By Dan Shea
It didn’t take long for the vultures to start circling.
Right around the second week of October, I was somewhat shocked to see headlines that the American gun owning public had “armed” Osama Bin Laden’s terrorists and apparently we were now “de facto” the source of the atrocity at the World Trade Center, etc, on 9/11.
Josh Sugarmann’s “Violence Policy Center” apparently had an exposé all prepared on .50 caliber rifles as the newest Root Of All Evil, and they conveniently stamped the appropriate labels and factoids into the report to ride the wave of repercussions from the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
Many people have attempted to hijack the tragedy for their own agendas. This is always distressing when unmasked, but it is normal in the human political arena. It is not our intention at SAR to waste too much space on this- however it needs to be mentioned. Sugarmann is a long time SAR reader, and of course some of our articles and commentaries are quoted in his various endeavors against the Second Amendment to our Constitution. We are here to educate, to share our knowledge of military small arms, and to gain more. It is unfortunate that Mr. Sugarmann’s group and their junk science abuse our information and twist it around, but it is expected.
I would like to ask all of our readers to use their wits and all legal means at their disposal to unmask this type of thing, wherever they see it. This should not stand unchallenged.
I am personally more interested in what our military people oversees are doing right now. SAR has made an offer to send a free issue to any serviceman or woman, and any overseas unit that wants a box of twenty-five or fifty of our magazine need only give me the information for shipping through the APO address, and we will send it right out. Email me at subject line: SAR overseas at sareview@aol.com and we will get it done for you.
It is nice to get a package of cookies from Mom, letters from senior citizens that Dear Abby has drafted into service of their country once again, and back issues of Good Housekeeping will always be read by those in the trenches. You might think I am joking, if you haven’t been out there, but I remember some dark and lonely days from my Army time- reading material is good. Period. Probably the most popular magazines among servicemen will always be those having to do with cars, hunting, fishing, adventure, and firearms. If you can send these to our servicemen and women, I would urge you to do so. From our end, we can send a firearms magazine relatively easily. Kind of a box of cookies from home for the “gun culture.”
Once again, to those out there in harm’s way, God Speed and God Bless- we do remember that you are there, and your sacrifices. We sincerely wish that you could bring home war trophies, like our fathers before us did, so that you could relate the oral history of your missions to your grandchildren, showing them the RPG, PKM, handmade 1911, or whatever you capture in your service to your country. While we serve so that the Sugarmanns of the United States can have Freedom of Speech, it is too bad they can’t return the respect to those who really are the earth shakers and movers…. The men and women who serve our country in its time of need.
– Dan
| This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V5N4 (January 2002) |
