Tom Gresham of Gun Talk TV & Radio wont come to OC.com

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Tom Gresham (( who I really admire )) says and I kind of agree says that any gun type forum were the posters / participants wont use their real name is a waist of time.

((( notice I said I "Kind of" agree, I'm here after all , lol ))))


Tom says he always uses his real name and will only go to a very select few forums and post or read posts, and also says there is no good reason to hide behind a fake name or kooky ID.

Fear of Anti's, Islamic terrorists , stalker's, the boss, the wife, the FBI etc.... he say's is an excuse to "hide" behind a computer and post half truth, hyperbole and total arm chair warrior B.S.


What say You (( Me >> No Fear >> my ID is my name & town were I live ))

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I heard that comment he made listening to the archived show, so it was too late to call in and debate that one with him.

One word with a lot of implications: Privacy.

His argument is way to similar to "If you don't have anything to hide...."


I'm going to try to call in and bring it up with him this weekend, as well as address two other points I think he was incorrect on.

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I am a hugeproponentwith the line of thought that it is best to keep some form of anonymity when posting on a publicly viewable forum. Especially when it could be considered controversial by some.

There are many weirdos out there, why should I give them an easy task of finding my home address, phone number and all sorts of other information that they can use to harass me?

From that comment alone, the guy sounds like a real douchebag to me! And he also has no concept or reality.

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In Michigan, we've had police tell us bluntly they closely monitor the forums. I've watched police at Michigan events go run everyones plates and I'm sure take dashcam footage. I've had my ID unlawfully seized, as have many others here. I've made many formal written complaints to LE agencies. I've had many thousands of people see me OCing. And we've experienced almost relentless press coverage of our Michigan events. So I am not aware of a more publicly visible forum than this one.

Many here, including me do not want to make our exact names and residences clear to everyone everywhere via the web. But that doesn't change the simple facts I listed above.

I think this web site represents the most courageous and dedicated segment of the lawful gun owning population of the US. Particularly for those in the states where OC is still in its infancy and police tend to be abusive. Dismissing us as arm chair cowards or something like that is either uneducated or just plain wrong. Maybe it's an excuse for him to stay out of our cause?

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Tom says he always uses his real name and will only go to a very select few forums and post or read posts, and also says there is no good reason to hide behind a fake name or kooky ID.

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Good for him. However, I personally dont give adamn what Gresham, or anyone else, thinks about using a "fake name or kooky ID". He chooses to use his real name,good for him, it's his choice.Other folks prefer not to, it's their choice. People who use alias' have no less to say than people who post their real names and what they have to say is no less important just because they use a alias.

Tom will only go to "veryselect few forums". I get the impression that he has a real high opinion of himself, like it's a great privilege/honor to have Tom Gresham post on a blog. I dont share that opinion and am glad he dos'nt waste his time posting here.

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Well, I can tell you my real name sure isn't Armond.

People who expect full disclosures over the internet are living in a dream world.

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I wonder how many Anony Mouses are registered to vote and how many have sworn their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence in large script while Anony Mouse's signature is so small that it cannot be seen if, indeed, it is there.

The most amusing of all is an anonymous gallus-snapper that claims membership in all sorts of elite brotherhoods and then damns the elite standing alone.

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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"Huck:

Tom will only go to "veryselect few forums". I get the impression that he has a real high opinion of himself, like it's a great privilege/honor to have Tom Gresham post on a blog. I dont share that opinion and am glad he dos'nt waste his time posting here.

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Funny, I was just listening to him today on my way to where I am now (I download the shows and listen to them on a CD in my car), and felt that in some way this would touch a nerve here.

Now that I'm logging on, my hunch seems correct.

I think Tom is actually a fairly humble guy. I believe in this case "select few" refersto a handful of forums in which people generally use their real names, which he prefers. Unfortunately,he conflates the idea of goofy people posting inaccurate/irrelevant/nonsensical information and hiding behind anonymity, with the legitimate need to discuss the things we love to participate in without giving the wrong people an easy way to find out where we are and get in touch with us.

I applaud anyone's efforts on OCDO to contact him and make a reasoned rebuttal.

But don't let this color your view of Tom and his show - I think there's a decent man at the other end of that microphone, who loves guns and cares about the rights of the shooting community.

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I don't disagree with him entirely. Anonymity does nothing for one's credibility. However a guy like Gresham is already in the public's eye, so he really does not lose much in the way of privacyby posting under his real identity.

I post on one forum using my real name, and on a number of other forums while the handle I post by is not my full name, my identity is widely known among forum members.

BTW, my name really is Bob, and I really am from Illinois, thus ILBOB.

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The only forum I know of where I've bumped into his posts is THR. I mean no disrespect to THR, but it has a lot of newcomers to guns with a lot of newcomer questions. It also doesn't seem to have any more people using their real names than here.

With a forum like this, where everyone is concentrated on a specific gun related subject, and a large portion of posters are truly experts with that subject "big names" from gun magazines tend not to post, at least not using their real names. The only forum I can think of off hand that this doesn't apply to is Uzitalk.com and subguns.com, which have people from Small Arms Review, which isn't exactly a big time magazine anyway.

I would say that in a place like this, gun writers could easily be out of their element, because they are supposed to be these great experts, and they could easily know less than average about OC and the related laws. Not saying that's why Tom specifically won't post here, but I think that's why you don't see tons of gun writers posting here and other gun forums devoted to a specific type of gun or gun subject.

