Advocacy

This weekend I have the honor of volunteering at a local gun show.  I will be sitting at a table for an organization that promotes and advocates for gun rights in my state. 

I have always volunteered and done what ever I could to support the different causes I believe in.  I think it is important to be heard and to fight for what one values.  In all the changes that have taken place in my life of late, this passion to do, is not one of them.  This has always been a part of who I am.

I am so excited because I love gun shows.  I love everything about them.  The smell, the crowds, the humidity, the beef jerky, the rows and rows of guns, the bumper stickers I would never put on my car, but buy anyway and the people...I love the people, every single one of them.  The Rednecks, the yuppies, the old timers, and all of the little kids running around!!

I texted my hubby to see if my volunteering this weekend would interfere with any of his plans and he said nope, go for it.

Then he said and I quote:

"Never in a million years, would this thought have ever run through my mind:)  You working a gun show.  Crazy, but crazy good."

Yep, I have changed.

I have only been to 2 gun shows in my entire life, but I am hooked.  If you want to read about my first gun show experience go Here and Here 

The whole experience was a hoot.  I saw this sign and thought is was hilarious because I used to live in California and I thought, it was because they are so liberal and goofy. 

Shows how little I knew about any issue related to guns.  The real joke is that they are liberal and goofy, which means they are very un-gun-friendly.

I actually loved living in California.  I lived in a more conservative part of the state and I didn't carry at the time, so the issues that concern me now, didn't then. Lots of gun folks do not like California, but it has many wonderful things about it.  The ocean and the mountains...stunning  I am in love with Big Bear.  Camping in the Redwoods leaves me speechless every time.  The weather is gorgeous and the food is amazing!  I was teaching college back then and I loved to teach. I loved my students.  I loved getting to see their minds working.  I miss it.  It was a very happy time in my life.

We left California after the death of my brother.  Not because of it, but after he died, the Marines sent us here.  It was a bumpy few years and this place has never felt like home, but after 7 years of building relationships and watching my kid's roots begin to grow and get deeper here along with my new passion for guns, I am beginning to feel my neck turning a slight shade of red and as much as I keep trying to get out of here, I am not sure I could leave.

Hopefully, I will have lots to tell you about after I volunteer.