Some gun stories and what happened recently in France

Some gun stories and what happened recently in France

Being a Marine, I know something about guns. And using a gun responsibly is a big deal to me. And using a gun responsibly usually takes common sense training, too. Sometimes I had to be ruthless, too. I got a lot of this kind of training while in the Marines.  But like in sex, when you need something, well you need something, usually quickly in order to practice safe sex or birth control. And often it is a gun to protect ourselves and our Family and Friends when we are threatened, or even in France recently, like people attacked while they were just at work. People died in this case.

Now I think many French police and gendarmes don’t carry guns routinely in the course of their business.  Now if times get hard, then they can get guns, and probably train in using them, too. But all this takes time. And I have not lived there in decades, so I don’t really know for sure what is going on there these days.  So if you call 911 for police help in France, don’t be surprised if it takes time in France.  In the meantime, I might be dying from some murderous thugs who are doing their bit with their own guns, too.

So here in America, like the new world USA, let us use common sense, to include having our local police be armed, just in case since most know there are “just in case” reasons to have a gun as part of being a policeman. In this kind of situation, the time it takes to issue a gun from an armory is an important factor. I don’t think anyone wants to concede gun advantages to bad people with their own guns. I also think most people want to make sure anyone, including our police, are well trained as to gun safety and gun use. That just makes sense, like even common sense. And most police departments already do this kind of training routinely. And often there is even civilian oversight of such kinds of training.  Like I said, as a Marine even I had pretty good common sense training about guns, and using guns was and is part of most Marine’s trade.

So are there the usual poor examples of poor gun training and safety? Of course there are. There are rotten apples in almost every barrel, so to speak. But in the same vein, restricting guns from we the common citizens is not a best course of action to accomplish that goal. There are many other ways to accomplish that same goal. And I suggest our political leaders (and their appointed bureaucrats) who vote and influence our public laws and regulations think about that , too. And actually, I think “we the people” have already started the process to replace those who presently dictate laws and regulations to us, and to our chagrin when it threatens our safety, and our Family and Friends safety.

And after all, I think most know some people who are just opposed to “guns”, period.

As for me, I choose to NOT surrender to thugs and religious fanatics often using guns to try accomplish their goals. Said another way, there are things worth fighting for, and unfortunately one has to invoke that idea periodically. Yep sometimes we have to fight. And sometimes it is our time, much to our chagrin. And I don’t mean the Marines or whatever military. I suggest we have to do it, like fight for our cause. Think about it, anyway.

And nobody I know thinks vigilantism is a good way to go, either. Again why not just employ good common sense training for those who need guns in the course of their business. And by good training, I don’t suggest trying to use that method to suppress those who want or need to use guns.

Of course one option is just to surrender to criminals and religious fanatics. I don’t think most Americans want to go that route, either.

Last here are some gun stories since I left the Marines. They focus on how poor some present day gun training can be in the new world USA.  So it is up to us to make it better, or so I think.

As a Marine, I have been shot at a few times as one might expect. Obviously I was not hit, but it was still not a “fun experience” for me when it happened.

On two occasions I was shot at while at the Hemlocks at Monterey, Tennessee. And I only thought I was past that when I retired from the Marines.

This coming back to Tennessee is an attention gainer as far as getting shot at goes.

On one occasion, it was just kids doing target shooting without a backdrop(or berm) to catch the bullets, and as a consequence the bullets where whizzing my head and others, too. No one was hit, and the location was the Cliff Field Pond area.

I suspect, but don’t really know, if they were taught gun safety by their parents and ignored them like normal, or even if the parents had no clue, too.

So I was going to call the local police since it is against the law for me to take “appropriate action”. But a local friend from Monterey just went to his car and got a shotgun with pellet rounds already in it (out of the car trunk), and shot into the air so as to rain down the pellets on the offending shooters.

Well that did the trick, and they started shouting things like stop shooting, “you might hurt us”.

So in the end, that took care of the problem at the time, but of course these kids with guns that day later graduated from the local high school (probably) and moved away, and now here we go again.

While on a Hash House Harrier run in Georgia, we came across some boys and girls doing some target practice in a mostly bare clay area. We were a little south of Atlanta.

Well they were shooting AK-47’s, which I know something about. And they did not have a backdrop or a berm to catch the bullets.

And the guys were swigging whiskey out of bottles, and the redneck type girls with them were both skinny and wearing halter tops and short shorts.

So I diverted my route of running to avoid the down range possibilities of being shot. Bummer, since some others did not, and my route was much longer and took more time.

And maybe they were right, since no one was shot on that run.

And again, this was just outside of Atlanta, Georgia on a weekend, so this kind of thing doesn’t just happen in Monterey, Tennessee.