I was shocked. So the story goes like this: seemingly loving remembrances were included in "family memories" delivered at a recent Mormon funeral service in a LDS ward. The elderly deceased loved one had greeted (?) the family member speaker with a gun after a date she had returned from. Plus, two other remembered times were shared with the audience when said gun was barnished by this person at, in my opinion, unwarranted trivial matters.

I was shocked for several reasons. The speaker laughed when sharing these incidents, and the fact that this was part of the speech given by a True Blue Mormon in a LDS ward setting.

Any thoughts? Maybe I am reading into this happening in lieu of the religious alt-right groups' involvement in the terrorism of the storming of our nation's Capitol. How accepted is it among Mormonism that guns are talked about in this manner....at a Mormon funeral and in an LDS Ward house?

D'oh!

Perhaps you're aware that Mormons including TBMs have little regard for social boundaries that are commonly observed by & for polite individuals....


also, was Clive Bundy in the audience - congregation then?

About the congregation....only able to divulge that is was an upper-middle-class group. I just cannot emphasis enough that I found this type of gun inclusion in the remembrances of an individual shocking to the core. (And, in my opinion, there seemed to be no scarcity of stories that could be included as the talk was very lengthy). The deceased was a male who held the priesthood and highly spoken of as an obedient temple attending member who would surely be, as the funeral was going on, greeted by his Savior and many, many family members and friends in Mormon heaven.

Guns, especially the AR-15, are seen as holy instruments of divine justice. ...except for the AK family of evil bullet-spitters! Jesus will have no truck with any AK weaponry!

It is the perception of the would-be holy among us that guns dispense justice. And Good Guys only ever get flesh wounds...that are tended to by virtuous women with big ... hearts.

Can I get an amen?

Not surprised.

He always went to the temple, so, everything else is okay. For anyone else it would have been a concern, but he was a righteous man of the Lord so it was just quirkily charming.

Right?

Mormonism is the religion of tough love. The gun toter is a nice metaphor. In Mormonism there is always an invisible gun to your head with the message, 'Do as we say, or, you're out. And we mean way out, where it's uh, dark, really really dark.'

No one but threatening criminals should be greeted with a gun--- not after a date, not on trivial matters, or even important matters, and for sure not in Congress.

Guns are never amusing unless some jerk shoots himself in the foot.

Oh, D&D!

Guns are the most fun you can have killing things, up to and including yourself!

Guns are POWER! Even now just writing this, I'm tingling!!

Guns preserve, promote, and dispense Justice! Guns are great for establishing order, etiquette, and civility! What could possibly go wrong within a society that promotes Guns & Ammo, my second most favorite magazine!

There are statistics (and I'd happy to make them up for you) that prove that if everyone 14 years and older walked around armed, that first year might be a bit sad, in terms of the number of loved ones we lost, but that after that, we would be the most polite, well-ordered, considerate and humane society EVER conceived. All because of the ability of a pin to strike a primer, setting off a contained explosion that directed a projectile in the general direction of where you were aiming!

And that's when they call them Bullet Trains!!

Do I believe this? It doesn't matter, because the people who do, do ... doo-doo. D'uh!

In the minds of ghawd-fearing Americans, while Elohim won't give up the sacred Garand, Jesus is forever up-grading his AR.

Don't say amen, say ArmaLite.



This message was brought to you by my favorite mormon, John Moses Browning, born January 23, 1855 in Ogden, Utah. BANG, BANG, you're dead!

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1679/john-moses-browning#view-photo=196215896

Well, then. What an education I get here! If only all my teachers had been this cleverly entertaining. You certainly ease how much I miss George Carlin.




And, what a memory . . . Browning.

A dear cousin has had an amazing career at the Browning headquarters at 275 Winchester Ave, Morgan, Utah, 84050, the most Mormon county in the country. (Oh, the memories.) Travels the world the cousin does on behalf of firearms. Unlike so many others, she thinks they are for pheasants and deer-- like my father did ---and innocently promotes on that assumption. Darling girl.

Complicated. Guns. If my Dad didn't get a deer in the fall we didn't have much meat for the winter.

When we were little salt shakers, we had some old Brownings in the gun closet. Almost every year dad would take us deer hunting. We had a blast except for those rare occasions when we actually hit something and had to haul it out of the mountains.

Fishing was the same way. We had great adventures as a family, even better when we didn't catch anything.

Seriously, does anyone think Rainbow Trout taste good?

In re rainbow trout....

It is my hope that with enough fluffy white rice, and sufficient soy sauce, any fish can be consumed.

Funny that you'd mention that. Our little tykes are finicky eaters. Show them a vegetable and they vanish like the road runner in a Warner Brothers cartoon.

Sushi/sashimi, on the other hand, they love. They'll eat anything from salmon roe to monk fish liver. But iceberg lettuce with creamy soy dressing?

Beep beep!

Sorry. Loved the rainbow trout. Fried in the pan. Then. Now I can't stomach it.

Mom was a great cook when Dad hunted. The trout, the pheasant, the quail, the duck. So good--just had to watch out for the buck shot.

My Dad caught a record 6 lb+ German Brown trout in the river. Fed all six of us.

The same afternoon the neighbor got a 9 lb one and made the papers. Short lived victory for Dad.

Haha!

The Browning 1911 is Utah's official "State Gun". I shit you not. We're the only state with an official gun. Cool-huh? WWJC "What would Jesus Carry"

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-automatic-pistol-utah/utah-becomes-first-in-u-s-to-designate-official-state-gun-idUSTRE72H08Z20110318



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2021 02:53PM by stillanon.

