle with powerful forces in this country who will do anything to destroy the Second Amendment.  The time for ceding some rational points is gone."

Wow.

The two quotes I used above came from a fine piece in the New York Times by Ravi Somaiya.  You can read it here.  An excerpt of Metcalf's article itself reads "I don't think that requiring 16 hours of training to qualify for a concealed carry license is infringement [of the Second Amendment] in and of itself.  But that's just me."

And, since there are two sides to any story, a blog titled The Truth about Guns has this.

Here's a great photo of Mr. Metcalf, just to give you a sense ...

This is him shooting at the geese you see in the upper right hand corner of The National Obituary.

I'm amused at the name "The Truth About Guns."  It may, in fact, be an accurate statement, so I'm not going to judge; I'm just going to be amused.  But it reminds me of The Freedom Group, the conglomerate of gun manufacturers owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a hedge fund, of which the Remington Arms Company is a part.   I bring this up because it's been suggested that Remington was one of the manufacturers that put the squeeze on Guns & Ammo to do the deed.

Do you wonder why they thought Freedom Group was a good name for a bunch of gun manufacturers?  Because they believe, based no doubt in part on empirical evidence, that we're idiots.

Personal Aside:  I find it interesting that people so enamored with the Second Amendment are so unconcerned about the First.  Which is not really accurate, since firing writers because you don't like what they've written is not a First Amendment issue.  But somewhere in there, there's room for reflection.

Bonus historical content:  "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."  Thank you, Senator Barry Goldwater.