Marksmanship, Vietnam, and the 2nd Amendment

[BLUEHAWK]

Makes one wonder... what words will ever truly mean, to anyone.

[usmcsgt65]

Was not around any of weapon too much. Cousin has a .22 that we target practiced. The Marines taught me marksmenship. Became a Sniper in Vietnam. Some thing worked.

[frisco-kid]

I didn't have any firearms in the house. With the Ol' Man being a sometimes violent alcoholic, this was probably just as well. I did have some "Country Cousins" though, and got to learn firearm safety and how to shoot with them and my uncles in my early teens. I guess I became pretty proficient at it, and it probably helped me once I was in the service. I qualified "Expert" with both the M-14 and the M-16. Pretty good for a "City Kid."

I never owned a firearm until I was out of the service. I owned a Winchester 12ga. shotgun, a Marlin lever action .30-.30, a sporterized Eddystone 7mm Mauser, and a Winchester lever action .22. I've never owned a hand gun. Was never much good with them, so they didn't hold much interest for me. I hunted for many years, but now I don't own a firearm. Just kinda' drifted away from it and sold off the weapons over the years. Sometimes think about getting a hand gun for the house. Or an M-79 . I live in Oakland, ya know. Up to 15 murders so far this year.

I'm in favor of the 2nd Amendment, and would hate to see our right to own firearms taken away. However, I believe that there are some weapons that should be kept illegal to own by the general public.

[Seascamp]

I grew up with guns around but nothing out of the ordinary. I had a Crossman .22 pump-up pellet rifle and graduated to a J. C. Higgins single shot .22. I don?t recall any training of any kind and I guess us kiddos just taught each other, more or less. I could usually hit what I aimed at but had no idea about the finer arts of shooting until I went through Navy boot camp. Though obsolete and no longer in use, I was trained on a M1 Garand. Mine was a ?Ford? and had the Ford logo stamped on top of the receiver mechanism. It was there I learned about sight adjustment and trigger control techniques. That was good stuff to learn but I really think I could have scored better if I could have used the 03 Springfield in boot camp, but that is a thought in retrospect. I was also qualified on the 1911 colt .45 but I think that was a gift just to get me off the pistol range as that pistol had my number, big time. That cussed thing would buck and jump even when I dry fired it. I was an intimidated seventeen year old, for sure.

During the VN War I had to qualify with the 12 gauge Remington ?Trench? pump shotgun though never had the occasion to do anything with it but carry it around or keep it close at hand once in a while. These days I enjoy target shooting with the old black powder ?smoke poles? and that?s about it.

As to the Second Amendment, it seems that the argument is to have all or have nothing at all. So given the choice, I?ll side with the ?have all? part of the equation as being most sensible and least-worst scenario. However, I would agree that some of the stuff on the market or obtainable is a bit much, but I wouldn?t want to be the one to draw the line or even suggest what the line should look like. Besides that, I?m way too ornery to let some sweaty-palmed twit activist (non-gender specific term) tell me what I can and not have even if I have no intention of ever having whatever it is.
Currently, I have a Ruger P-89 9mm semi-auto pistol and a Remington pump 12 ga. for home defense and I?m OK with that. Sometimes perfection is the enemy of good enough, so I?ll go with what I got.

Scamp

[BLUEHAWK]

The one thing I truly do appreciate about how our 2nd Amendment is interpreted is this... an army (foreign or domestic) would HAVE to be a suicidal lunatic to attempt a conventionally armed invasion of this country... the good ole boys themselves alone would have 'em defeated and squirming on the dirt within fifteen seconds of crossing the border!

[Andy]

Some people have been talking about gun ownership and the 2nd amendment. When we got to be a country we were the only one where private citizens who were not Noblemen or the very rich could own firearms and we were damn proud of that. Plus with the westward expansion a firearm was as much a tool as a plow.

Lincoln probably said it best, I?m just paraphrasing but basically he said: Could all the armies of Europe make a track on the Blue Ridge Mountains? Could they take a sip from the Ohio river? Never.
He wasn?t talking about our huge army, we didn?t have one in the 1850s when he made that statement. He was talking about private citizens, most all of whom were armed.

Times have changed but that rugged individualism mind set has not changed. Yes, there are people, mostly city dwellers, who are afraid to go out at night. Many of them don?t want people to own firearms because they want the government to take care of all their problems. But what if someone is breaking into your home and law enforcement is a half hour away your screwed.

