Sent from my iPad
On Dec 21, 2012, at 4:03 AM, Bill Bartlett <william7 at aapt.net.au> wrote:
> At 12:10 AM +0000 21/12/12, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
>
>> I have often wondered, throughout this conversation, just how many people
>> here actually interact with gun owners and encounter the hobbyist,
>> sportsman, or homeowner with a shotgun for protection types in their daily
>> life.
>>
>> ---------
>> I used to own a 38 special, when I was a state park ranger. I was surprised by how much I liked having the gun and by how much fun target practice was. I was an ace shot, which felt good too.
>>
>> I don't know gun owners. When I learned to shoot a gun, one thing that became crystal clear to me was that guns are for killing people, and if you're not ready to do that, you should not own a gun.
>>
>> I wonder whether most gun owners are aware of this. I also wonder how much training they get in using a gun.
>
> Guns, as in shotguns, are for shooting birds and other fast moving targets. (Hence the sport of clay pigeon shooting which simulates pheasant/quail shooting.) Here in Tassie Shotguns are often used to shoot wallaby which are flushed from the scrub using dogs.
>
> Guns have smooth bores, rifles have rifled bores. There are long rifles and pistols which also have a rifled barrel. Your .38 pistol is not a gun. Pistols are for shooting people, at close range I gather. Never fired one myself as I have never expected to have any need to shoot another person. The fact that a park ranger in California does have to be prepared to shoot people should serve as a warning to any tourists planning to visit what I understand to otherwise be one of the most fantastic national park systems in the world.
>
> But I do own a shotgun. Good for shooting cats and other vermin, but a cop showed up at my door a year or so back and told me he had received complaints from a neighbour about me shootin' rabbits and stuff around the town and insisted that I stop it. My protests that it was a traditional pastime in Bracknell was dismissed with some reference to what century we were living in I seem to recall.
>
> In other words, I was treated like a silly old bugger. ;-) I intend to revenge myself by casually patronising as many other people as I can. How am I doing?
>
> Bill Bartlett
> Bracknell Tas
>
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