I love it!

At the end of the article they note that the Browning pistol is joining "Other Utah state symbols including the Dutch oven, Spanish sweet onion, the sugar beet, the elk and the cutthroat trout, which prompted the classic thought, "Which one of these objects is not like the other?"


But seriously . . . . the dutch oven?

So much paranoia about firearms.

They are not evil and not a problem unless the person handling them is.

Exactly. The same thing is true of nuclear bombs, so everyone should have one.

That would made getting your deer a lot easier!


And dutch overns for everyone, too!

Yes, it is important to keep these things in perspective!

Nuclear bombs don't kill people, people kill people.

Don't even have to be evil. There are plenty of loose cannons with sick egos eager to believe what is on the internet, or follow their suspicions sure they are doing what is right. Luckily all those people have access to guns. Nice to have a gun handy for when you are really angry and rather underdeveloped emotionally and mentally and lack any other means to make sure everyone fears and respects you.

The important thing is all guns are safe from the law and never go to prison just because someone forced them to kill. Guns have rights too!

I'm fine with gun ownership as long as owners are required to pass a written and practical test (same as you would do to get a driver's license.) Do very thorough background checks, establish limits as to how many guns you can own (I would say six maximum for any adult 21+,) and ban automatics, semi-automatics, bump stocks, and perhaps certain types of bullets.

We put too many guns into the hands of yahoos.

Golly gee, wouldn't Briggy and Joey be so proud that Utah holds the sole honor of having a gun as a state symbol? After all, they set the stage for guns to be the deciding factor in many, many instances....you know, rather than some Super-Dupper-Peaceful-Revelation-Solution delivered to them, THE prophets of the one true,restored church on earth.

200 plus years of UN-peace is their legacy. Before writing this, I saw news that more lives have just been lost by guns in Florida. And, prior to that I listened to a news show that gave statistics of the lives lost in WW2. It sickened me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2021 05:16PM by presleynfactsrock.

I’ll never forget one of the most “ interesting “ sacrament meetings that we’ve ever attended.
This was back in the day when, if you were asked to speak in sacrament meeting, you could bring a few props or displays to enhance your talk.
The wife, husband, and their two oldest sons who were going to speak looked fairly happy to be giving talks.
When the sacrament was passed and done, the husband reached underneath his seat and pulled out a rifle and took it to the podium. I don’t remember what the subject was about, but I’ll always remember that moment! The sons also had their rifles for all to behold, when they were at the podium.

Guns in Church being used as props...and for what pray tell? This is when I would have run like hell from the meeting. I hope to shout that people did just that....left (and never came back).

I like the metaphor given by D&D - "In Mormonism there is always an invisable gun to your head with the message, 'Do as we say, or, you're out. And we mean way out, where it's uh, dark, really really dark.'

Every old mormon family has a story like that that gets retold over and over. It was also really cool for kids to have a gun rack on the back window of their old pickup trucks with a rifle or shotgun.

These weren't AK-47 people killers, The boys just wanted to look cool and shoot beer bottles.

My old creepy seminary teacher admitted to shooting jack rabbits with a shotgun and then cramming their bloody bodies into peoples mail boxes. I think he was telling the truth that day.

But the Ammon Bundy bunch is a whole new crew of nutty.

Sounds like the speakers were going for "irascible old coot with a heart of gold" vibe, and instead got a little too close to "abusive as*****e" vibe.

Gun Safety is an oxymoron.

Amen to this statement....gun safety is an oxymoron.

When I introduced this thread I decided to not include a background story of myself and my immediate family, but have changed my mind due to the comments which have been shared. My family was highly dysfunctional with a dead-beat alcoholic dad at the center who did, according to information I pulled out by the teeth from family members, over and over again, when drunk or half-drunk. pull out his rifle on us family members. He would hold us hostage until my mom was somehow able to gather us kids up and take us to safety, usually to Grandma's or up a nearby canyon.

I have No memory of these horrific events even though, up until I was 6 years old, I was present over and over again. What I have is a sum total of two memories of my dad and lots of disdain and hate for him. How remarkable that I survived and my Mom and my siblings because, never forget, this sick man was drinking and/or drunk, angry and, I will voice, out of his freaking mind!

And, over and over again, with guns and people this is how the situation plays out....the person with the gun is enraged or depressed or strung out on booze or pills or....on and on. No, it does not happen ALL the time, but it decidedly happens too many times.

Gun Safely and Gun Safety----both Oxymorons.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2021 04:46PM by presleynfactsrock.

I am so sorry to read this. That sort of terrorism within the home is horribly damaging.

I hope you and your family are as well and happy as possible.

Appreciate your very thoughtful words. Thank you.

I shared this part of my life, because, as in my family's case, guns can and do immense damage. I, only through counseling and a university education, have been able to work through the PTSD I came to realize I had. My siblings all took their own individual paths, struggling with their own demons. I am sad that more communication and healing together has not happened, and some of this is due to Mormonism's role in the picture.

From what I have seen of life, communication and healing don't often happen in these circumstances because the malefactors don't have enough insight to recognize their own flaws. So the healing has to occur among the victims as they move along what you call their own individual paths. It's totally unfair, and the recovery is rarely full, but as a practical matter that is the only way forward.

You and your siblings have my deepest sympathy. . . and respect.