Pew Pew… or maybe Plink Plink…

Bought the kids a couple guns last week.

My 13 year old son has high functioning autism and a dislike of loud noises and firearms in general, but we’ve managed to get him to shoot a pellet pistol some at ballons and he had a good time. (Note to self – Do this again!) I’m not sure if he’ll ever be a ‘gun guy’, but that’s alright. We’ll work on it and he’s still awesome even if he never picks up a gun for the rest of his life. He’s gonna be a Marine Biologist who studies sharks anyways, so maybe spear guns and diving knives will be in his future. OR, if I get real lucky, he’ll go with studying dinosaurs and becoming a Paleontologist and we can move out west. (A guy can hope – right? I really don’t want to live by the ocean!)

My four year old daughter may have autism as well. She’s… a character. She’s the most ‘princessy’ girl ever who has to change outfits constantly and play with mommy’s makeup, but she’ll also punch you in the groin the moment she gets angry. She’s our little fighter. She wants to go pew-pewing so bad. Last week she saw last months(I think) edition of American Hunter by the NRA, there was a cover of a little girl with a very, very nice buck she’d just harvested and she’s been making pew pew noises ever since.

But I bought a Savage Rascal, in alligator hide camo. (Apparently a Swamp People edition). Beautiful little gun, weighs less then three pounds. I can’t wait to try the kids out on this gun. The only downside that I can spot off the bat, it’s not threaded for a suppressor. That’d really help my son be able to shoot I think, and heck, pretty much everything is threaded these days anyways. But – added cost. It might be something I can have gunsmithed later. But a superb little single shot rifle, great reviews as well. From what I gather the accuracy is rather ‘meh’. But good enough to teach a kid the basics of rifle marksmanship and safety on.

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Also bought a Ruger Wrangler in Burnt Bronze. A gun that I’d been wanting to put my hands on for a couple years now anyways. (Haha! Daddy gets to shoot it first!) I was first taught with a little Taurus .22 revolver, which my dad still has, so I figured why not another .22 revolver for my kiddos? And what better than the Ruger Wrangler?

Okay, maybe the Ruger Single-Six, but that’s about $400 more. I dunno, I should probably pick one up and see if I can feel the quality difference. But the Wrangler is so -cheap-, and the reviews are stellar on them. So… enh. Should be a great gun for the kids to start learning how to be pistoleros on.

Ruger-Wrangler-.03

As for the kids… well…

My Daughter doesn’t have the maturity yet to shoot, as much as she may want to now. My Son will require more effort and working with on the pellet gun. So I kind of bought them early. The kids don’t even know about them yet. And probably won’t for several years… (I kept the boxes for when I finally ‘gift’ the guns to them though.)

So in the meantime, I’m going to play with these pretty inexpensive guns. (They each ran about $200) I think for the price, and the value of what you’re getting, you can’t go wrong. Especially the Ruger Wrangler. I’m going to put them through the ringer and see how they do. When the kids get them, they’ll be ready to go!

In other, sadder news.

My Kimber passed away.

Story time.

Once upon a time, circa 2008, I was planning on going to gun smithing school after I finished college. I was accepted and everything. While I was trying to figure out how to pay for it, I wandered by a ‘Adopt A Pet’ event outside our local mall. Looking around, I found this kind of ugly dog that no one seemed much interested in. But she seemed interested in sniffing my hand when I held it out, and being kind of impulsive then, I took her home.

She had one ear that stayed bent over, and a snaggled tooth grin.

KimberYoung

Now… At the time, I was seeing a girl who was kind of rich, snobby, spoiled, etc. She named the dog ‘Dulce’ after ‘Dulce and Gabbana’… which is some famous brand of something er other. I’m not sure what. Clothes? Perfume? I dunno. Don’t care either. A month or so later we broke up for the first time, and I renamed the dog Kimber. I figured a gun shop dog needs a gun name, and she was a really sweet little girl, and I felt like even though we didn’t know what breed she was, she deserved a good quality brand name.

Thus, she went from Dolce (Shudder) to Kimber (Woohoo).

She also went from wearing ‘dog clothing’ to laying on my bed, eating popcorn, and watching Magnum PI with me. 🙂

Gunsmithing school wasn’t meant to be.

In the end, I enlisted in the Marine Corps and shipped out for Boot Camp then School of Infantry. My parents kept her and she became my dad’s dog. Shortly after returning home from training, I met my lovely wife, and the rest was history. Except Kimber couldn’t move in with us because we were renting, so she continued to be my dad’s dog.

Kimber1

Over the years I saw her whenever we visited, and each time she had a few more gray hairs around her warg like face. Then last year she got bone cancer in her leg, and fought that… but eventually it beat her a couple weeks ago…

She was a very, very good dog.

