SKS on Independence day - Am I a traitor?

[monotonous_iterancy]

Tonight has been permeated with the echos and booms of fireworks. I decided to top their noise and at the same time do something I've always wanted to do - fire a gun at night time and watch the muzzle flash.

I felt that a semi-auto would be suitable, but the only semi-rifle I have with muscle is an SKS. So I took it, loaded 10 rounds, and put a flashlight on the ground to illuminate my target (a dirt pile) after checking behind and around it.

Needless to say, it was thrilling. The report of the gun coupled with the rise and fall of the muzzle flash was stunning. Especially when one of my rounds apparently hit a rock or something and sparks flew. I couldn't really use the sights precisely in the dim light, but I had a general idea of where I was firing. Like I said, awesome.

But is it wrong of me to use a "commie" gun to celebrate Independence day, especially considering it was the same kind that was used against us in Vietnam? I guess one could argue that in my American hands, any firearm is a symbol of freedom. But still...

 

[Johannes_Paulsen]

You're not a traitor, but you don't get any Patriot points, either. It's a wash.

At least it wasn't a Glock. [rimshot]

 

[Mauser lover]

No, you were being a good capitalist!

 

[Trent]

Nah, in fact, the victory of our free market consumer oriented greedy economy over the Soviet socialist machine in the cold war, means shooting an old commie gun on our Independence day is akin to doing a victory lap at the Indianapolis 500.

For me, this year it was a good Steyr.

 

[Ignition Override]

monotonous it.: It's not even a factor. No sweat. It could be ironic with the Enfields, which were manufactured in England.
The vast majority of the #4s with either four or five-groove rifling were built there.

Almost every #4 Longbranch (LB) and Savage (S) has a two-groove bore, and these were built in North America.
The #5 "Jungles" were manufactured in England.
Of course we invaded Them, when southeastern England was used as a type of aircraft carrier for the Eighth Air Force in WW2.

Keep in mind that our first US government was only One vote from choosing German as the official language (Pennsylvania 'Dutch'/deutsch).
monotonous it.: Your question could have been "Bin ich ein Verrater?" (Can't do Umlauts .. ).

 

[Hondo 60]

Nein, er ist kein Verräter

(no, he is not a traitor)

 

[mnrivrat]

The traitors are the ones that are trying to take that commie gun from you.

Happy 4th !!

 

[230RN]

A boomstick by any other name is still a boomstick.

For us non-nerds who just want to add some symbol or special character, you can try this approach.

Whenever I needed an odd character without using the HTML coding for it, I'd run it through a search engine such as Google and then copy and paste it to my message.

For example, I ran "umlauted a" in my favorite search engine (info.com) and there were innumerable hits from which I could copy the characters Ä and ä and I then pasted them into this message as shown in this very sentence.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ä

OK?

As another example, if I wanted to use the degree symbol, I would "search-engine" the phrase "degree symbol" and I'd get:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_symbol

from which I'd copy and paste it to my message, as in "It is now 63° Fahrenheit here in Golden, Co." (This works in most systems including your e-mail and in formal letters composed in most text editors, etc. Some older versions of Notepad don't pick up on a few of the symbols, but what the hey.)

In fact, that particular "hit" above for "degree symbol" gives a whole bunch of typographical symbols you can "steal" in the right-hand sidebar:

General typography

ampersand ( & )
asterisk ( * )
at sign ( @ )
backslash ( \ )
bullet ( • )
caret ( ^ )
dagger ( †, ‡ )
degree ( ° )
ditto mark ( ″ )
inverted exclamation mark ( ¡ )
inverted question mark ( ¿ )
number sign / pound / hash ( # )
numero sign ( № )
obelus ( ÷ )
ordinal indicator ( º, ª )
percent, per mil ( %, ‰ )
plus and minus ( + − )
basis point ( ‱ )
pilcrow ( ¶ )
prime ( ′, ″, ‴ )
section sign ( § )
tilde ( ~ )
underscore / understrike ( _ )
vertical bar / broken bar / pipe

After a while of doing this, I got a sudden rush of brains to the head and just copied the whole damned list and saved it with a shortcut to the list on my desktop so I could just bring it up and select the one character I needed and copy it to my timeless pronouncements without googling around for it.

¿Get it? Even works for a lot of math symbols, like √ , should the need arise.

Terry, 230RN

 

[PabloJ]

I don't see any problems as long as you know when the bullets end up. Pretty much everything people wear plus some of what they eat comes from Red China (same as China or PRC not to be confused with People's Republic of California) or some developing country and the origin or the gun suddenly matters.......to me many people make zero sense. The only American firearm I own is 12ga Ithaca 37 made in 1986.

