Anti-gun proponents often characterize gun owners as reckless rubes, prone to violence and shooting up the landscape at the slightest provocation.  In so doing, they either mischaracterize or lie about the culture of gun ownership, a culture deeply concerned about and trained in the safe handling of firearms.  The basic safety rules of gun handling are inculcated in virtually all gun owners, from their youth if introduced to firearms by relatives, or by others if they take up gun ownership in adulthood, as millions of Americans are doing every year.

That’s why anti-gun hypocrisy is so blaring obvious when Democrats and their anti-gun sycophants do what they accuse gun owners of doing.  Read this and try to avoid cringing:  

Jerome M. Hauer, [New York] Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s director of homeland security, took out his handgun and used the laser sighting device attached to the barrel as a pointer in a presentation to a foreign delegation, according to public officials. It happened Oct. 24 in Albany at the highly secure state emergency operations center below State Police headquarters.

These officials, one of whom claimed to be an eyewitness, said that three Swedish emergency managers in the delegation were rattled when the gun’s laser tracked across one of their heads before Hauer found the map of New York, at which he wanted to point.

Hauer, commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, was disabled by a stroke a few years ago and can be unsteady. He isn’t a law enforcement official. He carries the loaded 9-millimeter Glock in a holster into state buildings, an apparent violation of state law barring state employees from bringing weapons to the workplace, several witnesses say.

The incident with the Swedish delegation occurred during a two-hour briefing at the operations center concerning the state’s response to Superstorm Sandy, according to one of the officials.

…

According to one person who witnessed the scene in the conference room, which has mid-wall-to-ceiling windows so that people can see into the meeting space, two people opposite Hauer at the table moved quickly out of the line of the laser when he brought out the gun.

Why, I wonder, does one never hear of this sort of thing happening at an NRA meeting or convention?  All human beings are fallible, and all make mistakes, but using the laser sight of a loaded weapon as a presentation pointer, and tracking it over people’s bodies?  People “moved quickly out of the line of the laser when he brought out the gun”?  Well, yeah…

Democrat state government, always concerned about gun safety, immediately swung into action:

Asked about the matter over the course of several weeks, Cuomo’s press aide promised to look into it but has repeatedly had no comment. Hauer’s communications officer, Peter Cutler, also promised to look into it, but he has declined to respond beyond saying he is unaware that it happened. ‘I’ve heard rumors,’ Cutler said.

No one, including Hauer, has denied the episode happened. Approached by the Times Union at the Capitol after a meeting with Cuomo, Hauer was asked if he had used his gun as a pointer in a presentation. ‘You have bad sources,’ he said, but would not take follow-up questions.

…

What happened that day? ‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ said Cutler, whose desk at the homeland security office at the Harriman Campus is a short walk down the hall to Hauer’s. “I don’t have any information on that.”

Cutler said he would check to see if a Swedish delegation met with his boss on Oct. 24, but did not share whatever information he gathered.

…

‘I don’t even know if he carries a weapon,’ Cutler said about his boss, who has drivers who also wear guns. Asked in the past why he carries a handgun, Hauer suggested that a reporter look him up in a Google search.

Cutler said Hauer is licensed to carry a gun in Albany and in New York City. The press officer said he isn’t sure if his boss is authorized to carry one into state offices, however. He suggested a reporter contact the Office of General Services and the State Police to see if Hauer received some sort of carve-out from the Public Facilities Law, which prohibits employees from entering state buildings with weapons. Press officers from the two offices did not have information on Friday about whether Hauer has permission to bear arms at work.

Ah!  So not only is the New York Homeland Security Chief apparently in violation of New York’s draconian gun laws, he is careless enough with handguns to endanger the lives of foreign visitors in high-level conferences.

Can you imagine doing anything like this?  Of course, you wouldn’t, ever, but if you did, do you imagine for a moment that the government would cover for you?  Wouldn’t it be more likely you’d end up in jail and be prosecuted for every crime the state could dream up?  I’d certainly expect to have the book thrown at me, and if I behaved as Hauer apparently did, I’d deserve it.

Anyone behaving this way around gun people would not only be immediately disarmed and ejected, they’d likely never be welcome in their company again.  You don’t show that kind of stupidity, lack of understanding of the responsibilities of carrying a gun, and fundamental disregard for the safety of others without consequences in the “gun culture” leftists and the media (but I repeat myself) so casually disparage.

There’s one other thing anti-gunners often say: only highly trained government operatives should be allowed to carry guns.

That gives me the opportunity to present one of my favorite gun- related photos of all time.  What’s wrong with this photo of a highly trained SWAT troop?

That’s right!  The holoscopic sight on his rifle is mounted backward!  It would not only be utterly useless, if he tried to shoot with it mounted that way, God only knows what–or who–he might hit.

Thank goodness we have such highly trained government officials looking out for us and our best interests.

Mike’s Home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.