The Arms Dealer, The Townie

The Arms Dealer:

I just sold 3 guns from my collection.  Sold two earlier in the year.  My collection was a little bit nuts for somebody who doesn't list "militia" as one of their hobbies.  At the start of this year, I had 4 AR-15s (the rifle the Army used to use and that I think the Marine Corps still uses), and 4 Beretta 92FS (which is the pistol that all the services use.)

My Dad wanted an AR and a pistol.  So, that's where those went.

How I got all these guns is a bit of a story in and of itself.

I bought a Beretta 92FS pistol a few years ago.  They were getting hard to find because Obama had just won the Democratic nomination.  All the gun stores were selling out anything they had on the shelves.

Shortly after I bought that, I got a great deal on the same gun, but with an integrated laser sight in the handle.  If there's anything better than a shark, it's a shark with a freakin' laser on its head and if there's anything better than a gun, it's a gun with a laser built in.

So, I bought that, and kept both guns.  Then, almost immediately after that, somebody was selling off a ton of the same gun, but with stainless steel barrels, for only $399.  That's basically plinker-type pricing. 

I bought two of the stainless barrel ones, which gave me a total of 4.  I've only shot one of the 4 and now, I sold 3 of them off.  The 4th one, I'm keeping as a home defender.

The rifles?  Same story.  I couldn't buy a match rifle and was signed up for a rifle competition.  So, I ordered 3 of them from different sources, hoping one would arrive in time.  One did, but once they all landed, I had 3 match rifles.  I still have two of them, but sold one.

The only thing that didn't sell is my Les Baer match pistol.  For those who have heard of it, that's pretty much like having a Lamborghini Diablo.  Yeah, they have a market price, but the number of people who will buy one and pay what it's worth is pretty small.

So, anyway, that's 5 less guns in the collection since the first of the year.  I still have too many guns and will give some thought to which ones I'll be selling here in a few days.



The Hometownie...

My new hometown is Sylvania, OH.  It reminds me a lot of my original hometown of Tallmadge.  A little bigger, and not entirely the same, but close.  Friday night I went to the Northview Southview game where the city's two high schools play each other.  It was a lot of fun.

It was refreshing to see our town's young people.  They're fresh faced with their entire lives ahead of them.  It seems like just yesterday that was me, but of course it wasn't.  In fact, it was almost 30 years ago. 

I can see the appeal of teaching school and being around young people who are on their way in life.  I feel the same way when I am around young active-duty servicemembers.  It reminds me of a time in my life when anything was possible and I had nothing but opportunities ahead of me.

Southview typically has a much better football team, and they did on Friday night.  They've competed for a few state championships and people move to Sylvania just for the chance to play Southview football.

Northview has the reputation of being the brainier school, though they also have one of the state's best hockey teams.  Logan will attend Northview.

Perhaps one of the more touching things was that at halftime, both High School's bands take the field at once and they play together.  At the end, they spell out a script "Sylvania" on the field. 

Although there are two high schools and these kids have gone to different schools for most of their lives, the bonds between Sylvania residents is pretty strong.  They play sports together almost their entire lives.  Logan's travel baseball team has an even number of kids who will go to both High Schools.  The town just isn't that big, despite the two High Schools.  Our recreation programs are pretty impressive and the kids get a lot of time interacting with each other.

Although it shouldn't matter to me one way or another, I felt a little sad for the seniors who would never march in a marching band again, or play organized football ever again.  The NV SV game was a neat little tradition and I know I'll be very emotional when / if Logan ever plays in it.