Free In Idaho!

I stopped off at the range today to try my hand shooting the May ePostal.  The range and the shop were both empty when I went in.  The young man behind the counter told me it’s their “slow season”.  Hmmm.  You’d think with the wind blowing 20 mph, and gas over $3.50, folks would still be coming into the range rather than going out to the desert (actually, the wind kept me in town today… I’ve got a box of handloads ready for the rifle, but decided today wasn’t the day).  But you have to keep practicing, so it was hand gun day for me.

When I came out of the range, I poked around looking at the wares.  I noticed a couple of 20-somethings gazing into the last case, so I wandered over to see what the attraction was.  Oh, that.  The shop has an HK G3 for sale, for the princely sum of $14 thousand smackers.  Kid asked me if I liked it.  I told him no, for $14 really big ones I’d rather have a really good new 1911, a new Wingmaster shotgun, a new M1A1, lots of ammo for all of them, some training, three months of food in the pantry, and gas for the rest of the year.  Oh, yeah, and some CHANGE!

He looked at me like I was nuts. 

“”But THAT is too COOL!  And besides, you wouldn’t have enough left to get that much gas.”

I looked at him like he was nuts, but he was back to lusting after the G-thing and he didn’t notice.  $14 grand is about what guys his age make in Boise in a whole year right now.  So was he in the lane next to me, shooting an old Ruger 10/22 into a little bitty circle at the 25 yard line, saving his money and practicing?  Nope.  He’s out front getting nose prints on the display case, because 10/22s aren’t cool.  Makes a guy want to do a little re-write of an old piece,  just for HK fanboys.

This is my rifle.  There aren’t any like it, and this one is mine.

My rifle is my best friend. It is my life.

I don’t need to master it, because it’s mine.

My rifle without me is so cool. Without my rifle, I am useless.

I must fire my rifle true.  But at $1.50 a round, I can’t afford it.

I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me.  But I can’t afford training either, so I’ll just spray and pray.

I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will…I hope.  This rifle does it for you.

My rifle and myself know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire,

the noise of our bursts, nor the smoke we make.

We know it is the coolness that counts. We will be very cool…

I noticed this article (hat tip MM) about the increased “popularity” of pawnshops and craigslist these days.  It seems that a lot of people are finding it difficult to make ends meet, and are having second thoughts about some of the mounds of junk they have purchased over the last few years.  We are, after all, a “consumer driven economy”.  I wonder if that’s Chinese for “we will bury you”?  Hmmm…

Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates.

To meet higher gas, food and prescription drug bills, they are selling off grandmother’s dishes and their own belongings. Some of the household purging has been extremely painful — families forced to part with heirlooms.

I expect that most of those who think this is a new thing are much younger than I, and haven’t seen this part of the cycle before, or didn’t notice it was happening.  But pawnshops, garage sales, and flea markets have been around forever.  This isn’t new.  Downturns happened in the 70’s, 80’s, early 90’s, and now the late “aughts”.  Nor is the American consumer’s addiction to debt a new or curious thing.  Drive through any middle American subdivision on a Saturday afternoon and look in the open garage doors and you’ll no doubt see more piles of unused stuff than you knew.  It’s embarrassing, or should be.  And as the cycle progresses, we’ll see a lot of that junk on craigslist, or in the pawnshop, or at the neighborhood garage sales later this spring.

When things are going well we all tend to take on more stuff.  The other part of the equation, of course, is that sometimes it rains.  The economy, like life, is cyclical.  Challenges happen in life, whether it is a health problem, loss of a job, or any number of things that can change life in a hurry.  Many of these things can be prepared for in advance.   And yes, sometimes it’s simply the consequences of excess.  As Michele Malkin wrote, “Chickens coming home to roost, as they say.”  The stuff we thought we couldn’t live without becomes the stuff we can’t live with.  And lest you think I’m gazing down my nose, I’ve been there myself.

One item I’ve never had to put up for sale in order to pay a bill is one of my guns (thank you Lord).  Oh yeah, I’ve sold some at shows, or traded one off, but always with the intention of making room for something new.  That’s not the same as having to sell one or more of them in order to make it to the end of the month.  The thought of having to sell some or all to pay the bills, or worse, to put gas in the truck, makes me twitch.  And it reminds me of something Jeff Cooper wrote about 15 years ago.

I have never been taken with the idea of selling a gun. When you possess a firearm, you possess something of importance. If you trade it for cash, you have lost it - and the cash in your hand will soon be gone. Sell something else!

Yes.