I have posted on my blog about an old family friend of whom my mom had photos. These photos were of him, in uniform, in the early/mid '50s (between 1951 & 1955). I had posted them there because, #1 he was a friend of my mom, #2 my mom was in one of the photos, #3 another friend of my mom was in the photo (her Maid of Honor at her wedding) and #4 'cause I always liked the guy. A couple of month's later his oldest child, his daughter, contacted and thanked me for the kind thoughts, images and stories. Although we'd met at least 3 times she had no idea who I was. We had a pleasant e-mail conversation about her dad that tapered off after about 2 weeks. Suddenly, after the events this past week, she writes telling me that her dad was about peace and love and had given away his guns before he died (killed by drunk pot smoking kids FWIW) and that she wished I'd remove the post so that he wouldn't be tied to the NRA. FURTHER, she said, "It is apparent that you are passionate about guns. I encourage you to look at balance in your life as well: to find other passions too. Our father appreciated and instilled in us a love of nature: to look at the rhythms of the forest and to learn from the beauty of life."

Well, I've been stewing on this. I didn't want to be too quick to reply and to unnecessarily insult or belittle her. BUT, this seems to me to be a direct response to the recent events, projection of her own feelings onto her father, and completely out of bounds as it is MY blog. It is my opinion that "if you have got to ask, you'll never understand" and that any explanation of why I enjoy shooting or of my numerous other interests would simply be wasted time. As you can tell, this bugs the crap out of me. She twice mentions the NRA and I know that has to be the sticking point.

You are all intelligent and thoughtful people. Many of you have been around a while. What say you?

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Sincerely,

Hobie

That the other passions of yours are cooking and carpentry. But after the man stabbed 22 children in China the other day you had to give away your knives. And with the man killing another man with a hammer yesterday in Florida you've had to give carpentry up as well.
You can't work because you have no way to get there with all the people who die in automobiles.

I say screw her... go right ahead and insult her. ;)

but let her know it's your blog and you can post anything you please.

No need to try and change her mind, reason with her or anything like that. Her request is a decision made by emotion, which, by definition is irrational.

This is a classic example of people putting theirs heads in the sand.......Since when did the NRA shoot up a school, support crazy people shooting up schools etc etc etc. Another example is people who have a family member killed by a drunk driver and blame the beer company. Is she afraid someone will hate the family because her dad liked guns? She apparently doesn't like guns because her father gave them away instead leaving them to family members. She is upset about the events in Newtown and who isn't but she is wrong to ask you to remove the picture, too blame the NRA and personally I think she is the type of person that is bringing down this country, minority opinion wanting the majority to conform to their beliefs.

Gunner,
who blames the shooter not the gun.

To change mine. I believe in freedom and love this country and I will not be censored based on emotional knee jerk reactions. Guns aren't evil PEOPLE are EVIL.

I think you can respectifully disagree and tell her why. Sounds like she has made up her mind but you never know.....

is to offer a polite reply or two and then ignore them. I've had only one reader try to force an edit. He is widely known around TFL etc. He has a 'hall monitor' complex and offers a lot of unsolicited advice; two traits I hate with a passion.

He only got one polite reply. Hobie, you do whatever you think best. If the subject of your article liked guns, was an NRA member etc? That is part of history and his daughter has no right to dabble in the man's legacy. If she can't deal with that, don't waste your time on her.

Obviously this woman is in the middle of an emotional roller coaster. She was happy with your posts earlier and hopefully will be again. If it were me, I'd politely ignore her for the time being. Hopefully she'll settle down and realize how senseless she is being right now.

Probably not to give her one .

I believe that liberalism is a mental disorder, they literally cannot think rationally. It's very simple, a liberal thinks with their heart (emotions) while a conservative thinks with their head (logic).

Logic will never get through to a person who leads their life guided by emotions. The liberal is a lost cause, best to admit that and move on.

This woman is obviously guided by emotions. When it "felt good" to be proud of her father's service, she did and was happy about that. Now that it "feels good" to lash out against the NRA, she's doing that.

And yes, she is quite obviously a liberal...

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Sincerely,

Hobie

and tell her you will take it into consideration in your future blog posts. Then consider it for 2 second and do what you want to do in the future.

You will not change her mind, and I see no reason to let her believe she might have changed yours.

Sometimes silence is the best policy.

K