I guess you could say I’m a rifle guy. But today I drew a line in the sand.
Let me start this story by explaining that I’m a recreational marksman...and have been for more than half a century now. I’m also a rancher, and as such I occasionally need to use a rifle as a farm tool, to control the predator populations that always threaten my stock. I appreciate the history of firearms, admire the gunsmith’s art, and am very knowledgeable about both. I’m also a total gun safety freak, as the principles of safety were drilled into me at a very young age and were later powerfully reinforced by my stretch as an EMT, dealing with way too many gunshot wounds and way too much innocent blood, the horror of which will stay with me for life.
I own four guns, including two antiques. One is a classic Winchester Model 63, a .22 caliber semi-auto rifle with an internal magazine, mounted with an equally classic Weaver 4x scope. It’s the gun I first learned to shoot with, at the tender age of 10 years, out in the farm fields of Ohio helping local corn farmers chase off murders of ravenous crows. To me, this rifle represents the high water mark of the gunsmithing art, with its lovely mahogany ‘furniture’ (what one calls the wooden components such as the buttstock and the foregrip) and its beautifully proportioned lines. Through the years I’ve grown quite used to having strangers offer me wads of cash for it when I pull it out of its case at a rifle range or a gunsmith’s shop...they don’t make guns like that anymore, and this one remains in mint condition after 60 years of service, so it’s worth a pretty penny (despite the fact that the Winnie 63 is notorious for jamming and breaking its firing pin).
My other antique is an equally classic Winchester 1894, a lever-action .30-30 (of The Rifleman fame) with an internal magazine and an iron peep sight — the only American rifle manufactured continuously across three different centuries. It has long been my ‘farm gun’ for predator control, but both it and I are now showing signs of age (its old furniture is starting to crack, and my old eyes can no longer focus on its front sight), so I’ve retired it in favor of a modern AR-15 style carbine with a red-dot sight that’s easy on my old eyes and a mechanical design that laughs at rain and dirt...important considerations for a farm gun.
Anyway, on to that whole “drawing a line in the sand” thing. Shooting accurately is hard, and losing that skill through disuse is easy, so I keep a small firing range on our farm. But safety considerations limit that range to just 50 meters from firing line to targets, whereas I much prefer to practice at 100 to 200 meters — a distance at which firing accurately is really hard, thus making for good practice. So I’ve long been very interested in joining the local rifle club hereabouts, North Carolina’s Durham Pistol and Rifle Club, with its fantastic facilities and excellent ranges. Unfortunately, it’s such a fine facility that there’s a long waiting list for club membership, and I have been patiently waiting my turn on that list for three years now.
Then, just today, the good news finally arrived in my inbox:
Your name has come up on the membership waiting list and you are invited to attend an Orientation Class for membership. This is a required class for all new members.
Items that are required on the day of the class to successfully process your membership:
1. NC Driver's License.
2. Current NRA membership card with membership number. You must be an NRA member to join DPRC. If you are not an NRA member, join today.
3. NICS background check via original copy of NC Sheriff's Dept. Pistol Permit OR a NC Conceal Carry Handgun Permit.
4. A handgun from .22 caliber through 44/45 with 50 rounds of ammunition. You should leave your handgun and ammo in your vehicle until the live fire exercise.
5. Hearing and eye protection for the range tour and live fire exercise.
Wait...what? I have to be a member of the ghoulish National Rifle Association to join your freaking club? No. Fucking. Way.
So I’ve just now sent the following reply to the club’s president:
Dear Mr. [redacted],Thanks for the invitation to join the Durham Pistol and Rifle Club.As a lifelong recreational marksman I would certainly enjoy becoming a member. But the club's needless and unacceptable requirement that I must be a member of the National Rifle Association is a non-starter for me. I'm really not interested in joining Murder, Inc.Shame on y'all.