Hi, this was written in December of 2023. I’ve waited a long time to post it but, with some minor edits, I’m sharing it here. I do plan on more posts in this topic and I hope we can talk about this hobby both the perks and the flaws together. Thanks for reading.
I imagine that most people who read this blog think I’m going to take some position in relation to the consistently growing gun violence in the United States and make some bold recommendations or claims. I guess we can start with that but like beer, bourbon, motorcycling and Volkswagen tuning, this blog post is actually about a growing hobby. Right, a blog post about firearms that can kill people as a hobby. Anyone who is opposed to any person anywhere owning a gun can probably skip this one.
Seriously, I don’t think this will trigger anyone but it is just another hobby for me but unlike every other hobby, this one directly supports an industry and group who continue to completely ignore the mass murder and violence caused by some people with these deadly weapons. Cars kill people as does alcohol and motorcycles but guns are weapons. I feel strongly that I really want to share my thoughts and own this hobby but also come to terms with the realities of making a hobby out of hunting or shooting even if it’s just a hobby.
Regarding the politics of the 2nd amendment to our constitution, gun violence, assault rifles, murder against children and innocent people by the unhinged maniacs who choose to commit acts of mass domestic terrorism, I’ve done what I can. In that I have voted for politicians who promise to do something about gun control by strengthening background checks, banning certain kinds of guns and funding programs for mental health. I have also never joined a gun advocate group (social or political) such as the NRA that’s sole purpose is to hold the line against any gun rights being infringed upon even when those rights are doing nothing but enabling the murder of innocent people. I refuse to support anyone who advocates that it should just be a free for all and that there’s no discussion necessary to protect innocent people.
In addition to how I vote and who I support, I encourage and advocate for everyone to learn about firearms, know how to load and unload them, how to store them properly and how to safely operate them. There are more guns than people in this country and knowing what to do when you find yourself with one is important and knowing the laws so you can ensure a firearm isn’t in the hands of someone who legally can’t possess one (drug user, felon, non-US-citizen, deemed clinically unable to) is your way of keeping others safe. In fact, I’m writing this blog post from North Carolina’s concealed carry education class lunch break. I have earned my concealed carry permit in 3 of the 4 states I’ve lived although New Hampshire was nowhere near as intense as Florida or North Carolina. In NH you go to the town peace keeper, give them $5, fill out a form and 10 minutes later, you have a piece of paper authorizing you to carry a handgun in most anywhere including other states like North Carolina. As a resident of NC now, I’m no longer in a grey area of just having an NH CCW and calling that my permission to carry concealed so I’m taking this course even if I’m only in NC for another year. Also, education is important. In all of my hobbies, I’m constantly training and trying to improve my skills. Safe operation and storage of a deadly weapon is paramount.
…while I have you, arming our teachers with handguns isn’t going to do shit to stop children from being murdered. Get off that if you really think that’s a solution.
Why the dip into firearms as a hobby, now?
Having a child has shifted the amount of time I have free to enjoy some of my hobbies. I can’t currently go off on a long truck or motorcycle road trip. I can’t be gone for 3 days every weekend either solo or with Heather. I can’t spend all weekend out in the garage working on cars/bikes/trucks and I can’t go to beer festivals or hop on a last minute cheap flight to Belgium to grab some rare beer releases. I can and am still do photography but my travels, YouTube videos and time consuming hobbies are on the back burner until the kid is a few years old. I still wanted something that I could spend some time with in my spare time so I’ve leaned into firearms not because I’m suddenly feeling protective of my family or have some primal desire to join a militia and protect myself against “them” who are any minute now going to come in and take my guns (sigh, people really think that). The odds of a home-invasion happening to me are slim to none. I don’t keep a gun by the bed or one in every room of the house. That’s not what this is about.
Growing up in a family of farmers, veterans and law enforcement officers has meant I’ve been exposed to firearms since I was very young. Spending cold mornings out in the woods hunting, chasing coyotes off our dairy farm, Saturdays at the outdoor county firing range and purchasing my first handgun when I was 21 along with my grandfather gifting me an antique shotgun when I was 18. He had bought expensive Browning 12 gauge shotguns for every grand children when they were born and we all got one when we turned 18. Well the boys did, the girls didn’t get guns because reasons?
