Marksmanship, Vietnam, and the 2nd Amendment

[SEATJERKER]

...It's good to have little friends, and lots of them,...

...still have the 17 shot semi Marlin 22, but started off in the Boy Scouts at ten, with a single shot bolt action whatever, and a recurve 35 lb bow/arrow, plinked forever on a Crossmen 760, and Sheridan Blue streak,...

...Did the M-16, and .45 bit through the military, shot 99 out of 100 bulls eyes, turned in my 3X5 index card with the results for expert marksmen, never received it either, probably still sitting on someone's desk,...

...I suppose sitting on the corner with a sign saying " will shoot for food" wouldn't go over to well,...

...

"...the right of the People to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed."This is the one right that makes all the others posible.

My proudest posession as a young child was a pair of "Hop-a-long Casity six-guns"in a double holster rig.Nobody would ever have been able to convince me that that wasn't real silver plateing and engraveing,or that the grips sporting the longhorn steer weren't real ivory.Still not altogether convinced and I broke the last one a few years ago.

Lived in the country and began hunting on my own as a 9y/o.Cleaned,skinned,butchered,and could fix a fine meal from from game from about that age.Later I learned to tan leather and preserve fur and to make useful items from these.About 10feet to my right as I type this a bow rack holding long and recurve bows.From one end hangs a quiver made from a deer hyde with the fur turned to the inside to keep the arrows from rattlin around.Far as I know, the arrow I killed it with is still in the quiver.From the other side of the rack hangs a "posibles" bag for carrying black powder shooting supplies in also made from a deer hyde.

Sometimes work as armed security.
Carry a handgun while fishing in some areas that are eat up with snakes.Have had to convince several cottonmouths that they weren't near as bad as they thought they were, also the occasional rattlesnake(one became a belt and one became a rifle sling).Time or two would have been in a world of hurt without a gun along.
Twice as a civilian I have been forced to draw a handgun while a crime was being commited (not by me).In neither case were any shots fired nor was anyone hurt.On another occasion I was assulted by armed criminals and was unarmed.Ended up in the ER lucky to be alive.

Vietnam?Believe that I can say with absolute certainty that I, and likely several other folks, would not be breathin today had it not been for my early affinity with firearms.

Take MY guns?Well now, I won't be givein up my guns but I might be willin to let ya hold a few bullets.

[Andy]

Not trying to do any one up?s man ship but Dad got me a pump action .22 for my 7th birthday. I look at that rifle and smile thinking of the times we went to a junk yard and he?d fine ?targets?, some of them moving. However never took the weapon out of the house myself until I was 16.

At 9 or 10 I shot my first shotgun, and old rabbit eared double-barreled 10G weapon that belonged to Grandpa. One pull on the trigger and I was in a seated position. Fired rifles and hand guns long before joining the service.

Did that help my marksmanship, hell yes! Did knowing that you have to clean your weapon before you eat help in the military, hell yes! Did Grandpa telling me anyone in the woods during deer season with more that 3 slugs had no business hunting help, hell yes! Did hunting animals help while out in the woods in ?Injun Country?, hell yes!

Nam 1968 was talking about the laws regarding weapons in our state. He mentioned people with mental health problems being prohibited form firearm ownership. That includes any voluntary hospitalization for PTSD. If you do the two week evaluation you can never possess a firearm again. Bad aspect of the law. Also a license to carry a hand gun is now $100 every 4 years. Is that a law which is discrimination against the poor?

Stay healthy, keep that weapon handy,
Andy

[Packo]

SOUTHERN COUNTRY BOY:

1. I could shoot before I was weened.

2. I can still shoot.

3. The right to bare arms....etc. etc. I'm a firm believer.

4. Only wussies and sicko's are for gun control and the end of the 2nd amendment. We have way too many laws on the books. Just enforce the old ones. If I was to shoot up a school full of kids, I'd use a Winchester Model 97 pump 12 ga w/00. (great weapon Ron!) Much more effective then an "assault weapon". Liberal's don't know shit about guns.

