which reminds me of my sister a bit. She gets a crazy look on her face when you tell her "we should take your 10-year-old boy shooting". Her idea of raising a child is to shelter and censor. She sends him out of the room whenever a mildly adult situation is taking place on TV. She's got the idea in her head that you protect the boy by making him absolutely ignorant.
On the flip side, in Idaho I know a 7-year-old girl who owns her own Cricket .22. She can nail a pop-can with it at 100 yards, no problem. She doesn't sweep people with her muzzle, she doesn't keep it with a pill in the pipe... she knows exactly what a gun does and treats it with respect BECAUSE her parents took the time to...
raise her awareness.
My own situation is unusual, as everybody knows I just found out that the law doesn't want me around guns because of non-violent events which took place 25 years ago as a juvenile. My own brothers-in-arms are nervous about having me around on FTX because "felon is the vicinity of a firearm" could cause trouble for the group.
I'm forced to meditate upon Franklin's famous quote: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty, to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety".
Could this be the message which has for so long been hidden from my eyes? "Modern Americans don't deserve the sacrifices of a patriotic Militia".
There's a part of me that so "No dude, just look at them. Look long and hard, then book yourself a flight to the Netherlands and forget this place ever existed."