I am going to carry from now on, every day. The most terrible quote I've heard was a survivor who either took cover on the ground or tripped, and said all he could do was watch the massacre and hope he didn't get shot. A few weeks previous in the same city of Aurora, CO, an ex-con who just got out of prison entered a church and shot someone dead. Before turning his gun on anyone else, he was shot dead by an off duty police officer who was conceal carrying his personal firearm. It never made the main stream news because it didn't end up being a "huge" tragedy.
I am not against firearms education, background checks, or having reasonable laws. The gun control laws are generally perched on the top of a "slippery slope"; the moment you make one concession, you've pushed it over the edge and more will come. The Brady Campaign founder stated outright in the 1990s that he wanted to eventually ban all firearms from everyone except the military or police.
This is how I see it. People who are so mentally ill that they have elaborate plots on how to kill people DO NOT NEED firearms to do so. Firearms are a vehicle to facilitate the goal, but if someone took the time to booby trap his entire apartment and was a PhD student, I think he was capable of going on a car rampage, or a stabbing rampage. (I think it was a few years ago that someone in New York was running around arbitrarily stabbing people and running away).
OK, so unrelated to that:
I've been in a very frank mood lately since my life is moving along at a frenzied pace. I shot three sanctioned matches this month, including a regional championship, I'm about to take a qualifying test to get into the Airforce as an officer, and my job is absolutely ridiculous because we're down to sub-minimal staff. I like hanging out with you guys even though I haven't done much of it and I'm sorry I wasn't able to play the last two times you were assembled at BOLP, but I really can't afford to take the time and spend the money on gas, wear and tear on the car, and time away from shooting sports when the "practice" is just going to be drills, layout familiarization, or playing walkons. I haven't heard anything here about DC, so I assume that is not going to happen. I haven't heard of any other plans for NEPL or any other local or regional series. Is it safe to assume this is just a relaxed year for organization purposes? I know the team's lost some players and others are in similary turbulent times of life (for better or worse). I'm up for the NEPL BONE. I took the time off for DC but I don't really want to just go for the sake of going and hope for the best; that never works out well. I know you guys can play well, and I assume that you know I can play well, so it's a matter of seeing what's feasible. I know most of you have been friends for a long time so I'm really not trying to butt into that, I'm just saying, if we're going to have fun with some **** this year, let's have fun with some ****
