Ted Cruz Knows how to carry a Shotgun

A blogger named Wes Siler criticised Ted Cruz for carrying a shotgun in the fashion in the photograph.  I am not sure if the critique was in jest,or serious.  It is not clear that Wes Siles is a liberal.  His favorite president is Teddy Roosevelt.  One of Wes' tweets advise on 16 ways to avoid being  "modern man" by the NYTs famous list.  Wes was soon corrected about shoulder carry, and rightly so.

Shoulder carry, as exemplified by Senator Ted Cruz in the Picture, is explicitly suggested as a means of safely carrying a shotgun or rifle.  It is explicitly demonstrated in the Texas hunter safety training.  From texas.gov:

The shoulder carry balances the rifle on your shoulder, controlling the firearm by a hand on the grip. Always keep your finger off the trigger and on the outside of the trigger guard. This is a good carry when walking beside or behind others. It is not a good carry if others are behind you.

 I looked at Wes Siler's site.   He seems like someone that I would get along with.  His remark about Ted Cruz may have been constructive criticism.  Wes prefers the muzzle forward version of shoulder carry.

Might have been nice if the picture above had been "in the field", but as a writer looking for appropriate photos, it isn't easy to get one that is "just right".

On the other hand, Wes has bought into conspiracy theories about the Koch brothers.  In a weird way, he knocks Republican lawmakers for doing what he wants done, which is to keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list.

(Update: It isn't obvious that Republicans were either keeping it off or attempting to get it on.  What I read seemed a delaying tactic for the status quo.)

Wes goes into a complicated scenario about how keeping the Sage Grouse off the endangered species list (a laudable goal) somehow kept energy developers from buying federal land.  Hey, the left has lots of conspiracy theories.

The theory is that energy producers want the sage grouse listed as endangered, so that private landowners will be enraged at the federal government, thus making them look more favorably at selling off federal land.

So maybe Wes is a complicated creature.  Maybe he is channelling some Edward Abby.  Abby had some interesting thoughts.

Remember this, Wes, energy development is what allows you to have the lifestyle that you have.  It has not destroyed the West.  Population increase from uncontrolled immigration is a much bigger threat.


©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch