My Story

Jennifer started a ball rolling...

I was born in 1959 in farm country of Western NY.

I knew every family for five miles in every direction. Every house had guns in them. How did I know that? Because I saw them. They were not squirreled away. They were over the fireplace,  leaning in corners, in tool chests in garages, on shelves in basements and in a lot of closets.

My whole life there was a double barrel shotgun hanging over the kitchen door with ammo. We knew what dangerous meant. I believed my parents when they told me what was dangerous. I remember a demonstration my father performed with a ripe melon and a shotgun at around 5 years old.

By the time I was 10 years old I was hunting rabbits for my father. They were pests on our farm.

Guns were tools where I grew up. They were not demonized. During deer hunting season half the trucks in the parking lot at my high school would have shotguns in old style window gunracks. Even the teachers.

My elementary school had a rifle range in the basement under the gym. Gun safety and target shooting was a class in gym.

I bought my first gun in the early 1980's. It was a Smith&Wesson Model 539, 9mm. It was the hay days of the 9mm. Miami vice was on the TV and the gun shops were full of 9mm's.

A Mossberg 500 and a Ruger Mini-14 quickly followed. A classic three gun system. That turned to a five gun system with a Ruger 10/22 and a Ruger Mark II. I needed a long range rifle next and got a Savage 110FP.

All those purchases and shooting was in the 1980's. I watched the the ramp up to the Assault Weapons Ban happening. I paid a lot for a pile of 30 round mags and later a second Mini-14. (2 is 1)

Oddly enough I bought my first suppressed firearm during the Assault Weapons Ban.

In the years that followed I have taken many people to the range for the first time, bought more guns, got married a couple of times, had two great kids, had the honor of teaching them safety, respect and the enjoyment of firearms, and eventually started this blog in June 2008.

This blog has been and continues to be fun. Through it I have met some of the best people I know. They are not a crazy violent lot like some want you to think. They are real men and women, they can be funny, kind, honorable, intelligent and noble. I am honored to call some friends, in the real world. 

--I even found a new Mom!