I spend a couple of days a week at the gun range and I have found it to be one of the saner and more pleasant places I’ve ever visited. I have also found that the gun range embodies America and traditional American values more completely than any other place I frequent.
Photo courtesy of Tactical Firearms
Every week I find an American microcosm at my gun range. I see young men and women, alone and as couples, practicing their marksmanship. I see black, white, Asian, and Hispanic men and women there making preparations for responsibly dealing with uninvited violence. I see mature individuals and couples there training. I see elderly men, women, and couples, some of whom are in wheelchairs or using walkers, honing their marksmanship and maintaining individual responsibility. Not a single one of these sorts of people are exceptional at my gun range; I see every one of these things every single week because responsibility is not defined by marital status, race, creed, age, or skin color.
While some who have never been might imagine a gun range to be a scary or dangerous place, a gun range is the safest, most polite place I’ve ever been in my life. It’s more polite than church or any other supposedly civilized setting. As for safety, gun ranges get some of the best insurance rates of any commercial enterprise, due to the long track record of inherent safety there. The people at a gun range are better behaved than just about any other people you’re likely to meet in any social setting. In a world where “yeah” or “nah” are conventional replies in settings of any level of formality, everyone at the gun range answers yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am as a matter of course. And no one there ever raises an eyebrow or remarks that such speech is odd or out of the ordinary. Not that anyone ever should.
Even though I often find children at my gun range shooting with their parents, there is never any misbehaving. There are no loud, emotional outbursts or otherwise-inappropriate behavior—by children or adults—neither in the shop nor certainly in the range itself. On the contrary, there is decorum and proper respect by all and at all times; and expected by all at all times.
Photo from Stone Hart’s Gun Club
What I find at my gun range is America as it long was and ever should be, but seldom is anymore. Patriotic, responsible Americans know and love liberty. Liberty is preserved by those who are fit, responsible, and prepared to preserve it (and not by government, by politicians, by new laws, or by compromising our Constitution). Those who exercise and are willing to defend the Second Amendment to The Constitution of The United States—both civilian and military personnel—are the only ones who will keep liberty alive. It may pain you to read it, but everyone else are either sheep or tyrants. Neither sheep nor tyrants will be found at your gun range.
If you love liberty I suggest that you should purchase a firearm and make a regular practice of using your local gun range. Just as I do each week, you will likely find the best America has to offer there. Indeed you will be among the best America has to offer.
There are no criminals at a gun range. Criminals, by definition, are cowards and a criminal coward doesn’t willingly present his or her driver’s license to an official at a place where everyone there is armed, vigilant, and responsible. Criminals want the world to be unarmed, and therefore support or are in favor of tyrannical political efforts to disarm law-abiding, responsible citizens. Indeed, the responsible people found at a gun range are not on a criminal’s list of targets. No, the worst America has to offer will never be found at a gun range. There you will find only the best of America.
The best America has to offer, other than our military men and women patriots, train regularly at a gun range. They exercise their Second Amendment rights with open carry or concealed carry, according to their state’s laws. Their homes, families, and property are protected by their deliberate choice and preparation. They vote and they remain informed on what their elected representatives are doing with and to our declining culture on their behalf. For the most part, from what I can see, they are not happy with the path our culture has taken. They are, however, trained, prepared, and responsible.
Go to your local gun range and practice responsibility. I’ll be that you will, as I have, find America as it long was and ever should be. Go, and you will find the best America has to offer.
