At 11:26 AM 11/25/01 +0800, Bjorn Vang Jensen wrote:

>Next, arms are worthless unless you know how to use them. It has never been
>my impression that the majority of guns sold in the US goes into the hands
>of people who are prepared to take the time to learn how to use them and how
>not to use them, how to handle them and how not to. I have scary examples of
>that in my family in-law. I'd sure hate to see a militia formed by people
>with such poor weapons-skills :-)

         Darn, I hate to have to be the NRA propagandist here on this list
(particularly since I'm poking my nose in somebody else's business), but I
would humbly suggest that if your in-laws own firearms they would do well
to get the inexpensive training offered by the NRA.  During the summers of
1958-60, I spent three summers learning to shoot and other weapons skills
in a Junior NRA program, and think it did me a lot of good particularly
since I had quite an arsenal even at twelve.  Although there is a lot of
hatred (misdirected, in my opinion) for the training agency, it's more
difficult to make a case for owners of firearms to not to be trained in the
essentials of firearm safety and handling than it is to make a case for the
owners of dive equipment not to be trained to dive.

         From there, if your in-laws spend lots and lots of time hunting or
doing competitive target shooting, they'll easily be able to develop the
firearms skills required by whatever militia they want to join.


DPTNST,


John