PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
What You Have Is Good Enough. You, However, Are Not. :: 12/26/2015
When I was a professional photographer, once someone at a party found out what I did for a living, I would inevitably be asked, “Say, I want to take better pictures, what kind of camera should I get?”
“Know thy enemy, know thyself, and you will be invincible.” – Sun Tzu
My answer to this was always, “Well, that depends. How many rolls of film do you shoot each week?” This would usually end the conversation as the would-be photographer grappled with the concept of shooting an entire 36-shot roll of film each week, much less more than one roll a week. One the other hand, it was not uncommon for me to burn through two dozen rolls of HP5+ or TMZ covering just one minor high school basketball game on a Friday night.
Looking back, I realize my answer to the wannabe photogs was snarky and condescending: The reason people want to take better pictures isn’t because they want to be the next Mark Seliger. It’s because they want to capture memories that are more evocative and aesthetic, a desire we all share.
It’s not the camera that limits the photographer. We are limited by our ability to put in the time it takes to realize our vision and desire for creativity. The fact is, great photos can be taken with any camera. Chances are, you can defend your life with just about any firearm. It’s not the tools you use, it’s how you use the tools you have. My friend Tam said it wonderfully, so I’m quoting her here:
Two reasons people are anti-training (perhaps not coincidentally, this is also why people are anti- competing in organized shooting sports):
1) “It costs too much.” Somebody has fifteen guns, a motorcycle, a PS3 with plenty of games hooked to his flat-panel TeeWee (not to mention the PS2 and PlayStation in the attic), and who knows how many other toys, and a $200-$400 handgun training course “costs too much”. Hey, Skippy, how ’bout selling that Taurus Raging Judge you were bragging about buying last week and using the proceeds to get yourself taught how to use one of the fourteen other guns you already had? (And maybe sell one of those and take an MSF class for your motorcyclin’ while you’re at it.) The problem is, people can’t point at new mental furniture and say to their friends “Look what I just bought!”
2) People can’t shoot, but think they can. At the range, nobody is really watching them shoot and, face it, everybody else at the range is awful, too. But if they go to a class or enter a match, it will get proved officially: “Joe/Jane Averageshooter: First Loser”. It takes humility to learn and lose. Humble people don’t boast on their adequacy. So most people go and buy another gun instead, because when they open the box on that gun, it won’t look up at them and say “You stink!”; it’ll say “You just bought the official pistol of SWATSEAL Team 37 1/2! Congratulations!”
If you want to take better pictures, learn about light and get some training: Chances are the camera you have is up to the task. If want to defend your life, learn to use the guns you have, because they’re the ones you’ll have with you if your life is on the line.
