Once upon a time, advice columnists tried to give advice on subjects that they actually knew something about. Family issues, relationship issues, figuring out what you want to do with your life. But I don’t recall Ann Landers ever giving advice on a subject that she didn’t know about without telling you where she got that information and at least trying to provide good information.
We live in a different world, though, when it comes to advice columnists. They are apparently giving advice about subjects about which they have no clue. Or maybe it’s just this one columnist.
A syndicated advice columnist named Amy Dickinson recently made some painfully stupid remarks about guns in her advice to a father who also made some painfully stupid remarks about guns. Dave Workman writes,
The question that ignited all of this was signed by “Dumbfounded Father.” He wrote, “I discovered that my intelligent, hard-working, responsible 24-year-old daughter (who lives with me) is a gun owner! And it’s not a normal gun, either — it is a 40-caliber semi-automatic, and she has hollow-point bullets to go with it.”
Then dad added, “Amy, this is the kind of weapon a criminal would possess!”
He went on to explain that he gave his daughter three choices: Hand over her “weapon” to him, sell it or move out of his house.
“Dumbfounded” seems dumbstruck that “she says that I don’t trust her, and is barely speaking to me.”
The icing on this cake is Dickinson’s response: “According to my research, possessing hollow-point bullets is illegal in 11 states; is it legal in your state to own this sort of exploding ammunition?”
You have to wonder kind of delusional world that both Dickinson and this man live in to think that a .40 caliber pistol is only owned by a criminal (I guess that puts many police departments in the criminal category) and that hollow points are “exploding ammunition” (I don’t even think that I’ve seen that stupidity in Hollywood movies).
Unbelievable.
But realize that this is the kind of ignorance that we face when talking about guns with anti-gunners. These people don’t know firearms, their specifications, or uses. Many have never even seen one in real life. But these panic-stricken pillars of ignorance think that they know the real truth about firearms.
Ridiculous.
This “advice columnist”‘s “advice” just goes to show that we have many more people in the world to educate about guns because so many people are clueless.
While living alone for a number of years ago…I purchased a hand gun for protection. I took classes on handling guns, loading and shooting. Best Thing I ever did….but very thankful I never had to use it. Now I’m older, living with family and with grandkids around I took my gun to a place that melted it down….never to be used again. I did not want to sell it for fear of the person purchasing it possibly doing harm with it or some kind of robbery.
Why didn’t you lock it and place it in a small wall safe?
Glad you do not want to be able to PROTECT your family against intruders/thugs. This is YOUR CHOICE! Do not try to PUSH YOUR CHOICE UPON ME !! As a LEGAL LAW ABIDING American Citizen, I prefer and choose to be able to Protect my family against THUGS!
While you lived alone you took the effort to be legal and have protection for yourself, BUT now that you are in a family , with kids you choose to throw away the major item, in which you were trained, and leave yourself and your family unprotected, WHAT A SMART MOVE!!!!!!WOW to put yourself and your family in a position of being terrorised or killed by home invaders while you can not defend yourself or your family, AND YOUR REASONS ARE TOTALLY ASININE. You should find a hole in the ground and crawl in it and pull the dirt over yourself NOW. “IT IS BETTER TO HAVE A GUN FOR PROTECTION (WHICH YOU WERE TRAINED) AND NEVER HAVE TO USE IT, THAN NOT HAVING A GUN AND LOSE YOUR LIVES NOT BEING ABLE TO AT LEAST TRYING TO DEFEND YOURSELF OR YOUR FAMILY. People like you scare the hell out of me because you allow the criminal element and idiot politicians run your lives. WAKE-UP before it is too late.
Leave her alone. She’s special. And MUCH more evolved than the rest of us.
Hunter James sounds like you’re even dumber than all of these. 1. Evolution is a LIE dreamed up by the ignorant. Taught to the brainwashed and brain-dead. Which of these two categories do you fall into?
Damn! Talk about dumb and dumber!
Actually, it was a good thing that this “dumber than dumbguy” gave up his gun. He probably would have used it tn a way that could have put him in jail.
I appreciated the sign at the Las Vegas Crossroads Gun show, “If you voted for Obama, we don’t want your business; because, you are too stupid to own a gun!”
Dumb and Dumber is quite fitting! Alfred is right. As bad as Amy Dickinson’s advice was, Ann Landers – many decades ago – was even worse. She hated guns and made no secret of it.
“Now I’m older …” obviously not wiser … “living with family and with grandkids around I took my gun to a place that melted it down … never to be used again.” I applaud that ‘place’ took a donation of a handgun on the pretense of ‘melting it down’ and likely profited the hell out of it. Or even sold it under the table to a criminal, as a ‘safe gun’ with Christel Lea’s fingerprints all over it. Just out of curiosity … what ‘place’ takes gun donations, and melts them down? The police? I don’t know how many times I hear of confiscated guns being ‘misplaced’ by the police. Television shows how easy it is for police to ‘accidentally’ have a street gun, and it wind up in the hand of a shooting victim, making their death a self defense shooting. How many hand guns get ‘recycled’ in that manner? Apparently taking classes on handling guns “a number of years ago” didn’t teach you how to keep a gun safe in your home, or else you would have put a trigger lock on it, or put it in a gun safe where kids can’t accidentally gain access. My guess, the class was worthless, at least suggesting that Christel Lea is one less liberal idiot with a gun.
