[82Rigger]

How many of you learned to shoot when you were growing up?
Did your familiarity with firearms help you in training and in combat?
Is the 2nd Amendment still necessary and valid?

The Vietnam vets in this forum grew up in an America (pre-1968) that had no restrictions on the purchase of rifles and pistols, at least in most states. Firearms were not an "evil thing", and recreational shooting was commonplace and not thought of in a bad light.

As a child I got cap guns for Christmas just about every year. When I was six I shot a "real" gun for the first time... a twenty-two rifle. My Dad taught me firearms safety and he and I went shooting regularly. At thirteen I had my first firearm.. a Remington single shot twenty two rifle. The deal was, when Dad and I went shooting there had to be no serious safety mistakes. If I could do that for a full year he would buy me whatever twenty-two I wanted. I still have that rifle.

At eighteen I had a S&W Model 15 target .38 Special and was reloading for it, casting my own bullets in a single cavity mould out of broken wheel weights that I earned by sweeping out the local tire shop.
That same year increased my gun collection by two... an almost mint condition 1903 Springfield, purchased for $49.95 and a little later an M1 Garand (so new it had cosmoline still in the stock) that I got for $69.95.

When I went in the Army in 1968 I already had almost three years of service rifle competition under my belt...mostly the standard SR course at ranges of 200, 300, and 600 yards, and a couple of times at the 1,000 yard range.
Military service was new and unfamiliar. But even so, there was one aspect of it in which I was totally confident. And you now know what that is, and why.
I was active in shooting until 1995..when the eyes and the back started protesting.

I always loved my relationship with firearms and I always will. Each time, through the years, that we have lost our firearms rights, my heart has fallen a little. Not for anything I lost...no one can take away what I have had...but for what our children today won't have, or know.

Do we still need the 2nd amendment? If this country should ever come under the control of a tyrannical government that has control of our high-tech military machine, I don't see how any number of civilians with civilian weapons can do much about it.

Airborne! Steve / 82Rigger