The Annoyed Man wrote:it was after my dad died in 1990. Until then, I had been what you might call a centrist democrat. Upon his passing, I inherited his 1911A1 sidearm from WW2, which had always been stored wrapped in a well oiled rag, inside a box, up in the attic. We knew he had it, but I probably only saw it 2 or 3 times in my life until after he died. He was a pacifist, and not much in favor of private gun ownership. To him, that 1911 was a war memento from his time in the Pacific, not a gun; and the .22 rifle that was squirreled away alongside it was a memory from his boyhood, not a rifle.dale blanker wrote:When did you begin to realize that their views no longer seemed right to you?
When I inherited the .45, I asked a couple of motorcycling buddies of mine, who were then currently serving NCOs in the CANG, if they would take me to a range and teach me how to shoot, field strip, and clean it safely. I wasn’t into guns, but I figured if I was going to have one in my house, I should know how to handle it safely, and if need be, how to shoot it.
They took me to a range, and I’ll never forget.....after the first shot, I kept the weapon pointed down range, but turned a bit and grinned at my buddies, and said, “ok, this is addicting.” So after that, they took me to a big gun show down at the Angels stadium in Anaheim, got me to join the NRA at their booth, and by the time I left, I had a bag full of literature and a Pelican case for my .45.
On the way home, they started telling me about the 2nd Amendment, what it means, why it was included, etc., etc. It all made a great deal of sense to me, especially the parts about individual liberty. Anyway, that was my introduction to gun rights and gun ownership. My friends handled it very well, and I became a convert. That got me interested in the rest of the Constitution, which I hadn’t read since high school. The more I read, the more I realized how out of line with its standards our gov’t had become. I was 38 years old.
Around the same time was the birth of my son in 1990. All of a sudden, abortion began to seem obscene to me, when before my wife got pregnant, it was something I supported. Becoming a dad made me appreciate how precious human life is, and how fragile it is sometimes. That got me directed into a more conservative outlook on life in general, at the same time as I was reexamining the precepts of liberty.
In late 1993, I reregistered as a Republican. I had been a democrat up to that point. The three primary reasons were (A) my realization that the Democrat Party had strayed FAR from a due regard for the Constitution, and (B) my philandering, lying president, who used a young woman as a cigar humidor right in the Oval Office, demeaning the role of a president, and (C) most importantly, his support of the looming AWB legislation.
Then on January 23rd, 1994, I had a spiritual conversion experience and became a follower of Christ. I was 42 by then, and up to that point had been the kind of person who would probably burst into flames if I set foot in a church. As I began to grow in my understanding of Biblical principles, and what life looks like through the lens of faith, it was another step away from how academia sees the world. The Lord was faithful to put the kinds of people in my life who mentored me with great patience, solid biblical teachers who taught me how to read and understand the Word, and right off the bat, a really great church where I learned how to live in community with other believers.....and in turn how to model that to the rest of world, a process I’m still working on.
As I continued to study all of this stuff, I became more libertarian-leaning as a conservative. I left the Republican Party in 2012, right after the election, and reregistered as an independent, and I have been one ever since. I may play a small role in local libertarian politics at my county level, but while I am definitely libertarian leaning, there are still a few things which can’t agree with the LP or LPoT platforms. One is that no nation in human history has ever lasted very long after it stopped defending its own borders, and I am not on board with the libertarian open borders policy. The other is that I am vocally pro-life, which neither the LP nor the LPoT is. But in other ways, I find much to be in agreement with in the libertarian platform. I’m just gun-shy about parties anymore.
And that’s my journey.
TAM,
Your story is really cool... thanks for sharing that! Best post I have read in a while. (and not just for the 1911!)
Someday I'll make it back to your neck of the woods- and when I do, I'd like to buy you breakfast and hear the whole story in person.
