Category Archives: Fishing Ramblings – My Fishing Blog

Random thoughts and musings about fishing

Beating the Heat Growing Up By Going Fishing

One of my favorite ways to beat the hot weather when I was growing up was to go fishing. Weather like we have had the past few weeks always brings back memories of those days, back when we did not start school until after Labor Day and could fish and enjoy life for a full three months during the summer.

From the time I was about 10 until I got my driver’s license at 16 I spent many wonderful summer days at local ponds. I would ride my bicycle to them, often traveling five or six miles to fish. Most of the time one of my friends was with me and we would make a day of our fishing trip.

My bicycle had a huge basket up front, big enough for my Old Pal tackle box. I would hold my Mitchell 300 reel and rod across the handle bars and head off. Usually we packed a lunch, and it mostly consisted of saltine crackers and Vienna Sausage or Ritz crackers and potted meat. Sometimes we carried sardines, but they were not my favorite at that age.

Drinks were a problem. Back in those days cans were unheard of and all drinks came in bottles. We did not have the small ice chests that are so popular now, so we would sometimes wrap our drinks in newspaper to keep it somewhat cool. Most of the time we just took a Mason jar of water along since a hot Coke was not real good, even at that age.

Riding to the ponds would make us very hot but we solved that as soon as we got there. Jeans and tennis shoes were the uniform of the day and as soon as we parked the bikes and got our tackle rigged up we would start wading. Easing around the pond in the shallows, casting ahead of us, we would carefully fish every bit of cover available.

I can still feel the mud oozing around my feet and the cool spots we would sometimes hit. It was amazing how the water would be real warm but suddenly we would find a pocket of cool water. Those were probably springs but we did not realize it then. Those spots were favorites to stand and cast from for a long time, even if nothing hit. We leaned where they were in each of the ponds we fished.

Now I watch a depthfinder on my boat to find underwater stumps, ditches, rocks and other cover and structure. Back then it was more personal. My feet were my depthfinder. Over the summer I would locate stumps, rocks, brush and ditches with my feet then fish them the next time we made a trip to that pond.

We learned to slide our feet along slowly, mainly so we would not disturb the fish, but also so we would not step off into a hole. It was not unusual to wade up to neck deep, especially when crossing a cove or ditch to get to the other side. As often as not we would have to swim some, doing a kind of dog paddle with our feet while holding rods and reels over our heads.

In those days catch and release was unknown, we practiced catch and hot grease. We kept and ate just about everything we caught. A stringer tied onto a belt loop always received bass and bream that hit our lures and we had to be careful wading with some fish following us around. We always worried about snakes trying to come eat our fish, but it never happened. I am sure the snakes were more scared of us than we were of them.

I learned early on not to wade too close to stumps that came above the water in the ponds. They usually had a small bush growing on them, and we were afraid of snakes. But the biggest danger were the wasp nest built on them. It is hard to run from wasps when wading chest deep, and, unlike a snake, they will come after you if you get too close.

When we took a break for lunch our wet clothes provided air conditioning and the ride home on our bicycles was cool and comfortable. There was no air conditioning at home, but there was a mother waiting to make sure we left wet, dirty shoes and jeans at the back door. I always hated to take them off but it helped knowing they would be waiting on me the next day for another fishing trip.

Finding Survival Food As A Kid

There are a lot of TV shows about surviving in the wilderness running right now. They have a variety of themes, from a father and son reenacting possible problems hikers, fishermen and hunters may get into and get lost to a couple put into a wilderness setting without anything, including clothes. All these shows take me back to growing up wild in Georgia, where we often tried to “live off the land” for a few days.

We were never really in a survival situation since home was just a few minutes away, but we liked to think we had to find food and shelter to survive. Since my friends and I lived in a rural area we were used to gardening, eating anything we could kill or catch and using nature. But being out in the woods pretending we had to survive was fun, especially knowing the comforts of home were close.

Our survival tools were our trusty BB guns and later .22 rifles and .410 shotguns, so getting squirrels, birds and sometimes rabbits was no problem. There are very few kinds of birds I have not eaten at some point but a few, like redbirds and bluebirds were off limits. And we never tried buzzards, for obvious reasons.

