I get more enjoyment out of .22 rimfire and it is dirt cheap to shoot. A 50 round clip on a Ruger 10/22 is a hoot. So is long range plinking with a nice single shot .22 with peep sights or a scope.
This brings back good memories, likely to a great many of us. I grew up on a 116 acre farm, much of which was deep woods, on the PA side of the Delaware River. We had about five logging trails back into various parts of the woods, to
access the seven cord of wood we cut each year. And at the end of one of those trails was the dump. Now dumps aren't legal any more for many good reasons, but this dump had been there a long, long time. Nothing nasty, but some old porcelain appliances that were fun to blast away at, and of course, how many glass bottles could you line up in a row and get them all with one shot? Single shot 22 back then. And we learned to clean it every time we used it. Loved the smell of the gun cleaning oil.
But give a kid a box or two of 22 shorts, and man what a way to spend an afternoon.
And now it gets a little unusual. I'm a life long pacifist. I will try to do everything possible before shooting or injuring another human being, even if I put myself at more risk doing so, within reason.
But I will defend myself, and my family. And if the boogeymen from Mars show up, ok, then too. My wife's father gave us/her a 12 gauge pump which is in the closet, with shells nearby, and also in that closet
is a really nice 22 LR with a scope more expensive than the rifle. I'm nearsighted, so sighting that scope and seeing everything clearly is a real joy. And I'm a pretty accurate shot.
But I don't hunt animals, a previous wife just knew I liked guns and gave me the rifle for Christmas.
Strange, to like guns, and be a pacifist. I've shot a 1911 45, man what a cannon, and a 38 revolver (nice to have the chief of police there...) but handguns are pretty scary to me. Would never own one, since they
are (and yes I understand hunters need a backup weapon) simply agents of human misery. Protection to many, life and family wreckers to more. But that's because of the violent society we live in, not the guns.
I understand a shotgun for home defense. I hope I never have to use ours, and likely won't. But I promised my wife's father when I asked for her hand to protect her, and I will, however imperfectly.
I live in a state that apparently doesn't care what I have in the closet. But then I'm a normal tax paying, law abiding citizen.
But I can see a day when there is a knock on the door and someone holding a big printout in uniform will be there to collect my shotgun and rifle.
Why, to protect my paper targets? No, like Prohibition or Sharia Law, someone thinks they know what's best for me, and are going to force their will on me.
I found out a few years back through research that fifteen members of my very extended family wound up in the ovens at Belzec. A whole "township" full of Augenblicks rounded up
and shipped off in the train cars to their death. Never again. I may be a pacifist, but I'm not getting in that railroad car.
This stuff happens, we need to remember the depths of depravity and psychopathic mental illness our species is capable of.
So you want to print my name in some big list and publish it? Not sure this meets any reasonable public need that could not be achieved in more private ways.
Geez, are you going to take my paper targets away too?
Instead of taking my guns, how about making gun locks available for free? Now that would be sensible public policy.