Bob Ricker, internet troll?

If you don’t know who Bob Ricker is, he is Executive Director for the American Hunters and Shooters Association. If you don’t know what AHSA is, it’s an anti-gun group masquerading as a “pro-hunters and shooters” organization. Just do a Google blog-search for AHSA or American Hunters and Shooters Association, and you’ll find loads of fun information about them, including how the president of the organization was seen at the Heller arguments getting all buddy-buddy with Paul Helmke and Petey Hamm of the Brady Campaign.

Now, here’s what I don’t get about Bob, and the source of the title of this blog. Lately, AHSA has been getting absolutely pounded by pro-gun blogs, from far and wide. This has reduced Bob to running around trolling blogs, as though insulting people and calling them names is actually going to help his case. Check out some of his greatest hits:

On Say Uncle:

Hey SayUncle- only seven comments to this post? I’m stunned. Of the 30 to 40 million so called NRA members Bitter writes about, you could only find 7 who don’t agree with me. How many “whackos” do you represent?

Taunting, calling gun-owners “whackos”, etc. Sadly, that’s not an isolated incident.

On The Bitch Girls:

I do not describe the regulars who read a blog named the “The Bitch Girls” to be the AHSA target market. I think it should be clear from my comments here and on other “whacko” blogs that AHSA is reaching out to a more educated, sophisticated and straight thinking hunter and shooter demographic. Unfortunately, a “bitter” female with a gun and a chip on her shoulder probably would not find AHSA’s message of civic responsibility much to her liking.

So, we’re whackos, uneducated, unsophisticated boors who are not interested in civic responsibility. But wait, there’s more!

Again from the Bitch Girls, who seem to be a favorite target of Bob’s ire:

I don’t understand why you self defense whackos are so concerned about how AHSA elects its directors or our how the organizations finances work.

That was in response to a bunch of people questioning where AHSA got its funding from (hint: it’s not gun owners).

Now, here’s what I don’t get about all of this. It’s one thing if some internet no-name runs around trolling pro-gun blogs and calling people whackos and engaging in ad hominem attacks, but Bob Ricker an executive of a lobbying organization. He should know better.

I guess I’m confused because I’m from a generation that grew up online, and I know that the two fastest ways to lose an argument on the ‘net is A) Goodwin’s Law, and B) trolling. While Bob hasn’t invoke Nazism yet, he really went to insults and ad hominem attacks pretty fast – to the internet community that just makes you look like you can’t defend your arguments.

Normally, I wouldn’t help out the other team like this, but I kind of feel bad for Bob. He’s getting his ass kicked all over the web, and doesn’t seem to realize that he’s only making himself and his organization look bad with these kind of tactics. So Bob, for your own sake, knock it off, you just end up looking like a troll, and no one likes or respects a guy who’s just trolling.

3 Comments

  1. no one likes or respects a guy who’s just trolling
    This is true, but then again Ricker and his cohorts aren’t really worthy of our respect anyway.

  2. Is it wrong that I was hoping the first comment on here would be another ad hominem attack from Bob?

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