Protesting everywhere for and against firearms, I answer the call of Appleseed...

 Lovely looking weekend, I rise early and drive to the ferry and head for Clinton and then Coupeville on Whidbey Island. The range gate is locked when I get there, but I am early and need to rearrange my load and garb.  I remember many fine Appleseeds right here in the previous years. The crew shows up with a call from the Shootboss that he is going around the highway and bridge maintenance improvements and will be a bit late. Andy, Franklin and I carry on. I do the prehistory, what happened before April 19, 1775.  I don't notice but all the younger folks look like they have seen me before, and they have! The Shootboss and his two sons show up about nine oh nine, not very late at all. So day one starts.
    I notice all weekend that Total Participation is lacking, no one wants to be part of a chorus, they think everyone else has a better answer? Disappointing that, I must work on my choir director skill set, which I don't remember ever having. As we shoot through the morning learning steady hold factors and the six steps in taking the shot, it seems slow. Cole is having trouble using a red dot to get his rounds on paper - never having used one, I look through his sight, left handed and see that to me the sight is way off high left, to me. So we give him a large blank paper to try and put rounds into for a group. Helps a bit.  Groups start coming together and adjustments are made as we introduce instruction on the next basic building block of marksmanship.
   Lunch and a working one where the First Strike of the match is told, then the second. We have so much history to present, but limit it to no more than forty minutes total. Our reference of Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fisher is highly recommended, I had dragged my mobile library out for show and tell. One teacher wanted to get the title and author of the 23d Welsh Fusileers, the English unit that was in the Revolutionary war from Lexington to Yorktown. Interesting reading.
  After lunch we prepare to shoot the Honor Volley for the fallen of Lexington and Concord, noting that across the nation other Applesseeds are joining us in the Rememberance Volley, I think Andy recorded it, I was noticing as I read the family names where more than one died. Tough times to stand against the Crown and Parliament, and your loyalist neighbors.
   Afternoon and more positions, and instruction on marksmanship and target engagement. We are beginning to know the shooters and work on some of their challenges. Still not enough Total participation. The wind seems to wear us out a bit. But it is more that we aren't drinking enough water and are losing the concentration we should have. I notice a hawk flying above and suddenly his tail feathers blaze out in a brilliant red when hit by the Sun, ah, that is why they are called Redtailed Hawks. Franklin, who grew up on the island, mentions knowing this for a long time.  All the adjustments and the instructions are beginning to show improvement in the shooting and groups. The Third Strike of the Match is presented to get Lord Percy's rescue party and Col Smith back to safety and the siege of Boston by irate militiamen. One Appleseed Qualification Test and a Redcoat and we clean up the range to prepare for tomorrow.
    Good food, good instructors dinner, and great rest for the night.

Day two, begin it all over again, refresh and review, safety and get the cased rifles to the line. There are three AQTs shot in the morning before lunch with dangerous old men stories. Andy adds two stories about ladies of the Revolution, and I want to talk about the two sharpshooters in Boonesboro during the Shawnee Mingo attacks but that is a bit far from Boston but really in the same period of history.


  Afternoon shooting was mostly some drills to confirm zeroing and shrink group size. Trying to find the key, each shooter has different challenges and we do cover Known Distance as the Sun beats down. Lovely day, but winterized Washingtonians forget about sunscreen until it is too late. So final AQT and Redcoat and case rifles and clean up, pretty happy group of folks, shooting in the sunshine will do that. Sent everyone home hopefully looking forward to do it all again, after much dry practice. Since lots of people had come to the island for the weekend, the afternoon ferries were packed and long lines of waiting vehicles on the shoulder.
    Need to unpack the car, check the internet and have dinner and more sleep. Can't find my camera, but it did get home with my other stuff.

How do I get so fortunate? Marksmanship and Heritage and rain in Washington State.