As far weapons owned, I currently keep in my home:
.357 revolver & .357 lever action rifle
.44 revolver & .44 lever action rifle
.306 bolt action
8 mm bolt
Mini-14, semi
SKS 56 semi
12 G pump shotgun
12 G double barrel shotgun
.22 pump (my first)
.22 100 round semi auto
.22 double barrel belly gun
.38 snub nose
2 9mm semi pistols
.44 Colt Civil War revolver
.36 Colt Civil War revolver

I would move before I?d give these up.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[Seascamp]

I don?t know Blue, ya just may be a taste bit optimistic, but not overly so. I reckon a reasonable sized armed and equipped group of zealots/fanatics could roll across the southern border and into three of the four border States and have their way for a bit or so, maybe.
As to the fourth, well, there may be more then mere words to the concept of ?Don?t Mess with Texas? and the fifteen second time estimate may apply, or be a bit generous; depending on how fast the rifle lever is worked. In all four States there would be a good turn out of fighters and scrappers it?s just that three States would probably get hung up on sorting out PC belly button lint before reacting.

Scamp

[BLUEHAWK]

Scampness-
Hell man, I for sure would NOT want to test 'em... it's a mighty cranky bunch :-), and I'd be right in there wielding my pocket knife and kicking the good leg out there at 'em :-)

Andy-
You've hit better what I was trying to state...

[BLUEHAWK]

Rigger -
I'm gonna come back in on this one more time, venturing an anecdote that might be amusing... concerning that .41 revolver I had.

I liked that thing, traded my 30.06 for it, plus $100 in cash. Not sure why I liked it so much... its a problem child for getting ammo. But, it looked nice, and had the right feel for my hand size.

I did shoot it, only once, and here's where the anecdote part comes in.

Normally, one does not think of art and guns in the same sentence. But, turns out I was a biker for a lot of years, so people in my line of work sorta imagined I had firearms (among other things). One day a fella said he wanted to do a piece involving me and a work of art of his which depicted the Devil, and how would I respond to that. I said, "Well, I'd do my best to blow the crap out of him!"

So he says, "Okay, how does next Wednesday sound up in Napa County on [such and such) ranch?". I say, "Fine with me."

I rode the pickle all the way up there from Frisco, get there on time as usual. He shows me this 11 x 14" collage he's made which he says shows the Devil himself on it, installed in a field against some straw bales (he called them "hay"). He says, "I'm going to video this, and what I want you to do is to attack the Devil with your pistol." I say, "Okay."

Then I had to get myself ready. When a man is about to kill the Devil, he had best be READY.

So, I sit on our Mother earth beside some live oaks, quietly, preparing myself for this. I take off my shirt down to the bare chest, just jeans, boots, belt and my nice 5X black Stetson. He's filming this whole dang thing at the same time... made me self-conscious.

I placed the .41 in front of me in her box, all nice and laid out. I loaded her and put her back in her slot.

Then, I took a dab of Mother earth into my palm and spit on it... made a kind of slather slurry thing of it, sort of a War Paint, is what I was thinking :-)

I took some of that and drew three lines on each cheek bone, and three more on my forehead. Then I said, "I'm ready. Now leave me be, no cameras."

I went pretty far uphill into the live oaks, with my eye on those bales of straw and the target, just carrying the .41 in my belt against the skin. I knew I was gonna have to come down that hill and charge the Devil himself and make damn sure the MF was plumb dead when I let off the trigger.

Okay, so I got up there... I squinted down the hill at the target, which was (I admit) not moving. Then, something arose within me, a fire Rigger, a kind of fire in the belly as Dad would have said.
I came down that hill, step by step on uneven ground, one gimpy leg to boot, loaded .41 (I know how stupid I was!) in my belt against my skin.

I presented myself before the Devil's body and fired my weapon six times into him accurately. Then, for safe measure, I ran up to him and drew his image off of the bales! For good measure I took him up and tore his paper visage to bits, and threw and kicked him into the air as far away from the site as I could manage to throw. Of course, when I started down the hill they had begun filming again, but I wasn't very much aware of them.

It was pretty exhilarating Rigger.

Then I walked decidely back into the hills amongst the live oaks to gather my thoughts. They came back and wanted to know how I "felt". I said something like, "Glad to be of service", more or less.

Then I was invited to return to the ranch house for refreshments, and then I got back on my pickle and rode home.

[BLUEHAWK]

p.s.

I voluntarily surrendered the .41 to the Santa Fe Police department a few years later... young officer knocked at my door after my call, I had her all laid out chamber exposed as empty for him, bandolier, ammo, and nice box all nice and clean. He asked if I might rather sell her through the want ads. I replied, "No sir, I'd rather she did not ever appear again on these streets."

Asked for a receipt, and he gave me a hand-written one.