I spent the weekend turkey hunting with my son, my nephew, my brother, and his friend. This was the first time I'd been hunting in about 45 years. The last time was shortly after my dad gave me a .22 caliber rifle because, well, that's just what fathers in Wisconsin did back then. Rite-of-passage and all that. I went squirrel hunting with a best friend, we each shot a squirrel, and I felt terrible. So I put the gun away. Now I came from a gun-toting heritage as I explained in part back here.
We didn't get anything both mornings, even though we could hear toms gobbling. So no animals were hurt. We did get to shoot some cool hand guns because my brother's friend is a collector. He brought along a 9mm German Luger and a .45 caliber 1911 Browning service pistol. Both weapons have storied histories on two sides of major twentieth century conflicts. The Luger especially intrigued me:
The 9 mm weapon first appeared in 1908 and was called the Parabellum Pistole. "Parabellum" is Latin for "prepare for war." What an understatement in 1908. I particularly liked the stamped engravings; the word "beladen" (loaded) appears when a round is chambered:
The word "gesichert" is revealed when the firing pin is safetied:
Of course we had many discussions of gun laws and the intentions of the Biden Administration and nascent Harris Administration. The locals are not convinced that the Fed's intentions are kosher. Universal gun registration followed by gun confiscation IS the ultimate goal. How do I know this? I know too many Dems on board with the notion that all guns are icky and need to be rounded up and destroyed, just like in the rest of the Anglosphere. Funny, nobody ever mentions Switzerland. The other side's attitude is best summed up by the defiant Greek expression μολὼν λαβέ (come and get them) first uttered in
480 BC.
There is another movement brewing called "2nd Amendment Sanctuaries." The usual suspects in the media are calling this movement anti-common sense. That's a bit rich coming from the side that backed and continues to back Sanctuary Cities. I say turn about is fair play.