All kinds of plants were eaten, too. There was a weed that I never knew the name that grew all over the fields, and its roots were crunchy and had a nutty flavor. We usually ate them raw but often put them in squirrel and bird stew. One of us always had a mess kit along with its fry pan, pot, cup, knife, fork and spoon so we could cook things in a lot of ways.

Mushrooms grew wild but we were afraid to try them. We knew some were poison so we left all of them alone. But there were acorns, which tasted terrible, dandelions, poke weed and other plants we did eat. And hickory nuts were good if we could crack them open.

We never ate bugs and worms, we never got that hungry, but we did consider it. A few years ago on a trip up the Amazon River Linda and I took a tour of the jungle with a Brazilian military captain that taught survival skills to troops. He showed us a lot of different kinds of food from tarantula spiders to vines that held water.

At one point he cut a palm looking bush and shelled out a small nut. He said the nut, a palm nut, was edible and tasted like coconut. Then he split open the nut and showed us a white grub inside, saying protein was important and these grubs were good.

When he asked if anyone wanted to taste it I popped it into my mouth and bit down. It tasted like coconut. So I will eat worms and bugs, even if not starving to death. And I guess I would eat a buzzard if really, really, really hungry.

The branch provided several kinds of food but we didn’t try most of them. Crawfish were small and would not have made much of a meal but we knew we could eat them. And the small bream and catfish in the branch were so tiny we didn’t want to clean them. Under real survival situations both would make a good stew.

In the spring we even tried bird eggs. They were not bad boiled in branch water in our mess kit pots over a campfire. Since my family had 11,000 laying hens I usually packed some chicken eggs along to eat. That is not really survival but just keeping them whole taught ways to protect the food we found and how to handle it with care.

Our shelters were very simple lean-tos built by tying a sapling between two trees, leaning other sapling trunks against it and covering them with sweet gum branches with leaves. I doubt they would have stopped much rain but it was the best we could do with what we had, and we were proud of them.

One of the biggest problems folks on the survival shows have is making a fire, a necessity under survival conditions and for us boys in the woods. We tried rubbing sticks together, making sparks with flint and steel and using a magnifying glass. Nothing worked for us except the magnifying glass so we always had matches with us.

I spent hours dipping the heads of strike anywhere matches in melted wax to protect them from water. They were carried in a small box and could be counted on to produce a fire when scratched against a handy rock. I am not sure I could start a fire without the right tools but I know how it is supposed to be done.

Pretending to need to survive is fun but I don’t think I would want to do it under real conditions where my life might depend on my skills.

Why Are Animal Rights Fanatics Going Crazy and Facebook Removing Kendall Jones’ Pictures?

Animal rights fanatics get all worked up about a hunting trip and Facebook removes Kendall Jones’ pictures.
from The Fishing Wire

And finally – I wish it were a “finally” for these sorts of stories – a personal note on the brouhaha that erupted when 19 year old Kendall Jones posted harvest photos from an African safari.

Animal rights folks have succeeded in getting her photos pulled down on Facebook and they’re all fired up thinking they’ve scored a great victory of some sort.

They haven’t. But they’ve proven that the same irrational fear and overreaction that caused the Salem witch trials isn’t far beneath the surface in some people. Their celebrating the digital lynching of a 19 year old girl whose only crime is liking to hunt and having the money to pursue her passion- legally- is yet another reason we all should be afraid for our country.

When an entity like Facebook – which has recently admitted it jacked around with the emotions of their users by essentially using them as lab rats to study how people respond to news -is so concerned with political correctness that it pulls down hunting photos, it’s time to be concerned.

The lynch mob isn’t extinct in America -it’s just re-labeled as online campaigning for causes, allowing the nameless, faceless, and the gutless to call names, throw digital rocks and then drop back under their rocks until the next time they get a chance to take a shot at someone.

It’s about time someone said “enough” and counter-attacked. But we wouldn’t want to be called mean-spirited, would we?

What Is The Georgia Outdoor News Outdoor Blast?

If you like hunting and fishing shows you should love the Georgia Outdoor News “Outdoor Blast” scheduled for July 25 – 27, 2014. The show will be held at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth and will feature hundreds of hunting and fishing vendors in booths where you can see their products and purchase them, some with nice show discounts.