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Master Doug Huffman wrote:

I wonder how many Anony Mouses are registered to vote and how many have sworn their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence in large script while Anony Mouse's signature is so small that it cannot be seen if, indeed, it is there.

The most amusing of all is an anonymous gallus-snapper that claims membership in all sorts of elite brotherhoods and then damns the elite standing alone.

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Interesting. I hadn't realized the Declaration of Independence was a casual online medium.

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I disagree.

Anonymity is your best defense while using the internet. I remember a story about 2 years ago of a gradeschool teacher fired from her job because of some party pictures she posted on facebook. You might say well thats not gun related and she posted those pictures. How far of a stretch might that be for some local law enforcement showing up at your door with warrent in hand because of some forum posts.

A public person like Tom Gresham won't lose anything for posting under his real name.

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SteveInAshand wrote:

Tom Gresham (( who I really admire )) says and I kind of agree says that any gun type forum were the posters / participants wont use their real name is a waist of time.

((( notice I said I "Kind of" agree, I'm here after all , lol ))))


Tom says he always uses his real name and will only go to a very select few forums and post or read posts, and also says there is no good reason to hide behind a fake name or kooky ID.

Fear of Anti's, Islamic terrorists , stalker's, the boss, the wife, the FBI etc.... he say's is an excuse to "hide" behind a computer and post half truth, hyperbole and total arm chair warrior B.S.


What say You (( Me >> No Fear >> my ID is my name & town were I live ))

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That is an outrageous statement. Many of the subjects he lists have justified reasons for avoiding. Why didn't he go ahead and add Hitler's Gestapo to that list? Perhaps hindsight tells us pseudonymous communications were effective in ridding the world of Hitler's tyranny.

First, there is historically justified precedent to the use of pseudonyms to preserve some level of privacy for authors. Primarily, book authors use pseudonyms so they can continue to write content people want to read, without being stalked, harassed, raped or potentially worse.

Second, all of the subjects he lists may use information gathered from real names, for good, or evil purposes. None of which may be immediately apparent to the public at large until some level of evil is committed on the population, which is subsequently exposed. Ever hear of government whistleblowers exposing corruption?

1) pseudonymous communication is not the same as anonymous communication, and no post on a standard message board is 100% anonymous.

2) pseudonymous communications are always authenticated by some means, and the reader is given some level of assurance that the person who wrote a message, is that same person from previous messages.

Would we rather people be subject to the wrath of the parties he mentions, which includes harassment, defamation, oppression, and even death, even though they legally didn't do anything wrong? Would people voluntarily speak out if they risked any of these potentially life threatening events?

Some individuals have a national radio talk show host, that would gain a large amount of public exposure to correct any wrongdoings done to them by harassers or government oppressors. That's a nice benefit they enjoy, but most of us don't have that sort of leverage. The rest of us have pseudonymous communication.

If Tom is concerned about the content of the information, he should know that pseudonyms can still be fact checked to the point of loss of credibility, and noone would subsequently rely on information from that pseudonym. The reverse is also true.

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nofoa wrote:

I disagree.

Anonymity is your best defense while using the internet. I remember a story about 2 years ago of a gradeschool teacher fired from her job because of some party pictures she posted on facebook. You might say well thats not gun related and she posted those pictures. How far of a stretch might that be for some local law enforcement showing up at your door with warrent in hand because of some forum posts.

A public person like Tom Gresham won't lose anything for posting under his real name.

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Stupid, probably full of shit example:

A person on another forum I post on claimed that the FBI showed up at her friend's door over a picture of him posing with an "assault rifle" posted on Facebook, because "that's what the FBI has to do when people post pictures of guns" and he had to prove it was a fake gun.

Apparently guns are FBI-investigating-a-sighting illegal here in the good old US.

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Tom who?

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zoom6zoom wrote:

Tom who?

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This and I could care less what some idiot thinks. OPSEC PEOPLE

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Doesn't Greshem oppose OC?

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Armond Reese wrote:

Stupid, probably full of @#$% example:

A person on another forum I post on claimed that the FBI showed up at her friend's door over a picture of him posing with an "assault rifle" posted on Facebook, because "that's what the FBI has to do when people post pictures of guns" and he had to prove it was a fake gun.

Apparently guns are FBI-investigating-a-sighting illegal here in the good old US.

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So why aren't they showing up at *our* doors? BS flag :lolStupid, probably full of @#$% example Yep.

Also, not to trip anyone's paranoia, but, depending on the host site's cooperation with LE, LE can track you down whether you use a nom-de-plume or not. Packet information will lead them back to the originating unit without your actual name.

It all depends on the host site and whether they stand by privacy laws or not.

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Really? My ISP's nearly 500,000 customers share less than a thousand IPs (prolly about 600). The DAMA queuing latency suggests that most may be simultaneously on-line at prime time. RBLs are a pain indicating that individual users aren't traced or logged.

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Nutczak wrote:

I am a hugeproponentwith the line of thought that it is best to keep some form of anonymity when posting on a publicly viewable forum. Especially when it could be considered controversial by some.

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Yes. Completely agreed.


In fact, of all the forums I've joined and viewed, I've never seen one in which any significant number of people use their real names.