Tuesday, January 29, 2008

We're ALL Geeks

Most, not all. There are quite a few exceptions. Some glorious ones.

But we are all geeks, us Gun Enthusiasts. There are of gun owners out there that devote less thought time and energy to the subject of firearms. These are not Enthusiasts. These are not Gun Geeks, but they may be geeks in some other endeavor.

Many of us are ugly, pudgy, middle-aged males. Myself included. There are exception (yes, the glorious ones in some cases, but also the lucky bastages that are ugly, middle-aged, but naturally skinny. Bastages.) If our hobby was running down gazelles with only a short spear we'd be in better shape. But it's shooting and reading and learning about guns, and writing about same. Guns-smithing and reloading are also pretty sedentary. And we are middle aged, generally, because when we were younger, we may have had the same aspirations of interest, but were a bit poorer. Bravo to the younger Geek that can afford or prioritize to afford the hobby.

Few of us have been tested in the Crucible, where life and death hung in the balance of our decisions. A goodly number of us have military experience, but that doesn't mean we've been tested. Most of us have THOUGHT about what we'd do if put in that position, and the honest and unfoolish among us still aren't sure, and know we have to regularly mentally reinforce our intended reactions.

ALL of us shoot, but wish we could shoot and practice much more. There are very few "Collectors" geeks in this hobby that aren't also "User" geeks. Few own a bunch of guns that they'd never shoot for fear of ruining their value, and ONLY own such un-shootable guns.

Most all of us have more gun esoteria we either know and is factual, or we THINK we KNOW and is FACK-CHOO-ALL, than we'll ever really need. But it's fun to think about anyway. Damn useless fun information rattling around in my head. And it pushed out OTHER stuff I knew. Like the piano lessons when I 5. And I used to know the year Henry VIII died. Don't know more. Stuff about Colt Pocket Hammerless in the spot that year used to be. Dang.

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