Sunday, December 16, 2012

It's called personal responsibility folks

In the last couple days I have had a number of "conversations" with people claiming that since a gun belonging to a lawful gun owner could be taken by a criminal and used to commit a murder, That somehow makes owning a gun a privilege not a right. Horse Hockey!

The right to self defense including the right to keep and bear arms is just that a right. However, with rights come responsibilities. Gun owners have a responsibility to exercise their right to own guns in a safe a prudent manner.

When some monster commits an atrocity like happened Friday, it is all about personal responsibility. That person is responsible for their actions. That person alone.

 If they needed psychiatric help and haven't gotten it, that is something that needs to be addressed. How often do these things happen and people come out and say "I knew something was wrong but didn't do anything or didn't know what to do."? Yes we need to have a serious discussion but it is about personal responsibility. Kids are being taught and it is reenforced as adults that you are not responsible for your actions or what happens to you. It is always someone else' fault. Be the persons parents or teachers or the cities fault or the road designer or building owner or someone else. It is never the fault of the person who actually committed the act.

It is called personal responsibility. YOU are responsible for everything that you do! If you screw up and do something that gets someone hurt, it is YOUR responsibility. YOU hurt them. Whether it is getting behind the wheel of a multi ton vehicle and driving into someone while you are impaired or by your inattention, or taking a gun and shooting without adequate backstop and killing some innocent child blocks down the road, or you purposely attack someone with the intent to do them harm, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!

It's called personal responsibility.



Sunday, December 9, 2012

Subaru Nation

So months ago I wrote about trading in my 2001 3/4 ton 4X4 crew cab diesel truck for a new Subaru Outback. Well, yesterday was the rounds of Christmas parties. We drove over to Mordor on the Colorado to have lunch with the family. Imagine my giggle at pulling back into the ranch and looking at the Trip Information Display and see 33.0MPG Average! That's twice the mileage on gas that costs $0.60 ($369 vs $3.09)/gallon less. That was a big reason why we made this change. We still have misbeHavens truck to pull horse/stock/flatbed trailers but 90+% of our driving does not include pulling those.

However, when we bought the Outback, the salesman welcomed us to the Subaru Family. Yeah OK every car maker wants to have their fan base and assorted devoted followers. Well, on our way back, as we were driving along the highway with the cruise set, there was a small dark spot that was slowly gaining on us. As it got closer I saw it was dark blue and eventually that the grille showed it was another Subaru. As it got closer, the rate of closure slowed until he was right next to us and pacing along side. He looked over, waved and smiled, then sped back up to resume his trip. As he pulled away we saw that it wasn't just another Subaru, it was an older Outback. As misbeHaven pointed out, this is the first time someone stopped to wave just because of the car we were driving. Subaru family indeed.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

What A Day on the range

So, we had two Grad Students and two Undergrads out to the house for some shooting and ceremonial charring of dead mammal flesh. Finally winding down. Got some housekeeping and setup done this morning before they arrived, then did a short session in the house about safety and basics of how to shoot. The we moved out to the range shooting everything form 1911 w/.22 conversions to Colt Anaconda in .44Mag and everything we could throw out in between. Everyone seemed to enjoy and helped pick up so breaking down the range was a snap. Then we retired to the house to char mammal flesh and sit around reliving the day and discussing life. Now we have fed the livestock and are ready to wind down for the day. We need more of these days!