If this is the rare Independence Day that the Evil Princess and I don’t celebrate with gunfire, it’s for a couple of reasons.

First, she and I burned up a four-figure round count between us this past week, shooting a Glock match in Delaware and demonstrating for students in the MAG-40 class we taught there. We’re (almost) “shot out.”

Second, it’s 98 degrees here before you count humidity and heat factor, and it just ain’t a shootin’ day.  Celebrate our freedom safely and have a great holiday weekend.

10 COMMENTS

  1. One thing that strikes me is that if you are just shooting to celebrate something (our Independence Day, for instance) then just making as much noise as possible is really no different from what the anti-2d Amendment, anti-Constitution leftwingers do all day, every day- just sound pollution.
    Furthermore guns aren’t harmless playthings. They are serious, deadly serious, and one of the many cautions regarding them is that they should not be used as noisemakers.
    There isn’t much visually to a bullet until it hits something and if you are just shooting randomly that can become pretty dangerous.
    Treating a gun as a toy/noisemaker isn’t merely stupid, it is validating what America’s enemies already believe.

    • Kevin Hunter,

      Gun noise isn’t sound pollution, it’s the sound of freedom. You can bet most countries in the world don’t enjoy that sound of freedom. Your comments on noise making and safety are well-taken. Saddam Hussein used to fire his rifle up into the air, during speeches, in the CITY of Baghdad! Of course, if gravity acted on the bullets, and returned them to earth, and they hit someone, well that was just “Allah’s will.”

      Be glad you live in America. I notice Colin Kaepernick doesn’t seem to have any plans to move to a more enlightened country than the US. People vote with their feet, and America is one popular place for feet these days.

    • Hmm. By your logic, a twenty-one gun salute, is noise pollution too, maybe? While I applaud your focus on overall gun safety and responsibility, your delivery could use some,let’s say, polishing.

      Unless, your only exposure to firearms has been through untrained, novice gun owners or maybe a few of your shooting acquaintances are drunkards/RX/or drug users, and haven’t taken the time to be fully trained in firearms ownership, I don’t know you or your lifestyle. I will say, I was raised dirt poor, lived on a farm in Virginia, typical “white trash”, maybe from your ivory tower? Yes them rednecks shot into the air in celebratory gunfire on frequent occasions, after some adult beverages to boot.

      To be honest, a disdain grew. I didn’t like the gunfire, but marveled at the simple beauty of the machines. Side by side shotguns, hinge action shotguns, bolt action rifles, all long guns. The reason I didn’t like the gunfire, we had no hearing protection, no eye protection and the cavalier attitude of “it’s just a gun” bothered me. My ears hurt and from time to time, I got plastered in the face with debris. While safety violations galore took place, thank goodness, no one got hurt, property was never destroyed and from my best recollection, only the tops of some trees absorbed the brunt of the shot-shell and tree trunks took the bullets as well as a muddy area where beer cans got shot up.

      Fast forward to today (if you are interested). National credentials aside, I have spent over a month training under the tutelage of Massad Ayoob and a several hours with few other experts in the field.

      I am a safety official for the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) as well as a competitor holding an Expert Title. Friends tell me that’s not bad, given I pull from the inside the wasteband (IWB) holster. That said, if I didn’t have to work, I would have made some serious noise pollution at a local IDPA match. For the celebration of our contry’s independence? Hell yeah! For just the opportunity to enhance skill set, have fun with friends and teach new competitors the ropes, on ANY given occasion, you bet yer ash.

      Now, back to my ORIGINAL question: Is a twenty-gun salute noise pollution? *hint, they only fire blanks*

      Thanks for the soap-box Mas.

      Stay safe.

    • OTOH, there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun with guns. On the Fourth I was tied up volunteering at our local Big Event, but the next day, Friday, my daughter and I went to the range and just had fun.
      Much of my range time I’m instructing, mostly beginning shooters, Texas license classes, Hunter Education, and so forth, and I also do my training time as well, but Friday we took a break from the serious side.
      A safe break, of course. Every bullet either hit a dinger or went into the berm, but nobody was keeping score, timing, or otherwise turning it into work. It was just fun.

      IMHO the gun-control folks would be a lot more reasonable if they took time to have a little fun in their lives. The ones I know, don’t, and it shows.

  2. So glad you could join us here in Delaware… And by the way, the Princess isn’t so evil… LOL

    It was a long ….. week. Thank you for your encouragement and candor. It just keeps getting better.

    Dave and Karen

  5. https://expo.advance.net/…/width…/b65_nwstravisparade39.jpeg

    Hi Gail & Mas,

    hopefully attached is the link to a photo of part of the Travis, Staten Island 109th Annual Independence Parade.
    The significance of the photo is that the gentleman is participating in a Parade in NYC, DeBlasio & Cuomo notwithstanding.
    truly said: the right to keep & bear arms shall NOT be infringed.

    Glad you had a relaxing 4th.

  6. I did, Mas.

    A friend of mine has the contract to put on a real fireworks show for a city not far from me, and a bunch of us gather at the park, spend three days building and wiring and preparing, then it all goes up in smoke in about twenty minutes.. all six hundred rounds of it, ranging in size from two inch up to six inch shells. You have not experienced “muzzle blast” until you are standing about a hundred feet away from a six incher when the lift charge goes off and the round clears the muzzle of the launch tube.

    I don’t know the budget for the show, but aobut ten thousand folks seem to show up for it every year. THEN we have to tear it all down and load the racks and such back on to the trailer to store it for next year’s show. Speel REAL soundly the night of the Fourth.

    This year the designated singer sang the assigned song (last year the guy flaked…) on cue, and as she got to the part about “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursing in air”, we launched a three incher that went up and let looese a huge burst of bright white and blue stars. The crowd went nuts!!! Perfect timing.

  7. I celebrated Independence Day by going on-line and ordering some more ammunition plus a new firearm. Not that I necessarily needed these items. I am, frankly, well-stocked already.

    However, I figure that I should “get ’em while I still can”. If by some obscene chance the radical Democrats (A) Hold onto the House of Representatives, (B) gain seats in the Senate and (C) put one of their nut-job, Marxist fanatics into the White House, in 2020, you can “bet the farm” that the #1 item on their Socialist agenda will be to push Firearms Prohibition for all its worth. My view is that even the imprisonment of Donald J. Trump, by one of their kangaroo courts using fabricated criminal charges, will take a back-seat to going after the guns.

    The Marxists will never be able to implement their totalitarian agenda and “Transform America” into yet another Socialist Hellhole while the American People are still armed. Every Marxist tyrant in the Washington Swamp, and in the Anti-American Media, knows this to be true. Therefore, the overturning of the 2nd Amendment and the disarmament of the American People will always be Job #1 for the American Left.

    If you want to really support liberty and freedom in America, do what I did. Buy firearms and ammo NOW. Don’t wait until the Leftists enact new bans and cause ammo shortages to act!

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