First an apology. i will be unable to host the diary until around 10;30AM due to a funeral. i will be back later this morning to take over the host duties. Thank you for understanding.
RBKA Diary
RKBA is a DKos group of second amendment supporters who also have progressive and liberal values. We don't think that being a liberal means one has to be anti-gun. Some of us are extreme in our second amendment views (no licensing, no restrictions on small arms) and some of us are more moderate (licensing, restrictions on small arms.) Moderate or extreme, we hold one common belief: more gun control equals lost elections. We don't want a repeat of 1994. We are an inclusive group: if you see the Second Amendment as safeguarding our right to keep and bear arms individually, then come join us in our conversation. If you are against the right to keep and bear arms, come join our conversation. We look forward to seeing you. RKBA stands for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Shall we follow the lady below the fold please.
Some Background:
This is the tale of a woman,myself, who owns firearms. i was born in the late '40 bs I'm from a military family? Heck, I didn't even know there was a firearms controversy until the nuns at my private school pointed out that guns were baaaad. When I asked how an inanimate object could be bad I got smacked and sent to the principal. No one stood up for me and, I was destined to be a smartass the rest of my life.
I was also destined to 'appear' on the unpopular side of each and every controversy that came along life's road. I was never the dolls and tea party girl. I was the one that would knock your block off if you suggested such a boring pastime. I wanted to be out where there was action and always got into trouble for ruining the clothes my mother slaved over. (Aside: she never slaved over anything that didn't make HER look like a vogue mother). I will say, though, I have a feminine side, I was an athlete a classical ballet dancer. Think about it, a female ballerina is just as much if not more of an athlete as a male. Both the female and male dancers understood this. I was an athlete that loved the outdoors. The freedom to run and to fall, pick myself up. The freedom to get to know the creatures I was sharing this little blue marble with. I got smacked a LOT for getting dirty and not acting like a girl.
I just wanted you to know i was a pretty normal kid. My male relatives, in their everyday jobs, carried firearms at some point. Most were military officers but, at some point everyone in the military carried firearms. They were our fathers and they participated as well as sent young men off to war. When I was old enough to attend some of the daily drills and ceremonies. My friends and I did so with great gusto. The young men appreciated the company of young women and were perfect gentlemen. Of course knowing who our fathers were helped in that department. They seemed so young and I was also very young. Around 15 or 16, just the age when you yearn to have "older men" notice you.
Now flash forward to the firearms related recollections:
The Viet Nam war was getting ready to blow up into a hot war that those young men were going to give their lives for. The Korean War had just ended. It dawned on me that the term 'Cold war' was merely a term that described a war that was not on the US mainland. The Cold War substituted for ‘hot wars’ which involved more force, violence and atrocities than a Cold War would. Remember these were the days of paranoia, and the H-bomb and bomb drills. The nature of war and the firearms necessary to create wars was beginning to dawn on me.
Which brings me to the subject of firearms. I grew up in a world of women. The men were gone most of the time and the ranch house was more than enough for the rest of us. It was even still large enough when the men were home. They were always off on ‘mysterious’ missions. Gone for weeks, sometimes months at a time, many still won’t discuss these absences and I don’t ask. Many military subjects are best left unprobed.
I was introduced to the handling of firearms when I was 6 years old. It was a BB gun, although still a gun no matter what some parents will argue. It fires a projectile that penetrates skin, eyes, intercostal rib tissue and the soft tissue of the face and fleshy areas of the body. I was taught never to point it at anyone or anything unless I was going to kill it. Kill, that means dead. Never to be animate again. None of us went anywhere without a firearm within easy reach. South Texas has wild animals you never want to see.
My mother threw the BB gun away as soon as she found out about it. Not because she was anti-gun but because she was anti-anything that gave me pleasure and got me out of the rehearsal hall.
The next gun I received was a nice and still in use little .22. My grandfather (my mother’s father) made me promise never to tell her. I didn’t and those were some of the best days spent with a very special man. Before I was allowed to use it I had to be able to take it apart, clean it, oil it, and do it again and again. I respected my gun more than any other and still do.
The days i am recalling existed during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world was insane (no change there) and the notion of acceptable collateral damage was, as I saw it, taken extremely seriously by the pentagon and the leaders of the era. I asked my father and grandfather what that meant...it meant that some people would die and that was acceptable while others (translated as most people) would not. Guess who those who survived would be.
Also, all the neighbors were stockpiling food and water. Making the strongest rooms in their homes into shelters. Some even built underground shelters. I was puzzled by this and, after my father was allowed to come home I asked him why we hadn't done that. I'll never forget his answer. It was, and is, chilling. "Honey, we live in San Antonio TX. Kelly AFB, Randolph AFB, Lackland AFB, Medina AFB, Ft Sam Houston, and Brooks Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. These bases mean we get a secondary bomb about 2 seconds later and you'll never know the difference." He had tears in his eyes, he recovered quickly, but i had never seen him get emotional. The longer I live the more chilling that statement becomes.
Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the men in the family told the women that if their daughters were going to live a such a world, a world that had come so close, by golly they were going to learn to use the firearms that lived in the homes. Gun safes were purchased ammunition attained , and weekly arms lessons were scheduled.
Many of us girls, those of us who were athletes had a serious attitude toward the use of weaponry. Therefore, we were taught the cardinal rules:
1. Never point a firearm at anything or anyone you don’t intend to kill. Not wound, kill.
2. There is no such thing as an unloaded weapon. EVER.
3. Keep your weapon point up while on the firing range. If walking along rugged country keep it pointed upward also.
4. Clean, oil it and maintain it properly.
5. Never leave it within reach of anyone else. Not even someone you know has had all the lessons and NEVER within reach of a child.
There are more rules, and undoubtedly they will appear here at RKBA or have already appeared here.
Many of us women, became disinterested in firearms once boys were discovered. I rather pitied a girl who never had the fun of learning about firearms, of firearm safety (that is paramount) and of enjoying an afternoon NOT baking cookies. I still make mean desserts, cookies, and meals, firearms never kept me from cooking, baking and getting a medical degree. Should the social order breakdown I can still make some mean meals and squirrels make great stews.
My husband and I have educated 6 sons the lessons of safety and firearms and never once has one firearm been displayed or brought out in anger. We all understand how final that act is and we all understand that disaster can creep into the mind on little cat feet.
Education is important: misunderstanding and ignorance are, like any other ignorance, the most dangerous territory.
I am not in any way paranoid and would never draw a weapon in anger unless my family or myself were being targeted. Maybe that’s is the power of weaponry...death and the unknown which we are eager to understand and afraid to know.
The forefathers knew that, no world is perfect and in any world violence would be a fixture. Knowing, respecting, and following the rules of firearms handling are just what the founders had in mind. They knew that there could be a need for mass arming of the populace and they were right. Look at so much that has happened since. Look at the wars now caused by industrialized nations because other, underequipped nations have what industrialized nations want or, because industrialized leaders had delusions of adequacy.
The Right to Bear Arms was important to the founding fathers. Little has changed in the way of the world since. Therefore, this was an inspired and wise inclusion to the bill of rights. This family, for one, will not see it infringed.