Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Weird

SLS At A Gun Show

22 Comments

A long-time reader relates a sad anecdote:

I went down to the Louisville, KY Militaria Show of Shows, and on Saturday I also went to the National Gun Day Show in the same complex(I collect antique firearms). After purchasing two old rifles, near the far side of the hall, was a table asking people to sign a petition calling for Obama’s impeachment. What was striking was that in addition to impeaching Obama, the table had a sign asking people to reject cuts to the NASA budget, specifically the SLS. Reading the form, I saw that agreeing that Obama should be impeached went along with increasing the funding for the SLS. (It also included the usual pro-gun rhetoric, needed for a gun show). I asked the people about that, and got into a discussion about the SLS aspect. From what I made of the table renter’s comments, he wants an end to SpaceX and other private sector space businesses, giving all the money to NASA. I was civil, with some effort, since he didn’t have much in the line of facts to back up his arguments on the SLS side, and started getting into personal insults. The “high” point was when he said that if I wasn’t pro SLS, I was anti-gun. This despite my carrying two rifles, a pass from the SOS, and showing him my NRA card.

He wanted me to stay and be insulted argue some more, but I was exhausted from two days of the shows, so I just walked away.

I’ve gone to over 50 shows in the last year and a half, since I got back into the firearms community after my father died and left his firearms to me. Large and small, I’ve never seen someone pushing the SLS. I’ve talked to a few people that support the new space companies, but incidental to the firearms being offered for sale. This guy was more passionate about the NASA cuts than the impeachment or the 2nd Amendment.

Sigh. Fortunately, he probably is a bizarre outlier.

22 thoughts on “SLS At A Gun Show”

  1. The SLS is like a .68 caliber snub-nose flintlock pocket-pistol with gold and diamond inlay, once owned by some European king. It costs a fortune, will only be fired a few times, and it will try to break your wrist every time you pull the trigger. It’s an impractical and obsolete weapon for daily use.

    But perhaps a better analogy is that the SLS is the Spruce Goose of air transport. Nothing could match it but nobody used it.

    As a side note, I once considered buying a .68 caliber pocket flintlock, but I figured it would try to break my wrist and the ball would fly out so slowly that people could dodge it. The noise, flash, and smoke would be more effective in a fight than the ball.

    1. Your Spruce Goose analogy is likely apt in more ways than one. The Goose (actually, Hughes HK-1 Hercules) flew only once and barely at that. Odds are the SLS will also fly only once. The second flight isn’t scheduled until years later.

  2. “I was civil, with some effort, since he didn’t have much in the line of facts to back up his arguments on the SLS side, and started getting into personal insults. ”

    My, My, My. Personal Insults, who would ever do that?

          2. Concern troll is once-again concerned.

            Didn’t you previously wish for our Host to lose his court case BTW?

  4. Apparently others have run into this guy and some of his compatriots in and around Florida. There have even been billboards and small protest groups around Titusville. My suspicion is that he’s a laid off Shuttle worker…

  5. Beware. The Larouchians are still out there. I ran into one in San Diego who was attending our ISDC there. They are are worrisome as ever, but thankfully a rather small bunch. The guy discussed above sounds a bit like their sort.

    1. Dale, All, the loony Laroucheans are still at it. It was only some days ago I was getting off the Washington DC Metro at Capitol South — the station that serves House office buildings — when I saw a couple of people handing out leaflets. Yes, they turned out to be Larouche volunteers. The leaflet was bizarre. I remember the calls for impeaching Obama. I also remember the charges about a British led attempt to start thermonuclear war that we were supporting.

      I do have one “good” Larouche story to share. For awhile back in the 1970s I was a grad student in social psychology at Columbia University. One day as I was walking through Penn Station a pretty, very conservatively dressed young woman walked up to me with a very big smile on her face and asked me “Do you support nuclear power?” I thought this question a bit bizarre, but I answered yes. She replied “Good! Our group does too. Would you like to buy one of newspapers? It’s only a quarter.” I replied “Sure.” On the subway train up to Columbia, I started reading the paper and chuckling a bit. Then I got to the article about how Queen Elizabeth — the one who lives in Buckingham Palace — was head of an international drug ring. That got me to roar with laughter. That is very unusual behavior on New York subway trains. When I got to Columbia, I passed the newspaper on to friends. We were all very amused. They wanted to know how I got the paper. We all thought that Laroucheans were crazy.

