Should I resign from my shooting club

Post Reply New Topic

Thank you all that contribute to this thread and My apologies for the subject being a bit freaky.

It's is just that I found this story as it unfolds quite freaky with parts resonating with my own life.
A long time ago when I was a young man (yes I was a man way back then) I had been doing well since leaving school having successfully completed an apprenticeship and worked in electronics manufacture for several years. My abilities and self confidence was at an all time maximum, I had just achieved a new job aboard my encyclopaedic knowledge of electronics and programming had got my through the toughest series of interviews and assessments I have ever had.
I do socialize I had spent much time learning to read body language (I have just remembered my father teaching and encouraging me to make eye contact as a teenager although he did not talk about it he did understand my difficulties well) I'm not very good at it but cope adequately and am more comfortable among the fringes of society where drink and drugs are freely available. I was living in bed & breakfast and had found down the road a bar where the more disreputable English & Irish hung out.
As well as acquiring a good stash of recreational drugs (Hashish & LSD) I met a local girl within about 20 seconds I was engaged in the rituals of human courtship (Thank you Desmond Morris). We spent our first date both out of out tree's mountaineering the vertical face of the local High Street
Being in love for me is about the most all pervading obsession I have ever had within a very short time I was imagining us together forever doing normal things and living a normal life.
The relationship attained my record duration of 6 weeks before it was apparent that my passion could not be returned
I was devastated I went for a drive (about 48 hours 4 or 5 countries thousands of miles) before I arrived in a disturbed state at a friends home. We went to Glastonbury and back and I spent a couple of days before returning to my job. I eventually returned to my job after being absent for over a week needless to say it was no longer mine I returned to England very depressed and soon my few friends had had enough of me. I drove up to my old school and saw a teacher that I had known there but I was very disturbed by the and nothing I said could have made much sense.
I was living in the back of my car, I remember hearing the news that John Lennon had been shot I was now the nearest I have ever been to suicidal fortunately before Christmas I sold the car and had some money to go home to my Dad with. Very disturbed and still in love with the girl I went home it was immediately apparent I was not well unfortunately the reaction of my stepmother and sister was one of fear, I had considered suicide quite a lot by then and just about found the nous to visit the Samaritans where I spoke to a councillor it was then I began to realize how angry I was with the world. Had I lived in a country where guns were freely available. I hate to think about what I could easily happened. If I had lived in the same community I had since primary school with the same people still around as taunted me then, NO I won't even go there!
Very quickly my father had called some professional help and I spent a couple of months in a mental hospital

Now the bit that's really freaky. In the 1980's I would go to Stonehenge free festival (except when Maggie sent hundreds of police to stop us) One year I met a chap and shared a splif after he had given me a lift we had one of those long rambling talks you might have with someone who has a similar appreciation of good engineering. He was was telling me about his guns and a Kalashnikov he was wanting to buy. It was some time later I saw his photograph in the paper his name was Michael Ryan (Hungerford Massacar 1987).

Oh! about my shooting
Sorry for the misleading wording weapons and shooting but I am an Archer and like to use a bow and arrows. I will not be giving it up!

I hope my writing is not too disjointed and rambling but writing has never been a strong part of my skill set.

Whoops, didn't know you meant archery! No, no reason you should be giving that up...that's actually a sport (unlike guns, which are simply weapons). I think archery is good fun actually, interesting to hear from someone who does it

Thank you all that contribute to this thread and My apologies for the subject being a bit freaky.

It's is just that I found this story as it unfolds quite freaky with parts resonating with my own life.
A long time ago when I was a young man (yes I was a man way back then) I had been doing well since leaving school having successfully completed an apprenticeship and worked in electronics manufacture for several years. My abilities and self confidence was at an all time maximum, I had just achieved a new job aboard my encyclopaedic knowledge of electronics and programming had got my through the toughest series of interviews and assessments I have ever had.
I do socialize I had spent much time learning to read body language (I have just remembered my father teaching and encouraging me to make eye contact as a teenager although he did not talk about it he did understand my difficulties well) I'm not very good at it but cope adequately and am more comfortable among the fringes of society where drink and drugs are freely available. I was living in bed & breakfast and had found down the road a bar where the more disreputable English & Irish hung out.
As well as acquiring a good stash of recreational drugs (Hashish & LSD) I met a local girl within about 20 seconds I was engaged in the rituals of human courtship (Thank you Desmond Morris). We spent our first date both out of out tree's mountaineering the vertical face of the local High Street
Being in love for me is about the most all pervading obsession I have ever had within a very short time I was imagining us together forever doing normal things and living a normal life.
The relationship attained my record duration of 6 weeks before it was apparent that my passion could not be returned
I was devastated I went for a drive (about 48 hours 4 or 5 countries thousands of miles) before I arrived in a disturbed state at a friends home. We went to Glastonbury and back and I spent a couple of days before returning to my job. I eventually returned to my job after being absent for over a week needless to say it was no longer mine I returned to England very depressed and soon my few friends had had enough of me. I drove up to my old school and saw a teacher that I had known there but I was very disturbed by the and nothing I said could have made much sense.
I was living in the back of my car, I remember hearing the news that John Lennon had been shot I was now the nearest I have ever been to suicidal fortunately before Christmas I sold the car and had some money to go home to my Dad with. Very disturbed and still in love with the girl I went home it was immediately apparent I was not well unfortunately the reaction of my stepmother and sister was one of fear, I had considered suicide quite a lot by then and just about found the nous to visit the Samaritans where I spoke to a councillor it was then I began to realize how angry I was with the world. Had I lived in a country where guns were freely available. I hate to think about what I could easily happened. If I had lived in the same community I had since primary school with the same people still around as taunted me then, NO I won't even go there!
Very quickly my father had called some professional help and I spent a couple of months in a mental hospital