On Saturday and Sunday the “Truck Buck Shootout” will be held at the show. In this shootout, hunters that qualified by killing a big deer last season will shoot at targets with pellet guns and the winner will get a truck. On Sunday the Georgia State Duck Calling Championship will be held there.

A special attraction this year is a gun give-away sponsored by the magazine. Each hour of the show a drawing will be held for a gun, with 21 guns given away. All you have to do to enter is attend the show and sign up at the GON booth, there are no raffle tickets to buy. And there are no BB guns – the least expensive gun is a Mossberg .22 bolt action.

I will be helping out at the GON booth all three days – hope to see you there. (disclaimer – I write for Georgia Outdoor News and am a freelance employee.)

How To Avoid Summer Headaches

A Pain In the…Head – Summer Headaches

Editor’s Note: While battling a skull-cracking headache over the weekend, one of our friends wondered what might cause him to have more headaches in the summer. We did some checking around, and guess what? Summertime is one of those times when there’s an increased chance of headaches. There are a number of reasons- and we thought you’d like to know them. The information is courtesy of the National Headache Foundation, and comes along with a reminder that June is Migraine and Headache Awareness Month (who knew).

During the summer, there is an increased chance of exposure to the triggers and other precipitating factors of headache. Vacations, air travel, the beach, picnics, and partying are not always fun times – especially if you are laid low with a migraine or other headache. The National Headache Foundation offers these helpful tips on avoiding these summer spoilers:

1. The sun can be especially bothersome if you have migraine. Looking directly or indirectly at the sun can trigger a migraine attack. Don’t forget your shades – sunglasses, visors, or sun hat when you are out and enjoying the sunshine at the beach, tennis court, golf course, or a baseball game.

2. Changes in barometric pressure are well-known headache triggers. Watch out for those sudden thunderstorms and windy days – even in July.

3. Watch your fluids when you are at the beach or some other outdoor activity. Drinking plenty of water – not soda – will help prevent those “dehydration” headaches. You don’t want to drink too many soft drinks containing caffeine which can also contribute to your headaches.

4. Backyard barbecues and picnics may provide you with food items that you wouldn’t normally eat. The sauces and dry rubs on those tasty ribs may contain monosodium glutamate (MSG) to which many headache sufferers are sensitive. The spread at a picnic may include aged cheeses, hot dogs and other meats with nitrates, and pickles – all items found on headache diets. And let’s not forget the beer and cocktails served at those summer parties – watch your intake!!!

5. You’ve invited 50 friends to your July 4th celebration – and the stress is getting to you. Plan ahead and be organized – you don’t want to spend the day or the day after, in a dark, quiet room as you try to get rid of that migraine.

6. The joy of a long weekend or vacation can be quickly ruined by a headache. Try to stay on your normal sleep schedule. Oversleeping, not getting adequate sleep, or missing a meal can all contribute to a headache.

7. Everyone says “travel is no longer fun.” Traveling by plane is particularly stressful. Who can tolerate the airport inconveniences, the long delays, and the lack of food service on these flights? Purchasing a healthy snack and a bottle of water prior to boarding may help you avoid a travel headache. Try to avoid alcoholic beverages before and during your flight – those cocktails will dehydrate you. Also, the oxygen on planes, although the cabins are pressurized, is never at normal levels. If you are burdened by “altitude headaches,” your physician may offer some remedies to help prevent the headaches associated with air travel.

Hopefully, these recommendations will help you truly enjoy your summer and make the most of the great weather and sunshine.

Lake Martin Fishing Ups and Downs

Sometimes the old saying “If it wasn’t for bad luck I would not have any luck at all” seems to apply to my fishing trips. After looking forward all year to the three club tournament at Lake Martin a few years ago, the trip week before last certainly had its ups and downs.

When I got to Wind Creek State Park Wednesday afternoon I was lucky enough to get a campsite on the water. There were 500 FEMA trailers set up in the campground, leaving 120 sites for visitors. I got my boat in the water, set up my van for camping and went out riding around for a couple of hours. Back at the campsite I was scraping glue off a plug and my knife point slipped, sticking into my thumb deep enough to draw blood.

