[LAWMAX]

I shot my recently purchased 1919 for the first time yesterday.
It had been postponed a couple of times so I was really wanting to see how it ran. It ran flawlessly.

The cool thing about this, other than that it being my very first time shooting any 1919, is as follows:
I asked a friend that I work with if he would like to come along. He excitedly accepted the offer. This fellow happens to be Japanese. He has worked in the US for the past 5 or so years and will be returning home in October. He loves to shoot anything and has LEGALLY purchased a rifle for use while he is over here. He commented that shooting a 1919 would be very rare for any Japanese person to do.
It really made me stop and think how lucky we are in this country to be able to do this.
Don't take it for granted, I think my view on the whole ownership / rights thing has become a little more clear as a result of just taking a friend shooting.

 

[xdevildog]

Japanese gun laws

Several of the indoor ranges her in Las Vegas make a good living as part of package tours for Japanese tourists. Along with the usual airfare/casino/hotel stuff, these folks are bussed to a range for three of four hours and shoot most anything they like, including FA machine and submachine guns. They leave the store with a target, some fired brass, a videotape and a huge grin.

A few years ago I had a Japanese high school exchange student in one of my NRA basic pistol classes. He had extensive martial arts training, so he picked up the stance and trigger control parts of the class better then anyone else there, but HE HAD NEVER SEEN OR HELD A HANDGUN in his entire 18 years on the planet.

I teach using S&W model 10's, which the students use throughout the course and with which they qualify. After the qualifications are through, I do about an hour of hands-on with Colt 1911's so they understand the basics of autoloading handguns. At the end we do a round-robin fun shoot with reactive targets. The best of class shoots against me at the end. This kid was such a natural with a 1911 that I really had to bear down to beat him on the "tree".

He flew home two days later with the course books, a couple of empty casings, his targets, and a strong desire to enter law enforcement or the military so he could shoot. His sponsors (the president of the county democratic party and his activist wife) are still ticked at me for "ruining" the boy. Oh, well.

I can't emphasis enough how important it is to take your children or grand children to a range or the wide-open outdoors and let them shoot. Most of them will love it AND IT'S STILL LEGAL, for now.

 

[Lucky#13]

I think his sponsors might want to reconsider their attitude about arms after recent events in their neighborhood!