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When I was a very young L/Cpl in the USMC, back in 1965, we were instructed in the use of the "new" M-16 rifle. We hadn't been issued the weapon, but I knew how to use it. We were also advised that we would NOT be using the rifle in it's full-auto capability. Marines were trained extensively in marksmanship and also to only fire on an identified target. Generally speaking, Marines in Vietnam didn't usually run out of ammunition because of the "spray & pray" attitude that was so prevalent amongst the ARVN and other U.S. forces. That being said and a matter of historical fact, let me bring us to the here and now. It seems that virtually everyone is carrying some kind of handgun, either for self defense or to perpetrate a crime. Most of these folks have no training at all. In the past, I have arrested "bad guys" with any number of revolvers and automatics with the wrong ammunition in their pockets. I once discovered a loaded 12 gauge single shot shotgun with a 20 gauge slug already in the barrel. I'm not suggesting that all the bad guys are fools, rather I'm pointing out that most of them are. The same dynamics apply to honest, law-abiding citizens that have been forced to carry firearms in defense of their own lives and property. Many of us are senior adults with health issues. Some even have memory problems. Others are young and healthy, but have never considered everything involved in drawing and firing a weapon. Questions like; should there be a round in the chamber (it seems safer, but is it?), what is situational awareness? Can I escape without having to use my weapon? Have I spent lots of time on a range learning about the capabilities of my firearm of choice? Am I truly comfortable carrying a device that can kill another person(s)? Lots of questions. Now what do you do if you come out of the local MiniMart just as a bad guy has already fired several rounds at a member of an opposing gang, race, ethnic minority, political party or ??? Suppose a concerned citizen aged 47 years old, with no training, carrying a Glock 19 with a high capacity magazine, decides that he will intervene in this dispute and fire some shots of his own. What do you do, as a well trained concealed carry permitted bystander? Drop your Bud Lite, loaf of bread and bag of Dorito's? The shots are going everywhere because the gang-bangers don't care and aren't trained and so are the shots of the well intentioned middle aged concerned citizen. Innocents are being hit and it's complete chaos. Do you shoot all of the participants, some of them, none of them or do you run into the store and call 911 so that they can take a report?
I try to shoot anyone shooting at me. What you doing other than stumping?
 
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It doesn't say anything about training. The problem is too many generations have gotten away from firearm ownership and use and thus forgotten the awesome responsibility that goes with it.
Actually since the words 'well regulated' tend to mean, 'in proper working order', it may very well mean 'trained'

 
Actually since the words 'well regulated' tend to mean, 'in proper working order', it may very well mean 'trained'

My understanding of the meaning of "well regulated" at the time it was written is law abiding.
 
Since the United States didn't have a standing army, the states were agreeing to provide troops that were up to the task at hand. They usually had their own muskets, shot and powder as well as outdoor clothing and the other essentials necessary for an extended time defending the nation. We have to remember that virtually every man was a farmer and took care of his family's feeding needs by hunting, ergo a firearm(s) was an essential requirement. Since accurate history is no longer taught in our public schools, these salient points are no longer considered.
 
Actually, no. What is true is exactly the opposite. See Thomas Sowell's book Black Rednecks and White Liberals.
and other Sowell books on the patterns of cultural migration.

Sowell documents that the 'black culture' associated with chronically unsuccessful black American communities in the North is the same as Southern white redneck culture, which in turn came from backward areas of Britain. Including the aversion to education and contemot for work, and even the speech patterns such as "I be," "You be" etc. And that redneck culture has done the whites who inherited it no more good than the blacks. The white southern redneck communities are just as unsuccessful and have educational unattainnent just as bad as the northern black redneck communities. By contrast many of the most successful American blacks are Jamaican, and did not inherit redneck culture even though they experienced slavery and discrimination. Many other noteworthy American blacks are descendants of Southern black slaves who came under the influence of Northern Missionaries, black or white, usually Congregationalists, who went south after the civil war and set up boarding schools for freed slaves and taught traditional puritan values of valuing education and hard work, reading, using standard English, honoring all labor including physical labor, etc. Many other successful American blacks are recent immigrants or their offspring and never experienced black redneck culture or slavery. The white UK redneck communuties are still impoverised. And if a kid excells in school he is beaten up by his peers for "acting upper class", just like black kids who excel in school in Harlem today may be beaten up for "acting white."

In various other books Sowell traces the behavior of various communities as they emigrated to various places. Ashkenazi Jews, for example, who value education highly and were familiar with commerce, usually set up shops wherever they settled. And their children, who spoke the language of the new land, grew bigger businesses and became professionals. They were often heavily discriminated against. (Short summary of a Jewish Holiday: "They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat.") Jewish culture seems to contain little expectation of life or treatment by others being fair. Instead it focuses on doing the best you can with the available possibilities. A useful model, since life is mostly unfair for all of us. And none of us have all possible options. And resentment is a debilitating counterproductive emotion. About 3% of Americans are Jewish. About 33% of its Nobel Laureates are Jewish.

Germans who migrated to other places took tendency to honesty, appreciation of German language and interest in technology with them. And love of good beer. Wherever they went they created heavy industries, German newspapers, German language schools, and great breweries.