Now, some people wonder if dogs go to heaven. I don’t. And neither did Billy Graham.

“God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in Heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.” – Billy Graham.

And I firmly believe that. I look forward to seeing my sweet, snaggle toothed Kimber again in a better place.

KimberOld

On the writing front…

Book is still with the editor. I was asked if I had any cover art suggestions. I had one, and I threw together this horrible Paintshop job showing what I liked. We will see if it takes or not, personally – I think it would look awesome.

I may throw it up here in the future. IF they take my suggestion and run with it, it’d be pretty cool to show the ‘thrown together’ version of stacked images to the professional image.

Anyways.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July, are staying safe from the Corona Cooties, and rioters. Keep your powder dry.

Toy Guns Aren’t Toys.

And you shouldn’t let your kids play with them.

Growing up, I was never allowed to have a cap gun, nerf gun, water gun, or anything else. That’s a rule I enforce with my kids.

Why?

Because we’ve got REAL GUNS in our house.

The kind that puts leaky holes into people.

And people are basically just souls surrounded by a giant blood and gore filled hydraulic bag. Poke a hole in the right place and things stop working. Poke enough holes, and the soul finds somewhere new to reside.

But the reason for this blog is that we went to a church members house for our small group meeting. My Church Life Group is pretty legit, we’ve had the same members for almost 4 years and we’re all close friends. Anyways, we brought our kids along, and my three year old daughter found a fake plastic shotgun… the toy sort that makes noises… picked it up and proceeded to start slaying everyone in the play room with it. Pew, Pew, Pew, and all that.

I don’t know where she learned that. I can’t think of any movies she’s seen with guns in them, except maybe the Incredibles… and she hasn’t been to the range with me yet…. I would joke that it’s in our bloodline, but there’s something about weaponry that arouses curiosity in most children. (I bet back in the day, dad’s had to tell their kids to stop playing with their swords lest they dull the blade.)

This is why, if you’ve guns in your house, you MUST instill the ‘Don’t Touch/Tell A Grownup’ rule. Because they’ll pick it up, swing it around, naturally figure out the grip, press the trigger and kablooey… something gets a hole punched through it at several thousand feet per second. That’s no bueno. Kid’s need to know if they see a gun to go tell an adult instead of playing with it. Otherwise, horrifying things can happen real quickly.

So we, as a society need to recognize that we live in the most armed culture that has ever existed on this wonderful planet – A country that has over 423,000,000 guns but only 327,000,000 people. (‘Murica!) With numbers like that, we should be cautious and reflective about allowing our children to play with toy guns.

Playing with toy guns WILL instill a lack of respect for a tool that can kill, and it WILL instill a lack of safety observation for the five rules. My daughter broke every single one of these when she picked up the fake shotgun:

The 5 Basic Principles of Gun Safety:

Treat every gun as if it were loaded.
2. Always point your gun in a safe direction.
3. Never point your gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
4. Keep your finger off the trigger until your ready to shoot.
5. Be sure of your target and what’s beyond.

Maybe you live in a Gun Free home (In Greta Thunberg’s voice “How DARE you?). But you still live in a very gun-centric society and you’ll never have complete observance and control over your child. They may be at a friends house and find one, or playing in an alley in Chicago, or whatever. But you don’t know, so teach them what to do if they find one.

Run and tell an adult.

And if you’ve got guns in your house, you need to inoculate them. Slowly build up an understanding of them and the dangers surrounding them.

When they’re little, let them watch you clean your guns. Let them ask curious questions, and give them good answers. Take away the ‘mystery’ from weapons. As they get older, let them hold them, under your guidance. Let them help disassemble and clean. And as they grow, take them to the range and show them what they can do. Blasting tomato cans, watermelons, etc will give them a suitable impression.

So inoculate your kids to guns.

Slowly and carefully, ensuring that they understand the five safety rules and that firearms are not toys.

And if they get into guns, you’ll never have to worry about them being able to afford drugs or voting Democrat.

Because ammo ain”t cheap, freedom ain’t free, and Democrats want to take your guns.

(Right Mr. “Oh Hell Yes” Beto?)

2019 – That’s a wrap!

I don’t know what to say about 2019… I suppose it’s a mixed bag.

One hand, we bought a new house and are currently finishing moving into it. On the other hand, I spent the majority of the year dealing with Post Concussive Syndrome – which was a royal bitch to get over. (Long story, and long over due for a post. But it was shooting related. I’ll write something up in 2020 for it.)

Anyways, New House:

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It’s pretty nice, comes complete with a finished underground bunker… I mean.. basement. (For keeping all my shooting gear!) My goals for next year? Finish moving in. Sell our old house. Buy a Barrett .50 cal and a helicopter with the proceeds.