  Drove to the Interlake Sporting Association place in Redmond, just outside of Kirkland, off of exit 18 of I-405. And promptly got lost and confused, until I stopped at a motel and the desk clerk printed me a map.  Parked and greeted the Shoot Boss and SBiT, and helped set up, then went to meet and greet those shooters arriving for Appleseed. Very young professional friendly bunch of patriots, interesting that there weren't any children and I was the only ancient of days gone by. Have I mentioned rain, yes, there in the title. This is the ending of the raining season... so being some level of wet and cooled was a constant. Tarps on the ground and and two lines of popups kept us focused on the training and our targets.
   The first Redcoat target didn't amaze the Appleseed crew, but I hope it convinced all the shooters that they had some skills that needed honing. Step by step, inch by inches minutes and clicks the groups shrank and the shooters relaxed and started adjusting one thing at a time. Still the rain came down. the demonstrators were posing on a wet shooting mat in a rapidly filling lake. Only three Appleseed crew for the seventeen shooters meant that I wouldn't be locking names in my memory very quickly, and I was line boss many times as Ben and Andy did training and demonstrations.             During lunch I put my GPS back into my vehicle, I haven't figured out the app on my new machine for finding my lost.  Becca is a new shooter and Ben has to remind me about the Ruger 10-22 and releasing the bolt, tap it and it will come.  Morning adjustments to slings and stocks and prone steady hold factors. More single point slings than I have seen before on rifles, and the shooters often seem slicker than I will ever be on adjusting them. Nat, the Blue hat, is keeping us in targets and making the admin easier during signup. New t-shirts for this weekend, Ben even gives me an Appleseed pin, which will go on my wide brimmed hat. I get out my Gortex camo parka, because the rain really is coming down, I put the work vest over it.
    I teach sitting and the NPOA adjustments and the afternoon starts after the first two strikes of the match are told by Andy and Ben.  More positions, the carding the sights and ball and dummy are taught, and we start to put it all together for one AQT and the final Redcoat target of the first day. Getting colder and wetter, Ben puts us into the clubhouse for my telling of the Third Strike of the match, and puts me on the clock, which I made with a minute left... hope everyone realized I had so much more I could have added.
   Afternoon Redcoat numbers are much improved over the morning one, something is working. We clean up and take down the popups for the night, the wind is unpredictable and the rain keeps a comin'.

     Ben doesn't mention the vitamin 'i' for pain relief, but seems everyone got home, warmed, dried, fed, rested and sheltered fine because on Sunday - we gathered again.  we get two more crew the second day, and I get to give away an orange hat to our new ITT, the blue hat has hers.  Refeshing all that was taught the first day goes quickly after the Redcoat, and that Redcoat is better still. The third Redcoat is normally the best group scores, tired sets in by the last one of the weekend. The cloudy gray skies are fading to blue, wind is constant but the rains are holding off - and seems like we are drying out today. Ben calls me over to help Brian with making a sling with a 1907 model leather sling, since I use one. Leather Sling and Shooting Positions by James R. Owens is my reference manual. But YouTube probably has some video about it. The sling helps him get several Rifleman scores in the afternoon. All the shooters are getting better although, mechanical and ammunition will always seem to frustrate at the wrong times. Everyone keeps working through their individual challenges. Justine is interesting, he has a camera to take pictures of his shot, at the end of his rifle. The number and amount of technology in sighting systems and rifles amazes me, but then I know it is always the shooter, not the firearm that has the most control of performance.  After two AQTs in the morning, and about four in the afternoon a break at lunch for dangerous old men, and a break to prepare for KD presentation by Andy and the presentation of several well earned Rifleman patches.

   Somewhere on stepping up to help a shooter I fell down, helped the shooter clear her rifle and re-engage the target, I blew my ankle out. That was it for real walking mobility, I sat, moved a bit slowly and got to my vehicle. I found a better sling for Brian and gave it to him as they fired the last Redcoat and began the clean up. Then I left and drove quickly home to recover, ice pack for a few hours, then hot soak and napped during both. Ate my dinner and caught up on my wife's weekend.  Wash the clothes, sleep and start to slowly unload the mailbox and my vehicle - have to get ready to do it again in Coupeville this coming weekend.

The real problem... is XXX violence....

  Yesterday were marches against GUN violence, I didn't join, because I believe in violence (it does exist) and I know the government can't protect me from it. Especially when I might use it to protect myself or others.  If I would use a gun or something else, not really important, just know that I would not be a gentle man if called upon to destroy something destructive. I grew up on heroes. Lots of heroes and lots of violence all for the good... Ajax, a large rock, William Tell crossbow, Robin Hood a long bow.  The weapon isn't so important the intent is. So governments go all the way to Nukes, and subtle poisons, or strange unknown weapons. But as I listened and commented on the discussion about the EVIL AR 15, military grade firearm (spoken by folks that haven't ever been a functioning military grade expert) I started to realize that Assault Rifle has reached the status of an idol.

   An inanimate object revered for mystic super powers of death and destruction, in other words an idol of worship.  Both the Gun folks and the Anti-gun goofs have elevated it way up there. Most real gun people know it is a tool, a toy, and a trial, but used properly no one needs to get hurt because it exists. Unless you really do think it is an idol of worship, then you will get hurt by it. The problem lives in the person or people that think it has intent. I have carried one like it for years and years, and seemed to be sleeping with it more than I was with my wife, periodically. I also know it doesn't do well against tanks and aircraft and trucks. I know that it may jam, break, misfire, or disappear into deep dark waters or mud when most inconvenient. One of Murphy's rules.