Now the bit that's really freaky. In the 1980's I would go to Stonehenge free festival (except when Maggie sent hundreds of police to stop us) One year I met a chap and shared a splif after he had given me a lift we had one of those long rambling talks you might have with someone who has a similar appreciation of good engineering. He was was telling me about his guns and a Kalashnikov he was wanting to buy. It was some time later I saw his photograph in the paper his name was Michael Ryan (Hungerford Massacar 1987).

Oh! about my shooting
Sorry for the misleading wording weapons and shooting but I am an Archer and like to use a bow and arrows. I will not be giving it up!

I hope my writing is not too disjointed and rambling but writing has never been a strong part of my skill set.

If you don't think guns can be used as a sport, then you haven't tried target shooting. It's an Olympic sport by the way.

Skeet, trap, pistol target, rifle target etc.

I've listened to people for years say hunting is easy and not much of a sport from people who have never hunted. Trudge your but out a mile plus into the woods over rough terrain, stand still long enough (hours) for an animal with far better smell, and hearing than you to get within 40 yards so you have a chance of hitting it (shot gun only per the law).

Try it before you denigrate it. It's no where near as easy as you think.

As for gun violence. Why do you blaim guns? They have been available in the US for two hundred plus years. Perhaps the user of the gun should be blaimed not the weapon. Gun oil does not cause people to go insane. Owning a gun does not make people want to shoot other people.

Look at the swiss and Israel, they have very high gun ownership and low gun crime rates. Perhaps it's the people, not the guns.

Put the blame where it's appropriate, the people who committed the crime. As well as the mental health profession which does a poor job at handling people with problems.

Firearms and bows are both weapons. Keep shooting them and buy more of BOTH. While it is possible to ban guns it is NOT possible to rid society of them. Not in the U.S. anyway and probably not Canada either. You can rest assured I will not get rid of mine. If I won't surrender mine you can rest assured the ones we need to protect ourselves from won't surrender theirs either.

#1 I like them. I like shooting them, collecting them, studying them. Love is a more fitting term and if anyone has an issue with that, tuff titty. #2 they're what separates me as a citizen from those who are merely subjects. #3 I beleive I am the one responsible for my protection. Not the government. The government only cares about the government and making itself bigger and more controlling. #4 it's fun to upset the leftists

As far as public safely and causes of death and serious injury look at car accidents, recreational accidents, poisonings, murder by other methods (all of the ways to kill people is amazing), animal attacks including poisonous snakes and bugs, natural disasters, exposure, occupational accidents, disease, ilnesses, and medical malpractice. The list goes on...........

There may come a time when you need to defend yourself against a deadly threat or one that will do serious harm to you. When that time comes you'll need to respond immediately. Calling 911 by iteslf won't cut it. Two times in my own experience I've seen that fail. Once for a bad accident on the freeway when I couldnt get through on my cell phone. The other time was a 911 call for the cops and they took forever to show up and this is a small town.
I'm not advocating living in paranioa and in dread of the worse happening. I am, however, advising being aware. It IS a hostile world and it's your ass to protect. No one elses. An unarmed populace is easy prey for the predators. It's the same logic that makes coyotes and wolves go after sheep instead of wolverines. That might seem Darwinian but that's how it is.

Simply owning a firearm won't cut it either. It's not a good luck charm it's a tool. It takes the right mindset and the skill to employ leathal force in response. Legal ramifications, too. Practice and knolwedge. That in itself is a deep and complex topic.

"Sensible Gun Control". Get real already. When that "sensible gun control" fails to get the desired results, and it will fail, more "sensible gun control" will obviously follow. That in turn will fail and still more "sensible gun control" will follow until it's nearly illegal to own any at all and still that will fail to solve the problem that the innitial "sensible gun control" set out to solve. It gets progressively worse.
Since guns aren't the problem then gun control cannot solve any problems.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure all this out .

Raptor