I’m not sure what to think of the below:
While I believe in fighting for 2A and general freedoms, the recent pandemic requires social distancing. I can understand why indoor ranges should be temporarily shut down. Some folks state that with modern indoor ranges having ventilation systems that would negate some of the infection vectors, it would not vacate all of them (ie, surfaces that will be contaminated such as stall walls and benches, door knobs, and range equipment).
A large majority of my wife’s extended family are either doctors or nurses and they’ve seen people directly affected by the virus. This is no joke and I’m very sure they’re not embellishing when sharing their daily happenings, yet there are folks in the gun community that are accusing folks of lying or embellishing the truth (so that they can have their boogaloo, maybe…dunno). They’ll tout the 2% death stats but I’d rather not rely upon the luck of the draw when we can just keep away from each other for a 3-4 months. That type of crap is easy to say when you’ve stake in the game and I’d rather not have someone decide that type of thing for me.
In my opinion, there has to be a balance of things. The current situation requires distancing. As well, everyone forgets that we’ve been through something like this before with the Spanish flu. For those that need education on that, here is a video published in 2018 regarding that worldwide pandemic (please watch it ALL before leaving any comments):
They had issues containing that pandemic as well. In fact, we were hit 3 times in 1918, with the virus mutating each time (probably because people were not taking the virus seriously). Each mutation was more dangerous than the last.
We as people are very short-sighted. A Japanese friend actually told me that. He said that compared to other countries in the world, the U.S. is young, yet we continue to make the same mistakes. I was a bit offended at first but came to understand that what he said is true.
I believe we can balance the need for freedom while also doing what’s required for the nation to stay as healthy (economy-wise) as possible. It requires compromise (from both sides). If the VA governor was as nasty as people say, he could’ve just outright told citizens that outdoor ranges had to be shut down as well. I can’t stand Northam. I hate him with a passion. That doesn’t mean that he’s wrong in everything he says or does, though, and remember, he has a staff that’s helping to guide him in making his decisions.
I do miss going to shoot. I can go to an outdoor range but it will require additional commuting and the closest outdoor range requires a max shooting time of 30 minutes, using their ammo (reloads). I’m not going to drive 1 hour to only shoot 30 minutes. I’m not going to shoot reloads, either. Yes, there are folks that are new gun owners, but really, if you’ve not prepared until now, it’s quite late in the game, IMO.
Lastly, those same folks hating government are the same ones giddy with excitement about the government giving them surplus money, which most say they’ll spend on a gun. Wait a minute. I thought that you hated big government. You’re frothing at the mouth at the mention of this hand-out, though. IMO, that’s no better than the folks you complain about (the welfare abusers). If you’re going to take that money, better to put it away in case you need it later or in case they decide to take it back next year (they may have told you that they won’t ask for it back, but it’s not like they can’t change their mind later…it’s the government). And before anyone asks, no, I’m not taking any of it. I don’t qualify. The wife and I make too much, yet either one of us can be laid off at any time, but I wouldn’t take it anyways (we’d have put it to the side to give it back if we’d have qualified) because we already get raped annually…I don’t want to give them an excuse to dig deeper.
I wonder how this will turn out.