A Return To The 2nd Amendment

You might be wondering, why now and also considering what might appear to be curious timing on my part. So, by way of explanation, let me start at the beginning since this blog (in general) and the concepts leading to this post (in particular) has taken a LOT of contemplation as well as not a little angst on the part of my spouse who isn't comfortable with firearms.

Although born in Hong Kong in 1960, my social development can roughly be equated to America of the late 50's due to growing up in rural Texas of the 60's. In that world, the possession and use of guns were the norm. Most folks I knew not only had them in their homes (along with deer mounts), but on the gunrack in the back window of most pickup trucks as well. When we moved from south-central Texas out to the West Texas panhandle, we changed our location, and the type of gun, but not the possession of them. Although, my dad didn't hunt there was no prohibition against it in our home against them.

Later, while in the Corp of Cadets (ROTC on steroids) at Texas A&M University in the early 80's, I was required to qualify "small-bore". This meant the use of .22LR rifles. Unfortunately, I ended up only qualifying as "Markman" (lowest level) mostly due to my inexperience and being right-handed, but left-eye dominant, and using iron (non-optical) sights. Be that as it may, I loved to shoot. 

The next stage of my life came during what I'd call the post-college, "single-young-professional" era. For many, this time-frame either didn't happen, or it's shortened due to marriage at a relatively young age (typically, mid-20's). For me, this would go till I was almost 40! I'll discuss this oddity about me at a future date. The effect though, was I had a fairly long period of time to fully develop my hobbies. 

Some of these such as Music/Stereo/HomeTheater are obvious standards of the era for males and in my case, go back to my childhood and teenage years.

Another obvious area was photography and camera equipment. These are areas that I'm still involved with on a regular basis.

Also, a new hobby appeared. It was new since we didn't have guns at home. We weren't an anti-gun home, we just didn't have them, because we didn't hunt. I had done some shooting with friends' guns during high school, but it wasn't a "thing", because there's nothing to really hunt up in the Panhandle in those days. But around that time, I made some new friends who were really into guns, and while shooing with them, I found I really loved it. Particularly pistols! I shot all my friend Cody's guns including his Ruger Super Blackhawk in the vaunted .44 Magnum! Yup, the Dirty Harry round....

No; I didn't buy the Smith & Wesson Model 29, but I did purchase the Ruger Security Six which was a 6" Double-action chambered in .357 Magnum. 

 

I owned both the Security Six and the Ruger Mk II Target "Bull-barrel" in stainless and loved shooting them. I'd go down to a range outside Lubbock whenever I could and shoot steel targets. I got pretty good with both of them. Being a "cross-eyed" dominant shooter wasn't really an issue with a pistol! I was in hog heaven..... hobby-wise..... Then I finished my Masters degree in Higher Education Administration and landed a job at the prestigious Tulane University in New Orleans, but before I could take the job, I had to put away my guns.... Ya see, the job was "live-on" and you couldn't have guns on college campuses in those days. After the third such job and the guns living at my parents house back in Lubbock, Texas all that time, I decided to get rid of them. 

Worse mistake I ever made! All of them have at least doubled in value, with some having tripled what I had originally paid! So take that as a lesson!

By that point, I had even added a Rossi pump .22LR that was about as much fun as I ever had with my cloths on! I also had a Marlin .22LR automatic as well which came to me via my brother-in-law/sister when they moved back to Taiwan. So, from the mid-90s till now, I've been gun-less. Part of it was that I got married, bought houses, had children and all that's associated with that part of life, and another aspect was that I didn't really feel that strongly about needing a gun.

Then the 2000's happened..... The rapid erosion of moral and ethical standards (which I suspect, I'll write about a lot), as well as the equally rapid acceleration of violent behavior. I'll be 57 tomorrow, and I've never before felt like I needed to have an option to protect myself and my family other than to call the police, or to deal with an issue by talking. 

But that was before the seemingly daily reports of "home invasions"....

"road rage" where a person follows someone home and tries to exact vengeance......

and the most scary of all; the "active shooter" scenario. 

In the 7 minutes or so that it takes the typical PD to respond, a lot can happen. So, it's my intention to be prepared. In the sense of becoming a "prepper", no, not one of those guys, or I'd have moved us to to Alaska years ago! 

More along these lines. I truly believe that many people in modern America have no traditional skills in terms of taking care of themselves and their families. People simply aren't prepared to deal with an extended period where public services aren't available. They can't hunt, don't know how to obtain/create potable water, or live without electricity for more than a few hours. When push comes to shove, people will do whatever is necessary to survive. And if that means taking things from others, then they'll do it. It'd be one thing if we lived in Mosquero New Mexico (look it up), but we live outside Dallas. If a major situation occurs where there's breakdown in the Rule of Law, even for a while; it's not going to be good around any major city!

I'm going to hope for the best, but as of right now...... I'm going to start preparing for the worse.