Why You Hate That We Love Zombies

Why the zombie hate? Not the hate of zombies, but the subject of zombies? From reading the comments, I get the impression that a whole lot of you wish it would all go away. The basic idea I get from your comments is that you are somewhat embarrassed by it, and us, plus you think it detracts from "outreach."

That is, if we'd all just go back to shooting Bambi with bolt guns, and stopped all this prepper/survivalist zombie nonsense, that "some" people would leave us alone. And others would come to like us, and join us. I've got some news for you: They won't.

Do you really think that if we "behaved" ourselves that Feinstein/Schumer et. al would just move on to some other meddlesome project? That if we only owned and shot five-shot bolt guns, and double-barreled shotguns, Violence Policy Center (VPC) would dry up and blow away?

They won't quit, and trying to make ourselves more palatable to Conyers, McCarthy and their cohorts doesn't help, while doing two things: reducing our fun, and proving they can coerce us. Trying to placate the antis by self-restricting is like asking your mother to make a different sandwich, so the school bully won't be annoyed at taking your PB&J again.

Yes, zombie shooting is different. The world is different. The old guard views benchrest, paper-punching club shoots as the norm. The younger generation, raised on video games and cable TV, finds such shooting about as much fun as a root canal. Trying to entice them into a gun club, offering the usual "smallest five-shot group wins lunch" matches is like offering them free dial-up for their smartphones. It doesn't compute.

Is zombie shooting -- and talking -- a bit goofy? Sure, but so is everything else entertaining. And trying to inject a double-dose of serious into a gun conversation is a sure way to disperse a crowd.

As to the subject of myself, and how I could "stoop" to writing about zombies as if they were real, a moment's pause, please. I had to check to see if you were pulling my leg. Of course they aren't real. But nothing else we read, write and discuss is real, either. "Best carry gun?" "Best carry load?" Statistically, your chances -- outside very few urban centers -- of actually needing either are remote. It's winning the lottery remote. But the mental exercise of considering either is useful.

And as for me, I'm not interested in being typecast as "a gunsmithing author" or "that 1911/AR/IPSC" author. I'm a writer, I write. In-between the features, the tests, the blogs and all the rest, I write other stuff.: novels, screenplays, comedy. When I need a break from the earnestness of "the best elk cartridge" torrent, I consider zombies.

Lighten up. The brain you save may be your own. And not just from being eaten.

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