On the Road Again...

And Final Convention Memories

Bill and I are leaving his parent's place and hitting the road in about one hour--on to the next leg of our vacation. We will return home Sunday, but we will try to post before then. As we download our photos, we will post our best ones and discuss the NRA convention a little more in context with our photos. I also need to post a photo of my BAG Day purchase, a Mauser Broomhandle "Bolo" pistol.

Beyond a few photos and their context, here is our last post on the NRA Convention.

We are very happy we went. We attended Ted Nugent's talk and listened to him praise the NRA and Gun Owners of America and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. He challenged gunowners to join the NRA and then get other gunowners to join. He wants to see a 40 million member organization.

You know my feelings on the NRA. It has compromised and it has made mistakes, but nothing is perfect. Also, there are compromises that are actually strategic steps forward. If you accept one bad thing, but gain ten good things, you have moved forward. Later, perhaps you can get rid of that one bad thing. This is exactly how anti-gunnies have moved their agenda. They know they can't ban guns yet, but they can chip away at our gun rights to where we no longer enjoy what we have today let alone freedoms my grandfather enjoyed.

I've also said the NRA has more power than all other gun organizations combined. It is second only to AARP in its lobbying clout. I agree with Nugent, gunnies should join. Besides, joining is an excellent way to tell its officers what grass-roots gunnies want. So, I encourage your membership. Still, I hedge my bets by sending money to GOA and JPFO and I will join one or both soon.

Another thing we liked about the convention was getting to meet and briefly talk to gun "celebrities." I talked to Todd Jarrett about ways to improve my shooting. I talked to Zell Miller about my change from a Democrat to a Republican-voting Independent and how my parents are now full-fledged Republicans.

I met Kim Rhodes and hefted her three Olympic woman's double-trapshooting medals. She won a Gold medal the first time her sport was shot in Olympics and she won gold the last time it will ever be shot in Olympic competition.

I met Tom Knapp and talked to him about what it is like to travel the country and get paid for shooting. Likewise, I heard Rob Leatham talk about the same thing. I let Michael Bane know how much I envy him his job.

Finally, Bill and I roamed through "five acres of guns n' gear." I examined more guns, scopes, targets, video games, cleaning equipment, and stuff than I'll do in six months and scored more catalogs and brochures than I'll have time to read. So, time to go since Bill is getting ready to roll--on the road we go.