How do the owners/administrators/moderators of TPF reconcile their apparent disdain for gun photos when, on the TPF homepage is an ad for obtaining a concealed weapons permit?
People click on that link, and the site owners make a few pennies. After a while, it adds up to some real... pennies, I guess.
But that's not the point. The point is that ownership is more than willing to take money from an entity promoting guns, and carrying them concealed (a VERY hot button topic), but they won't let someone post a photo of their personal handgun.
Truly, the irony can get no thicker..
Ok, first some background so you know where I'm coming from. I'm ex military. In fact I had the honor of serving two different nations as a member of their armed forces, so I spent a lot of time carrying guns. Using guns. Cleaning guns. Dissasembling and reassembling guns while some guy stood behind me with a stop watch. Loading guns. Unloading guns. Signing guns in. Signing guns out. Counting guns (inventory). So no, pictures of guns don't bother me in the slightest.
Sadly however there are a lot of folks that get very upset by pictures of guns. Granted, I don't get it. But I do get that for them it hits a nerve. Everytime somebody posts a picture of a gun, some folks get all up in arms.. ok, bad pun, but they start harrasing the OPs with reports of inappropriate use, and sometimes they start a heated conversation about how nobody should own or want to own a gun.
Now if we could all handle a conversation like that as mature adults, hey, that would be great. Track record clearly indicates otherwise. This really isn't the proper venue for that kind of debate. I don't hang out here in the hopes of participating in a scintillating debate on the 2nd amendment. Most other folks don't either. Originally the policy was completely hands off, no gun pictures. I get why, it's a hot button issue on both sides and just seems to lend itself to nothing but endless debate and argument.
So they eased the restriction on gun photos, I guess they were thinking it might be nice to give the folks that actually own guns and take pictures of them a chance to share that at least where it relates to the broader topic of photography - and instead of responding maybe with a bit of gratitude and maybe a modicum of understanding all they are getting for it is grief.
On the one side you've got the "You have to let us post whatever we want for gun photos and the people who don't like it be damned" crowd, and on the other side you've got the "You should'nt let anybody post gun pictures ever because all guns are evil" crowd, and neither side apparently is willing to compromise or even just simply agree to disagree.
Steve, you know I love you man. I'm in awe of so much that you do, including this mystical ability you have to drive a stick shift. But on this one I'm afraid I really don't think your giving the Ops a fair shake. They have the unenviable task of trying to keep the peace here, while doing their best to accomodate two diametrically opposed groups neither of whom want to give them even a single iota of slack.
That's pretty much my 2 cents worth, take it for what you will.