City people in my house.

[Tim01]

I had a rather refreshing experience recently. A friend called and said she wanted someone to meet me. I told her fine and they came out.
It turned out to be a resident of D.C. of all places. I am in the country, just about the opposite of D.C.
Well it turns out she is a black democrat. AND a military veteran. AND she wants to get her boy trained on the use of guns without them coming across as a hip hop fashion accessory. He is about 12 years old. I was pretty surprised.
She said that all of her city friends think she is dangerous and kind of crazy since she doesn't hate guns. I think a lot of it has to do with her military background.
We are going to plan a range day and lunch. If ammo ever becomes available again anyway.
The boy is surprising too. He is willing and eager to get into all things outdoors. He'll put up fence posts. He'll cut wood. He'll drive a tractor. Tracking animals. Land care taking.Nature observation. Planting. He's ready for all of it. He seems hungry for it, which I don't usually see from city people. City people are usually afraid of dirt.
It was really different.

[MADem]

1. Most city people I've met just LOVE dirt and air and trees and fields and streams.

Except for the jerky "Sex and the City" type ones--but they're really annoying to people who are stuck in the city, as well. The average wage slobs "get" the joys of country living.

[imdjh]

2. I'm like Scarlett. I have to go back to Tara now and then.

It doesn't have to be my grandparents house or my aunt's farm or our old house... almost any swamp will do. I can just get out of sight and sound of town for a little while it satisfies the urge.

[Kali]

3. of course they get the joys - but I don't know many that could handle

the "sorrows" - and I don't know of many that can even hang with just the joys for more than a few days, two weeks at the most.

[MADem]

5. A lot of citified geezers move to "the country" (often the seaside) in old age.

They aren't having to work, because they're pensioners--they simply get to enjoy those joys of which you speak.

The hardest change, they always say, is getting used to the QUIET at night. But most adapt in no time.

[Kali]

4. Sounds like a good family.

Get them back out there ASAP - a willing 12 year old turns to a surly teen pretty fast - you may be just the tipping point that young man needs.

[Tim01]

6. Good point. I'm sending an email now.

[tularetom]

7. There's a lot of ridiculing of "city people" going on around here

But let me tell you, it isn't "city people" who drive their fucking ATV's up my creek bed and trash the stream bank so it erodes next winter. It isn't "city people" who shoot my "No trespassing" signs full of holes. And it isn't "city people" that dump their garbage in the ditch along my road frontage. And it wasn't a "city person" I caught in my barn stealing my chain saw.

I moved out here to get away from assholes. I have one neighbor about 1/2 mile down the road and then nobody for 3 or 4 miles on either side. My wife fucking hates it here what with the snakes and mosquitos, but we have 40 acres of prime dove habitat here and I can have it all to myself or anybody I invite here during dove season.

But it isn't the city people who screw the place up. It's our own local inbred redneck asswipes.

[Tim01]

9. You will have that. You have to call the sheriff and work against the problem.

There are rednecks in the city too, you know that. They just cause different kinds of trouble. They are in gangs and into meth and stuff like that.

I've had to get rid of rednecks on 4 wheelers more than once.

It is city people that think that milk and meat and eggs come from a factory and not from animals.( I wish I was making this up. I am not.)

[tularetom]

11. The sheriff and I don't get long too well

We had a little run in at one of the County Supervisor's budget meetings when he flat out said he could not afford to provide any patrols in our part of the county.

About two months after that I had my little confrontation with the guy trying to steal my chain saw. The confrontation ended with the burglar getting shot with a pellet gun when he charged me (thank god the pellet gun was the only thing I could get my hands on at the time). The sheriff then decided to make an example out of me and he summoned me to his office for a come to jesus meeting. But he backed down when I reminded him of his statement about not providing patrol services in our remote area.

When I was a kid I knew every rancher around here. I delivered propane to a lot of them when I worked for my dad. Almost every one of them let me on their property to shoot birds. A couple of them even hired me to get rid of coyotes for them. But not anymore. Every property is posted, cattle and sheep have been shot, gates left unlocked, and the whole atmosphere is a lot less friendly.

You may be right. It isn't city people or local people that are the problem, it's just people.

On edit: I'm not a hard ass. I love dogs, cats and horses and my grandkids. It's just that when I retired I didn't expect to spend all my time cleaning up other people's messes.

[Tim01]

13. You really do have some trouble.

I've seen this kind of thing before. You don't have many options.

