Quote of the day.

"The world is filled with violence...Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose."

-James Earl Jones

So SB281 went to the House.

And the final testimony was heard at almost 4AM on Saturday morning.

Here's one gem from the day:



More later.

Went to the fun show, saw nothing of import, and drank bourbon. Also, School House Rock.

Chris and I, with MikeW in tow, headed souf to Virginny on Saturday for the Nation's fun show and subsequent blogmeet. I was on the hunt for 8mm Mauser surplus ammo and stripper clips (I only have 5, and I need to remedy that). I also hoped to get my mitts on the re-release of the Savage Model 42 as well as check out prices on SBR uppers for funsies.

Chris, I believe, was simply there to look for things he doesn't normally see as well as shop for ammo. Mike was also ammohunting.

Before heading around the show, we met up with MSgt B, The Miller, TBolt, and Broken Andy. I don't know if other folks showed up before we all dispersed.

What we found was...disappointing, at best. Gun prices were average-to-high. I saw NO SBR uppers whatsoever for sale by the time we got there (though someone I know got lucky), no surplus 8mm, and no stripper clips whatsoever. I bought a dog-related item from a guy with patches and DVDs and some meat from this guy. Dude's meat is out of this world. A++ will buy again and all that. Also, he's super nice and practically begged us to stick around and let him continue to feed us jerky bits. Who am I to say no to free chunks of meat? :D ANYWAY, Chris DID get to see/handle a Seecamp .32, which was pretty neat, and a CZ 52, which he likes for the art deco look. I checked out the aforementioned Savage ($400 at a gun show, might be less at a shop) and not much else. The people at this show were far nicer than the folks at the Maryland show and there were a lot more pistols than at the York, PA show, but still...meh. Chris brought home a box of that cheap Mexican ammo to try as well as a couple of mags for an heirloom pistol in his collection. And Mike also bought meat and a couple bags of reloads. The car smelled faintly of jerky on the way home...

From there we went to dinner at some place around the corner from the expo center with The Miller, TBolt, Broken Andy, and Stretch (and wife). Dinner was...alright, not spectacular. Service sucked. The place was not that crowded for drinks to lack refills unless requested. Conversation was as expected: constant, entertaining, and full of stories. From there, almost everyone (minus MSgt B) headed back to The Miller's for bourbon, more stories, and School House Rock. And a drunk Laura eating Chris's head, zombie-style. Also, kitties (both living and taxidermied) begged for pettins, Marty's lovely wife provided us with a fantastic breakfast, and we came home tired. And my ribs hurt from laughing all evening. TBolt is a funny individual. All in all the weekend was a good one, and I'm thoroughly grateful for such fantastic hospitality from The Miller and his lady.

Gunnies never cease to amaze me.

One of the things I always wanted to do is to start doing some shooting sports, but I've never really had the time or money to get started easily. I finally got my chance. I was recently able to join a local gun club and have met some really nice people. One of these people suggested that I try and come to their weekly bulls eye competition. He said it was no pressure, inexpensive, didn't take long and I could shoot any pistol I had. He also said it would be a great way to get into some competition shooting. I told Laura about it and we decided to check out the next match.

Thursday rolled around and we headed up to the club range. No one I had previously met was there. I told the range officer we were looking for the bulls eye competition and he indicated it was right here and one round was in progress, but we could jump in on the next one. He was really nice, and helped us get registered and told us what we were going to do. After that round was over, we met some of the other shooters that were there, and they also helped us get set up and gave us the basic rundown on the matches. All of these people even though neither one of us had met any of them before, were really helpful, patient and nice. Just then 2 of the guys I had met before including the one that invited me to come showed up. As the other shooters noticed that I knew them they relaxed even more and pretty soon everyone was talking and joking like we were old friends. When the competition started they explained each stage, the scoring, and what to do, like they were actually glad to have some new people around and they all made us fell very welcome.

It was good fun, an interesting introduction to actual competition and something I want to do again. The guy that invited me said, see, if you get used to this I'll have you shooting IPSC by the end of the year. I am continuously amazed with the people involved in shooting and shooting sports. It's such a big difference from the people I deal with every day that I can't help but be. I hope as I meet more and more gunnies I continue to meet great people that are willing to share their sport.