“IT’S NOT A CLIP, IT’S A MAGAZINE!!!”
That can be heard in every gun store in the country, if you listen long enough. It can also be seen on every single firearms forum within moments of typing the word ‘clip’. Try it. The phrase is generally used to correct the filthy casuals when they try to act like they know what they’re talking about. Which they don’t, because they’re just filthy casuals. Or as the kids say these days, “Normies”. But I think we should change how that behavior. I’ll explain below.
There is no end to the low effort memes devoted to this one saying. Weirdly enough, I have no idea when this phrase, or some version of it, came about. I think the genesis of the entire thing was WWII. The M1 Garand was fed by en bloc clips. When it ran dry, you grab a clip and jam ‘er in there and get back to killing socialists. The clip remained inside the gun until it was completely dry, at which point the Garand would auto-eject the empty, and the process starts once more. For the Garand, the clips were used just as you would any other magazine. When the GIs went home and used anything else, the term ‘clip’ would be used instead of magazine. We trained a lot of people to use the M1 Garand, so the confusion was widespread. COD and other massively popular video games were the gateway to guns for lots of millennials and Gen Z, and they’ll continue to do so. And guess what those games call magazines? Yep, ‘clips’. It’s taken us 70 years to make the progress we have and we’re not even close. At least, that’s my theory.
Enough history, let’s get to my main point: We should stop correcting people.
Crazy, I know, but hear me out.
We should obviously police those within the gun community, but the normies? Let them use the wrong words on purpose.
You see, every group has a shared identity. I there’s no shared identity, then there is no group. Even if that shared identity is “Well, at least we’re not that guy!”, it still counts. We American gun people have a shared identity derived from out knowledge and fondness of guns. We all have the shared experience of having to do background checks on a Constitutional right! Lots of us have filled out paperwork and waited weeks to months just to obtain permission to carry a gun in public! More and more of us are now in government registries because we think hearing protection at the source is a good idea.
We all have a common experience, and a shared identity from that experience. Along with that comes common language. Slang, jargon, ‘technical term’, what you call it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that only people within the group are fluent in it. This should be encouraged! If someone wants to learn, we should be more than eager to teach them, but I think our current behavior of forcing correct terms on any- and everyone is flawed.
If you walk up to a gun store counter and ask the guy for some clips for your Glock, I know how serious you are. If you ask if they have any 33-round magazines, I can similarly make a decision about your general involvement with the gun community.
Think of it like a verbal secret handshake. I signal to you that I have at least a minimum level of understanding. This is known as “in-speech” (I believe, let me know if I’m wrong). It is speech that signals my membership in a group. If a person doesn’t know enough, or care enough, to even get down this tiny name change, then can I trust that they know the 4 safety rules? Should I steer them towards the case full of revolvers or the case full of Glocks? Can I trust that they even know what they want? Knowing within seconds how informed a person is has massive advantages for us.
Now, besides the previous utilitarian point, pedantically correcting people makes you look like an massive jerk. If you’re just some dude who wants a good gun to protect his family, and the guy behind the counter keeps correcting you on what the thing that put bullets into it is called, are you going to have a good experience? Are you going to enjoy your trip to the gun store? How likely are you to try that store ever again, or any for that matter?
That’s important because the key to gaining our rights back is manpower. The media is against us, 99% of the people in government are against us, the only power we have is in overwhelming numbers at the poles, which we do not currently posses. We can’t even count on the NRA to go out an try to make more new gunowners. The only way we gain more manpower is by not driving away potential allies! Being an arrogant, pedantic jackwagon is a surefire way to drive away the future of our freedom.
And once they’ve shown some potential, take them aside.
Share a little of that secret knowledge.
Start bringing them into the fold.
And maybe our little community will survive another generation.
Stay free, and I’ll see you next Friday.
-S_S
Pro-Gun Millennial 