I went out shooting at Pawnee Grasslands today. The area was packed with shooters, and everyone was having a great time.
Something was very different today, reminiscent of my childhood. There were no government employees out there today harassing the citizenry, like there usually are now.
It reminded me of how much fun life was out west – before the communist takeover. We have come to accept harassment by government employees as part of daily life in America.
We can do much better than that.
Yeah its amazing how much things have changed. We used to go shooting all around Albuquerque in the open spaces, either just to shoot or to hunt rabbits. Now you can’t fire a gun without risking arrest. I was even visiting a house in the east mountain area – far from the heart of Albuquerque – and some nearby kids were enjoying some target practice. Someone called the cops and the area was full of Sheriffs in search of these kids just exercising their constitutional rights without hurting anybody out in a basically rural area. They no longer engage in target practice, needless to say.
Out where I live, you can hear neighbors target practicing most days, I can step out my back door and shoot skeet from the patio. The little village where my my post office is located allowed discharging of weapons within its limits until a just few years ago. Out here we operate on an opposite schedule from the large cities, they do all their shooting at night. 😉
Ah yes, the good old days.
We learned the proper use techniques and safety aspects of rifles & shotguns while in Elementary school, but those days are just about toast.
At least I found a gun shop this week, with a “Going Out of Business” sale, and 50% off for
10 gauge rifled slugs and the ol 444 Marlin -:)
I got my annual Brown Bear, but the wife still has a tag to fill (no tags required in my district, only a hunting license is needed)… At least in Alaska you’ll get the lifelong hunting, fishing & trapping license when you hit the age of 60 and there are no limits on Black Bears, Wolves or Lynx….
There are gov’t employees in the Pawnee Grasslands? Most of my spare time over twenty years was spent hiking the Crow Creek drainage from south of Briggsdale to the tri-state intersection north, collecting fossils, agates, artifacts and homesteaders’ junk. I never, and I mean never, saw another human being out there other than the occasional one I brought with me. This would have been until 1991. It was so isolated out there I would feel something behind me, turn around, and there would be an antelope a half-mile away. Got friendly with a 9mm Glock out there one day. I was surprised at the distance accuracy a pistol could have, had only messed with rifles until then. So, where do these gov’t people hang out, there is no place to hide out there.
Near continuous harassment by rangers at one of the more popular shooting spots.
Profiling. They’re just waiting in case you all start moving together, as a mob. These things happen suddenly, you know–one minute a peaceful herd of recreating shooters, the next a rampage of bitter religion and guns. The ones with bicycles are the worst, they say…and soccer shorts (heh-heh).
I grew up in a town where most fathers gave their sons a .22 for his (my) 12th birthday. Most of my friends in Jr High School owned a rifle. It was common in summer to see 2 or 3 young men walking through town caring rifles. Often we would stop at Ernie’s grocery and walk out past the edge of town where we would shoot a box or two.
Now I live in a place 10 miles out of town. Almost every day we hear neighbors practicing with their guns. I frequently join them mostly to make noise and support the right to use our guns on our property. A right that is not exercised is lost.
Most of the government could go away and most of the people wold be better off. A long time ago in a land far, far away, there once were free men.