Armed and Safe Latest

(November 25, 2000)

Citizen Soldier You have reached the latest Armed and Safe(tm) column. This page will be published occasionally, as we find stuff of particular interest to write about. Enjoy, and tell your friends about us.

EC Roberts

From the Publisher

We just now got back up after a couple of years of living with Murphy doing his durndest to put us under. We now have our domain address (armedandsafe.org) and are putting this page up on tripod.com, for the time being. It needs a lot of work and updating, since the last time it was published. As we are now working for a living, rather than being in business for ourselves, time is much tighter than before. We'll do our best to be timely and up-to date, but this is, as always, a work in progress (albeit, ever so slowly.)

Meanwhile...We're going hunting. :-)

This is a new situation and a different life. We are no longer a "we," as the company went belly-up, and the Armed and Safe publication is no longer in print. I'm trying to put things back in place, but it is a slow process. Since this is now an effort of only one, I'm going to drop the editorial "we" and tell you what is gong on that "I" am interested in.

So, I went hunting. (Actually, since a good friend and my son-in-law went with me, it was, indeed, "we went hunting.")

My grand-son-in-law's folks have about 6000 acres about 90 miles from here. The entire ranch is turned over to the Conservation Reserve Program, so has been allowed to go back to sage and scrub steppe, except for a few small planted pastures. There are mule deer all over, bounding about like large rabbits. We filled our tags in two week-ends on the ranch. We hunted a ridge overlooking several pastures and saw literally hundreds of deer.

I was working along one slope of the ridge, approaching Don, my son-in-law, when I saw him raise his rifle. I stopped and looked the direction he was aiming just as he fired. A buck bounded up over the ledge from the pasture, heading directly for me, about 20 yards away and coming like a freight train. I glanced at Don and saw that he was aiming again. Now I have to make a decision. Do I drop so Don can shoot over me (and let the deer run over me?) Do I stand still and assume Don will withhold fire (and let the deer run over me?) Do I scream and shout and run about (and that deer will still run right over the top of me?) The deer never finished that first bound: crumpled as it landed. One-hundred fifty pounds of meat and bone in Don's freezer. :-)

I had thoughts of doing the muzzle-loading thing, but decided to take the -06 instead. I didn't hunt during most of my 20 years in Southern California, and decided venison in the freezer again was more important than proving a point. Next year...

As I'm writing this, the Presidential election is still in doubt in Florida. VP Gore is thrashing about, looking for ways to get a few more phantom votes, Liebermann is still wondering whether to resign, Cheney just got out of the hospital and Governor Bush is standing around, scratching his head. The thing to keep in mind is that we have a fight for freedom ahead of us, whoever gets the office. The gun-grabbers are not going to fade quietly into the night if we get Bush into office. Everybody is talking about the 3 to 5 Supreme Court Judges Bush will be able to appoint, while blithely ignoring the fact that each of those judges have to be anointed by the Senate. We are going to be living in interesting times, my friends.

ec Roberts

Bob
ec Roberts
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