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I recently got into an argument with a cop about firearms safety courses. I suggested that a basic gun safety course for people who have never fired or handled a gun before should not be taught using live firearms or ammunition. Instead, blue guns should be used to teach the basics of safety.

(The basis of the argument was that teaching firearm safety should be done in high school. A parent came on and said she didn’t think it was a good idea for children to handle guns in school. I suggested that the course could be taught using blue guns, and that way the basics could be taught without exposing students to undue risk.)

He responded by being an insulting ass, and telling everyone that HE is a 20 year New York cop, and that makes him an expert. He then told me that all of my certifications in shooting and firearms instruction are useless because the most important thing to be taught is how to load and unload firearms while keeping your finger off the trigger.

I told him that firearms and ammunition should NEVER be handled by students anywhere in a classroom, and that ammo and guns should never even be in the classroom together- this kind of thing should be restricted to range sessions only. Having guns and ammo being handled together, especially by novices, is just asking for an ND.

He then told me that I should stick to hoses. Since he was the cop, and everyone seems to defer to them on all topics related to guns, the crowd all nodded and gave me the stare down. I left the conversation at that point.

So, here is my request: Do any of my readers have a link to a best practices page from a reputable training organization that supports either position? I want to see who is correct…

This is the part where I tell you about my trip. Las Vegas is my favorite US city to travel to for a number of reasons: It is easy to get there, it is relatively cheap, and there is a lot to do, especially if you are travelling without kids.

First, when we go we usually fly there on a nonstop flight, even if we did drive once. It’s a six hour flight going west and a three hour flight coming back. We usually leave Orlando at around 5 and arrive in Vegas some time around 8 o’clock. Coming back, we leave at the same 5 o’clock and get to Orlando around midnight. Two round trip tickets usually cost around $600.

We stay in MGM owned resorts on the strip. Our favorite is NY-NY. The reason we stay with MGM is that our four days of our stay is usually comped, and we only pay taxes. They usually also give us a $150 room credit, so by the time you count taxes, they actually pay us to stay there.

This time, we stayed at the Bellagio for the first three days. The total cost was $153 for the three nights, but they gave us a $100 credit that we applied to meals, so the final cost was actually $53. For the next three nights, we stayed at the NY-NY. That one was entirely free, plus they gave us a $150 room credit. In all, the total for both hotels was a $97 credit.

Meals we ate out, and most of them were fairly cheap. We ate Christmas dinner at an upscale Italian place, and we had the Bellagio buffet one night. The total cost for two of us to eat both of those meals was about $200. Other nights, we ate cheaper meals. Our total meal bill for the entire week was about $800.

We rented a car on Christmas day and drove half an hour to the top of Mt Charleston so we could play in the falling snow. We walked the strip. We did some gambling, and we also caught a couple of shows. We also rode the “High Roller.”

The gambling was great fun, and as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I love to play CRAPS. I had lost a total of about $600 up until Saturday, bu I had a big night at the table on Sunday, winning about $1600 when one of the shooters at the table went on a roll. My wife also wound up winning a couple of hundred. (Sometimes, we come home winners, sometimes not.) So we came back to Vegas with about $1200 in cash more than we left with.

What all of this means is that our week-long Christmas trip to Las Vegas (air fare, meals, gambling, plus all entertainment) wound up costing us less than $700.

The two big takeaways:

1 CARRY A GUN
2 Practice. Not just marksmanship. Practice your draw. It appears like the first guy shot was too slow on his draw and paid the price.

For years, we have been hearing about “common sense” with regards to carrying concealed weapons. Some of those things that “common sense” told us have been put to rest. Even though some facts are yet to be released, and other facts out there may turn out to be incorrect, the entire incident was live streamed and put out on Youtube. There are a number of things that are known to be accurate at this time. So….

From now on, I will use this morning’s incident in Texas to shut down any of the following arguments:

1 Good guys with guns don’t stop mass shootings.
2 You are paranoid if you carry in a church, because nothing happens in church
3 If you carry and engage a mass shooter, all of the concealed carriers will just shoot each other.
4 If a concealed carrier engages a mass shooter, people will die in the crossfire.

My wife and I love to travel. We travel a lot, flying, driving, cruising, you name it. In the six years since we have met, we have traveled to 48 states and 18 foreign countries. We take an average of 4 cruises, 3 plane trips, and 6 road trips of at least 200 miles each year. We are the high level tiers of frequent customer clubs with one cruise line, two hotel chains, a rental car company, and two airlines.

Everyone we know thinks that we are vacation experts, so much so that our friends and family constantly asked us for travel advice. This happened so often that we thought it would be a good idea to open a travel agency. This business cost us several thousand dollars to set up. To be a travel agent in Florida requires that you be licensed. To get a license, you must be bonded and insured. So we formed a corporation, got our license, bonds, insurance, and went through training with cruise lines, airlines, and other travel companies so we could use their booking systems.

We thought it would be an easy way to make money. Our friends and family asked for our advice already, so all they had to do was book with us and the cruise line, airline, and hotel would pay us our commission at no extra cost to our friends and families. Everybody wins.

 A few people continued to ask for advice, but when it came time to book did not book through us, even though it cost them nothing. In essence, getting our advice and using our expertise for free.

We finally decided that we were losing money, so we shut down the travel business (those of you who booked, thank you- we will continue to service all of our current bookings) and moved on to other ventures.

The odd part is that the people who sought our advice but never booked through us continue to expect our help and advice. For free. They even then complain when they didn’t get the best deal possible, wanting to know why we didn’t help them book the cheapest price, get cheap upgrades, or find better deals. Again, for free.

You basically put us out of business, and you still demand freebies. Whoever you are booking your trips through is the one making money off of you. Go ask them for advice. I am done.

To my readers: If any of you provide a service, like doctors, plumbers, electricians, attorneys, handymen, barbers, etc.,  do your families expect your services for free?

If I were the President, I think I would have a bit of fun with the Democrats in Congress. What I would do is issue an order from my home in Florida under Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution:

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States. (emphasis added)

Since no one could argue that an impeachment is anything but extraordinary, it would be within the President’s powers to order the Democrat held House into session until such time as they transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Keep them there over the Christmas break. Alternatively, he could order both houses into session, thus eliminating the ability of Democrat presidential candidates to be on the campaign trail until the impeachment trial is concluded.

Shootout between Indiana police and a subject who reportedly has 1,000 rounds of ammo in his house. That sounds like a lot to people who do not shoot, but to shooters that is nothing. There have been times when I shot more than that in a single day. Other than shotgun shells and .32 ACP (I don’t own a firearm in that caliber any longer since I sold my Tomcat), I don’t have a single caliber that is below 1,000 rounds.

However, the police say that they have been “pinned down” for the past two hours by the high volume of fire. Miami police reportedly called them and advised the Indiana officers to find a family or some small children to hide behind. (OK, the last part isn’t true, but that is apparently how Miami cops do things?)

On Tuesday, a man robbed a convenience store at gunpoint. During that robbery, he stole the clerk’s car. The police were actively looking for him for two days when a Eustis police Captain heard gunshots and saw a vehicle pulling out of the same convenience store, so the Captain followed it. Without being pulled over, the car stopped and the wanted man jumped out shooting, without warning or preamble. The Captain was shot in the chest and is still in the hospital with that bullet lodged in his back.

Police later caught up with the assailant and ended his life when he refused to obey commands.

It turns out that the dead criminal had just been released from 13 years in prison. He had convictions for armed robbery, vehicle theft, drug dealing and possession, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, kidnapping, and armed burglary.

This guy is one guy that I am glad is no longer with us. The world is that much better without him in it.