[wordsmythe]

My first thought was that this was a huge waste of a Saturday. If it wasn't a hoop to jump through for my license I'd never have taken it. Nothing in it was new except the law that we covered.

Covering the laws that govern the license and the legal ramifications of carrying a gun with you and using it were very important but could have been done in an hour.

The basics are good to review but I could have passed the written test without ever taking the class.

Then the next thought I had was for the 2 women sitting next to me. That thought was HOLY CRAP THEY NEED THE BASICS! They needed them because they both said that they had never even picked up a gun until they went to the range to qualify.

That being the case I think they need some more time with an actual pistol instructor before they are let loose on society armed.

So I can see the need for a little longer course. I think they both were reconsidering going through with the entire process but who knows.

Then when we went over the section for where you can’t carry several people asked what the use was in even getting the damned license if we are going to spend more time taking the thing off and storing it than actually carrying.

I think the answer to that is simple. The more people who are willing to jump through these hoops, take the class, pay the money and put up with the restrictions – the more legislators are going to see this is something people really want and are able to handle safely and responsibly. Then we can work on getting some of the restrictions relaxed.

The businesses who are putting up the signs will see the same thing.

I’m seriously considering building a website for people to list both businesses that are CC friendly and also those who are criminal friendly. On each entry I’d link information about each business so that people may contact them to express their opinion about the current status of their business’ response to CC.

I’d also have some sample letters on there that could be personalized by people so that they can send messages to these businesses.

Another important part would be a link to a “Find your Legislator” function so that people can contact their legislators and let them know how they feel about the subject.

An interesting tidbit I heard in the class was that the families of the victims in the Mall shootings that happened a few weeks ago were banding together to sue the owners of that mall for their part in the deaths of their loved ones. The premise of the suit is that since they had “NO CC” signs up that nobody but the police could bring guns into the building. By doing that, the establishment is taking responsibility for the safety of their patrons upon themselves since they have taken their right to protect themselves.

If the cop who was in the building hadn’t had his gun with him at the time and made the killer go to ground he would likely have killed even more innocent bystanders before the uniformed officers got there. Had this guy been facing 5 armed citizens hw would likely have only got off a couple of shots.

I say sue away.

Anyway those were some of my observations.

The funniest part was at lunch. I went to McDonald’s to get some processed chicken parts and I saw that they had “My Little Pony” Happy Meals. Well my daughter is VERY into the ponies now so I thought I’d get one for the toy. They have t 6 nugget meal and that’s generally what I get anyway. But as I’m about to order it, in walks the rest of the class…

I decided that saying, “I’d like the big kids nugget Happy Meal with the Pony toy to eat here.” might just not work…

I took her to get her own toy on Sunday.