The Modern Miniteman

As I approach my "gun goal", it's time to evaluate my situation. The intention of being a gun owner was and is not for it to be a hobby or a collection. That's a separate concept, and I'll get to that later. My purpose is the old 2nd Amendment goal of exercising my right to be armed and defend myself and my family if the need arises. I've extended that to include what might be necessary in the event of a temporary breakdown of societal norms (aka SHTF, WROL, etc). To that end, I've decided that I'd like to have the following weapons:

• Service Pistol: A pistol designed to handle defensive situations over possibly an extended period of time and therefore uses a "standard" caliber round and of sufficient power to stop an adult human. I have a Walther P99 with 9 magazines.
• Pistol Caliber Carbine: A carbine length weapon designed to use the same caliber ammunition as my primary pistol which would be easy to use by someone not as familiar with firearm use. I have a Kel-Tec Sub 2000 (Gen 2) chambered in 9mm and takes the Beretta magazines (7 mags). Beretta and Walther magazines can be interchanged with minimal modifications. 
•  Survival Gun: A general use, adaptable weapon that can be used in a variety of situations. I have a Fedarm SS-12, 12 Gauge single-shot with a chamber adapter for 9mm. I'll also be getting chamber adapters for 22LR and some other calibers as well. This gun has a synthetic stock, a paracord sling and folds down to roughly 18 inches.
• Battle Rifle: A full-sized main "battle weapon" designed to either offensively attack an enemy or fight off one or more concerted attacker(s) chambered in a standard caliber. I have an AR-15 clone in .223/5.56 NATO along with 14 magazines. 

It's in my plan to also get the following as time and finances allow:

• Home Defense Shotgun: In all probability, this will be a Mossberg 500, or Remington 870 pump shotgun in 12 Gauge. 
• Concealed Carry Handgun: 9mm "single-stack" handgun for ammunition commonality and adequate knockdown power. In all probability, this will be the M1 version of the Walther PPS.
• Small Caliber Small-game and Practice Handgun: 22LR, Walther P22. Similar handling characteristics to the P99.

That puts the count at 7, and that my seem like a lot of guns, but it's really not. Each has it's own specific job and none of them overlap. There's not really even a "back up" to each other. 

As you can see, the majority of the guns I own or aspire to own are "Minuteman" type guns. What does that mean? I own guns because I believe in being responsible for protecting myself, my family and being a sheep dog to my neighbors. And if it came down to it, I'd do what I'd be called on by my country if things went seriously out of whack. 

Note that all of my guns, whether owned or projected to purchase are chambered for "standard" calibers; that being 22LR, 9mm Para, 223/5.56 NATO, and 12 Gauge. These are rounds that are easy to get, cheap (relatively) to buy, and more easy to scavenge in case of a breakdown. These are serious considerations since, guns become fancy paperweights without ammunition! 

In addition, it's my intention that I have the capability to reload virtually all the calibers listed above...... with obvious exception of the 22LR of course since it's "Rimfire". Right now, I'm set up to do 9mm and 5.56, so I'm most of the way there. I just need 12 gauge. So, is there anything else that I need/want for completion?

•  An Smith & Wesson SW99. A backup/ Truck Gun with in everything but name (and price) is a Walther P99, in 9mm of course. These can often be bought for less than $250.
  
  
•  A 300 "Blackout" AR. There's a number of ways I could go on this. The main idea of a 300Blk being something with better knockdown power inside of 200 yards than the 5.56. I could go with a pistol length weapon or carbine length. Mostly, it would be a "hog gun". Technically, I already own it since I bought another Aero Precision lower receiver.
  
    

•  A Breakdown/Take-down 22LR for obvious reasons. The Henry AR-7 shown at the top would be over $100 cheaper than the Ruger AND espeically if the Ruger 10/22 is equipped with the Magpul X-22 stock.I guess, we'll see on that. 

 So, I guess, that's it. I'm halfway to an overall goal of 10 guns total, with three which that could be considered optional. They would give me that ability to do just about anything I needed to do. I seriously doubt that I would get into collecting. Not that I'm uninterested, it's just that they are simply too expensive! 

Sure, we own a Winchester 1873 in 38-40, but it's a family heirloom and will probably never be shot. Otherwise, these things just get into too much money and something a teacher-father of two just can't afford to get into. So, I'd have to say that I'm pretty satisfied in the progress to my goals as a Modern Minuteman.

Radically Anti-Radical..... A Moderate's View On the 2nd Amendment and A National Crisis

For those who didn't already know this, I'm a teacher. Pretty much all my life, I've been in education in one way or another. One of the things that I tell my students when they want my political views is that "I'm radically Anti-Radical". Maybe it's an Asian thing, or that I come from a family of professionals. But the fact is that I believe we'd be able to solve many of the worlds problems if we weren't so dogmatic. How does this have to do with this blog?

Before we go further, let me make it clear that I support the 2nd amendment..... but I'm about to steer left a little bit. I've studied and taught government, and to the best of my understanding, the reason that our Constitution is structured the way it is, is that the founding fathers knew they didn't know what the future held. Therefore, making the lawmaking apparatus open ended in order to deal with eventualities.A good case in point is the 18th amendment and the resulting Voltead Act that created Prohibition...... and the 21 amendment nullifying it.

The mechanism that has made it work over the years have been the process of legislative debate and compromise. However, this process has gone off the rails. 

Increasingly, our society has gone toward the extremes on all viewpoints. This has created a paralysis in virtually all aspect of governance because no one is willing to compromise on their stance. I've looking at the various claims on the current crisis of mass shootings, and frankly, I've found a lot of stupidity and a lot of sense delivered by both sides. 

Being a Texan and teaching Texas History for roughly a decade, nobody has to point out the role of an armed citizenry has in guarding against tyranny. 

But, at the same time; I'm somebody that grew up in a Mayberry RFD-like small town of the 60's and 70's rural America. And from where I sit, there's not a good way to look at the situation and say that access to weapons capable of (and designed for) killing a lot of people in a short amount of time doesn't play a role.

How did we get here?

.... from here? Sure, Mayberry is fictional, but if anyone was alive in the late 50's early 60's, they'd know that it wasn't far from reality. Even when I was a teenager in the 70's, it was more this than today. Police went around with a revolver and a shotgun in the cruiser. That's because they didn't need to be able to outgun somebody armed with a 15 to 18 round handgun and/or an AR which takes 30 round mags. 

Yes. I get it and actually believe that in the current environment, a ban on any sort of weapon would only serve to keep it out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. But here's the thing. Virtually all of the horrific mass shootings that have occurred in the last few years have been committed by people where were law-abiding right up until they went off the edge! Don't believe me? Look it up. Almost all of the guns used were bought legally. I don't even know what to say about this?

The sad thing is that I grew up in a world where this was the norm. Half the vehicles in my high school's student parking lot were trucks and probably half of them had one or more guns in the rack behind the seat. So, clearly, I'm not saying that we need to ban guns!

What I'm saying is that we have to come together and put everything on the table and get something done. We can't just stand around pointing fingers at each other while some "off-the-rail" teen shoots up a school every (or every other) week. 

Sure, I believe that this thing is absolutely an out-growth of societal issues that run deep. And we talking everything from bad parenting to mass media, to social media, but aren't we being ridiculous if we refuse to discuss the access that these messed up people had to the gun(s). And I hate to say this, but the role that the type of gun had in making it 17 people killed versus 3 or 4? Any number is tragic, but can we not discuss ways to limit the damage? Would it be considered radical if the moderates stood up and spoke out?

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.