Another story to tell...

[PennsyPlinker]

I have been sequestered in Nebraska and Iowa for the past week, and have had a bunch of work to catch up on as soon as I got home, so I have not had much in the way of computer time. But, while in Iowa for a demo and some teaching, I was staying at the home of the man whose shop we were using. As one might suspect, the subject of guns came up. He was somewhat conflicted in his opinion. While he has no problem at all shooting groundhogs for eating his wife's garden, he declared that no one needed an assault weapon. We discussed the realities of what was and wasn't an assault weapon. He grumbled that his one friend had an AK-47. An AK-47!!!

Then he looked hard at me and said, "I suppose you have one too.

"I most certainly do."

"There is no good reason to have one of those guns! Only the government needs them!"

"We need those guns to protect ourselves from the government. That is what the Second Amendment is all about."

The conversation continued to wind around various topics, and at one point he was further outraged that I carried a handgun on a daily basis. With a little further talking, it came out that he had recently purchased a 9mm Beretta, with a Crimson Trace laser on it no less! He told me that he had purchased it for home defense. I asked him if he had done much practice with it. No, of course not. I then supposed out loud that the "bullets were kept separate from the gun.

"They most certainly are! I am not going to keep a loaded gun in the house."

"Well then, you have from the time you hear the glass on your front door breaking until they get to your bedroom to find the gun, find the bullets, and figure out how to use it."

He sat there and looked at me for almost a full minute. Then he said, "I guess I don't really have it for what I think I have it for, do I?"

"No, you don't. You need to practice, and you need to gain some confidence with it. It does you no good at all the way it is."

"Well at least we have 911. I can always hope the cops will get them on the way out for me."

Given their isolation, I doubt even that would happen. To his credit, he is a thinking man some of the time, so I hope that he will think on the things we discussed. He has some friends and neighbors who are "gun nuts like you" (meaning me) so perhaps he will get going on seeing how that Beretta works one of these days.

[mjfletcher]

Have you ever considered a career as a paid speaker? With nothing more than one sentence you got him from "loaded guns aren't safe" to "OMG, i'm such an idiot."

[/dev/null]

Bill - you should have been with me this last week... all the anti's in California. Funny though, I had dinner with a hard core Dem thats VERY anti, and at the end of the evining she had re-thought her position and wanted to know more about what other rights her government has been taking away.

Lets just hope she doenst cast another vote for Dianne or Nancy in the future

Great sory as usual - Im just too tired to elaborate - but then again, being stuck in Phoenix courtesy of USAir - well, you can fill in the blanks.

[PennsyPlinker]

Have you ever considered a career as a paid speaker? With nothing more than one sentence you got him from "loaded guns aren't safe" to "OMG, i'm such an idiot."

Actually, a lot of what I do is paid speaking. I stand in front of audiences up to 140 people or so, turn wood on a lathe, tell stories, make jokes, pick on people in the crowd, and they pay me to do it! How much more fun could a guy have at work!?! So far this year alone I have been to Philadelphia, Arizona, Florida, and Nebraska. I'll be traveling to Massachusetts in a couple of weeks, Georgia in September, and finally a club in New Jersey in November to finish out this year. That doesn't count the teaching here in my own shop or at the local Woodcraft store. So yeah, I get a lot of practice at this stuff. And of course, there are always stories from each encounter.

[PennsyPlinker]

Great sory as usual - Im just too tired to elaborate - but then again, being stuck in Phoenix courtesy of USAir - well, you can fill in the blanks.

Been there too Matt! We need to send some lead downrange at Guthsville this week. I need a range session. We might even let Mikey come along too. And SBaker too, if he is around.

[ROCK-IT3]

Won't let me rep you Pennsy, but your an ambassador. Thanks.

[/dev/null]

Been there too Matt! We need to send some lead downrange at Guthsville this week. I need a range session. We might even let Mikey come along too. And SBaker too, if he is around.

Game on! Toxicondron11 just pinged me about getting out... we need to invite him a little further north (he usually shoots at Ridge). Might also want to get Maytheus out - he has a few new toys that havent seen sunlight yet.

Sounds like a good Thursday / Friday afternoon to me

[PennsyPlinker]

Game on! Toxicondron11 just pinged me about getting out... we need to invite him a little further north (he usually shoots at Ridge). Might also want to get Maytheus out - he has a few new toys that havent seen sunlight yet.

Sounds like a good Thursday / Friday afternoon to me

It is bachelor week for me. All the women are leaving town for their yearly hen house. I have some work that needs to get out the door, but I am flexible.

[tdyoung58]

+1, another good story educating the sheeple one sheep at a time

[mjfletcher]

Actually, a lot of what I do is paid speaking. I stand in front of audiences up to 140 people or so, turn wood on a lathe, tell stories, make jokes, pick on people in the crowd, and they pay me to do it! How much more fun could a guy have at work!?! So far this year alone I have been to Philadelphia, Arizona, Florida, and Nebraska. I'll be traveling to Massachusetts in a couple of weeks, Georgia in September, and finally a club in New Jersey in November to finish out this year. That doesn't count the teaching here in my own shop or at the local Woodcraft store. So yeah, I get a lot of practice at this stuff. And of course, there are always stories from each encounter.

And you've mastered the art of telling the story.