5. Shot expert with every weapon I shot in the Army up through the M-60. If I had not, I would have been embarresed.

6. Haven't hunted since Vietnam. Not against real hunting or hunters, just don't find it sport, that's to me,no offense to real hunters. Now, if we could hunt child molesters, etc. and even let them have weapons....would be back into hunting.

7. Still love to shoot and can't wait to get to the Jawga Mts!

8. Have a well armed home. Please don't come uninvited.

Hang people that commit crimes with guns. It will not happen again.

Why do today's "gangsta's" shoot their automatics sideways???? No wonder it takes them 100 rounds to wound one other asshole.

My opinion, and stickin' to it! (also too much Ketel-One, Grey Goose is French)

Packo

[catman]

My first firearm was a H&R .410. Bought it myself at the age of 14 with money I saved from a paper route. My son, 13, has his own semi-auto Marlin .22 and a Remington 870 in 20 gauge. Yeah I guess you could say it is important to me, and as long as I am sucking oxygen it will be important to my grandchildren someday.

Great post Rigger.

Trav

[revwardoc]

I didn't own a gun until Iwent into the service but, on many occaisions before that, I did use my uncle's (a retired police sgt.) .22 rifle. We'd go out to the sandpits and blast away at tin cans and such or go to the dump and shoot rats. I did have a matched set of Mattel "Fanner 50's", a Chuck "the Rifleman" Connors model rifle, a Davy Crockett "Ol' Betsey" and a variety of other toy guns. I also had a Red Ryder BB gun that was my favorite. Sometimes we'd buy WWII model ships, make them waterproof, then take them down to a pond or river and blast them with our BB guns, playing "shore battery".

My first gun was a Remington 870 12 guage. Then came the Winchester Canadian Centennial Model 30.30 lever action rifle, then a used Remington 10 guage, then a Ruger Model 1020 .22 cal. semi-auto rifle. I've since sold all those and now, due to my Rev War hobby, I have a Charleville 1767 model .69 flintlock musket, a Pennsylvania .50 flintlock rifle, and a .45 flintlock pistol.

And, yes, I do strongly support the 2nd Amendment.

[b3196]

My father had no problem with me owning a Rifle, BB, Pellet, then I graduated to a 22 at the age of 12. One day I came home with a 22 pistol knowing that my dad would not allow it, so I hid it above the heating duct in the basement. One day after school I came home to find my father drywalling the entire basement. I would bet that after 40+ years and numerous owners that gun is still there.
Bob K

[phuloi]

Bob,What a great find that will(hopefully)be for someone.

[BLUEHAWK]

Rigger -
My father was a CO in WWII, but volunteered and served with honor as a non-combatant. He, and to some degree my grandfather as well, were what was publicly known as Socialists for all intents and purposes... as well as both being Methodist ministers.

Growing up, though I had an unusual interest (from where it came I have no idea, since there was in those days VERY little TV) in warfare and firearms, it was absolutely forbidden in the family home.

At age 9 I had become something of a problem child so the folks sent me to a child psychologist for analysis. The upshot of a few weeks of that was she asked me what i wanted most for my birthday, and I said, "A two gun cowboy set." She got it for me, and it nearly drove my folks crazy. I had it for about five days and then it was "disappeared".

Fast forward to USAF basic training in '63 at Lackland... they gave us about a day of training on how to field strip and reassemble an M-1, then one trip to the range. First time out I shot just a tad below Expert.

I've owned a nice old 30.06 given by a grateful hunter friend, and a .4l calibre revolver... both of which I no longer own.

Anyhow, I think I would have made a fairly good, if not superior infantry rifleman.

The 2nd amendment... says nothing more than in order to maintain a militia the peopl'es right to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged. That is basically what it says, nothing more... and it certainly does not say what the NRA says it says, as far as I am concerned.

Mind you, I would not mind at all if it said what the NRA says it says, but it does not say that.

Mike-

Please note that,at the time the Constitution was written, "militia" could only be defined as "armed group of civilians".

In all cases in the Constitution "The People" refers to individual rights.