Mar 26, 2021 4 min read

Well, here we go again.

Remember back just a few short months ago when friends and neighbors were arguing about political views? The government is not going after your guns. They are going after criminals’ guns. It is not your guns that are in danger, but they want to disarm the criminals, or at least make it close to impossible for them to buy guns. Since most criminals are repeat offenders, the powers that be in government are trying to pass a bill to make it harder to buy guns with if you have a record.

Offenders have found little resistance up to now and have demonstrated how easy it is for them to buy guns. In a sense, many of these killings are nothing but a training session for the murderer. He becomes emboldened by people who don’t fight back when robbing them.

Take, for example, a person I know who was robbed at his place of work. He was forced to lay on his stomach while the burglars robbed the store. When the robbery was done, they shot him in the spine. The fellow speaking from his wheelchair emphatically stated that he would never turn his back on a criminal attacking him again. If he was going to be shot, he preferred to be facing the person shooting him. The criminals in this case had rap sheets a mile long. They had obtained their guns legally. This is a true story and shows how the assailants were going through a training period finding it very easy to make a living robbing and shooting innocent persons.

If someone would have stopped him early, perhaps no one would have been hurt. Maybe the stopping happens when criminals apply to buy a gun. Or perhaps when someone reports the criminals for having guns illegally and they are removed properly by authorities.

The paraplegic took a different tack with his life. He legally obtained a handgun and a permit to carry. Then he practiced until he was quite skilled. He’s now one of the best handgun shots in the area.

The best defense against life-threatening situations is the second amendment. We stand now at a decisive place in time. Without the second amendment, the people who are victims don’t have a recourse. They must roll over and surrender to the criminal. Law enforcement cannot always be there, and most will agree a trained shooter is a good defense. I am not suggesting that everyone shoot without thought, and I am sure that not everyone can defend themselves. But those who can seek training and carry legally to protect themselves and those they love are welcome.

• There are two important days in Pennsylvania: The first day of buck season and the first day of trout season.

This coming weekend, the floors at home will suffer mud, silt, worms in the refrigerator and half of Linden Creek being brought in. Trout season brings back memories of Eileen, Pat and Kathy in the car as we headed toward Roxbury. Roxbury lies in Mt. Pleasant. Our destination was a tiny stream called Schafer’s Run. Of course, along the way we would also hit Wills Creek. Shafer’s Run is a feeder of Wills Creek. It has a nice collection of stocked browns and rainbows. The area is comprised of huge gorges and boulders. At one time, it was one of my favorite grouse-hunting locations. Wills Creek years ago suffered a major flood which changed the creek, but it still contains beautiful holes and nice cover.

That day, we would catch beautiful brownies in the nice quiet small stream. It was opening day, and while this stream flows through some of the wildest terrain in the state, it has a secret ingredient necessary for an opening day fishing trip with kids: it had a dirt road that paralleled it. This made the walking safer and the trip more fun for all involved.

Today, I hear there is a problem in the area with wild boar. Back then, we saw nothing. Strangely enough, we returned to that spot a few years later and Pat would shoot his first buck there.