Observations of a Californian

I’m stuck in this GOD foresaken state, but I don’t really consider myself a Californian, although I’ve been here for many years I will always be a southern boy.

This weekend I spent a large number of hours out in the desert sending precious metals down range. I took about 20 of my closest friends and co-workers out for a little firearm training/shooting/testing…A funny thing happened while we were at our makeshift range in the middle of nowhere, I had a few observations.

1. When you get a lot of folks in an open area with a lot of guns, folks are REALLY polite.

2. There are no “Racial divides”  at the range.

3. Although there were no indicators of racial breakdown it’s important to see the diversity in order to continue with the observations: We had 10 Mexicans, one Nicaraguan, 2 blacks, 11 whites and several woman. The only groups not represented that were “news worthy” was the gays….And to my knowledge NONE of the guys or gals there fit that category…And amazingly all of us get a long really well.

4. All of us are very aware of the “Illegal Immigration” issue and Arizona’s new and correct direction.

5. We did get a chance to sit around and shoot the shit, and to my surprise EVERY damn one of the LATINO’s that were with us, AGREED with AZ.

6. Most of them had no idea of Mexico’s immigration law, and NONE of them heard Mexico’s president in the US congress.

7. The worst observation I had was that the younger folks there (Kids of my friends) had NO IDEA about a lot of current events. And a lot of the adults were not as up on the events as they should be. Very few had a lot of knowledge about California gun laws, or pending legislation.

8. Some of the most die hard democrat voters in our group are now going to be indy’s. They may not change their party on paper but they are voting that way. Not for the indy candidate per se but no longer party line voting. And that’s a good thing.

9. Sitting around cooking burgers in the desert with your friends is awesome.

10. California sucks, and that’s another point all of us agree on. Although we like the weather and the scenery, the absolutely absurd laws and the cost of living in this state is killing the paradise this place could be. Many of the folks there blamed a lot of the problems, are you ready for this… ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. Not just on the folks coming in, but on the businesses that hire them. Many of the folks there are 2nd generation and they were anchor babies at one time, and NOW see that the place their parents left is now where they live. One particular person in the group made the most pointed statement I’ve heard. He said” My father left Mexico to escape the despair caused by corruption, now we see the same thing happening here… Where to do go to escape it”?

11. The gun laws in California really suck. 10 round clips mean a lot of loading time.

12. We are making progress bringing folks to the fight. The fight over gun/ammo regulations in this state is about to get really heated. The more folks that get involved the better our chances are of reversing the draconian laws thta have been enacted during our slumber. We are waking up.

Just a few observations in no particular order.