One last thing. The CDC issued a statement today stating that colds, flu, and other upper respiratory illnesses are on the rise because of the mask mandates and people social distancing. for the last two years. Those measures weakened our immune systems. In other news, we learn that ALL grass, even Poa pratensis (Kentucky Blue Grass) is green! That’s all the news worth mentioning. I’m Benn Dunn, and YOU are someone else! (And someone please tell that idiot Ben Dunnigan that he is NOT my son!)
C.: Well, the news is over, so d.c. should answer the phone now. He has been working off shift with the “Crew of Cripples,” so he may need cheering up. I will tell him some dog jokes. (Ring)
d.: Hello? Cal.E. is that you?
C.: Yes, it is me, Cal.E., the last of the talking cats. (Almost. I talked to a sniper this morning. Boy, is HE expensive. One would think that a ten-pound tom cat would not be worth THAT much money to kill. Tom is still SO dead, though.)
d.: What was that, Cal.E.? Were you still obsessing about your ex-husband?
C.: (I am glad the d.c. does not hear well) I was just going to tell you some jokes to cheer you up, d.c. Why can’t you teach an old dog new tricks?
d.: IDK, Cal.E., why?
C.: Because he’s STOOPID, like every other dog ever born! Why does the dog wear RED suspenders?
d.: ??
C.: Because his mom dresses him funny (and he is ugly AND stupid, too).
d.: I think you should just stick with you regular job, Cal.E. I do not see stand-up comedy in your future.
C.: That killed at the alley last night. Go figure. Anyway, I DID want to talk to you about something more serious. What do you think about the situation in Buffalo?
d.: I need to preface my answer, Cal.E. I grew up in the back woods of Mississippi. By the time he was eight (if not six) every little boy I knew owned a shotgun and a rifle. I am an advocate for the second amendment, but even I don’t think that just anyone should be able to purchase a gun.
Everyone is not entitled to a driver’s license, just because he or she turned sixteen. One must learn how to drive first. I have told my sons several times that I believe that there should be a separate license for driving in the city of Houston. It is not easy to do.
I REALLY don’t think that any private citizen should be able to buy an assault rifle (or a sub machine gun). The same is true of body armor. Why would anyone, beside military personnel and police officers need a Kevlar vest?
When I was in practice, I could hit the exact spot I was aiming at from seventy-five yards with a .30 caliber rifle shooting from my shoulder. From a rest, I could blow the “O” out of a coke can at the same distance. From a perch, I could hit a bull’s eye at 250 yards. That was with a “regular” rifle. I have friends who could hit a bull's eye from twice as far as I could if they used a .270 or a nine millimeter. There was less drop in the lighter cartridge, but it was just as powerful as a .30 cal. NO one needs an assault rifle to hunt with, much less body armor.
Hunting, to me, is not a sport anymore, anyway. People set up cameras and feed the animals at the same time each day from an automatic feeder. The hunter knows when each animal will come before he even climbs into his stand, which give him or her another advantage. Almost anyone should be able to make a shot of less than one-hundred yards from a perch with some practice. Using an assault rifle gives the hunter an unfair advantage, I feel.
As a teenager, my father and I scouted both his and my grandmother’s properties for weeks before the season started, establishing patterns and looking for signs if we did not see any deer. Additionally, when we felt we had enough meat to last until the next season, we stopped shooting anything that would not register on the Boone and Crocket scale. We reasoned if we DID kill one of those bucks, we could give the meat away. It would have been tough, anyway.
That young man did buy his gun and ammunition legally, but I do not feel that he was adequately screened. Anyone who targets a certain group of people to kill because of the color of his or her skin, or because s/he has religious beliefs that do not agree with that person’s own is mentally unstable, in my opinion. I do have some experience with people like him, having worked in the human kennel for close to ten years.
World War II was started by an insane individual who saw getting rid of one race of people as a Biblical edict. THAT should speak to Adolph Hitler’s mental state. Sadly, there are still people who believe that he was justified in his actions. Those people, I believe, are also mentally unstable. I think this young man was one of those people.
The Buffalo shooter was, in my opinion, mentally unstable. That does not mean, though, that he should not be punished for killing ten people. He should be charged with a hate crime and tried in a federal court, where the death penalty is allowed, unlike the state of New York. That is just my opinion, Cal.E., but you DID ask for it!
C.: I did, and I am glad that I did. This has been Cal.E. Kat, with d.c. scot, with another addition of Cal.E.’s Corner.
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