A handful of antis and Fudds repeating tired old lies was enough to get the Department to cave. As for their excuse that it was too soon after the Lewistown shooting, the question not being asked is what does a known nutjob going ballistic after being left alone by fearful authorities have to do with peaceable citizens and their lawfully owned rifles– and will the time ever come when prohibitionists don’t object to such training? If the maniac rammed his car into a group of people, would Maine cancel drivers ed classes? [More]
Ceding to prejudice, ignorance, and fear is no way to run a department.
As for their excuse that it was too soon after the Lewistown shooting, the question not being asked is what does a known nutjob going ballistic after being left alone by fearful authorities have to do with peaceable citizens and their lawfully owned rifles–
“Fearful authorities”. That’s the common denominator. In the first case, they were fearful of what the known nutjob would do if they went after him. In the second case, they’re fearful of a responsibly-armed citizenry.
… and will the time ever come when prohibitionists don’t object to such training?
They’ll object until ALL firearm training consists of, “Guns are bad. Don’t touch guns. Don’t own guns. Don’t look at guns. Don’t think about guns. Call the police, they will take care of you. Guns are bad.” IOW, they’ll object until ignorance is mandatory.
“Ceding to prejudice, ignorance, and fear is no way to run a department.”
Kinda depends on what the department was trying to accomplish, dontcha think?
The more people are familiar with AR15s, the fewer people there are to fall victim to Josh Sugarmann’s “If it looks like a machine gun it must be a machine gun.”