 

[22250Rem]

mnrivrat nailed it: " The traitors are the ones that are trying to take that commie gun from you.".................My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't have any problem with my SKS on independence day...Or with my Glock..... Or even with my Remington, Rugers, Winchester or Smith & Wesson.

 

[Torian]

Tonight has been permeated with the echos and booms of fireworks. I decided to top their noise and at the same time do something I've always wanted to do - fire a gun at night time and watch the muzzle flash.

I felt that a semi-auto would be suitable, but the only semi-rifle I have with muscle is an SKS. So I took it, loaded 10 rounds, and put a flashlight on the ground to illuminate my target (a dirt pile) after checking behind and around it.

Needless to say, it was thrilling. The report of the gun coupled with the rise and fall of the muzzle flash was stunning. Especially when one of my rounds apparently hit a rock or something and sparks flew. I couldn't really use the sights precisely in the dim light, but I had a general idea of where I was firing. Like I said, awesome.

But is it wrong of me to use a "commie" gun to celebrate Independence day, especially considering it was the same kind that was used against us in Vietnam? I guess one could argue that in my American hands, any firearm is a symbol of freedom. But still...

You are a closet commie...but we forgive you

 

[baz]

One of the most genuine Revolutionary War firearms you could have would be a French musket. Or from the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. The Patriots got their arms however they could. Arms have always been international. But only in the US has their political significance as instruments of liberty been constitutionally recognized. It doesn't matter where the firearm came from. It matters only how it is used.

 

[herkyguy]

I shot my Ruger GP100 yesterday. I was feeling so patriotic, i shot an entire box of 38 Special 158 gr lead round nose.....

in these troubled times, that's a lot of doggone ammo.

 

[we are not amused]

baz has it right! I was at the lake almost all day yesterday, and so didn't partake of any range time, darn it!
But if I had, I probably would have split my time between my SKS and mini-14, with a little CZ-52 action thrown in.

 

[Shadow 7D]

America has always been the land of immigrants....

 

[critter]

I went to our hunting camp to fire off a few in honor of July 4th. My choice? A 1911 in .45 (what else!) AND an M1.

 

[itsa pain]

this country was never against communism despite tons of bull saying otherwise. we sent walter duranty over to Russia to whitewash the starving of tens of millions. we fought WW11 to save the communists from Hitler giving them half of europe and would not help chaing hai chek and supported mao tse tung in taking over china.

 

[40-82]

If I owned an SKS, I would like to imagine that it came into this country because some enterprising GI traded its original owner a round of issue ball ammuntion for the commie rifle--which is an example of the free market system at its finest and highest. Enjoy your rifle.

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

If I owned an SKS, I would like to imagine that it came into this country because some enterprising GI traded its original owner a round of issue ball ammuntion for the commie rifle--which is an example of the free market system at its finest and highest. Enjoy your rifle.

Not mine, it has import marks, which means it wasn't a bring-back.

 

[caribou]

Guns have been imported here before it was a Country. French Muskets helped win our Independence, I think all that matter is that you DO have a gun, ammo, training and the will to use it properly.

Own a gun from any country, be a Citizen of this country.......totally Cool with me.

 

[TRX]

The Cold War is over.

I'm a private citizen of the United States, and my gun cabinets are stuffed full of military weapons made by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, its satellites, and its allies.

What could be more patriotic than taking some Commie iron to the range? Those guns were made by declared enemies of the United States, and those enemies are now so thoroughly defeated they sold off their small arms to the US civilian shooter market. Which absorbed millions of them, and tons of ammunition, without a burp.

"All your guns are belong to US..."

 

[CPLofMARINES]

Happy Independence Day: I think our Fore Fathers may
Have used a few British muskets in their quest for freedom.

 

[rduchateau2954]

Lol I was tempted to shoot a .22 in the backyard last night just because I knew I would get a away with it. I have the perfect berm behind the house and a 40' tall abandoned railroad track 400 yards beyond that. I chickened out and just made a few sparkler.... uh.... "devices" instead.

 

[230RN]

What could be more patriotic than taking some Commie iron to the range? Those guns were made by declared enemies of the United States, and those enemies are now so thoroughly defeated they sold off their small arms to the US civilian shooter market. Which absorbed millions of them, and tons of ammunition, without a burp.

TRX, that was damned downright inspiring!

Here we are, practically the only large civilian market for surplus individual weapons in the world!



I sure as heck hope we can keep it that way!

Terry

 

[Aaron1100us]

Too bad I live in town Wanted to shoot my Dragunov and see the fireball at night. I did however go to the range that morning with a smith&wesson m&p 15-22 and my SLR-101S.


I don't think it matters where they came from. Whats important is that you have them and shoot them.

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