Thursday morning I got up and headed to a favorite spot to check it out. I hooked three bass on three casts and left, planning on starting at that spot in the tournament. Unfortunately, when I stopped across the river at another spot I heard a boat crank up at a dock near where I had left. They went straight to “my” spot and I watched them catching bass and putting them in their ice chest. I am not sure if they saw me catching fish, but for the next three days that boat was on that spot every time I went past.

I fished for a couple of hours and landed a good many bass, so I was pleased with the results. At noon I stopped on a spot I wanted to fish, put the trolling motor in the water and picked up a rod. The line on the rod I picked up caught the handle of another reel and flipped it into the lake.

I reacted rather than thinking and grabbed for the rod – and fell out of the boat. I remember still grabbing for the rod as I went under, then coming to the top and reaching for the boat. This was the first time I ever fell out of a boat in all my years in them.

I tried to hold the side of my boat but I was wearing jeans and tennis shoes, and as soon as I stopped paddling with my hands I started sinking. The boat sides were slick and I could not hold on. I started to panic, not knowing what to do. All the stories of fishermen drowning flashed through my mind.

Somehow I managed to get to the motor of the boat and pull myself in, using it as a ladder. Once in the boat I threw out a marker, what I should have done as soon as the rod went overboard. By now the boat had drifted so I realized my chances of snagging the rod were slim.

Then I remembered my sunglasses – my prescription bifocal sunglasses. My $300 glasses were on the bottom of the lake with my $200 rod and reel. That was quite a mistake! The rest of the day was uneventful and I was lucky to be alive.

Friday morning I went to a point and got seven bites real quick, so I had a good place to start. In other places I landed a lot of bass. One of them flipped as I tried to take it off the plug and drove a hook past the barb into my thumb. I finally got it off the plug and pulled the hook out with a pair of pliers.

Saturday morning I quickly landed my limit of small bass and headed up to the place I had lost my rod and glasses, hoping for one bite from a big bass. I got it at 2:30 PM, the fish slapped at a buzzbait and missed then sucked in a jig and pig. I fought the fish out of the tree it was in to clear water and it jumped. My heart jumped, too, the fish was a good six pound bass, just the one I wanted. Then my jig flew out of its mouth. I almost had another rod and reel at the bottom of the lake but I stopped myself from throwing it in.

Sunday morning the second bass I caught shook as I took it off the plug but I got it into the livewell. While fishing my hand slipped on the reel handle and I looked down to see blood everywhere. Something had ripped a hunk of meat out of my finger while I unhooked that fish.

I tried hard, but only caught five bass that day. At least nothing else got hurt and I made it home in one piece. Right now I have Band-Aids on three fingers and memories of the big one that got away, but I feel more safe sitting at my desk!

Javin English won the tournament with 13 bass weighing 17.04 pounds. Lee Hancodk had 10 bass weighing 15.49 for second, and his big one did not get away. It got big fish honors at 6.12 pounds. Tommy Reeves was third with 11 bass weighing 15.47, Billy Roberts was fourth with 12 weighing 14.83, I was fifth with 12 weighing 13.74 and Ronnie Gregory rounded out the top six with 12 at 13.14.

I am already looking forward to the trip to Martin next fall!

Gas Shortage Almost Ruins Fishing Trip

Boy did I ever pick a bad time to drive 3000 miles pulling my boat on a fishing trip in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit! I left on August 21 for a two week trip to northern Wisconsin with a swing through Iowa coming home, and arrived home this past Friday morning just after midnight. From news reports last Thursday I was worried about getting enough gas to get home but had no problems.

The 1200 miles from Griffin to Rhinelander, Wisconsin was uneventful, with gas prices running a little less in Tennessee than here and slightly higher in Illinois and Wisconsin. I arrived late Monday afternoon and was delighted to get up Tuesday morning and walk out into 45 degrees of cool, dry air. It felt wonderful.

The fishing was great and we even caught a few. The first day I landed two smallmouth about three pounds each and netted a 36 inch muskie for my partner. We also had a bunch of northern pike and some bass shorter than the 14 inch minimum size limit. The next day I caught a smallmouth and a largemouth over the size limit and a bunch of smaller fish. That day I netted a 35 inch muskie for a different partner.

