The Second Amendment is a big thing with me. I do not necessarily like being a single-issue voter, but if someone has a record that goes againt the 2nd, I vote for the one that is pro or lest likely to "try" and take my firearms.
I have carried firearms in a duty capacity most of my life, starting at the age of 17 when I enlisted in the US Army. In Vietnam I was one of about 8 or 10 out of 100 in my unit that brought a handgun with us on the ship. After we were in-country and settling in we were advised that the CO knew that some of us had firearms and we would need to abide by army regs and "register" them.(So the army would know who had them and be able to supply ammo to us, yeah, right!) I went up to the first sergeant and asked when the "confiscation" would begin? He said he knew nothing about any such thing and was only concerned with the directive. I reminded him of the Weimar Republik in the 1930's and how all the Germans were registered and had their firearms confiscated. I also reminded the MP sergeant when I went over to 1st ID MP's to register the revolver I had brought with me. When the axe fell some 30 days or so later and we had to turn them in it was a hard thing to have to do. I had been fortunate and had bought a turned in VC weapon in the form of a M3A1 .45 ACP grease gun. It seems that while I could not have a handgun that only carried 5 rounds it was reasonable that I had a SMG with full auto and a passel of 30 round mahazines. Go figure!!!
When we moved from the SF Bay Area to the Napa Valley our kids were 14 and 15. I had bought three Mini14s in .223 and three 12 gauge shotguns. I taught the kids to shoot those and also .38/357 and 9mm and .45 pistols. Now that they are both grown and in their 40's they neither one have shown any interest nor do they have any guns. I did what I could but I was not about to force them to own a firearm.
When I visited our daughter in France where she spent a year in language school, she and I went on a trip to let her see where I had spent 30 months in the army in Germany. We stopped in Bern and met some police colleagues in the IPA(International Police Association) Hugo the range master took us to the underground range belonging to the Canton Bern Police(Kantonspolezei Bern) He was going to have my daughter shoot a .22 pistol until I assured him that she knew how to use a regular pistol. (He was concerned about the horrendous backblast from the 9mm
) It was funny to watch him as he stood behind her ready to catch her if the recoil was too much.
She fired all her rounds in the target and I shrunk the group a tad when I fired. We were using the Sig 226iirc.
My daughter wrote a progun paper in HS and got an A+ for her grade. The teacher wrote a side note stating : "I do not agree with your point of view but you wrote an excellant paper!"
During my government service I had access to a range just upstairs from my office. If people passing by knew we were training with revolvers, shotguns and an Uzi just steps away from 5th and market in SF they probably would have had a fit! We did some good training using a movie projector with scenarios shown on a paper screen.
The media is not a friend of firearms users and owners. Where most of us probably would say that anyone owning a half dozen or so various firearms and a few thousand rounds of ammo was either average or undergunned, the media will paint that person as a "TERRORIST THAT LIVES AMONG US!", they will destort and twist things until your neighbor that has a regular job and goes to church each week will appear to be a beast with fangs and a compound filled with arms and ammo enough for a third world country!
I am sure that you have seen those tables filled with firearms and ammo and perhaps a few cutlery items that is shown as the "stupendous arsenal of Mr. Sam Jones of 1234 Any Drive who was booked for killing an endangered snail in his yard" or some such. They will even place a axe from the garage and a hatchet from the camping gear to show the "evil" stuff kept in the poor guy's house. They will mention that "school children" pass this "compound" on their way to school each day. The horror!, the Horror! (Apology to 'Apocolypse Now', when Brando uttered those words.)
just because the POTUS was reelected does not mean to sit back and think that everything is going to stay rosy for the next four years. Don't forget that he was willing to extend the AWB but apparantly handlers talked him out of it for now. We still have to contend with the UN and their evil plots. Never forget the "Twisted Revolver" sculpture on the grounds of the UN. I could have seen it a year ago last February when we visited NYC but I did not want to waste time seeing the UN which I have utter contempt for anyway. BTW I have served under a UN Command in Korea already. I would not even put up the UN flag!
One final statement: There will be "Some" LEO's and "some' military that will not go back on the oath they swore to when they entered the service. They will not confiscate arms from the people. OTOH there are many that are not steeped in the knowledge of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights and will do as they may be ordered to do! How many young people really care about anything past Starbucks, MTV and Hip Hop??? just go to the nearest mall in America and look at what passes for our young people here!
