LockedBreech
New member
It's late here, about 1 A.M., and I wanted to share with the forum a small decision I've made. To my friends here who purchase $3,000 1911s as a matter of course, or have a table full of SIGs, it will seem small and token, but to me it matters.
My father, like the fathers of many of the good, upstanding American citizens on this board, taught me to shoot at a young age. With utter patience but firm discipline, I first pulled the trigger of a Daisy BB gun. It was the best. It held a little reservoir of BBs, or you could even insert a pellet one at a time.
When I was able to master the 4 rules and basic proficiency, he graduated me to a pair of scoped .22 rifles, a Winchester pump and a Remington semi-automatic. They're somewhere in my childhood home, but the specific models escape me. Suffice it to say, many thousands of rounds and doomed prairie dogs gave me a decent flair for marksmanship, for a young'n.
Moving on further, I learned handguns. A Colt Cobra .38 Special, nickel plated, was popular, and I learned to use snake-shot loads with it, as rattlers were common in our area.
The pair of handguns that truly caught my passion were his Berettas. One was a model 21A Bobcat in .22LR, blued. As fits the reputation of these guns, it was finicky as all hell and had trouble making it through a magazine without issue. Despite this, I loved it. Believe it or not, he carried it as his backup weapon as a Wyoming Highway Patrolman.
Did I mention he was a LEO? Because his other gun, also a Beretta, is where I found my core passion in shooting and gun collecting - handguns. It was a model 96FS, and I loved the heck out of it from the first time I shot it, around ten years old. It makes me laugh still. The 96 platform is, in many ways, the exact opposite of a gun you'll get accolades for on a gun forum. Likely, you'll get a flood of posters touting frame wear issues, the snappy recoil of the less-popular .40 S&W cartridge, and a gun that's far too big to hold only 11+1 (I believe the modern ones hold 12+1). In fact, today the Wyoming Highway Patrol carries the Smith & Wessson M&P .40 fullsize, with a 15+1 capacity and a third less weight. Still, despite any criticisms of the gun, it was my first combat-purpose firearm, and I loved everything about it.
We were a very poor family. My parents were a junior state trooper and a beginning teacher, neither of which paid well. In addition, we were beset by medical issues including my own horrible eyesight and myriad problems with my joints from an early age. By 13 I'd had surgeries on both my knees. To this day I'll defend hunting fiercely, because my family needed the meat to live.
Time goes on, and my dad moved into a different career following an injury on the job. At the time he left, he was given the option to purchase his duty 96. He didn't have the $100 to spare. We needed every cent, and my dad forever lost the chance to own the Beretta he had trusted for nearly two decades with his life, a gun which had never so much as hiccuped on any ammo.
As time went on, I succeeded very well at undergrad in college while my brother got his Master's degree in Criminal Justice and followed in our father's footsteps to be a police officer. He is an officer now, and a good one. Morally upright, very much respectful of the Bill of Rights, and an expert shot, with a powerful faith in God and a faith just as great in the free citizenry that make America great. He is, as my dad was, and my late grandfather (also a police officer) a strong proponent of private citizen gun carry.
I went another route, deciding to go to law school, with the stipulation that I'll never work in criminal law. I believe my biases would render me incapable of doing that job with the diligence and impartiality it requires.
As I attended high school, college, and law school, my family continued to gift me guns. My first, at age 20, was given by my father. He asked, quite frankly, what gun I wanted, as he believed a man ought to have a gun. I enthusiastically asked for the new (at the time) Beretta PX4 Storm .40. Four years and change later, that gun has proven itself through approximately 4,000 rounds without a hitch. Just like the 96 that inspired my wish.
I had gathered an impressive gun collection as I learned and studied (including my brother's astonishingly generous gift of a Daniel Defense M4V1). However, none of the guns you see in my signature have been purchased by me. So, for the last few years as a student, I have carefully saved every dime I could afford to - precious few - putting them away to purchase my first gun. I recently hit the mark I was aiming for, around $600 saved up with enough breathing room to spend another hundred if I need to.