On the writing front, which is why this blog exists – for my expected future fame and fortune, pretty good. Even with brain damage I managed to finish a book, get several publishing offers, AND write 80,000 words into the sequel(Goal is 110,000). I’m a bit bummed that I didn’t finish the sequel by the end of this year, that was a big goal of mine. But, I had BRAIN DAMAGE. I think I’ve accomplished a lot all things considered. My goals for next year? Publish the first, finish and publish the second, and hopefully finish the third.

That’s a lot of writing, but I REALLY want to write a follow up trilogy based in the 1920’s. You know, the good old days, when Thompson Machine Guns could be ordered in the mail.

On the shooting front for 2020, goals include getting a new safe. Mine is full. Also, it’s been years since I’ve shot competitively, and I miss the camaraderie of beating other people. I think I’d like to try and get back into that and shoot a few matches. It used to be a lot of fun when my dad would come out and compete also, but alas, his semi-retired job now has him working almost every single Saturday. So, I dunno about that. But I’d love to shoot more next year. Also I just renewed my Concealed Carry Permit for the third time. Over ten years now, never needed it. That’s pretty good. Hope I never do. I’ve enough gray hairs coming in as it is from my kids. But I feel like my skills have taken a severe blemishing over the past few years, and I’d like to shine them a bit. Competition is great for that and just plain old trigger time… more of it!

I also haven’t gotten to go to church much this year. With everything going on, and several strong sicknesses running rampant through my house, oh and our three year old not sleeping…grrr… Sunday mornings and church have been put on the back burner, and I miss that.

Nay, I need that.

But still – There’s one thing in particular that I’m grateful for this past year. With all the hardships and blessings, I’ve grown closer to God than I’ve ever been before. It’s wonderful. And I look forward to growing more in the new year.

Speaking of which, I wish you all great health and happiness and blessings in the new year. Thank you for reading my blog, keeping me on my toes with comments, and giving me likes when I post something worth reading. It’s ego-stroking and keeps me going. 🙂 And if you can’t tell, blogging doesn’t come naturally to me, a lot of the time I struggle to think of something worth writing about when I’d rather just be writing a story out.

But as I said earlier, future fame and prosperity demands that I have a blog as a new author. And I look forward to continuing on this adventure together into 2020.

Thank you all and God Bless.

423 MILLION guns in the US.

I love this country so much.

ATF: 423M guns in America, 1.2 per person, 8.1B rounds of ammunition a year

“New federal data shows that there are 422.9 million firearms in circulation, or about 1.2 guns for every person in the country.

What’s more, despite years of criticism of modern “assault-style” rifles such as the AR-15 and AK-47, there are a record 17.7 million in private hands, proving that it is the most popular gun around.

And last year alone, the arms industry produced 8.1 billion rounds of ammunition.”

***

Also, saw this on FB today:

I don’t know how true those numbers are, but I do know in my home state of NC that 234,703 Deer Hunters culled 189,724 white tails. A neater number, is that only 44,544 Squirrel hunters slayed over 336,203 squirrels. Geez guys! (PDF link to the numbers – pretty fascinating.)

Then, out of curiosity, I googled ‘who has the most hunters per state’ and Pennsylvanians beat the Wisconsinites by 20.5 hunters per square mile compared to 13.7.

hunter_density__large

That’s pretty cool. Good to see that the Gun Culture is alive and thriving in the United States.

Praise Jesus and Pew Pew!

My wife cracked this joke like 3 days ago.

Further proof that I married out of my league.

Let’s be honest.

This is nothing new.

Francis was just the first one stupid and desperate enough to ‘Go Simple Jack’ and expose the left’s goals of total firearm confiscation so blatantly. (That’s a Tropic Thunder AND a Deadpool reference…. wow… go me).

I’m willing to bet the Democrat oligarchy collectively moaned and gnashed their teeth when he stated something so stupid on a national public stage because his sound bite will be the rallying cry for gun owners for the next twenty years.

Anyways. I ain’t skeered. Cause Francis hasn’t even taken 3% in the Polls yet, so hows he gonna lead a national movement to take my guns? 🙂

In other news. The left is also using a little girl with Aspergers to yell at everyone else about burning the Earth to a cinder. Which is just ridiculous. But hey, if she’s a little girl, with Aspergers, you can’t make fun of her. You can’t challenge her. You can’t belittle her. You can’t tell her she’s wrong.

Or you’re being a bully.

Well, my son has Autism. And likely my three year old daughter as well – so it doesn’t cut any mustard with me.

Greta doesn’t know squat, because she filed with the UN against 5 countries for not stopping climate change. (Of course America is one of them.) But not China… which is the leading polluter in the world.

I call bullshit. Go find a park to play in and leave the arguing to the adults.

ChildAbuseAspergers