   I know the anti-Gun forces really believe in its mystic powers - they never give up their guns, just make the little guy, the worker, the slug, the unworthy must give up their guns so they have no power. If I were as terrified of failure as they are, the elite, nobles, special people - I might think I need those evil AR platform guns carried by my expert professional heroes to save me and mine. They really do bow down to those inanimate objects and pray they will be there when the crisis comes.  Then because they believe that power comes from the barrel of a weapon they crush the opposition... until they run into people of will to resist... and they are never ready for that. Oh, there are FBI special squads, SWATs and real assassins working for the government goofs, and they will and do kill and are seldom held responsible - but it doesn't look like any group that need force to rule will last long if the people have values stronger than the folks that think they are in charge.

   I am a fat little old man, but I don't get my power from idol worship, nor my guns.  I get all I need from the Bible, and many other readings and experiences in my life and the histories of others. I do want protection for the students in schools, I want to charge school boards and administration with failures to provide such protection. I also want the same folks to provide a quality education since I am robbed to pay for it. But if you have massive demonstrations in worship of the mystic power of the gun and not in getting those sick and sickening people that attack the defenseless help and rescue from their own demons... then I am sure the problem of mass deaths isn't going away.  Somehow the media, entertainment and educational and journalism have corrupted the whole way of thinking about everything and there doesn't seem to be any answer except to worship and lock up the mystic powers of those inanimate objects built for war, almost, but so evil regular folks can't be trusted with them.

Okay, I am now for Gun Control, and the restriction on AR type Assault Rifles from the folks...

  First, if you are so ignorant (lack knowledge) that you trust the government at any level to protect all you love you shouldn't be allowed to touch a weapon. If you are ignorant of why there is a 2nd Amendment for the original Constitution, you aren't ready to be trusted with a weapon. If you are sure that limiting the number of rounds will prevent mass shooting in the future, you shouldn't have access to weapons that could make such a slaughter. If you think that my deciding to not own an AR platform rifle means at all my years of instructing on it, running training around it, and carrying it into battle for the government will disappear when you outlaw those to civilians - you shouldn't be making decisions for others to live under. So if you can't pass a test that asks about what you are making a logical choice about the prohibited weapon, you can't have such a weapon and can't vote on this matter.

   I would love to point out, especially when people use the last Assault Weapons Ban, ten years and no mass shootings in the schools. That there were also no Alien Spaceship Battles that Earth lost, thanks to the International Space Agency, during the same period. I would also be sure to mention two states that have banned or registered all Assault Weapons and large magazine have not enforced any of the law against the population that are not in compliance. I suspect those states do not want a Constitutional Test case in the courts.

  I suspect that home schooling and private schools will produce the best thinking young people and the continued disarming of all those that just don't know enough to be entrusted with arms or the vote will increase in speed. Until only the noble class of folks armed with knowledge and responsibility will be continuing the American traditions... by some time soon after the newest AWB, the current Constitution will be replaced and we will be stuck with our enemies among the sheep in the fold. Then it really will get bloody. Does anyone study History any longer? 

Happy anniversary, yes, really have a happy anniversary...

  Today is the official date, government approved, and done without US Army assistance nor resistance, the day I stood before a Methodist Minister with my girl friend and became very much more married. My father, mother, sisters and a niece were there to officially witness and support the event. Mother went a bit beyond the call to make sure we had a wedding cake and something to drink a toast with and to capture pictures. We were blest. For it doesn't always happen so well, today marriage seems so difficult but I and my wife had our own parents and others of examples of solid long lasting unions. We were blest.

  I believed at the time, and teased my wife about it, that I wasn't going to live to forty. Now we are married forty-six years. We are thankful and know that we have been blest.

  I meander the kitchen making my oatmeal, and she steps in and out making hers, a dance we are comfortable doing, speaking in tongues and chuckles, pointing out the future, thinking about the past.
She isn't cute, her long black hairs has been cut long ago, it has grayed and now silver. I don't wear a uniform nor get up too early to go do PT. She has grown to a beauty that only God and I know, and she shares her loves.  God and I get her fears, but she loves well and deeply. We will always keep working on and around the fears. I would hope the world would find true love, for it is there. It is everywhere.
 
   Did I mention? We are blest.

What are you basing your life upon?

