CAST OFF

I'm counting down the hours now 'til I get this damned cast off my wrist. I can still manage to do most of the things I need to do, but some of the fun things, like shooting, are difficult at best. Also, it tends to drive me crazy sometimes when it feels like it is crushing my arm. Ninety is the magic number right now.

If it would stop raining, I'd go out to the range again and shoot my 50 cal using a bench rest to steady my aim. I was disappointed to find out that the Ikes no longer hold bowling pin shoots and don't allow 50 calibers to be used in their pistol matches.

Range of Vision

I've got my new glasses now, so anyone who thought I might be visually impaired enough they could rob me without getting shot better think again. The truth is, my gun shoots better than I can see anyway. I went to the range yesterday to see if my old Remington .22 was still sighted in properly. It was off a couple inches to the right at 25 yards, so I made some adjustments and got some nice three-shot patterns after that. The last group of three actually appeared like one single shot.

Then, I moved the targets down to the 50-yard range and tried again. At that range, I could barely make out the bullseye and couldn't even tell the surrounding circle was bright yellow in color. Still, after firing three rounds, I checked through the spotting scope, and all three were completely within the bullseye.

Being off work because of surgery on my wrist (proximal row carpectomy) has given me lots of time to go to the range for practice. You really do get better the more you do something (well, most things anyway).

It's About Time

There was some good news on the legislative front recently when it was announced that Nebraska legislator Mark Christensen was looking into the possibility of a so called castle bill for the state. That would put a lot of us gun toters at ease knowing we would no longer face criminal charges or civil actions for simply standing our ground to defend ourselves, our families, our property, or other innocent civilians being attacked by criminals or vicious animals.

I honestly don't know for sure what would happen here in Lincoln if one were to use a firearm to defend against an attacker of some kind. I'm pretty sure they would avoid prosecution on criminal charges as long as they legally owned/carried the gun. Still, I'd be surprised if they didn't need to hire a lawyer to keep from going to court over it, or to get an innocent verdict if they were prosecuted. At the very least, they would be violating the ordinance prohibiting the firing of guns in the city limits.

I hope someday that Nebraskans will realize that our state constitution gives us the right to bear arms and defend ourselves, family, and property without "infringements" of these rights by any state or local authority.