are we a dying breed?

[Lloyd Smale]

well said LEO

[myronman3]

in the last year i have had a opportunity to meet many kids.  as many of you know,  i went through a divorce here in the last year and a half.  in that time,  i have dated LOTS of women,  every one was a single mother.   let me tell you,  i beleive that is where the lion's share of the problems this country is facing starts.  three of the women had wonderful kids, the rest are of the kind everyone here is worried about.  some of the women i understand why they are single,  but about half had no control over what put them in their situation (fidelity issues; just like me).   my point of all that is that alot of the problems we face today are a result of what happened yesterday.  alot of you good-old-dayers need to remember that the baby boomer generration is one of the greedy-ist group of people  i have ever meet.  now,  to be fair,  some of the best people i have ever met are also baby boomers.  but honestly,  most of the baby boomers were/are more concerned about themselves than instilling tools needed for life in their children.  magnify that by two generations and you see why the country is going down the can.
    i know it is frustrating as hell looking at some of what is out there;  but look at the armed services for examples of the greatness our country still produces.   i encourage everyone to step up,  and help guide some of the misguided youth out there.  sometimes it is hopeless,  but often times all a kid needs is someone who cares to step up.  one person can make a giant difference in a kid's life. 
   as for my sons,  they love going to the gun shop, they love helping me reload,  and the older one loves to shoot and is already learning the basics.  my kids are 3 and 5 years old; and you will never meet sweeter,  more polite children.  not then,  not now.   there is still hope, so get off your tails when the opportunity rises,  and make that difference;  just like someone did for you once upon a time.   

[Flash]

All these concerns are about nothing more than an evolution in human history that has taken place in the past and will continue to take place in the future. Automobile enthusiasts have polution standards to contend with and have to rely on private builders to make their muscle cars and big block motors. The firearm industry isn't any different. It won't easily disappear but it's profile will constantly change to where the huge manufacturers will go the way of the dinosaur. Reloading faces the same fate. Its not about family values, its about cultural change, awareness and proactivity. Ya can't stop it because there are too many voices that make up our democracy and everyone has their own right to vote and be heard. Hunting is no longer necessary to eat, the fur trade disappeared and dangerous predators are no longer an issue. In my opinion, target shooting isn't enough to support a huge industry.

[TIMBERTRAMP]

I get sad, evertime I think about this topic, as I think we are a dying breed although shooting and hunting will continue  on a smaller scale,it will never be as it once was outside of a few(non yuppied) rural areas,i,m 49yo my parents gave me a german shepard and a sears single shot 22 ba for my 8th birthday and I was pretty much allowed to go off into the woods on my own ,by age 10 I was shooting on a small bore junior rifle team sponsered by the local legion post,and hunting deer with a lee enfield,I would often venture out a bit while hunting and end up with a long road walk in the dark to get back to my dads hunting camp,I even had a game warden drive me back once,but whose days are long gone ,the area of southern maine  I live in is in the middle of a building boom and the same friends of mine who bitch about all the new poeple in town make a good living building houses for them,Its getting so I pretty much have to stick to hunting on my own or my families land as the lands I hunted as a kid have pretty much been split up and devolped,and the local public area is overrun during hunting season.the sad thing is I think many city/suburban kids if allowed to would probaly choose a simalar path as mine ,if thier parents would allow ,as a example last year I bagged my spring turkey on memorial day when I went to the store/check in station it was overrun with tourists mostly mass. plates on thier suv,s many with kids it was the kids who came running wanting to see my tom I even plucked off a few feathers  for hand outs, to the one the parents ethier gave me a look of digust or fiegned fear was it the camo or the shotgun in the gun rack ?,or most probaly thier predjices aginst hunters formed by the often baised mass media the kids didn't find my actions revolting as they were actually being kids and acting with a sense of wonder and not toeing the yuppie party line that hunters are scum who should be shunned .the store btw  has sinced stopped being a tagging station,I wonder why,

[mes]

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.
It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote
themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment
on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the
most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a
democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, followed by
a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest
civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed
through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From
spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From
liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness
to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."
-- Alexander Fraser Tyler (later Lord Alexander Fraser Woodhouslee), in
"The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic", published - 1776

[SHOOTALL]

I love colts !
all of you have good points ! i'll give ya'll the short reply TAKE SOMEONE WHO DOSEN"T SHOOT OUT TO SHOOT ! all of us were hooked at the first shot they will be also ! then one more will be on our side !

[FourBee]

I can remember when a child, I could walk more than a mile from school by myself and no one ever thought about kidnapping.   At 12 years of age I  bought 20 ga. ammo from the local sports shop.   During the summer I loved to hunt Jack Rabbits in the nearby alfalfa fields.    Mom and Dad never worried about me.   My older brother taught me how to handle a gun, and when he was satisfied, that was that, I was on my own.    In my teens, my friends and I were welcomed by the Orange Orchard farmers to take Jack Rabbits with our .22's.   I taught my children how to shoot and hunt, but they don't do that with their children.  Times are changing, but I'm a stick-in-the-mud.  I like what freedom I have in guns, and Christianity, and I'll exercise it and enjoy every minute of it, as long as the Good Lord allows.  Lots could be said here, but I don't want to get started.

[RicMic]

I have a 15 year old daughter and she loves to shoot.  I take her out to the range about once a week or so from March to the end of October.  She goes deer hunting, small game too.  I have noticed that she is understanding what sets our country apart from the rest of the world.  I am glad that she has adopted some of my old school values (her work ethic is still teenager) and maybe she'll also make a difference here in the land of the free.

Colts? What kind of Colts?  Revolver or ACP?  .45 Colt, Automatic or .38 Super?  I like 'em all!



USAF JUL 1979 - AUG 1999, Montcalm County Deputy JAN 2002 - present.  My life has pretty much been uniform.

[old coach]

My father was born in 1891 and when his father gave him the gun and 2 shells he expected 2 rabbits or 2 squirrels for the supper pot.
My father taught me to shoot starting at age 5. I had a single shot 22 at 7 and hunted by myself at 8. I taught both my daughters to shoot starting at 10 and both a pretty good pistol shooters. Over the Easter weekend I started my 5 yr. old grandson shooting in the same field I learned in. We all carried pocket knives to school and I even took my 22 to school on the bus and the driver let me off at the top of the mtn. on the way home so I could squirrel hunt down the mtn. I was about 12 at the time. One of my daughters carries a pistol in here car all the time.

[SHOOTALL]

1911 , SAA , FRONTIER
WISH LIST PYTHON AND ANACONDA