In Episode 9 of “Light Over Heat,” I discussed guns as tools, and quoted a Forbes magazine writer who criticized guns by way of an analogy to chainsaws:
Some people say guns are tools — but nobody buys 10 chain saws in varying colors and speeds.
Elizabeth MacBride, Forbes (1 March 2019)
This brought the chainsaw nuts out of the woodwork! As a suburbanite who doesn’t own a chainsaw, I had no idea how many “Chainsaw Super Owners” there are out there.
This got me to thinking about chainsaws, guns, and the rural-urban divide in America, the subject of “Light Over Heat” #11.
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Gun Culture 2.0 
First thing I thought of was “self reliance”. Good show! And where did you get that t-shirt?
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p.s. left a related comment back after Podcast #9
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It’s also good to be mindful, in the spirit of light over heat, that everything isn’t EITHER/OR. It’s possible to outsource certain things and also be self-reliant.
Re the shirt: https://www.liberalgunowners.org/lgo-store
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The chainsaw argument is a bad analogy. Let’s look at some better ones: Did Julia Child own more than one kitchen knife? Does Tiger Woods have more than one golf club? I personally am not a “hammer nut,” but I own about half a dozen hammers, all different, and also saws and wrenches of various types, etc. As with the tools of Child and Woods, their varying designs serve different purposes. (And, for the record, though I am a suburbanite, I nevertheless have a smallish chainsaw in my garage for minor tree trimming and yard cleanup, as does at least one of my neighbors.)
From a different angle, I’ll point out that most people only have two hands, so, at most, can only use two guns simultaneously, no matter how many they own.
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I had initially thought the chainsaw analogy was a bad one but then I met all of these chainsaw nuts and saw it worked well – except chainsaws are not good projectile weapons.
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As with Jerry H. I am a DIY guy and have many of the tools needed to do repairs around my house. I have at least 5 or 6 hammers, at least 9 hand saws, a table saw and an electric miter saw and so forth. That said I grew up in NYC during the 50’s, moving out in ’88. I belonged to a jr. rifle club sponsored by the local police precinct. Yes the police department sponsored us, in NYC. Also pretty much every college in NYC had a rifle team (through the 1970’s) and some of the local High Schools also. Pretty much every high school had a range and a team before and after WWII. It was no big deal back then but you started having a change in population in the city. Many were people who were very anti-war and saw guns as weapons of war only. Saw no reason that anyone would want to shoot one much less own one. Did I own a firearm when I lived in NYC – YES, several actually. The police precinct that sponsored us also helped us to on a thanksgiving trip to the Catskills to go deer hunting. We had to provide our own hunting rifles and it was not considered unusual for us to be able to do so.
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In addition to the chainsaw nuts, I was also surprised to learn how many hammer nuts are out there. So, they say if your only tool is a hammer then everything looks like a nail. But what if you have 5 or 6 hammers? What then?
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I like the shirt, but I think the suit really works better for this.
Also, the audio was still not as good as the previous videos. Content is still excellent.
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Thanks for the feedback. I am not sure what is going on with the audio as I have tried to standardize my audio editing procedure in Adobe Premeire. Maybe I need to get a set of studio headphones instead of listening through my desktop computer speakers?
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Are you completely certain that the camera is taking the audio from your lav mic? It seems to be camera audio.
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I am PRETTY sure insofar as I have tested it both ways and the camera mic sounds a lot worse. But I will double check!
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[…] Light Over Heat #11: Chainsaws, Guns, and the Rural-Urban Divide […]
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Not all chainsaws, but at last count I had around 17 power saws. Some are redundant. Same as vehicles, wrenches, dogs, boots, fishing rods, boat paddles, first aid kits, tow chains, spare tires, and pocket knives.
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Some very valid points in your video reference the city/suburban/rural divide. Yes a chain saw is a tool, and yes, I own more than one, but I also own 10 or so hammers. I own multiple sets of “mechanics tools.” More than one car, more than one tractor. Does that make me a bad person? No, just different from the author of the Forbes article. Seems like she was/is very close minded.
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