  6. None of the gun-bloggers I read (and that’s quite a few) ever even mention space policy, so I think you’re right.

    1. You don’t ARFCOM very much then because it is frequently discussed along with many things space related. ARFCOM is the biggest firearms site on the internet.

  7. I’m guessing you met a representative for ATK. AFAIK their main business is making explosives for use in ammo but they also make propellants for solid rocket engines. Which SLS is supposed to use.

    In an ideal world ATK would get back into working into actually useful projects like LSAT or a new generation of solid rockets for military use. Instead they want to brownbeat their compatition in manned space. Which their rockets are utterly bad at servicing.

  8. SLS and guns rights connected? Maybe he’s afraid that he won’t be able to concealed-carry an SLS?

    In all seriousness, the most probable explanation is a LaRouchian. Most of them support impeachment of Obama, spending bundles on NASA (They want to colonize Mars, and think NASA is the way). They also tend to believe the world is run by a secret cabal of London bankers, or something.

    Want to bring a smile to your day? How about a cheery musical number featuring Obama and his pal Hitler, calling for Obama’s impeachment (on grounds of narcissistic personality disorder).
    http://vimeo.com/16216807
    It’s a singalong campaign ad by Keshia Rodgers, the current *frontrunner* for her party’s nomination for US Senator from Texas (she’s previously been her party’s nominee for congress – twice). She’s a LaRouchian… but first and foremost, she’s, like most LaRouchians, a Democrat. (and yep, she’s the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to challenge Texas Sen. John Cornyn in November).

    1. Heh.

      http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/199721-texas-dems-scramble-to-stop-larouche-candidate

      Texas Democrats are scrambling to can stop a controversial pro-impeachment, anti-ObamaCare candidate from advancing in their party’s Senate primary.

      Winning the general election is long shot for any nominee. But with Democrats optimistic about a resurgence in the Lone Star State and their chances in the governor’s race, Lyndon LaRouche acolyte Kesha Rogers could damage those hopes if she even advances to a runoff on Tuesday

      [snip]

      A follower of LaRouche’s, Rogers shares many of the Democratic activist’s fringe positions such as impeaching President Obama, repealing ObamaCare and “crushing Wall Street.” She also advocates the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act to limit securities trading, and has a detailed plan for space exploration and harnessing thermonuclear fusion energy.

      [more snip]

  9. That the guy was at a gun show may have been an outlier, but not the confused thinking that he was apparently spouting. Somebody pointed to an article over the weekend (Washington examiner? but I can’t find it there) where a commenter talked about how we might lose access to ISS if Obama actually responds strongly enough to Vladimir, who then forbids US astros on the Soyuz, thus on the ISS.

    The writer then went on to assert that if only Obama hadn’t cancelled Constellation and US human spaceflight, and poured endless amounts of money into subsidizing private sector rocket companies, we wouldn’t be facing this (!).

    Unfortunately, this “fantasy island” stuff, where the companies that are actually risking/risked a lot of their own money on COTS/CCP are demons while those at the pig trough for SLS are good-old patriotic Americans, is still all too common in Republican/right circles. Simply because, as you’ve so often said Rand, space is unimportant. So they only recognize the cold-war symbols, even at cost of being better socialists than Obama on this point.

    Yes, we could pop some folks into the present Dragon with a few quick support mods if we were denied access to Soyuz, but of course, that would be _DANGEROUS_. And we’d rather ditch the ISS or put it in others’ exclusive hands than that, wouldn’t we?

    1. Let’s also not forget that we could also easily lose access to Russian rocket engines, putting Atlas and Orbital Sciences in a jam.

  10. I have heard from people in high places that the Utah delegation are real SOB’s to deal with on this issue and I got the impression they will browbeat folks and cause all sorts of trouble to protect ATK.

  11. I have actually heard this line and I live at the opposite side of the country from Florida, Idaho to be exact. I think what we actually have is an actual case of Obama Derangement Syndrome. If Obama is for it it must be evil. I try to point out that no one is so gifted as to always be wrong.

    I love this state but it is not amazing that one of Idaho’s public universities leads the world in Sasquatch studies.

    (Note: It is not UI in Moscow, so go Vandals!!)

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