The real answer is teach the kids about guns, how to respect them,and use them safely. I leave my guns easily accessible and my kids and grandchildren know how to use them and it is not a problem. Even our youngest granddaughter is capable of using them to protect herself and our whole family.
Amazing, I put a reply to C Lea, but it seems to have been censored and removed. Guess it made sense which MSM cannot take.
Some of us were fortunate to be taught gun safety and shooting at an early age and grow up with guns. When I was 8, 9, 10, etc., I would come home from school, put my .22 across my handlebars, peddle to the woods to hunt small game. In the 1950’s, most of us had a rifle or shotgun in the back of our vehicles even when parked in the school parking lot.
Unfortunately, we have many citizens who only know the misinformation they read about guns written by authors(s) with less knowledge than them. Many actually believe that an AR-15 is an “Assault Rifle” because it has “AR” in it’s model name. Politicians prey on this ignorance for votes.
“Fear of the unknown” is a normal human response due to ignorance. Education abolishes that fear, but most anti-gunners would rather remain ignorant and fearful than get educated and become enlightened.
More people are killed every year by hammers than by rifles, so ramp up your fear and outlaw those semiautomatic hammers.
Hmmmm, wonder what those two would think about my two 1911 .45s.
One loaded with flat point solid lead target slugs, the other with Hornady XTP hollow points.
I taught both my children proper respect and handling of several firearms, including the 10 Commandments of firearms. My daughter isn’t all that interested in them, but my son is a pretty darn good shot. He has been teaching his 4 year old daughter the Eddie Eagle approach, but we will be taking her out to the club in a couple years to learn proper handling and just how serious proper handling has to be.
And to think these are the people who assume to know what is right and correct for the rest of us!
I find it very difficult to express in words my udder astonishment.
Maybe you clueless bastards could just go hide somewhere out of sight and leave the rest of us be.
Or better still, get together in small groups and see who among your group can come up with the best plan for a Darwin Award nomination.
Ah yes, the Darwin Award, given to those oh so deserving individuals who advance the human genome by removing themselves from it, hopefully with a creative flair!
I grew up in the country and guns were a big part of our lives. Used for hunting, killing rats, and other uses. I have never been afraid of guns and I hope people consider what I am about to tell you. My daughter lived with a very abusive husband and I begged her to change the locks on the doors (she lived way out in the country) and get a shotgun and keep it close. The man had threatened to kill her if she didn’t stop the divorce. I told her if he tries to get in, blast him back out. Well that was right before Christmas in 2004, the last time I would ever hear my daughters voice again. She didn’t have the locks changed and he had a key so he went in and shot her in the head with a 357. If she had kept a gun by her, she might still be alive today. I suggest that all women need to get protection, learn how to use it and practice at a shooting range. [
I am so sorry for your loss. How tragic. You are absolutely correct in your assessment and your story needs to be heard….over and over and over.
I looked this whole thing up, and to be fair, she did recant her earlier statements.
To quote her response, made in June 2019:
“In my response, I incorrectly stated that hollow point bullets “explode.” I stated that this ammunition is illegal in 11 states.
I take responsibility for this error, and apologize to readers who were misinformed, confused, or furious about it.
I reached out to Eric Delbert, a second-generation law enforcement officer and owner (with his father) of LEPD firearms range and training facility in Columbus, Ohio, who patiently described the characteristics of hollow point bullets. They do not explode. They expand. This ammunition seems to be only partially banned in one state (NJ). He also pointed out that the .40 caliber semi-automatic is extremely popular, and – in his opinion, an appropriate choice for this young woman.
I firmly believe that home owners have the right to protect themselves and their homes from civilians bringing firearms onto their private property.”
I do not follow advice columnists. Never have, never will. But we DO need to be fair when reporting information
I have to agree with those who have sad, dumb and dummer. This father should have said, The gun goes today or you do tomorrow. End of discussion.
When your father says you don’t need a gun, you need a gun. Vote Trump!
Well I guess I’m a criminal because I own a 40 cal, along with a 45, a 9mm, a 357 magnum, a 38 special body guard, a 380, and a 12 Ga pump shotgun. AND I’m a female!!
A gun is a tool, no worse than any other tool. It’s as good or bad as the man or woman using it.
Maybe armalite should rename the ar15 to the woodsman, than it would be a kinder gentler rifle.
The most giantist the handgun you carry the better off you are all the time. AND the more gianter the exploder bullets you can put in it make you the safest everywhere no matter what!! You dummy lady advisorist nonuthin.
Dumb and dumber are eclipsed by former VP Joe Biden who said he would his tell wife to get his shotgun and fire two rounds into the air to frighten off burglars. With that one statement he revealed his lack of knowledge and the danger such actions cause.
Sleepy Joe said use a double barrel and fire 2 shots through the door. That’s all you would ever need! Remember this on Election Day!!
Saw Dickinson’s drivel elsewhere and commented. It should hurt to be that ignorant/stupid and that goers for the grandmother who melted hers down.
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