by Metro describes itself as a free daily newspaper “written and designed for young and ambitious professionals” which is meant to be read during their morning commute. In other words, yuppies and hipsters living in the big city.
Their New York City edition ran a story on Monday about Project Appleseed. It was part of a series for what they called “Gun Week” which seems to be mostly regurgitated press releases from Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors.
In an article that is relatively fair towards Appleseed but definitely biased against anything either pro-gun or freedom oriented, they start with this description of a recent NYC based event:
In a basement classroom of the Westside Rifle and Pistol range, near the Flatiron Building in New York City, students are being given a lesson in early American History. It has a lot to do with guns.
There are 14 students in the classroom, seven woman and seven men. The students have paid less than the price of an average New York dinner to spend three hours together, to learn how to shoot a small caliber rifle and take a rose-tinted walk through the history of the founding of the United States.
This is Project Appleseed, created by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, dedicated to spreading the art of rifle marksmanship and its place in American history. A mission the group describes on their website as a bulwark against “American ignorance and apathy.” It speaks volumes to the nature of the Apple Seed volunteers that the group doesn’t descend into some thin-veiled, if well-armed, Tea Party propaganda machine.
In an effort to not frighten the hipsters away, they say Project Appleseed is a “middle ground” in the gun debate.
Project Appleseed, and events like it, represents the closest thing to a middle ground in the gun debate that there is in the country right now. It’s a place where the debate can be stripped of some of its caustic rhetoric and returned to something approaching rational conversation as novices learn about the pros and cons of gun ownership.
The photos that accompany the article are of another Project Appleseed event run by Nick Cirillo. Given his name, I wonder if he is some relation to the legendary Jim Cirillo.