I had gone up to fish a bass tournament we hold each fall. Called the North Woods Classic, it is open to everyone who visits the bass fishing newsgroup during the year. Folks from all over the eastern US come to it, and this year I was the one traveling the most miles to get there.

The two day tournament was very disappointing. I landed only one keeper and came in 5th place with a 2.5 pound largemouth, the only largemouth weighed in. The winner had six keepers in two days but second place was only three keeper bass.

Last Sunday I left Rhinelander and drove to Des Moines, Iowa to visit a friend there. I was pleasantly surprised to find ethanol gas in Iowa for $2.45 a gallon, the cheapest price so far on the trip.

The first day in Iowa we fished a 900 acre lake and caught 50 or 60 bass each. Unfortunately, only three of them were over 12 inches long! The shoreline grass was full of little bass and they hit on almost every cast. Fun, but we wanted bigger fish.

The next day we fished a 300 acre lake and I quickly caught a 4 pound bass and three more over the 15 inch size limit there. Then we started catching crappie on almost every cast with a small jig, landing dozens but they we all small. My final day on the water there we fished another 900 acre lake and caught 14 bass, the biggest one my friend caught weighing 4.5 pounds.

That was Wednesday morning and I was hearing rumors about gas shortages. By the time we got back to town that afternoon gas had gone from $2.45 to $2.89 for ethanol so I filled up. Driving 1000 miles in 17 hours on Thursday I never had a problem getting gas, and the cheapest I found was near Dalton, Georgia at $3.09. At least I got home.

I had great fun fishing with friends I see only a couple of times a year even if we did not catch huge numbers of fish. I am already planning next year’s trip.

Clarks Hill Fishing Memories

On an April weekend members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club were fishing our April tournament at Clarks Hill. This is something of a tradition, we fish it almost every April and have missed very few years since I joined the club.

It is almost unbelievable to me that this is the 40th anniversary for me in the club. Jim berry and I fished the Sportsman Club April tournament at Clarks Hill in 1974. That was the first tournament I ever fished and I have been in the club every year since then and have missed very few club tournaments.

In 1975 I was elected Secretary/Treasurer of the club and have held that office most of the years since then. The first bulletin I sent out in 1975 had Vol. 11, no.1 at the top and I have kept that running since then. The April bulletin this year was Vol 50, No. 4. I assumed that meant the club had been in existence for l0 years when I joined but now think it was just the bulletin that has been around since 1964. I have been told the club started in the 1950s.

Gary Hattaway was in the club when I joined and is still in it, although he was not a member for a few years when he lived in Alabama. So, I am the only member left that has been in the club every year, and Gary is the only one left that was around way back then. I have made some great friends through the club but far too many of them are no longer around.

I moved to Griffin in 1972 and lived at Grandview Apartments while teaching at Atkinson Elementary. Each morning I drove College Street to 6th, turned right and went out to where it ends at Hill Street, then on to Atkinson. I reversed that in the afternoons which meant every afternoon I passed by Berry’s Sporting Goods that was located on 6th Street for many years.

Few afternoons passed that I didn’t stop and spend way too much of my princely teacher’s annual salary of $5600.00. But I got to be friends with Jim and we started fishing together some. He and Emmett Piland took me to the Flint River wading the first time, and we fished many local ponds, too.

In March, 1974 I bought my first bass boat and joined the Sportsman Club the next month. It was a big club back then, with about 75 members, and at the tournament we had 44 fishermen, many more than now. The Sportsman Club had just started fishing bass tournaments a few years before I joined and the club tournament rules still reflect that early start, with few rules and restrictions that most tournament have.

Back then there were two divisions in the club and newer fishermen went into “B” division since they were based on points from previous tournaments. We were more relaxed, with camping and fish fries more important than the actual tournament. There was a card game by the campfire most nights and we had a great time. I still do have a great time at tournaments, but it is a little more intense.

In that first tournament I just knew I would do well since I grew up on Clarks Hill and expected to catch a lot of fish. But that tournament taught me how different tournament fishing can be. Jim and I caught six keepers each day, far short of the ten fish limit back then. But many in the club had limits both days and I was surprised at the size of fish brought in.

