AND extensive background check...

If you really want to read an in-depth analysis of the 2nd Amendment, try this: guncitedotcom/journals/reycrit.html (Change "dot" to ".")

It's titled "A CRITICAL GUIDE TO THE SECOND AMENDMENT"

too much arm chair anecdotal story telling here. The first hand experience/knowledge is easy to spot!

Yes, the sound of a shotgun racking a shell is thought provoking to say the least.

I have been in The Villages 5 years and there has NOT been a home invasion that I can think of. There have been some homes burgeled when no one was home, a few sneak thieves under doubtful circumstances, and a couple of domestic shootings.

In other words, nothing that required a pump shotgun, rifle, or pistol to be used in self defense.

Remember, also, those folks who have the rifle, shotgun, or pistol ready for use would most likely have them stolen in a burglary occuring when they are out of the house.

Actually there were 2 homes burgled during the night when the occupants were sleeping - just last year in a village south of 466.

I only heard of one - and it sounded very strange as the burglar supposedly cut the screen to a lanai door and two small dogs did not make any noise? Very suspicious sounding.

Anyhow, still there was no need for self defense.

For GA, I believe $75, a clean record, and no history of mental illness is all that is required for a concealed carry permit.

In 1979 in Marietta, the sheriff requested that I take a gun safety course despite having just moved from MA with a carry permit. I still have the GA permit - it has my thumbprint on it rather than a photo.

I am glad that there are fine people like DBussone who own and know how to shoot a gun and who have said they would protect us non gun owners. I am glad we have the choice. I am glad I live here and in the course of living here have changed my mind about some important issues...and still may continue to change my mind.

Today is NOT tomorrow...........yet.

Geez how time has changed, When I was ten yrs old after we lost my Father, My Mother
bough me a 12 gauge mossberg shot gun from Sears cost 29 dollars, I use to carry it on my shoulder through the streets, past schools up the mountain to hunt, nobody I mean nobody though anything was wrong,
Can you imagine if that was today, I probably would be taken away from her.
Where the heck are we headed ?

In the wrong direction.

We have been headed there for the last 20 years. With all the graphic detailed killing and violence toward man continuously in the movies and on television.
Before that time some things were left to the imagination. Then it was all out blood and guts and dismembering, slaughtering folks with guns and what ever else. The rotten foul language. The drug culture glorified by the same presenters.

Kids exposed to this from infancy and with the age of television no further than their living room.

The message? It is OK to kill and maim and murder and rape. Day after day.

The selective enforcement of our laws demonstrating that one can actually get away with murder, rape, grand larceny depending who you are.

Add to all the above the sports greats who do the dirty nasty drugs and beatings. Add to that the lawmakers in local and federal positions doing the same thing.

There IS NO mystery how we devolved into a violent, permissive anything society.

How does one prove lacking a history of mental illness?

Not that I need another gun...:ho:

With all this talk about rifles, how about a picture. I wanted something like I carried in the Army, which was a M-16. A couple of years ago I bought a Smith & Wesson MP 15-22, it shoots 22 LR via a 25 round magazine. It's semi-automatic, very smooth operation and light. I've added the scope and tripod, upgraded the stock, added the sling, upgraded the grip. Here it is.

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/58...0/823/bkkd.jpg

Typically the best a state can do is check with its own mental health institutions to see if an individual has been under treatment at any time. There is no federal database that can be searched. Guess why - no not the NRA lobby - the states themselves refuse to provide the data. Go figure? Even states like MA. And quite honestly I'm glad they won't. Mental health patients face enough obstacles as it is without having their personal data hacked off another federal site. But I digress.