Thankfully in Florida if you own greater than an acre you can have your own range and train your family. Even when our leaders are idiots the smart citizens will not let our guards down! Thank you Lee!
In this country, we don't practice shooting. We buy or inherit firearms then leave them in a bureau or closet to rust. The fighting spirit, as in the Founding Fathers', is DOA. Instead we have elected reps that open the doors for enemy invaders while trying to confiscate our firearms and throw us in jail on false charges. The Spirit of 76 is gone, our country dying in bed.
Thanks for that excellent article, Lee. Here in Central Florida the lawful gun owners are taking the threats from of our own federal government and the liberal states, very seriously. We know from history because we have learned from it, that "The People" i.e. the citizenry, must remain tenaciously armed and prepared, and train accordingly.
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As JerryC said, Floridians with adequate land have the freedom to train to the highest level of preparedness, if they so choose to. And we are actively engaging in preparation for the worst-case scenario of another civil war.
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I for one have thrown all my resources into expanding this effort. We're not putting bullets on paper targets anymore but instead learning what is required to survive an armed assault and wage a lawful counter offensive. Our objective is to remain a free American Citizenry within the constructs of the US Constitution, which we swore an oath to uphold and protect. We must exercise our God given right to remain free and to do so within the constructs of the laws our forefathers fought and died for.
Finland has 5.6 million people, and currently has 600 shooting ranges ALREADY. That's better than one shooting range per 10,000 people.
For comparison, lets take a random city that I grew up in: Portland, OR. It has 640,000 people and has maybe a dozen shooting facilities, so about 1 per 50,000 people. Obviously that's Portland so probably an outlier, but at Finland's rate, the US overall would have something like 33,000 ranges open to the public.
The US may have the most guns and gun owners, but we're absolute shit for access to training facilities.
Though Finland has many WOKE problems within their government and society, they're dead-on correct about keeping their citizenry armed and trained. Most of the modern "civilized" countries, instead of disarming their citizenry, would do well to emulate Finland. They need to learn a lesson from countries like England, and more recently Ukraine, who had to beg the western civilian population (United States) to send them privately owned guns when their countries were threatened.
To my astonishment, even Israel prior October 7th had mostly disarmed its civilian population. A move that made its citizens nothing more than easy targets for the terrorists. From what I understand, only one woman in one town had the snap to realize what was going down. Fortunately, she had the key to the town's armory and was able to arm her fellow citizens. That was the only town in which the terrorist attack was unsuccessful.
And yes Lee, you are unfortunately correct about the lack of government interest in supporting training ranges open to the public. Where I grew up the Parish Sheriff's Office maintained a public range staffed by SO personnel. One old staffer was a somewhat "experienced" gunsmith, who would gladly help to keep old family heirlooms maintained and shootable. He repaired and refinished the broken stock on my grandfather's Wards/Western .22 (which is now around 100 years old). Some 60 years later the SO still maintains a public range for its citizens.
Sadly, even in the Free State of Florida where I live now, government supported ranges are few and far between. Luckily, we do have many private gun clubs such as mine which make our facilities available to the public. Most have experienced Range Officers (including former military or law enforcement members) who will readily share their knowledge and expertise with new or inexperienced shooters. However, I do feel that the state and local governments have a duty and an obligation to provide training facilities for its citizens. Its just the way I was raised.
Thankfully in Florida if you own greater than an acre you can have your own range and train your family. Even when our leaders are idiots the smart citizens will not let our guards down! Thank you Lee!
As I have always said, our people will survive anything our so called elected officials throw at use. WE WILL NOT COMPLY!!!
That's exactly it!
In this country, we don't practice shooting. We buy or inherit firearms then leave them in a bureau or closet to rust. The fighting spirit, as in the Founding Fathers', is DOA. Instead we have elected reps that open the doors for enemy invaders while trying to confiscate our firearms and throw us in jail on false charges. The Spirit of 76 is gone, our country dying in bed.
Thanks for that excellent article, Lee. Here in Central Florida the lawful gun owners are taking the threats from of our own federal government and the liberal states, very seriously. We know from history because we have learned from it, that "The People" i.e. the citizenry, must remain tenaciously armed and prepared, and train accordingly.
.
As JerryC said, Floridians with adequate land have the freedom to train to the highest level of preparedness, if they so choose to. And we are actively engaging in preparation for the worst-case scenario of another civil war.
.
I for one have thrown all my resources into expanding this effort. We're not putting bullets on paper targets anymore but instead learning what is required to survive an armed assault and wage a lawful counter offensive. Our objective is to remain a free American Citizenry within the constructs of the US Constitution, which we swore an oath to uphold and protect. We must exercise our God given right to remain free and to do so within the constructs of the laws our forefathers fought and died for.
Thanks, David. Very well said. I couldn't agree more.
Finland has 5.6 million people, and currently has 600 shooting ranges ALREADY. That's better than one shooting range per 10,000 people.
For comparison, lets take a random city that I grew up in: Portland, OR. It has 640,000 people and has maybe a dozen shooting facilities, so about 1 per 50,000 people. Obviously that's Portland so probably an outlier, but at Finland's rate, the US overall would have something like 33,000 ranges open to the public.
The US may have the most guns and gun owners, but we're absolute shit for access to training facilities.
Though Finland has many WOKE problems within their government and society, they're dead-on correct about keeping their citizenry armed and trained. Most of the modern "civilized" countries, instead of disarming their citizenry, would do well to emulate Finland. They need to learn a lesson from countries like England, and more recently Ukraine, who had to beg the western civilian population (United States) to send them privately owned guns when their countries were threatened.
To my astonishment, even Israel prior October 7th had mostly disarmed its civilian population. A move that made its citizens nothing more than easy targets for the terrorists. From what I understand, only one woman in one town had the snap to realize what was going down. Fortunately, she had the key to the town's armory and was able to arm her fellow citizens. That was the only town in which the terrorist attack was unsuccessful.
And yes Lee, you are unfortunately correct about the lack of government interest in supporting training ranges open to the public. Where I grew up the Parish Sheriff's Office maintained a public range staffed by SO personnel. One old staffer was a somewhat "experienced" gunsmith, who would gladly help to keep old family heirlooms maintained and shootable. He repaired and refinished the broken stock on my grandfather's Wards/Western .22 (which is now around 100 years old). Some 60 years later the SO still maintains a public range for its citizens.
Sadly, even in the Free State of Florida where I live now, government supported ranges are few and far between. Luckily, we do have many private gun clubs such as mine which make our facilities available to the public. Most have experienced Range Officers (including former military or law enforcement members) who will readily share their knowledge and expertise with new or inexperienced shooters. However, I do feel that the state and local governments have a duty and an obligation to provide training facilities for its citizens. Its just the way I was raised.
God Bless.
LOL! Thanks, Howard.