Comments on: Gabrielle Giffords, Trayvon Martin: Why aren’t we talking about the guns?

By: Emilytar

Emilytar — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:41:00 +0000

My apologies, ma’am. The “tone” of your “message” and obsession with guns made me think you were a male. I’m usually really good at figuring out gender from messages, Ms. Epi. I was pretty sure about it this time, but I am the first to admit when I actually make an error.

Now that I think about it, if you were male, you would probably not be spending all this time regurgitating trivia about guns and soldiers and would instead be talking about what you really were thinking. When I thought you were Mr. Epi, I figured you were objecting to any hint at curtailing your male wet dreams about guns — God forbid someone tries to keep innocents alive at the expense of obsessive and masturbatory male gun ownership.

Forgive me my gender error and please return to your regularly scheduled pomposity.

By: EpsilonSemi

EpsilonSemi — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:27:00 +0000

Emi, you read that whole comment and the only thing you can talk about is one pedantic comment you apparently have a sexist axe to grind about? Yes, he did write “a primary weapon,” but if you notice, I said it was a “sidearm.” A sidearm is generally accepted as a secondary weapon. A “primary weapon” would be, say, an M4 assault rifle or a M249 light machine gun; a soldier would draw his sidearm (aka “secondary weapon”) in situations where his M4 rifle (aka “primary weapon”) is either not available or not practical. Please try to understand the difference.

Also, please note that I did not dispute the “fact” that the military uses a “9mm” handgun (the M9, formally), so the “fact” itself is not “sensational” — the way in which he presented this “fact” was sensationalistic. This is known as “tone.”

In case that concept confuses you, let me give you an example:
a) A man died when his car was hit by a Prius on the highway.
b) The driver of a Prius killed a man when he hit his car on the highway.

Both sentences present the same fact, but the second sentence makes the driver of the Prius to be a “villain” by the use of “killed,” whereas the first sentence is more neutral in tone.

Finally, it would surprise you to know that the word “pedantic” is actually not a shorthand for “insecure male.” In truth, it has no sexist connotations; it actually means “being nitpicky about a minor issue.” Please do not use gender discrimination as a tool to argue about your pedantic issues, especially when you do not know the gender of the person you’re trying to insult.

By: Emilytar

Emilytar — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Epi, you read that whole article and the only thing you can talk about is one phrase that you apparently read wrong? He said “a” primary weapon, not “the only” primary weapon. And since when are facts sensational? Since you don’t like how they sound?

I’m glad you used the word “pendantic” because it saves me the trouble of using the phrase “insecure male.”

By: EpsilonSemi

EpsilonSemi — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:44:00 +0000

I’d just like to call out the “a primary weapon of the U.S. military” quote as being a bit sensationalist and biased. The “9mm” as it’s mentioned here (formally known as 9×19 parabellum) is arguably the most common caliber of ammunition in general (next to .22LR); it’s not restricted to military or law enforcement. The aforementioned quote skews the “9mm” unjustly, leading the reader to infer that people are running around with “military-grade” ammunition, when in truth it is a standard and VERY common caliber for recreational shooting.

And on a pedantic note, calling 9mm a “primary weapon” of the military is like saying knives are a primary weapon — it’s a situational tool, it’s not the main piece of equipment. It’s a sidearm.