  The Gun Violence, Gun Control, Abortion and generally, how one is supposed to live, and why doesn't the government do something to fix it  --  has come up again. All those questions, debates and solutions circle around seemingly going no where. So I see no need to expound on any of them, as soon as you said 'the government should' you have left the playing field.

  Everything that should be better can be if everyone steps up and does the correct important things in their life and with their family and friends and to all strangers they meet. If I don't get high on drugs nor alcohol, then drunk driving won't happen. There already is law, but it is behavior that makes the best things happen, not law. Most law is punitive, some faceless fellow is going to punish you and you should be afraid. That doesn't motivate me, anyone else out there deciding that they will be good because they will be punished? No, most people are in denial, it will never happen to me, goes their thoughts.

   I wonder if any of us have looked deeply into why we do what we do, your life is patterned on a tale of success and goodness, isn't it? When you turn on the television to see Law and Order, you find the criminals hiding, lying and lawyering up. Yeah, then for a bit more drama, you have the 'good' guys cheating on their loves, the job, the rules and in general only a little bit better than the accused.  But watching the actors never registers as unacceptable behavior, someone is killed during a story, then you see the same actor in another story very much alive - you now, in your mind, think being killed isn't real. Don't teach bad behavior, teach and sell only good behavior. I am sure I have never had the romances illustrated on entertainment, really.

Go get them, Grasshopper.

   I will always go back to the fact that I am responsible for my behavior - the wonderful and the totally stupid - it all belongs to me. Do not make the same fool action that hurt the universe again. Don't repeat errors, make different ones but doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome never works there is science and engineering proofs if you care to look them over. There are people that blame the LEFT, the RIGHT, the NRA, the government and all kinds of places to lay blame for all that seems to be wrong and go wrong. Like making my shot, I am the one on the weapon and I am the only one responsible for where the bullet strikes and what happens when it does. Many may care, or very few, and the media may make a lot out of it, nor not, I will always remain the person responsible no matter what anyone says. It will never be the few semi auto rifles that hurt people, out of the millions used responsibly daily. It would be the shooter's fault.

   If you watch enough, for some reason you think you aren't living up to your mental model, making love to hundreds of beautiful women(?) only in the lives of the LOST. You wouldn't even know their names.

Might as well give up... so I did, going in circles has only a limited life...

  The Gun Violence debate is posed by the other side as a problem with the guns, access and danger... but the problem is Cain killed Abel with a rock. David killed Goliath with a stone. And current culture believes more in Road Rage than good manners. Entitlement, I have a right to be rude, crude and lewd... or so I think they think. Have a quiet conversation about the power of words with the intelligent ones, about how easy it is not to use vulgarity, profanity and obscenity. It is likely they are all telling you to take from the forbidden fruit - you won't die.  As justification for their poor choices and why I should be accepting of it - that is unacceptable. Go away!

   So we are now engaged in a conversation, a debate, a rude shouting down match between the forces of good and evil, the left and the right the up and the down. Boring, nothing new, nor better will come from it. Well, you will take care of your portion of the conversation and the conflict, and I will take care of mine and I firmly resolve that I won't kill any children because they haven't gained their maturity. Also, I know they have much more to bring to brighten our world. I also resolve to resist stupidity as I constantly run into it. There is a lot of fantasy in the media, and fairy tales have been my favorites for years and years... but I never dreamed nor aspired to be the Prince, I was more the bookworm in the stacks. I took bat, ball, glove and a good book to Little League... notice I didn't play much after that.

   Lovely wargame I was playing, I picked the name Ajax, and went about gaining experience and points learning the rules and meeting folks from far away online. But I started noticing empty castles, where players had stopped and now the castles were raided, looted and burned - no human life left inside. The computer machine age will miss human beings one day. No poetry, unfortunately I see the children I teach in Sunday school are already lost to poetry, as they sink deeper into their digital distraction device. If I were a betting man, I would say we (the tech savy civilized world) have no way to resist our end.

   When we think another government agency, law, rule or tax is going to fix everything we are lost. How does the FBI, get into defending schools from raiding savages... just because the communications seem so quick? That doesn't mean you have control of anything. I can focus on the front sight, and I don't need optics or electronic enhancements (I just am not going to shoot that far). But I know that the government can't make my shot, only I can. Over and over, I hear Liberty Mutual will fix a flat, and I laugh because thinking only the Xperts and government can handle anything means we should return to a King, a royal lineage.  Don't study History, you might find this human interaction at every level hasn't changed. Personal responsibility, personal action and don't stay on the beach waiting for orders... it is a kill zone.