Gran Torino

This movie hit me very hard. If you combined my father and Grandfather you would have a character very close in some ways to the part Clint Eastwood played in this movie.

My favorite line was, "Whatever it is. They won't be expecting it." This is the kind of settler-cowboy kind of thinking that I found both in my Dad and Grandad.

Though I never had to shoot at anyone, both my father and Grandad likely had to at some time in their lives because of the times they lived in. Both were excellent shots and my grandfather was a hunter and my Dad didn't like hunting but liked to shoot because he had grown up doing it and was a very good shot. So by the time I was 8 I was given my Dad's old Remington Pump .22 rifle that was supposed to be a 15 shot but I could always fit about 17 bullets into it and fire every second to half second when I felt it necessary. But for real accuracy I needed a few moments to hit something a block or more away. Though I'm probably still a good shot like my Dad and Grand Dad I haven't found a reason to shoot for at least 20 years or more. I was taught guns are tools like a hoe or a rake or a shovel, you only use them when you need them. People who carry them when they are just crazy or don't really need them always seem to me to be like people with hoes or rakes or shovels walking around in the rain.

Policemen and women need them all the time. But knowing about guns like I do the worst danger for police is that someone will steal their weapon and shoot them with it. If you have a gun and know what to do with it, you aren't a danger, the crazy people who steal it from you and shoot you are. So, I don't carry a gun and don't intend to unless I have to use one in an emergency which we all hope never comes.