text: Yes, ignorance often renders opinions invalid. Happens all the time. This is why I tend not to opine about what I am ignorant about. One time I complained to some old ladies about using up all the pearls in their knitting and making oysters endangered. They laughed at me. 
  
  You've never been in a situation -- yet. I've never been in a house fire but I have extinguishers tucked around the home just in case. You never know, eh.
  
  Here's what military vets know -- A firearm is a tool, nothing more, nothing less. And stuff happens 
  
  And I know many people who understand those without having been in the military. Some people never learn them. 
  
  But honestly... who are you going to turn to for exegesis of the Gospel of Mark... a theologian who has studied and is conversant with the issues... or a person who thinks Christianity is nonsense and has never picked up the Bible? 
  
  Who is likely to have a better understanding of firearms? Firearm laws? The firearm owning community? You? Or me?