Truckin' along

I am not making much progress on TZC6 this month, at least not as much as I wanted. I figure I'll come in closer to 12 thousand words than 30, which is a bummer, but December has always sucked for me, in terms of writing. I should have set a more modest goal. January I will keep the goal of writing 30,000 words again, less than a thousand a day and completely doable...if I don't get sidetracked. The holidays have always played havoc with my life, at least since I grew up. As a kid the most you worry about is "What can I get my mom/dad?" and now, as a father, I realize my parents didn't expect (or I daresay, want) a damned thing. I have less expectations of my kids, though my partner is not off the hook and I'm still hoping to get that nifty freeze drier for a mere eight grand... Not really, I'm trying to divest myself of crap these days. With any luck I will get my material goods down to a car load by June. 

I bought a 9mm recently, a conceal carry sort of gun, it was cheap, or I should say, 'inexpensive' and bought new from a store. Took me surprisingly little effort to get it, less than 15 minutes including the phone call to verify that I wasn't on a 'Do not sell list'. I was expecting a wait, but I guess that went by the wayside many years ago. So I had no expectations of this pistol, I researched and knew it was accurate to about 5 yards, but the type is made for conceal carry, not match shooting. I have to admit I didn't like it much. I like a weapon I can hit the broadside of a barn from 20 yards away with and when I did have the target out at that range, I think I put 10 out of 12 holes in the target, the other two being complete misses. None of the holes were...well let's just say the paper target's vital areas were safe after spewing that lead down range. I have a match pistol, a .22lr and at twenty yards I can hit the broadside of a barn and possibly cause some damage...but it has a six and seven eights inch barrel that is not conducive to conceal carry. Why is that a big deal to me? I don't have a CC and don't plan on getting one, I mean we all know the government just keeps those lists because they can't require you to license your guns...but if they ever need to find out who has them I suspect they will come after the conceal carry people first. :-) I don't think I have the temperament to carry a gun, I mean it would take me 30 seconds to figure out I need one and by then, well, the fight would be over and I'd be on the ground bleeding. I love the idea of westerns and gun fights, but only as a thinking exercise. I have had guns brandished at me twice, pulled on me twice and, on one very memorable occasion, fired in my general direction (they were drunk and/or I was lucky). In none of those instances would having a gun of my own made anything better. I can think of only one case in my life that having a gun may have done some good. 

I am not anti-guns, I am pro-law. I think we do have a gun problem in our country and I think we should require licenses to purchase and own firearms, an annual license. The fees for the license should be on a sliding scale and possibly be different for different kinds of weapons and the money brought in could be used for gun safety courses, hunting preserves and a restitution fund for victims of gun violence. I am also pragmatic and know that this will never happen; people like the 'freedom' of having their weapons. Let's face it if we cannot agree to any sort of firearms regulation after a bunch of school kids are murdered (over and over again) then nothing will move our cold, icy hearts. Fine, everyone can have guns.  I can have mine too, not a problem. I am just wicked pessimistic that it will ever do me any good. I am fairly safety conscious too, I would not conceal carry with a round in the chamber or with the safety off. Nope I'll have to make a conscious decision to aim and fire. Let's hope no one is relying on me to be the hero, eh?

As for the 9? Well I gave up on it after only a few visits to the range, it has a home now with someone who wanted it more than I did and I got to cross a person off of my list for buying Christmas gifts for, so it's a win-win. I think I might find a 380 next, maybe something with a four inch barrel...