[Kali]

10. I get those same red neck assholes out here, but they aren't really country either

They mostly reside in trailers on small acreages - wildcat "developed", unincorporated areas. What some call white trash.

[X_Digger]

12. 'city folk' like this..

http://www.standard.net/live/news/139701/

"The people who bought the homes say, 'Well, we love looking into your yard and seeing the horses and the cattle, but we don't like the flies, and we don't like the mosquitoes,' and when I cut my field to bale it, they say, 'We don't like the dust in the air,' " Davis said.

After hearing the complaints, Davis offered to pay half of the cost of a fence between the two properties and even offered to build it, but his neighbors told him they didn't want it blocking their view.

[Tim01]

14. They did the same thing here.

They all moved in next to a working farm and then started complaining about the farm. I was at the board meeting about that one.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

17. This is why more and more states are passing "right to farm" and "right to hunt legislation"

And it makes sense

[one-eyed fat man]

40. sounds like the ex-urban morons we see here..........

They buy a 6 acre "hobby farm" just so they can stick farm plates on their Lincoln Navigator and spend their time at county supervisor meetings threatening lawsuits over the Amish exhaust on the road.

They are also some of the low-life bastards who dump horses ion public lands after their kid loses interest and they no longer want the expense of animal upkeep.

http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2007/03/15/news/news02.txt

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/07horses.html

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. I have similar troubles. I finally blocked my driveway to prevented access

Had to back it up a few times, but the ATV idiots seems to be at bay this season. I expected trouble Memorial Day weekend, but no one tried to force the issue. Have to see how it does for the rest of the summer.

Most of assholes I run into are city/suburb people who come out to the wilderness/desert to ride, camp, and drink. I can deal with the first two done reasonably, but I don't deal well with drunks and assholes. Per advice of counsel,I currently turn away everyone regardless of what they want to do, though my property has been used as an emergency helo pad a few times

I am nominally 30 minutes from LEO backup. No issues with them other than the distance. When I have told them there were crimes in progress or weapons were out, they did make it here faster.

[iverglas]

44. huh

Kinda like my brother (see my post way downthread) finds things in his bit of country.

He has his house and outbuildings broken into not infrequently. By the local -- very small town and rural -- kids. One of whom was fool enough to go promenading around town in a motorcycle brand Tshirt that only dealers, like a family member of ours, had access to ...

My mum lives in a very small town. Every Friday night, the happy healthy teenagers get together to trash the place.

Re the comment in a subsequent post: There are rednecks in the city too, you know that. They just cause different kinds of trouble. They are in gangs and into meth and stuff like that.

I don't believe that anybody can actually be that ignorant of the drug abuse among rural youth ...

You're right. A lot of baseless, uneducated bashing of city people going on around here.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hoopla Phil]

15. Cool. This is very good of you to do.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[X_Digger]

19. Of course you would..

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[depakid]

20. Any reasonable person would!

This ain't like taking a kid out hunting... this is a taking a 12 year old to learn to kill "bad guys."

[X_Digger]

21. Really? You got all that from..

"she wants to get her boy trained on the use of guns without them coming across as a hip hop fashion accessory"

The way I read that is firearms safety, how to inspect, function check, clear, load, fire, and clean.

Only in your mind does 'use of guns' = 'taking out a bad guy'. Reasonable people don't equate those two.

[depakid]

22. Gotta look at more than that...

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

25. Tell us then exactly to what you are referring?

[Hoopla Phil]

27. Well, impart your "reason" on us, the lowly masses.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

30. Crikey mate haven't you ever seen one of those weapons attack it's owner, like a tasmanian devil.

[ManiacJoe]

32. Caught it all on video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpgL5kuBpMA
:rofl:

[X_Digger]

33. Please elaborate..

How exactly does one equate "she wants to get her boy trained on the use of guns without them coming across as a hip hop fashion accessory" with "killing bad guys"?

Connect the dots for the rest of the class.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

23. So you propose taking kids hunting with no firearms training? And you say we are off the deep end.

[Hoopla Phil]

28. Is the not the same person who, in another thread, said that it

should be illegal for anyone under 18 to even touch a gun?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

31. Never mind that firearms training dramatically reduces the number of firearms accidents.

Burying our heads in the sand is much more effective.

