New guy (er.. sorta) saying "Hi"

[LeoC]

Hi everybody,
I'm actually not new to THR, former username "kage genin"... but I never did say "Hi" so I figure better late than never?

I'm a native of Southern California, born and raised... BA degree from UC Berkeley (yes.. the liberal hippie communist school) and somehow emerged with an interest in firearms and the right to keep and bear arms

I'm currently living in Mainland China, capitol city of Beijing (guess Berkeley wasn't enough of a test for me). Corny as it sounds, I'm here because I fell in love and married a gal I met here some 3 years ago. We're waiting for her visa to immigrate to the US is approved. She's very excited about the prospect of learning to shoot I'm looking forward to getting her exposed to life in a country where everything you see/hear/read isn't controlled by a Ministry of ____

 

[El Tejon]

Welcome to THR (again).

Does the PLA still rent weapons to shoot? Bring us back some AK training posters in hanzi.

 

[LeoC]

Er, sorta... You can visit the Norinco factory about 4 hours north of Beijing (haven't been there myself), pay money, and shoot AKs. I don't know if they are select-fire or semiauto, but I do know that they are chained to the bench and a range officer loads the magazines, chambers, switches off the safety for you (in other words, you aren't trusted to do anything other than point in and press the trigger). If you have special connections or a large group, you can shoot some machineguns and even an RPG! I sure don't have those special connections though

A few weeks of military 'training' is required for all university students here, but it's really just a few weeks of brainwashing instituted after the Tiananmen Square massacre to get throughts of Democracy out of their heads. However, it seems that for MALES, the training actually involves shooting rifles. My wife reports no such training for her, but her younger brother was taught to shoot a rifle. Not sure to what degree these young men are trained, though.

Haven't seen any AK training posters, unfortunately, but if I do you betcha wontons I'm bringing some back with me!

 

[Can'thavenuthingood]

I remember you from awhile back.
Welcome back.

So you are on the mainland yet you have access to THR? How is that?

I was under the impression that all this stuff was censored from the masses. Especially a free thinking site like this.

How long before you and the Mrs. set foot on American soil?

Vick

 

[Rickstir]

Don't forget to avoid your homeland (CA) when you get back. They don't like the 2nd amendment remember.

 

[LeoC]

So you are on the mainland yet you have access to THR? How is that?

I was under the impression that all this stuff was censored from the masses. Especially a free thinking site like this.

How long before you and the Mrs. set foot on American soil?

Yeah, I'm kinda surprised I can get THR too. I figure it must not be frequented by many Chinese net surfers, and it doesn't have 'dangerous' words like "democracy", "tibet", or "taiwan" placed all over. I can get every other gun board I've tried as well (SIGforum, Calguns, warrifles, etc) so it maybe that the internet censors dont' bother much with gun-related sites. It's not like there's much of a gun-owning community here

The Mrs.'s application has been approved, we're just waiting for her case to arrive at the local US Consulate here in Beijing, then she'll get contacted for an interview. We're estimating another 3-4 months. Sure hope it's sooner!

Rickstr, A goal of mine is to get a place in NV when I can afford it. Yeah I'm not thrilled about CA's ridiculous gun laws, but it's a lot better than China!