I ended up picking up a tactical shotgun and another pistol at 22 and lived a mile from the county sheriff’s office gun range and paid $199 a year to shoot there. I also got my Florida concealed carry permit and then left my firearms with my Mom when I moved to San Francisco because legally, it was just a huge challenge to be a gun owner in a major city in California. At that time, all but one of my firearms was illegal in the state of California.
Moving back to New Hampshire, I purchased 2 more pistols and then joined a range when I finally bought my first long range bolt-action rifle. The range was 10 minutes from the house and I could shoot out to 200 yards. At this point, I would consider myself to be a casual firearm owner. I had enough training, meager confidence and enjoyed it but I was also mostly ignorant to a huge world of firearms. No one that knew me would know this was something I enjoyed. But like politics, I don’t make hobbies my entire identity. I can function at work for months without bringing every conversation back to my hobbies. It’s healthy to live a life where you enjoy motorcycling or beer or guns but not adorn yourself with branded t-shirts and bumper stickers and talk non-stop about it to everyone.
I wasn’t ashamed of it but I did know my ability to connect with others on this hobby was going to not only be hit or miss (like motorcycles and craft beer) but something I was interested in that was also very political and polarizing. Anytime I engaged in person with people who also made firearms a hobby, they made their entire identity about politics as if the 2nd amendment isn’t literally written into the fabric of America both socially and legally.
After a decade in New Hampshire, I finally took the required Hunters’ Safety Course and was able to be licensed to hunt in my home state. This is a lifetime education voucher so when I move back, I can just pickup a hunting license for the year without having to retake the course. Also in 2022, I renewed my concealed carry permit for $5 but that ended up being a waste of money because even though North Carolina reciprocates this, the permit is null as soon as I made North Carolina my primary residence. When I picked up and moved to North Carolina. I left long-range rifles in New Hampshire that I wasn’t going to need in NC so those are in a safe at my house up there.
For the first 12 months in North Carolina, I didn’t do any shooting. Things were stowed away and kept secure. I decided to go hunting this Winter in NC which was made easier by picking up a new rifle and I wanted a scope for hunting early in the morning and one that was lighter and easier to handle than my precision rifle capable of shooting to 1000 yards but overkill and heavy as a hunting rifle (My SAKO S20 Precision chambered in 6.5 PRC). I picked up a Benelli Lupo in their fancy BE.S.T. Coating which has as 25 year warranty for rust, corrosion and finish damage, comes in a forest camouflage and is chambered in 6.5 Creedmore which is a better size for hunting and the rifle is just lighter and simpler. It’s a nice rig, certainly overkill but very nice. I then completed the North Carolina hunting safety course and affixed a Vortex Viper rifle scope which a huge 50mm opening that lets in a ton of light.
Then Matilda was born literally the weekend I was going to go hunting.
After my daughter arrived, I started to think about ways I could still enjoy this hobby I enjoyed most when on the farm or out in the woods while living in Charlotte. So I started looking at pistols that I could take to the range. I already owned a Glock 26 subcompact and a Ruger LC9S subcompact as well as a Ruger P345 1911 style pistol. I wanted something more traditional so I picked up a Tisa 1911 duty clone (a pistol built in Turkey that is identical to the Army issued WWII service pistols). When I took delivery of that Tisa, it was actually the 2nd firearm I picked up at the local gun range (also a gun store that allows you to pick up firearms you ordered online——more on that in a separate blog post).
On this particular visit, it was Black Friday weekend and I was about to pay my 2nd $65 “FFL Transfer Fee” to the range which is a fee set by the firearms licensee / gun store to perform a background check and release a firearm shipped to them from another FFL to you, the customer. This fee is different depending on which place you pickup a pistol shipped to them by another gun dealer but they were offering a promo. If you join their membership program, the transfers are free and their membership was deeply discounted that weekend only. I had wanted to join this range since it was only 3 miles from my house and the membership offered 24/7 access which would work with my schedule as a new dad. They were also the location of the upcoming concealed carry class I wanted to join and offered not only classes I was interested in but free gun rentals to members and they hosted every month a Glock Sport Shooting match which is something I wanted to do. When the salesperson showed me the Black Friday deal and told me I’d be saving $65 for picking up the Tisa today, I joined. $1100 later, I was a 12-month members to the only range in town with 24/7 access and 10 minute drive from my house.
It was then that I noticed their slogan, “Dedicated to American ideals, Personal Safety and Family Values”
Sigh.
