Last week marked my seventh anniversary as a resident of central Virginia. Since I’ve moved from New Jersey, I have done a number of things in Virginia that I never did in NJ. They are, in part:
- Voted for a Republican for President (twice)
- Voted for a Republican for Congress
- Went to a shooting range and fired a handgun
- Went to a shooting range and fired a rifle
- Went to a gun show
- Bought a handgun
- Bought a rifle
- Keep a loaded handgun in my home, easily accessible at all times
- Spent Fourth of July on an Army base
- Discovered beef barbecue
- Went to a county Beef Festival
- Joined a synagogue
- Taught religious school
- Attending synagogue regularly
- Bought a condo
- Changed my political leanings from liberal to centrist, with some issues on the right (and a few still left)
- Muttered “Damn NJ driver” when a NJ driver annoyed me on the road
- Went to two Republican political rallies
- Say “That’s fine” instead of “Okay.”
- Added “Yes Ma’am” to my vocabulary
So my question to my fellow Southerners is: Can I call myself a Southerner now, or am I still one of those damned Yankees who came to stay? (A Yankee comes to visit. A damned Yankee comes to Virginia and stays here.)
Check this out. An 85-year-old woman stopped a punk from robbing her—with a .22 pistol.
LAKE LYNN, Pa. — An 85-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Lynn, Fayette County kept an alleged burglar at bay using a .22-caliber pistol.
According to police, a 17-year-old suspect was attempting to burglarize Leda Smith overnight.
That’s when Smith grabbed her gun and told the teen that she would shoot him if he moved, police said.
“I had the gun on him before he turned around and said, ‘you’ve had it,’ ” Smith told Channel 11-News.
According to police, Smith ordered the boy to dial 911 and then gave him some advice.
“Dial 911 and don’t attempt to throw the phone at me, or do anything bad or i’ll just shoot you,” Smith said.
When police arrived, they took the teen into custody.
Makes my .22 rifle seem a bit less of a toy and more of a serious weapon.
I went to a gun show today. And came home with a .38 revolver and a .22 rifle. The rifle is for fun. The revolver is for protection.
I am now an armed American. Mind you, I won’t be shooting them until I get all the cleaning stuff and, uh, learn how to clean and maintain them. But now I can go shooting at a range without having to rent a thing.
More about this later.
I went for my second shooting lesson today, which I think you could call my second Second Amendment lesson. The teacher this time was Joe, a friend of my last teacher’s, who also happens to be an ex-police officer. Joe brought the guns, and I discovered that I’d better start doing this on a more regular basis. It took a while to get back into the swing of loading and unloading a weapon. But I got the hang of putting ammunition in the clip fairly quickly. The two guns were a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver and a .22 pistol (whose origin, I’m sure, Joe will alert me in the comments or email). I can shoot the .22 all day long. (The target pictured below is one of my best groupings with it.) It’s fun and easy.
The Smith & Wesson made my hand tired after a few uses. It also rather surprised me the first time I fired it. Oops. Bit more of a kick than the .22. I need to build up my hand and arm muscles. I should go back to to the rock climbing gym. You use many of the same muscles to climb as you do to hold a gun and fire it.
There were an awful lot of young men at the range today, and one of them rented what looked like a military semi-automatic rifle. I have absolutely no desire to try a weapon like that, but I was curious enough to stay until I saw him fire it. I think I may head back on my own and rent one of the rifles. Now that I no longer teach on Sundays, I finally have the time to hit the ranges and see what I like. Although it’s a rather expensive habit, but I was warned about that.
My new teacher declared himself very satisfied with my shooting skills today. I was thinking I really need to renew my prescription. It was getting tough to sight the target clearly. But overall, I did well enough to stop an attacker. Most of my shots were within a five-inch range, Joe said.
I think two or three more trips to the range will be enough for me to make up my mind about which guns to buy. The crime rate in my neighborhood is sure convincing me I need one. The range holds classes every other weekend. I’m busy this weekend, but two weeks after the Fourth, I think I’ll take that all-day class and learn about the gun laws in Virginia, shooting and cleaning a weapon, and protecting yourself with your Second Amendment right.
Overall, I think my second Second Amendment lesson went really well.
In celebration of the Heller decision, I will be going to my second shooting lesson tomorrow. Or, as my friend Sarah puts it, I’m going to go shooty-bang-bang.
Report, and maybe pictures, tomorrow evening.