That taught me real fast that someone would catch bass no matter what the conditions, and they could catch bigger bass than I thought possible. In that tournament Jim Goss had a bass weighing over six pounds and several five pounders were weighed in. My l2 in two days weighed about 14 pounds! But I still finished third in my division, but my catch would have been 15th in the other division.

Tackle, electronics, boats and expenses have come a long way in 40 years. My first boat was a 16 foot Arrowglass with a 70 horsepower Evenrude motor. And it was pretty top of the line, there was only one boat in the club with a bigger motor. My last boat costs over $30,000 used and the electronics I have on it cost more than my first boat!

I fished back then with two Mitchell 300 spinning reels, presents from my parents when I was 17, and an Ambassadeur 6000 casting reel, a present for my 21st birthday from Linda. Now I have 15 to 18 rods and reels on my deck in a tournament, with at least ten more in the rod locker. Line is much better as are plugs and plastic baits. And trolling motors and batteries are much stronger and last longer.

The biggest change is knowledge of what the bass do. Back then we pretty much fished shoreline cover and that still works, especially in April, but many bigger fish are caught from offshore structure like humps, and are caught much deeper than we used to think they lived.

Even with all the changes I still love it and it is great fun.

Misinformation About Guns

The all out assault on guns, gun owners and the 2nd Amendment continues at an unbelievable pace. One of the main reasons it is almost impossible to have a rational discussion on guns and what needs to be done to actually make a difference in violence is this concentration on guns as the problem, and the misinformation and outright lies pushed constantly.

Assault weapon is a term you hear all the time. What is an assault weapon? I guess anything used to assault anyone, from pencils to a piece of rope can be called an assault weapon. The true definition of an assault weapon is an automatic weapon that will fire steadily with one pull of the trigger, or fire in three round bursts. All those guns are already tightly regulated and almost impossible for citizens to purchase or own.

The liberal media and gun ban groups seem to classify any semiautomatic gun as an assault weapon, since they usually say “military style assault weapons.” They usually mean a gun that looks ugly and holds more than ten rounds. That can include anything from my Remington .22 to the now famous Bushmaster AR 15. To ban “assault weapons” can mean ban any gun you don’t like.

High capacity clips are one of the biggest evils if you listen to the media. But many guns hold more than ten rounds. And even if bigger clips are banned, you can change clips in seconds, with little difference in the number of bullets you can shoot quickly between a smaller clip and a bigger one.
The National Rifle Association is demonized daily. The NRA is a gun rights organization that supports hunting and shooting. They also have many training segments, with over 1100 certified police officer trainers. The NRA offers safety training programs for schools and other groups, and insists on safe and legal use of guns.

The NRA has 4.3 million members. Yet the media claim they are a shill group for gun manufacturers and sellers because those businesses support them. Any group that supports an activity will be supported by businesses that sell to those kind of activities. The bass tournament trails are supported by fishing equipment manufacturers but they are certainly not shills for them, any more than the NRA is a shill for gun businesses.

More than 100,000 people have joined the NRA in the past six weeks. The biggest gun ban organization, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, has 28,000 members. That alone should tell you who citizens support, regardless of the claims by the media and gun ban organizations.

Cop killer bullets and hollow point bullets are another evil that gun ban organizations claim only the military need. But the military uses full metal jacketed bullets. Hollow point bullets and soft tip bullets are used for hunting. In fact, bullets that expand are required for big game hunting. So banning them bans hunting bullets. And cop killer bullets are usually defined as any bullet that will penetrate a bullet proof vest, which means any high power rifle bullet suitable for deer and other big game hunting.

Big bullets is a term many gun banners use to define the .223 round used in the Bushmaster and many other rifles. But the .223 is almost the smallest center fire bullet available, and just barely legal for deer hunting. My old 30-30 fires a round almost half again as big around as the .223, and is more powerful since it has more powder. All higher caliber big game rifles fire a much bigger and more powerful bullet.

You will hear about the number of kids killed by guns each year, but the huge majority of those are 18 to 21 year olds, not young kids, and many of them are gang bangers that shoot each other with illegal guns. Any kid killed is a tragedy but no gun ban or bullet ban will affect the number.