You all know how I like to maximize value. The $1100 I spent got me into NC’s Concealed Carry education course (which I’ve already taken in Florida along with NH’s Hunter course) for free. It also got me ammunition nearly at cost although I can still save about 2 cents a round buying online. It also got me registration for the Glock match competitions starting in January along with free firearm transfer fees. And I wanted to purchase 2 new pistols for the Glock competition and being able to shoot them for free (thanks to the free handgun rental program) meant I was able to try before I bought which is a fantastic perk to this membership. I’ve been about 6 times since joining 2 weeks ago one day just to study for a test and get some work done since their members only lounge is VERY nice (think Delta Sky Lounge) with WiFi, TVs, drinks and restrooms just for members but also being close to the house and open to me 24/7, I’ve been going late at night around midnight to shoot my rifles and practice more advanced drills with my handguns along with preparing for the Glock competition coming up next month.
I’ll be adding a Glock 34 and 19X to my collection of pistols primarily for the shooting competition but also because after joining GSSF (their league), I received discounts to purchase those at nearly cost (law enforcement price) and (blog post to come) no sales tax, shipping or transfer fee to pick them up at the range. No sale tax on firearms continues to blow me away. It’s some weird loophole and I’m not really sure how I feel about it.
There are obviously other firearms I’d like to get and become proficient at and learn more about suppressors and (eek) military style rifles because I’ve heard how fantastic they can be for hunting. The longer barrels designed for very clean action and ultra-light weight make them ideal for hunting deer.
This has been a long blog post but throughout 2024, firearms will replace motorcycles as something I’m interested in and spend time and money on so that I can enjoy the sport, meet new people and gain a fun skill (competitive shooting and hunting). Along with that, I’ve signed up for many classes. Wilderness First Aid, Field Trauma Care, Stop the Bleed training, defensive and tactical handgun courses focused on safe and accurate shooting in high stress situations, obviously getting my concealed carry permit, long-range and scope fundamentals. I’m also going to get certified as a Glock Armorer (handgun repair person) and Glock Master Operator. Both of those could allow me to teach classes if I wanted. I’ve also applied to do some part time web design work for the local range on the weekends for extra cash.
Despite all of this focus on making guns (undeniably killing machines) a part of a hobby, I’m going to have to deal with people who I disagree with on topics like gun control, gun safety, access to guns, background checks and on the topic of even having guns be something you can legally obtain. I have opinions on many of these topics. I was able to buy a rifle online, tax free and it shipped to a gun store and 10 questions later, I get to walk out with it. I can then go back in every day that week and buy a rifle or handgun every day and just walk out with it. Buying 1000 rounds of handgun ammunition was $239, no sales tax and free shipping. These are very scary topics for the American public to digest and if I am not a drug user and have never been diagnosed with a serious mental health condition nor have I had a felony, then I’m free and clear to buy as many guns and ammo as I want without any training or classes or certification proving I’m mentally competent. I have purchased 12 guns in a single month with no issue and this is not even considered high-volume.
Is this a good thing? Hell no. I want this process to be much harder. I should have had to take a 5 day class when I moved here to even transport my firearms to North Carolina then another class for concealed carry and another for rifles only. These classes exist but they’re optional. I don’t blame people who enjoy guns as a hobby for hunting, competition for just going to a range on the weekends but I do blame our politicians and advocacy groups like the NRA for doing nothing to protect innocent people especially children.
So…2024, I don’t really know if this blog post will have an impact on my ability to work in technology. Does confessing to being a gun owner put me on a block list of every major tech company? I don’t think it should but perceptions matter and a “gun freak who spends their weekends fixing and shooting guns at a range” probably would be met with some opposition at some companies. I think that’s a sad reality and I don’t blame the individuals who fear guns and rightfully want to keep themselves safe against guns and the people who own them. I blame our system for allowing the mass homicide / suicide of thousands of people a year at the hands of firearms. Very little is being done to stop it. There are now laws being passed by some states holding gun owners accountable when minors get access to their guns and hurt themselves or others. Great step. My child should never be able to access a firearm. You should hold gun owners accountable for not securing their weapons.
With that, this is my blog post about guns. I feel strongly that I’m doing no one any favors by posting more about it so I’ll need to find some healthy outlet where I can talk about the things I’m learning and not upset the people who read this blog or follow me on Mastodon or YouTube or Flickr.
Thanks for reading and be safe.