Citizen here.
"Worst one I know of was when I was riding in the van with a friend driving. He got pulled over for a busted tail light (NO, not the same one. We're just good at this stuff, k?) Officer came up to the window. Buddy handed out driver's license & CPL. Officer wanted to take control of the gun, no big deal, his perogative. But in doing so, he swept me. GRRRR. I ducked, he apologized, he took the gun back to his car to do whatever. Officer was plainly much relieved to have control of that gun. Funny thing was, every other adult in the vehicle was armed, and he was relieved because he'd just gotten the firearm away from the only person for whom he had positive ID. Uh, no ticket then, either." I find that absolutely hilarious for some strange reason.
On the guy who feels everyone should have training. I hve a mixed bag on this one. Surely the idiot in the gun store is the exception rather then the rule. While I can agree we should all have training, I for one can't afford the 200+ per class. Hell my biggest obstacle for getting my CHL was the 65 bucks for the thing for crying out loud, but finally swallowed it and went without foor for a week to get it. One of the best decisions I've ever made too I can tell you that, one of my guns has already saved my life. I can't afford any extra training. I do however read alot, and ingrain things into my own head by going over different situations in myhead over and over and over again when I have nothing better to do(sadly more often then not it seems
) and I go shooting every chance I get. I strictly adhere to gun safety, and whenever someone handling a firearm doesn't follow even basic guidelines for safety I usually give them the third degree, which often results in an apology and a I didn't think it was so serious which results in another third degree and an yeah you're right.
While people should get more training it isn't always possible, should these people have less right to defend themselves just because they don't have the money to? These people are more at risk because they are forced to live in undesirable area's, but then we have always punished the poor for trying to get ahead. I could go into that to give you examples from my own life but I won't get off the subject. Plain and simple, everyone should get training, but it would be most definately a violation of our rights to require that much training or any training at all. Regardless of how much safer the few idiots might be. Those who give up liberty for safety deserve neither. Simple as that. If there were free training classes offered up by the county or state, I can promise you I would attend. Granted the class her ein Multnomah County Oregon is sort of a joke sort of not, I am still damn proud of my certificate of completion even though I did nothing to get it other then pay my 20 bucks and sit there. The class is officially an hour and a half but generally turns into over 3 hours most of it being back and forth discussion and Q&A, and even some friendly debate resulting in both the citizen and the officer learning a few things. Again I could provide an example where one of his examples dealt with a family incident that was well publicized and I had to correct him on the matter, but I will end up writing about that in another thread somewhere probably.
Sorry for the long post. I seem to do that alot here, but there is so much to say with so many good people on sucha good forum.
Rev. Michael
