Sunday afternoon in our household means a lot of political discussions, as the Sunday TV programming promotes. Today's back roads is sparked by such a discussion, which resulted from a conversation last night.
I had posted some pictures on my photos , and one of them was of one of my pistols.
As a child, my father, a former marine and career policeman, had taught all of us kids safe firearm handling and usage on visits to our grandparents ranch, and me being the first born, was included until i was about 12, when mom decided it wasn't really something i should know much more about.
So, after dinner I had a conversation with a friend, and said I was posting pictures, and maybe was going to include a picture of a pistol. " Canice you want people to know you have ...guns?" Sure why not? "But Canice, people will think you are, well, you know, weird???" Sorry, too late, people already think i am weird.
And so the conversation went, honestly, for about 10 minutes. 10 minutes of one of my best friends telling me how just barbaric and uncouth it would be for me to proclaim to the world that i own a firearm, let alone several. We managed to get off the subject, but it really bothers me that a Friend would say that, let alone what she has been thinking every time i talk about us going to the range or camping or....God forbid ...HUNTING. To be honest, we have not taken firearms for hunting purposes in decades, but do take protection arms camping, which is legal in wacky California.
Back about 17 years ago we were on a camping trip on California's north coast. As we wandered down these deserted stretches of back roads, (this is going to sound like a B movie, but trust me it wasn't) a vehicle started to follow us at a distance. After about 5 miles, my honey pulled over, and the other vehicle turned off, so we resumed our trip, and in no time the vehicle was behind us again. I kept a eye on the vehicle, and was surprised when he sped up and passed us, only to pull over and let us by, then get behind us again. mind you, we are on a coaloooongghway, that in places has no guard rail, and if you go off the roadway, its a loooong way down to the ocean. He speeds up again, and tries to run us off the road! We continued on, and at the next turn out he is sitting there, and takes a swig out of a bottle as we pass. (It was at this point that I thought of something my supervisor had told me- I was working as a police dispatcher at the time. We had talked about me walking to my car at the end of my shift, 11:30 PM, and he said something about being armed. When I said no, he lowered his ever present coffee mug
I rummaged in my bag and pulled out a .380 pistol i had carried there since my talk with Sgt Ron. The next time our unwelcome friend passed us, I held my pistol so it was visible, as honey yelled "You don't want any of this pal" Apparently he didn't because he zoomed by and kept on going. I don't know if what we did was required or not, but from then on we decided it was better prepared than sorry. Our daughter warned my son-in-law when they were dating " She really is my pistol packin momma". Gee, maybe thats why they never come up to see us....
I think what I set out to do here today was explain I am not ashamed of legally owning something to protect myself and my family. Everyone in our home knows how to use these, which are locked in our safe. Our family will not be victims. Ask not what others can do for you, but what you can do for yourself is more than a catchy phrase, its the way I was raised, and how I have raised our daughter...soorry, I get kinda wound up on the topic...
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