A few weeks ago, advice columnist Amy Dickinson recommended to a probable troll paranoid, cowardly dad that he toss his bright, responsible 24-year-old daughter out of his house because she made the commonsense choice to have a handgun for self-defense.

In doling out said advice, this particular advice columnist stoked the whining daddy’s paranoia and confirmed his bias against his own child using disinformation and obviously doing no research into the topic whatsoever. The advice columnist was appropriately castigated on the Internet for fomenting discord in this family and lying to the advice seeker.

Today, Amy Dickinson apologizes to her readers and says she consulted with actual experts not just about the handgun, but the caliber and the round.

I reached out to Eric Delbert, a second-generation law enforcement officer and owner (with his father) of LEPD firearms range and training facility in Columbus, Ohio, who patiently described the characteristics of hollow point bullets. They do not explode. They expand. This ammunition seems to be only partially banned in one state (NJ). He also pointed out that the .40 caliber semi-automatic is extremely popular, and — in his opinion — an appropriate choice for this young woman.

But then, Dickinson goes off the rails again by claiming that homeowners “have the right to protect themselves and their homes from civilians bringing firearms onto their private property,” as if gun owners writ large are so violent or inept with their tools of self defense, that homeowners need to protect themselves from them.

To be sure, I do agree that every homeowner has the right to make the decision about whether or not to allow firearms (or anything else) on their private property. But in this case, words matter, and this advice columnist’s words betray her inherent biases against people who make the choice to exercise their right to keep and bear arms.

Worse yet, Dickinson then proceeds to paint herself as a victim, because she got called out on her ignorance numerous times and is upset that readers claim she has no credibility on the matter.

Many angry readers also suggested that my ignorance of firearms and ammunition disqualifies me from commenting on gun ownership or gun violence.

Obviously, I disagree. I don’t have to know the intricacies of a car engine to advocate for commonsense driving and licensing laws.

She’s wrong. Dead wrong.

It’s one thing to comment on vehicle accidents and promote safety measures, but it’s quite another to advise what could be a vulnerable human being (I still think it was a troll) that his daughter could be involved in criminal activity, that he shouldn’t trust her, that the ammunition with which she chooses to defend herself is only suited for criminals, and that it’s OK for him to ruin his relationship with his child based on nothing but irrational fears.

If she had advised this father to discard his own child based on the type of car she chose to drive because a souped up Camaro is a car only drug dealers would drive and has a nuclear powered engine that is only suited for running over pedestrians, I’d be just as nauseated.

But Dickinson doesn’t understand the difference and goes on to claim that the disrespectful comments she received in response to her deranged, imbecilic column are a great argument for gun control. It is instructive that Dickinson mentioned not a thing about the Portland AntiFa savages beating the crap out of journalist Andy Ngo this past weekend – you know, ACTUAL violence – but claims that based on some words she didn’t like, everyone’s rights should be violated.

See, gun owners, it’s your fault that you’ve been lied about, vilified, had your rights trampled all these years, and threatened even with nukes! It’s your fault that this advice columnist painted a 24-year-old girl, whom her father calls “intelligent, hard-working, and responsible,” as a possible criminal who could conceivably murder her family because she happens to own a firearm using misinformation and outright lies. It’s your fault that some were mean to this vapid, whining hag on the Internet. Your words hurt, and therefore, you should be disarmed.

Quite frankly, Dickinson’s continued castigation of gun owners – regardless of her experiences as a journalist (I would love for her to spend some time in some of the world’s more authoritarian tyrannies that disarm their citizenry and abuse people at will) – shows her apology to be insincere and her lacking in any kind of integrity.

Sorry, Amy. You’re a no-go at this station.

Featured photo courtesy of Malis at Wikimedia Commons in the public domain; cropped, resized