The misinformation goes on and on and only leads people like me to work harder to stop misguided laws that only affect law-abiding citizens like me.

Why Do So Many Hate Gun Owners Like Me?

Hate is an ugly thing. I have never hated anyone so much I wanted to kill them. But many seem to hate me so much they want to kill me, simply because I am a member of the National Rifle Association and support the 2nd Amendment.

Gun ban fanatics have come unhinged in the past month or so, with many calling for the murder of NRA leaders and members. A Texas state democrat party official, John Cobarruvias, labeled the NRA a “domestic terrorist organization” and called for the killing of NRA leaders and supporters with the twit ”can we now shoot the NRA and everyone who defends them?” That includes me.

Author Joyce Carol Oats twited “Another NRA sponsored massacre.” She accused politicians supporting the NRA of “felony homicide” and asked “If sizable numbers of NRA members become gun victims themselves, maybe hope for legislation of firearms?” Sounds like she wants me shot. In response, actress Marg Helgenberger twited “One can only hope, but sadly I don’t think anything would change.” So she hopes I will be shot?

A talking head on a big “news” cable channel has become so livid and anti gun he has had a petition sent to the White House asking he be deported back to his native England. He comes to the US, calls gun owners like me idiots, and demands we change our laws to suit him, and he is not even a citizen of our country. And he hires armed bodyguards. But such stupid behavior is expected of him, he was fired from his job as a judge on one of those competition shows on TV. He was so abrasive on that show he was fired.

Examples of such hate speech go on and on. From politicians and actors, it seems many hate me. There is even one silly ad running on TV that shows a bunch of actors demanding we get rid of guns. Strange thing, as a funny response shows, most of them make millions each year on very violent movies, showing them using guns to kill people. And all of them have armed guards. They want to be protected but demand laws that remove self protection from the little people like me.

The claims about guns have ranged from the stupid to outright lies. I don’t know whether the commentators are too dumb to find out facts or are lying on purpose. For example, all semiautomatic guns are called “assault weapons.” Their definition includes the Remington .22 I was given for Christmas when I was 12 years old since it is a semiautomatic and holds more than ten rounds. I have killed many squirrels with that gun and still shoot it at targets and varmints. But they want it banned.

It is a given liberal newspapers like the New York Times and the Atlanta Constitution are going to demand guns be banned. But an editorial in the Griffin Daily News by Gene Lyons caught my eye. He claims we “need” only some guns and justifies banning all weapons that are similar to military guns. His justification? He says the 2nd Amendment calls for a well regulated militia and that is the reason citizens gun rights “shall not be infringed,” then says citizens don’t need military styled weapons since they serve no legitimate civilian uses.”

OK, so the 2nd Amendment says citizens need to have guns since we are the militia, a military group, but he says we don’t need military style guns. Strange.
In another editorial in the Griffin Daily News, Cokie and Steve Roberts call for gun bans and claim police know the need for banning guns. But they quote big city police chiefs, politicians rather than real police, in their opinion piece. They include a call for banning guns by the Chicago police Superintendent. Interesting. Chicago has the highest murder rate of any place in the US and the strongest gun laws. That proves gun laws don‘t work, but this guy calls for more. I guess that is a lot easier than facing the real problems in his city.

None of the local police I have talked with think gun control laws work and many police nationwide are members of the NRA, supporting gun rights. I guess they don‘t count, although they are the ones facing the problem, not sitting in some big office telling others how to solve our problems.

You will see claims that no one is calling for banning all guns, just the ugly ones. Yet Bob Beckel, a talking head on TV and a democrat party operative, is honest. He is calling for banning the manufacture and sale of new handguns, and the confiscation of all existing handguns.

The governor of New York has admitted he wants to ban some kinds of guns and confiscate all similar guns that were bought legally by citizens in the US. So he wants the government to confiscate my private property that I purchased legally.

I wish I had a solution. The head of the NRA called for armed guards in schools and was condemned for it, especially by democrats that supported the same idea when Bill Clinton called for hiring 1000 new police officers and putting many of them in schools.

Many hate guns and NRA members so much they are not rational. Don’t take what I say, or what they say, as truth. Check it out! Find out facts before making up your mind.