443 Days & Guns

443 days until retirement and it seems like a lifetime away.  I know it will go by in a flash but somehow that doesn't seem to matter here in the present.  I am so looking forward to the day I can finally leave and spend my time doing what I want to do.

I wish I could accomplish more on the weekends but by the time they role around I am usually too tired to want to do much.  It is funny because I always seem to find the energy to get up and go to work but when the weekend comes I get kind of lethargic.  Of course, this weekend isn't really a weekend.  I had split days off on Friday and Sunday and worked a 10 hour shift on Saturday.  It can tire an old guy out.

When I was younger and roving the eastern Washington countryside I carried a 22 caliber pistol and a single shot 22 rifle for protection from the many dangers of riding miles of fence and staying out in the sage brush alone at night.  When I got married I got rid of the guns.  I am guessing is it a good thing cause if I had still had them my wife might have used one on me for any one of the several mis-steps I took during the past 40+ years.

I was always very careful with my weapons.  I taught Mia how to target shoot.  We used to set up cans on the fencing in Ephrata and practice with both weapons.  We also shot up a bunch of stuff on the ranch junk pile which include cars, appliances, and all kinds of useless stuff.

Since those days I have not had guns around.  I have considered purchasing another hand gun for protection while on the road but I suspect it could be more of a problem than a good thing.  Each state has different gun control laws and it wouldn't surprise me to find myself up against the wall for carrying it into a place that perhaps Montana allows but New York doesn't.

And I am frustrated by the many shootings we have seen lately.  It really bothers me that some wacko can get an assault rifle with up to a hundred rounds of ammo and walk into a public place and take away the rights of a lot of people who thought they were safe.  They talk about the right to bear arms but no one discusses the rights of the individuals these whack jobs make their victims.

I am not for gun control.  I don't believe it will work.  Even if the U.S. outlaws the manufacture of assault rifles some other country will still manufacture enough to supply a black market trade and we'll still have idiots shooting up the place.  Many of the recent shootings had weapons used that were stolen from family members or given to the perp by a family member.  Even the New York Police Commission stated on Face the Nation that 70% of the guns confiscated in New York came from outside New York.

So what do we do?  I think we need to root down to the cause of the loss of caring about individual rights.  Too many people don't care about the other persons rights or their personal property.  I am not sure when this happened (it was in my lifetime) or what it was that swung this nation on to the current path but we need to find out and make it stop, NOW!

Enough ranting.  Enjoy the week.