I had some interesting firearm related incidents in the last month

First,

My wife and I flew out to TN for a few days in the middle of the month for a little get away. I checked one handgun. After filling out the notification form, I was told, everything was done.
"Don't you need to look at it?"
"Oh yeah, its been a while"
I demonstrated it was unloaded, that my ammo was secure, then locked my case up.

On the return trip the ticket agent told me to put the notification slip INSIDE MY LOCKED GUN CASE, inside my suitcase. I told her that it needed to go on top, so that if my LOCKED gun case was found in my luggage, the screeners would know that it had been declared and inspected. We went a couple of rounds, very calmly, but we were burning valuable time, and we still had to opt out of the body scanners, so I asked for a second slip to put on top of my case. She asked her supervisor in the back, sure enough, the slip goes on top of the locked case.

I read several years ago, always fly with a firearm to preserve this right, if we don't use it we lose it. Judging from my experiences, not many are using it lately.

Second,

I gave the most liberal person I know a pistol for Christmas, my father. I love him, but he is seriously infected with hope, change, and socialism juice. I grew up in a good clean gunfree home. He has told me in the past that my conservatism concerns him, and that he worries about me and my radical ideas. He was visually uncomfortable when he opened the box to see that the gift inside the Hi-Point box was indeed a .45 and not a hackey sack collection. What he said next really shocked me,

"well I guess I need to learn to use this"

I'd taken him shooting several times, and he enjoyed shooting my glocks. He then mentioned that a few nights earlier he had heard a noise at night an wondered what he would do if someone tried to break into his house.
I gave him a quick refresher on gun saftey, and a quick do's and don'ts of local laws.
Two days later he called me and told me that it was really loud, that he hit a water jug with 4 out of 5 shots, and the last one cut his hand. Crazy SOB took it out and shot it! I thought it would never get loaded or leave the box it came in. If I'd have known that I'd have given him something a little better, guess I'll have to take him out more, and trade him up next year.

Third,

We are expecting another child, and went to the birth and womens center for our first appointment, fill out the forms, listen to heartbeat, etc. (Now this is a pretty liberal setting, when seeking hormone free meat, or natural drug free childbirth, we seem to wind up in odd company, like extra piercings, patchouli, and sexually confused company) While asking my wife the 10,000 questions, the nurse/midwife asked if we had firearms in our home.
I elected to answer this one
"Of course" She was a bit shaken by this, or possibly that I was proud rather than ashamed

"Well, are they locked up and secured"

"We teach our children to not handle firearms without supervision" A bit more shaken.

Then my wife asked her why that question was even on there.

She stumbled through a reply about childrens health, and saftey, and a baby, then hurried into the next question.

Funny, more children drown in swimming pools in my town than from gunshots, she never asked if we had a pool, or stairs, or dogs.

Find a good firearms instructor in Dad's hometown and send him a gift certificate for some basic instruction. Unless I misunderstood your comment, Dad got cut when the slide rode over this hand which was too high up on the grip - a fairly common rookie mistake.

And don't discount the HiPoint - it may be ugly but it has an earned reputation for going bang every time you press the trigger, and not going bang unless you do. It also seems to hit where you point it.

Now, if Dad gets good and starts talking about OCing you might invest some money in a holster for him as the next step.

All in all, you are a good son.

stay safe.

Excellent post, HILLBILLYDELUXE. Do get your Dad some good instruction as soon as possible. Sounds like he's ready to begin understanding what it takes to defend himself and his home. This is wonderful, but everyone will be safer if he truly understands all of the components of armed self defense and the "law," as well as the operation of the firearm.

As for the nosy nurse (or whoever it was) and the question about guns, the best response is that you choose not to answer such personal questions. Then go on. Do NOT answer such questions - yes or no - outside your immediate circle of trusted friends... and they only need to know if you actually shoot with them, I think.

Cooperation with these busybodies could well come back to bite you eventually. It is actually important to avoid, as much as possible, any situations where these questions may be asked at all. These people are under tremendous pressure to gather all the data possible, and many are not above entering "creative" content if they can't get you to answer. Always insist that they write something like, "declined to answer" or "refused" in the blank, so nothing else can be entered later.

thank florida for the ped questions...

http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/...-pediatricians-in-florida-to-talk-about-guns/

wish my sons would grace me with a firearm as in our household it is dear olde dad passing down the shooting (and firearms) knowledge to them.

wabbit

Congrats on all three counts!

And I know what you mean about the "odd company"; we ran into a lot of that at our birth center too. Fortunately, our midwife never asked about firearms. During one visit though, my husband said something about his gun, and they were visibly shaken. We did encounter the question (along with many others I felt were un-necessary) at the pediatrician's office on some forms, and left it blank.