For historical background: I learned to shoot when I was 6 with my Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. But, you "Christmas Story" fans, before I could shoot it at all, I had to be able to show my father, WWII veteran of the US Marine Corps, all the parts that were visible and explain their function. If you could have field stripped a Red Ryder I would have had to do so, and put it back together blindfolded, I am sure. I only shot at a target set up in the garage on a backstop built according to Daisy and NRA design standards. [I remember going to the lumber yard, since we had those back then, with mom. She had the plans and the materials list. The two guys at the yard were either bored or took pity on a woman, both highly likely in Oklahoma in the 50's, fired up their 12" radial arm and cut to specification every piece of wood required in the backstop, for free of course, and loaded 'em into the back of the car.] My brother and I each had a Daisy BB air rifle, my Red Ryder and his pump. The only thing we saw was NRA official targets up through Pro-Marksman, Marksman, Marksman First-Class bar, Sharpshooter, all 9 (yes, nine) Sharpshooter bars, and the Expert Rifleman, 15-ft air rifle class.
Although I never made it, my brother, nearly blind as a bat with no depth perception and astigmatism that would cause an elephant to turn his head, made Distinguished Rifleman. That required what seemed like a half a zillion perfect targets to achieve. Nothing at all for Mike.
We got a .22 single shot next. We only shot it at the outdoor range set up on one of the Standard properties near Oklahoma City, a recreation area for employees only. Again at targets.
At the age of 11 or so, we could take the BB guns to our grandfather's farm and hunt pigeons and sparrows. Had we nailed a mockingbird, our grandmother would have skinned us alive. We also got to go squirrel and quail hunting with our grandfather. This is a Winchester Model 74 semi-automatic rifle in .22 short. It was my grandfather's, it was manufactured in 1939, and it is an example of fine American craftsmanship. My grandfather, quite literally, could have driven nails with this at 100 yards with open sights. When my cousin, Bill, brought it out one day and gave it to me saying that Grandpa and Grandma had specifically told him to give it to me, I cried. [It is, by the way, on the shop wall with the spinning rod my dad bought me when I was 6 and my dad's spinning rod and his favorite bass plug].
"Daddy Bill" hunted quail, rabbits and squirrels for the most part - occasionally maybe a dove or two and, at the time, a blackbird (4 and twenty in a pie, you know?) - for food. If you were an annoying wild dog or cat or a wolf (yep, still had them in OK in the 50's) or coyote, you didn't want to get within 200 yards of the house. Not only Grandpa, but my grandmother was known more than once to lay that Winchester across the window sill and pop anything that had been chasing her mockingbirds. She didn't miss, either.
Now, the point of this post: under the definitions as proposed by good old Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Byrd, this is an assault rifle. It is magazine fed and hold 20 shells at a time, so it is capable of firing 20 rounds in far less than a minute. Probably more like 10 seconds - as fast as you can pull the trigger. I saw today in the Facebook posts from the National Association for Gun Rights that a 92-yr-old WWII veteran had used a .22 to protect himself from 3 intruders. They came in through the basement, he heard them, called 911, and sat waiting with his .22 pointed at the basement door. The last thing the first intruder heard after kicking in the basement door was the report from the slug that hit "center mass", as we say, and nicked some blood vessel quite near the heart. His two buddies dragged him out, took off in their car, and were found, a couple of blocks away, shaking in their seats with their then-dead companion in the back seat.
I guess that makes it an assault rifle, too. It can kill people. I have a daughter who is quite against guns, and, as she points out, guns are made for one purpose and this is to kill. Some folks will argue about shooting targets, but hey, what is the purpose of becoming a marksman? So you can kill trees? I think not. Animals, including people - that's what guns are used to shoot.
If my wife, children or grandchildren (or me, I suppose) were being threatened bodily harm by someone, I would not hesitate to use a gun if I had one to protect them. My dad also taught that if you always fight to win or you don't bother to get in the fight. I suppose those are also separate debates.
My son claims he had met Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold before (obviously before) Columbine, lived in Littleton at the time. I went to Virginia Tech and had classess in Norris Hall, home of my major in environmental sciences and engineering. We have a good friend who lives 6 blocks away from the theater in Aurora. It's a small world. That doen't mean we are any more or any less safe. It just points out that evil wanders all around and when you least expect it you're elected.
My brother was an attorney. He had two Glock 10mm semi-automatic pistols, an M-1 Garand rifle, a Saiga semi-automatic shotgun, and heaven only knows what else. None of these were designed for hunting game, and he would admit it. They were to defend himself and his family AND (here it comes) for the real reason that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged:
when a government becomes destructive of the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it
and Mike was always quick to point out that the driving factor of the 2nd amendment is to ensure that "we the people" can protect ourselves from the government. It took me a while to understand this. Now I completely agree with him. And, in that event, the people need military weapons. [Somewhat arguably, I believe that the founding fathers never even gave a second thought to hunting weapons. It would have been assumed that everyone needed their hunting rifle and shotgun. I believe they specifically addressed the right, and the necessity, of the citizenry to have access to arms to protect themselves from oppression. Period.]
I could go into a long rambling (like this isn't already?) discussion of "when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns", the un-worth of gun-free zones, why banning guns is a poor idea, etc. etc. But I shan't. I am just going to say that I see a LOT on the line through this election. If you don't know or care about the UN gun treaty, I won't bore you for now - google it and see what it is and how people other than "we the people" can subject us to laws we didn't ask for.
Well, anyway, that is it for now. Very simply - we all have the right and, if you were my brother, the obligation to keep and bear arms for military purposes and for self defense. I shall speak more of this later, I just wanted to dump some of this out there today. Thanks for reading, if you do.
Jim
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