Chinese and Japanese wherever they emigrated set up shops and introduced more sophisticated business and financial practices . They work outrageously hard, become educated as soon as there is enough money to, etc. Like the other groups such as Jews who frequently out succeed natives, they are often heavily discriminated against. Sometimes even thrown out with nothing but the clothes on their backs. After which the communities that threw them out collapse and experience long term deterioration. But by two generations later, the Chinese/Jews/Germans/Armenians etc are thriving again in their new homes. What they have is human capital, including cultural values, knowledge, and skills that lead to success.
You are limiting yourself to a single source. The bulk of cultural anthropologists agree with my view, not that Im asserting my expertise, but the time has come for the facts and not conjecture.
 
Actually since the words 'well regulated' tend to mean, 'in proper working order', it may very well mean 'trained'

What that is saying is ownership and use is needed so when people show up to the militia party they know WTF is going on rather than standing there with dick in their hand.
 
Unless my family or I are being immediately targeted, I have no intentions of being the hero. I'm getting out of the way and calling 911. Possibly recording the incident if that seems safe. I don't carry to be the enforcer of right and wrong, but to live another day.
There is only one hero and he dead !
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Yea….. To me it doesn't matter though. Even if my time in the USMC counted I will refuse to apply for a permit to purchase/own a firearm.
I already have mine (guns) so they can you know whatever they do when they aren't trying to make rules for us . I served and have two honorable discharges and do not owe them the sweat off my nuzzzzuuuuutttss so that is a no go on the permito !
 
I already have mine (guns) so they can you know whatever they do when they aren't trying to make rules for us . I served and have two honorable discharges and do not owe them the sweat off my nuzzzzuuuuutttss so that is a no go on the permito !
Right there with ya. I did my time. I saw how the government operates (another reason I will just continue to live my life) which is extremely unorganized and poorly structured.

I am over the rules for THEE and not for ME mentality. Covid should have opened everyone's eyes to that if they weren't already.

I paid for my tax stamps, FFL transfers, and my CHL but they have pushed too far now. I'm done playing the f-ck - f-ck games.
 
Right there with ya. I did my time. I saw how the government operates (another reason I will just continue to live my life) which is extremely unorganized and poorly structured.

I over the rules for THEE and not for ME mentality. Covid should have opened everyone's eyes to that if they weren't already.

I paid for my tax stamps, FFL transfers, and my CHL but they have pushed too far now. I'm done playing the f-ck - f-ck games.
You sir are going places and not going to have to take stuff for acid re-flux !
 
Right there with ya. I did my time. I saw how the government operates (another reason I will just continue to live my life) which is extremely unorganized and poorly structured.

I am over the rules for THEE and not for ME mentality. Covid should have opened everyone's eyes to that if they weren't already.

I paid for my tax stamps, FFL transfers, and my CHL but they have pushed too far now. I'm done playing the f-ck - f-ck games.
Yup, fresh outta Phucks to Give!
THE 2ND IS MY PERMIT!


UP THE REPUBLIC!!!
 
You are limiting yourself to a single source. The bulk of cultural anthropologists agree with my view, not that Im asserting my expertise, but the time has come for the facts and not conjecture.
I am familiar with the conventional views based upon mostly just superficial impressions. Sowell is the guy who has created or synthesized the field of serious scholarship that we now have to superceed these impressions. Read his books. He documents everything with multiple footnotes and extends the perspective over all of history and the entire world. Its delightful to see the level of scholarship he brings to many issues were there was before him just impressions and wishful thinking. Totally amazing . And explains a lot that was a mystery before. You don't establish truth by claiming most people in some particular field have some other opinion. Especially in social "sciences".

Cultural anthropology is, by the way, a field in a state of confusion and total revision because the new method, sequencing of DNA in ancient bones, has given definitive evidence that now replaces the sorts of assumptions based mostly on cultural artifacts that the field used to do. I took courses in both cultural and physical anthro as an undergrad and still keep up with it in a general way. The cultural anthro was already totally out of date back then because it had not incorporated new findings from genetics, evolutionary biology, and ethology . At this point cultural anthro's scope is diminished because the DNA methods give real data rather than just grounds for speculation. When new methods became available some fields become diminished or superceeded. Like medicine before vs after the invention of light and electron microscopes and the germ theory of disease after you could see and identify the germs and viruses .
 
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I am familiar with the conventional views based upon mostly just superficial impressions. Sowell is the guy who has created the field of serious scholarship that we now have to superceed these impressions. Read his books. He documents everything with multiple footnotes and extends the perspective over all of history and the entire world. Totally amazing .
"Superficial"? Unfortunately, your perspective seems jaded by your adoration of Mr. Sowell. His is simply one opinion that is not shared by conventional wisdom. I have no wish to try to change your mind on this matter. Instead, I say enjoy your views and share them as you desire. I'm through with the topic.
 
"Am I truly comfortable carrying a device that can kill another person(s)?"

I would think a military person would understand that virtually everything you carry with you is capable of killing another person.

Also, all this concern over what might happen seems a bit misguided when we can look at what has happened. The situation today is not greatly different than it has been for decades. People don't go around blasting away at the bad guys, missing and killing hordes of good guys. Life is good. Take a breath, have a beer or a smoke or whatever. :)
 

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