The Next Chapter...

In just under two weeks, Selena and I will pack Anna in the truck, hook up the trailer carrying our mini-van and head north.  Lucky for the boys, they will be visiting their grandpa and will miss the joy of traveling halfway across the country in a truck.

It has been ten years since my last move.  I have sunk some pretty good roots here and it will be hard to leave.  But, an opportunity arose that will allow me to get back to the Plains, back to God's country.  I would have been crazy not to take it, and Selena was more than supportive.

With that being said, have you seen the weather in Bismarck the past couple of days?  What was I thinking?  Seventeen inches of snow!  Yeah Baby!!!!  I am so excited to be going there.  I miss real winters.

In addition to getting back to snow, I will also now be much closer to my parents, who are not getting any younger.  It will be nice to let them see Anna and Anton grow a little.

There is a huge downside to this though.  I will be leaving my three kids here in Virginia.  It is a difficult thing to do.  Usually, it is the child who moves away from home.  This time...it is the parent leaving the children.  I know I will miss them terribly.  I hope they can visit once in awhile.  And if you are ever in Bismarck...stop on in!

We will keep everyone up to date on our new life.  Anton will be born in July and our life will get crazier still.  But, we thank God for what he has given us and remember daily that He is good...all the time.

When Did I Become the Problem?

Somewhere along the line, the government began to see me as part of the criminal element.

I am a gun owner...and according to the government, or at least the anti-gun elements of the government, I cannot be trusted with my guns, nor do I know how to use them responsibly.

Let me explain.  The majority of the current gun control legislation that is being proposed is addressed at the legal gun owners of this country.  None of the proposals address the criminals, save a couple that address trafficking and such.  They look to take certain guns away, ban certain magazines, or tax the dickens out of ammunition to make it impossible to afford it.  Not one of the proposals is actually addressing the problem of attacks on our children in school.

If you look at just three of the worst, Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Virginia Tech, all were in gun-free zones, two with little to no security.  Suggest putting armed guards in our schools to protect our nation's most prized treasures, and the anti-gun crowd goes crazy.  I bet the parents of the children who go to school with the President's children sure feel confident that their children are safe with all those armed guards there to protect his children.  Personally, I don't think his children are any more special than mine are...but there is not one security guard in my son's school...NOT ONE!  The only way to stop a shooter is with another gun.

But who needs 15-round clips in a handgun, you ask?  How about the woman who, upon hearing thugs attempting to get into her house, grabs her pistol and she and her children hurry into the attic.  When the criminals find them, she shoots at them, striking one and they both flee.  Two criminals, one very frightened, protective mother who may or may not be a good shot.  If she has only 7 rounds, as proposed by many lawmakers, she better hope she is a really good shot, extremely calm, the robbers aren't armed, and that there is only one.  It is common in a police shooting that the policeman will fire several times and not even hit the criminal.  Keep in mind, the policeman is a trained marksman and should be better able to remain calm.  If I have to deal with a criminal at my door, I do not want to be left wishing I had one more bullet.

Even if you don't like guns, or think they are the cause for all the problems with gun violence, don't let emotions blur out the facts.  Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC are the most violent cities in the nation...and have the strictest gun laws.  Why?  Because the criminals know they are attacking an unarmed populous.  Easy victims.

The worst part of this whole gun control fiasco is that no one is really looking at how to stop the violence on our children.  We aren't looking at how to protect them, but how to take the guns away from their parents.  We are allowing the government to destroy our Constitution under the lie of security, just like we did after 9/11.  The 2nd Amendment says our right to bear arms "shall not be infringed".  Well folks, that is exactly what ALL of this legislation is doing.  Today, Connecticut signed into law some of the "toughest" gun control laws in the nation...and did NOTHING to make anyone safer...nothing!  The bad guys will still have a gun-free killing zone at every school in the nation because our cowardly lawmakers are too scared to address the real problems.

So before you jump on your anti-gun platform, look at what you are wanting the government to take away.  A Constitutional right.  The only right that directly exists to allow us to protect ourselves from the very government that claims they are trying to protect us by disarming us. Tell that to the Germans, Russians, Chinese, and Cambodians.

The guns are not the problem...the problem is our government trying to put a band aid on a knee when it is the elbow that was skinned.