David

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

35. Also the same guy that said American women don't reports rapes because they are uneducated.

[Hoopla Phil]

26. It is perfectly reasonable to learn safe handling of firearms.

[rl6214]

43. What a freaking loon

[Hoopla Phil]

24. Why am I not surprised by the intolerance of this post?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

29. I believe that's the age my dad bought me my first semi-automatic rifle.

I still have it. The only thing it has killed is a few squirrels many years ago when I used to squirrel hunt. It has poked a lot of 1/4 inch holes in aluminum cans and targets though. Shooting .22's , golfing and fishing with my dad are some of the fondest memories that I have. Things I won't ever be able to do again unfortunately.

David

[Taitertots]

34. Firearms safety training is bad now?

Why are you off the deep end?

It clearly benefits society to have people trained in the safe handling and use of firearms, especially children. Not doing so is a danger to society.

I have been shooting since 10. I had my first gun when I was 12.

[Tim01]

37. You're an anti-gun radical.

I don't put much value on the beliefs of extremists. Neither do most other people.

[DrCory]

38. I Sense Desparation...

Accusations of mental illness and societal threat are not worthy substitutes for substantive debate. If this is all you have left, you have ceased to be an effective voice for your side of the issue:

"You're even farther off the deep end than I thought. Indeed, I'd categorize this as dangerous to society"

In addition, your tiresome "shaming" tactic of appealing to some antiquated form of machismo which political progressives reject is quite silly and shallow.

[Tim01]

36. I wish I had a bolt .22

The closest is a .22 20ga over and under. Or the 1022.

[Euromutt]

39. I picked up a Remington Model Five Youth recently

Got it on sale when Joe's, a local sporting gods chain, went out of business. Being a youth model, it's a bit short in the stock for me, but I reckon it'll be great for my niece and nephews when they come to visit, and my own son when he's a bit older than he is now (3).

I took my two eldest nephews and my niece to an outdoor range when they came up to visit last summer. I'd brought a selection of guns, my Ruger 22/45 Mk.III, my S&W M&P40, and my AR (though I was keeping the AR under wraps until I'd had a chance to observe how they did). When we got to the range, the only person there was the RSO who was bored out of his mind. He was a friendly guy in his late 50s/early 60s, and he loaned us his Ruger Single Six so the kids could try out a revolver as well. After he'd established that I wasn't an idiot, and that the kids were sufficiently careful, he offered the kids a go on his bolt-action .22 rifle. So we had a nice system going where I was supervising two kids on handguns at two 7-yard stations, and the RSO was supervising a third on his rifle at a 25-yard station. That was a lot of fun, and my (then) 13 year-old niece turned out to be a natural with a rifle. The boys (14 and 16) were more into the handguns.

I think it's great your friend wants you to teach her son firearms handling. FWIW, I think she's absolutely right; he can learn it from an informed adult, or he can learn it "behind the bike sheds" (as the British say).

As a city boy who's done his occasional stint in the countryside, I know plenty of city folks like myself who don't mind dirt. We just want to know that it'll end at some point.

[Tim01]

41. I'm going to send an invite to the city lady and her family.

I'm going to get my gun instructor to give me some pointers on being a gun instructor. I don't usually teach guns except to my own family. I have lots of shooting experience, not so much teaching.
Safety, safety, safety, and more safety.
We are going to put up a shade on the range and bring lunch and cool stuff to shoot at. Clay pigeons and full soda cans. Paper targets get very boring fast.
I figure introducing more people to guns is the way to forward our cause most solidly. I guess I will look at working toward this more aggressively. The more gun owners the better. And god knows we need more people who know how to handle a gun safely.
I loved the moms attitude. She hates the whole hip hop,macho,avenger,punisher, gun culture. I couldn't agree more.
I miss the days when every dad had a toolbox and a gunrack. And nobody thought anything of it.

[iverglas]

42. huh

My little brother has a place in the country. He cleared a part of his 30 or so acres and built a passive solar house himself, and a couple of outbuildings where he keeps all his construction tools, and he has an old schoolbus he turned into a sawmill, and some old dead cars, and he has tried his hand at organic market gardening, and has a fledgling fruit orchard -- most of the fruit at present getting consumed by the wild turkeys who hang out on his land, which is posted against hunting. He feeds the fox that sometimes eats the turkeys, and drives his tractor around while drinking beer, and does all that country shit.

He also has a degree in fine arts from the biggest university in the biggest city in Canada, and makes his actual living doing artsy fartsy renovations and cabinetry for city folk. Of course, he lives in the city during the week, and of course he's one of those atheist socialist postmodern types our cities are so full of up here.

I wonder. Maybe it's because he's so white that I'm not surprised by any of this ...


Oops. Forgot to mention. No guns on his property, eh?