Why Have Guns?
* The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control in effect. “The shot heard ‘round the world” was fired at Redcoats who were on a gun control mission to Lexington for the king.
* The Second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others.
* An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
* If you don't know your rights you don't have any.
* Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
* Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
* Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them. Our Constitution was established for the citizens to control the government, not the other way 'round.
* You only keep the rights you are willing to fight for.
* Those who trade liberty for security ultimately have neither.
* A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
* 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
* God created man but Sam Colt made him equal.
* Colt: The original point and click interface.
* 70,000,000 gun owners killed no one yesterday.
* Assault is a behavior, not a device.
* Criminals love gun control - it makes their jobs safer.
* If you ever need a gun you will need it worse than anything else you ever needed - and nothing else will do.
* Guns and parachutes - if you need one and don't have it you may never need one again.
* Enforce the gun control laws we have; don't make more.
Advice for a Gunfight
Many of these are written in a tongue-in-cheek vein but the message is serious. They are aimed primarily at cops but if you go about armed, learn them.
* Personal security demands a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation. Shooting is a last resort.
* You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
* If you anticipate a gunfight, bring a gun. Preferably bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns.
* Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is priceless.
* What does someone do when he's shot with a handgun? He keeps on doing what he was doing before, so don't stop shooting until the threat is down!
* Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
* It's not the first shot that matters; it's first hit.
* "Spray and pray" is a military tactic but it has no place on city streets.
* Every bullet you fire goes out with a lawyer attached.
* If your shooting stance is good you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
* Move away from your attacker; distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are best.)
* If you are not shooting you should be reloading and moving. Communicate when you can.
* If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a long gun and a friend with a long gun.
* In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived and maybe who died.
* Accuracy is relative. Most combat shooting accuracy will be more
dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.
* Use a gun that works EVERY TIME, for all skill is in vain if the Angel of Death pisses in the flintlock of your musket.
* Someday someone may kill you with your own gun but he should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
* If it's a fair fight your tactics suck.
* Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
* Have a plan. Then, have a back-up plan because the first one won't work.
* Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
* Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours always.
* Don't drop your guard, for it's not over until you are home in bed or dead.
* Always reload and threat scan 360 degrees, for even bad guys have friends.
* Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.)
* The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
* Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill every stranger who comes near you.
Many of these are written in a tongue-in-cheek vein but the message is serious. They are aimed primarily at cops but if you go about armed, learn them.
* Personal security demands a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation. Shooting is a last resort.
* You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
* If you anticipate a gunfight, bring a gun. Preferably bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns.
* Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is priceless.
* What does someone do when he's shot with a handgun? He keeps on doing what he was doing before, so don't stop shooting until the threat is down!
* Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
* It's not the first shot that matters; it's first hit.
* "Spray and pray" is a military tactic but it has no place on city streets.
* Every bullet you fire goes out with a lawyer attached.
* If your shooting stance is good you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
* Move away from your attacker; distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are best.)
* If you are not shooting you should be reloading and moving. Communicate when you can.
* If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a long gun and a friend with a long gun.
* In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived and maybe who died.
* Accuracy is relative. Most combat shooting accuracy will be more
dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.
* Use a gun that works EVERY TIME, for all skill is in vain if the Angel of Death pisses in the flintlock of your musket.
* Someday someone may kill you with your own gun but he should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
* If it's a fair fight your tactics suck.
* Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
* Have a plan. Then, have a back-up plan because the first one won't work.
* Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
* Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours always.
* Don't drop your guard, for it's not over until you are home in bed or dead.
* Always reload and threat scan 360 degrees, for even bad guys have friends.
* Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.)
* The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
* Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill every stranger who comes near you.
Words in American
We here in the colonies speak a brand of English that grew in a direction different from that spoken in Great Britain. As someone once said, we are two nations separated by a common language. Some elements of that difference are rooted in the frontier experience that was shared by Englishmen only until the Revolution. That experience is inseparable from guns; the Pilgrims carried their smokepoles when they came ashore at Plymouth Rock. Naturally, then, we find many words and phrases in "American" that have their origins in firearms. Little by little, as guns are demonized by portions of the population and as they become less and less a part of daily life for most people, many of these are falling by the wayside, no longer widely used or understood.
* Lock, stock, and barrel - I have seen a modern explanation of this that alleges its origin in the sale of a store, implying that words refer to the lock on the door, and stock on the shelves, and barrels of stuff. Wrong. It refers to the parts of a gun, the lock, which is the portion that fires the powder, the stock, by which the gun in held, and the barrel. In other words, the whole thing.
* The whole shootin' match - the whole thing.
* Keep yer powder dry. Dates back to the day when gunpowder was loaded manually, as one of 3 separate items (powder, then wad, then bullet.) It was carried in a horn or flask of some sort, subject to getting wet and thus, useless. Now, when used at all (it's disappearing from the lingo) it means avoid trouble.
* Flash in the pan - this one goes way back to the era when guns were fired by first igniting a small amount of gunpowder in a "pan" (about the size of a quarter) mounted alongside the barrel, which had a large charge of gunpowder in it behind the bullet. There was a small hole in the barrel next to the pan, and when the powder in the pan flashed the fire went through the hole to the main powder charge in the barrel, which then fired the bullet. Sometimes the fire in the pan would fail to ignite the powder in the barrel, which meant a failure to shoot; that was called a "flash in the pan." Guns have come a long way and no longer operate in that fashion, but to this day a "flash in the pan" means something which got off to a good start, perhaps noisy and bright, but which quickly amounted to nothing. May apply to a person.
* Set your sights on (something) - refers to adjusting the sights on a firearm to be spot on - the bullet goes where the sights indicate.
* Pull the trigger - To go ahead with something, as in, "After waiting six months I pulled the trigger on the order."
* Lock, stock, and barrel - I have seen a modern explanation of this that alleges its origin in the sale of a store, implying that words refer to the lock on the door, and stock on the shelves, and barrels of stuff. Wrong. It refers to the parts of a gun, the lock, which is the portion that fires the powder, the stock, by which the gun in held, and the barrel. In other words, the whole thing.
* The whole shootin' match - the whole thing.
* Keep yer powder dry. Dates back to the day when gunpowder was loaded manually, as one of 3 separate items (powder, then wad, then bullet.) It was carried in a horn or flask of some sort, subject to getting wet and thus, useless. Now, when used at all (it's disappearing from the lingo) it means avoid trouble.
* Flash in the pan - this one goes way back to the era when guns were fired by first igniting a small amount of gunpowder in a "pan" (about the size of a quarter) mounted alongside the barrel, which had a large charge of gunpowder in it behind the bullet. There was a small hole in the barrel next to the pan, and when the powder in the pan flashed the fire went through the hole to the main powder charge in the barrel, which then fired the bullet. Sometimes the fire in the pan would fail to ignite the powder in the barrel, which meant a failure to shoot; that was called a "flash in the pan." Guns have come a long way and no longer operate in that fashion, but to this day a "flash in the pan" means something which got off to a good start, perhaps noisy and bright, but which quickly amounted to nothing. May apply to a person.
* Set your sights on (something) - refers to adjusting the sights on a firearm to be spot on - the bullet goes where the sights indicate.
* Pull the trigger - To go ahead with something, as in, "After waiting six months I pulled the trigger on the order."