Truth. The caveat being, ….. provided you, purchaser of said firearm, took the time & effort to make certain it didn’t jam, stovepipe, light strike, etc. when you shot it. And shot it a lot so when you carry it to protect yourself & your loved ones from outside harm, it could be counted on to work.
If you didn’t, you’re lazy, suicidal, ignorant, & probably shouldn’t pass on your bad habits or genetic traits onto the next generation. Didn’t mean to sound so nasty there; carrying a gun doesn’t make you qualified to use it & carrying an untested gun & assuming ‘everything will go just like it should’ is dangerously self-deluded as well as a menace to innocents around you when you jack it up. Dang, sorry again guys; just can’t stomach fools easily when it’s not rocket science to prepare a little bit. Just my thoughts
jumbled & irritated for all to see
& whisper ‘he’s messed up for sure!!’ Also truth.
In theory, your first paragraph is true. Your second, however, misses the whole point of not being able to afford a more expensive gun.
Shooting costs money. And in this economy, a lot of people don't have money.
Let's say $325 for this gun out the door. Then boxes of 9MM. Say $15/box for FMJ, $25 for JHP. How many boxes each before you know the gun functions? Would you say 500 rounds of FMJ? That's another $150. Then maybe, what, 100 rounds of JHP? That's another $100. So we're at $525 right now, and we still don't have a place to shoot. Maybe you're lucky and you can shoot in your back yard. Most people don't have that luxury. And the price of what I see some people paying to go to a range is disgusting. Let's say it costs you another $25.
So now were at $550 just to make sure the gun is "safe." That's half am months rent (or less depending on where you live. That's over a week of pay for someone making $15/hour.
The reality is, a lot of folks just can't afford to do what we all know they should do.
I know the plight of poor (more expensive guns) now, but I am that guy that started out with a Hi Point C9 and an uncle Mikes holster and barely ever got to shoot. I was smart enough and fortunate enough to be able to get a box of hollow points and runs some through, but barely. Maybe 10, 20 rounds? I was only making $24K a year then. And that was in a much better economy.
Now, let's add in the ignorance factor. A lot of people, buying their first gun, don't know any of this. Sure, they could research it, and in this day and age, there's not much of an excuse to be ignorant, if you want to learn. But you don't know what you don't know. You have morons at gun counters that either know less about guns than most of us, or just salesmen simply caring about the sale and not about actually helping the customer. A lot of people simply might not know that your average gun isn't just point and shoot.
Instead of bashing these people, we should be helping them. We should be teaching them, training them. I am 100% against mandatory training, however, I do think we should be doing a much better job encouraging it. Not bashing people for not doing it.
Now, if you can afford to and you know better, and you choose not to, that's different.