I'm a 51 year old married male, with three wonderful children .
100% American Mutt "Mixed cultural heritage".
Extensive background in shooting sports. [Trained as gunsmith, competed in high power rifle, competed locally, nationally, and internationally in Archery, Past president Utah Bowmen's Association (the state archery association)]
Vigil member of the Order of the Arrow-BSA
Leave No Trace Instructor
Proud defender of the 2nd Amendment

Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people" (Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788)

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when young, how to use them." (Richard Henry Lee, 1788, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights, Walter Bennett, ed., Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican, at 21,22,124 (Univ. of Alabama Press,1975)..)

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" (Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836)

"I would rather be a polygamist who doesn't polig, than a monogamist who doesn't monog." Reed Smoot, U.S. Senator

The 11th Article of Faith: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." ~Joseph Smith

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." ~Samuel Adams

The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree. ~Thomas Campbell

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~Abraham Lincoln

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~Dick Cheney

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~Thomas Paine

Nations grown corrupt Love bondage more than liberty; Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty. ~John Milton

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Men fight for freedom; then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves." - Thomas Jefferson

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin,

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ~James Madison

The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. ~Daniel Webster

“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery” ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him." - Thomas Jefferson

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." ~Thomas Jefferson

"Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are a gift from God? Thomas Jefferson

"We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution." ~Abraham Lincoln

"Over here, over there, everywhere, today, tomorrow, always: Bad men there are. Hate you they do. Kill you they will. Watch out you better!" -- Shoshone refrain

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action" -- George Washington

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." -- Daniel Webster

"When government crosses the line from protector of our liberty to master of our lives, it becomes just another criminal gang." -- Jarret B. Wollstein

"The brave and generous have the best lives. They are seldom sorry." -- Havamal, The Sayings of the Vikings

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." -- Buddha

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced... Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice" -- Cherokee saying

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." -- Tacitus

"The worse the society, the more law there will be. In Hell, there will be nothing but law and due process, meticulously observed." - Grant Gilmore

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever." --Thomas Jefferson

"It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of free men. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, are incompatible with freedom." --Patrick Henry

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” - Thomas Jefferson

"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence." Charles Austin Beard (1874-1948)

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.” – Betrand de Juvenal

"People who object to weapons aren't abolishing violence, they're begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically 'right.' Guns ended that, and social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work" – L Neil Smith, The Probability Broach

"A golf course is the willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range" -Bill O'Connor

Rules of Gunfighting
You may someday need to apply one or more of these…

1. Have a gun.
1a. Preferably, have at least two guns.
1b. Bring all of your friends who have guns.
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
5. Proximity negates skill. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are preferred.)
6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a long gun... and a friend with a long gun.
7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading and running.
9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.
10. Use a gun that works every time. "All skill is in vain when the devil pisses in the flintlock of your musket."
11. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
12. Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
13. Have a plan.
14. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work.
15. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
16. Flank your adversary when possible. Always protect your own flank.
17. Don't ever drop your guard.
18. Always perform a tactical reload and then threat-scan 360 degrees.
19. Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.)
20. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
21. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
22. Be polite. Be professional. But... have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
23. Be courteous to everyone.
24. Your number one option for Personal Security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.
25. Do not attend a gun fight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a "4 "
26. Nothing compact and hand held is a reliable stopper.
27. There is no getting around Newton’s Law… You have to be able to take the recoil in order in order to give it!
28. At a distance the rifle rules the land; close-in the shotgun can ruin your day.
29. A handgun is only for fighting your way back to your rifle.
30. If concealment is good, cover is better.

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened." Winston Churchill

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." - Theodore Roosevelt

"If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny." - Andre Maurois

"For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." - Proverbs 23:7

“... I would then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.....of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every form of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective...” TITUS LIVIUS 59 B.C. TO 17 A.D.

“Gun control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.” — L. Neil Smith

Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.” (A sword is never a killer, it’s a tool in the killer’s hands.) - Lucius Annaeus Seneca “the Younger” (ca. 4 BC-65 AD)

Fairy tales don't tell children the dragons exist. They know the dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed. -G. K. Chesterton

"Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late." - Thomas Sowell

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” CS Lewis

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." - Daniel Webster

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." -Thomas Paine

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" - Winston Churchill

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.- Louis D. Brandeis

"I love the government and the Constitution of the United States, but I do not love the damned rascals that administer the government."- Brigham Young