As I was shopping on Bud's tonight, trying to decide what I'll buy, I ended up in the Beretta tab, and there it was. Beretta 96A1. Not the same model, of course, nor with his badge as the serial, but a spiritual successor.
I decided then, just tonight, that the money I've scrimped and saved for isn't buying me a gun. Not at all. It's buying my dad one.
My dad didn't spent the $100 on his beloved 96 not because he didn't want it - he speaks of it wistfully when we go shooting - but because it was more important to spend countless thousands on my braces, my shoes, my medical treatment, my surgeries, my date nights with girlfriends, and tuxedo rental for prom, my gas money and education and movie nights with friends.
My dad wouldn't spend $100 on himself, but he spent every dime he ever earned to make me and my brother happy, successful, healthy adults.
So, this Christmas, my dad, who won't open his wallet to buy himself new socks but will happily buy anyone in his family the world, will open a present containing a Beretta 96A1. And a box of 50 180-grain Federal Hydra-Shoks, his favorite ammo.
A platform too heavy for the caliber? Probably. A platform a little weaker in the long term than modern designs? Certainly. Snappier than the 9mm 92A1? Yes, it is. With a magazine full of an outdated hollowpoint design? Absolutely.
Because for once it's not going to be about me, or what I'd want, or what I'd get. It's going to be about honoring a father like thousands of others who sacrifice and bleed for their children, a man who has lived a good, Godly life and who has raised children who are vocal, educated defenders of the Second Amendment and principles of liberty.
My dad gave me guns, and all they represent about the American way of life. In return, I'll show him I know how to be generous too.
A long read. Thanks if you cared to read it. I'd only trust TFL to understand.
My father, like the fathers of many of the good, upstanding American citizens on this board, taught me to shoot at a young age. With utter patience but firm discipline, I first pulled the trigger of a Daisy BB gun. It was the best. It held a little reservoir of BBs, or you could even insert a pellet one at a time.
When I was able to master the 4 rules and basic proficiency, he graduated me to a pair of scoped .22 rifles, a Winchester pump and a Remington semi-automatic. They're somewhere in my childhood home, but the specific models escape me. Suffice it to say, many thousands of rounds and doomed prairie dogs gave me a decent flair for marksmanship, for a young'n.
Moving on further, I learned handguns. A Colt Cobra .38 Special, nickel plated, was popular, and I learned to use snake-shot loads with it, as rattlers were common in our area.
The pair of handguns that truly caught my passion were his Berettas. One was a model 21A Bobcat in .22LR, blued. As fits the reputation of these guns, it was finicky as all hell and had trouble making it through a magazine without issue. Despite this, I loved it. Believe it or not, he carried it as his backup weapon as a Wyoming Highway Patrolman.
Did I mention he was a LEO? Because his other gun, also a Beretta, is where I found my core passion in shooting and gun collecting - handguns. It was a model 96FS, and I loved the heck out of it from the first time I shot it, around ten years old. It makes me laugh still. The 96 platform is, in many ways, the exact opposite of a gun you'll get accolades for on a gun forum. Likely, you'll get a flood of posters touting frame wear issues, the snappy recoil of the less-popular .40 S&W cartridge, and a gun that's far too big to hold only 11+1 (I believe the modern ones hold 12+1). In fact, today the Wyoming Highway Patrol carries the Smith & Wessson M&P .40 fullsize, with a 15+1 capacity and a third less weight. Still, despite any criticisms of the gun, it was my first combat-purpose firearm, and I loved everything about it.
We were a very poor family. My parents were a junior state trooper and a beginning teacher, neither of which paid well. In addition, we were beset by medical issues including my own horrible eyesight and myriad problems with my joints from an early age. By 13 I'd had surgeries on both my knees. To this day I'll defend hunting fiercely, because my family needed the meat to live.
Time goes on, and my dad moved into a different career following an injury on the job. At the time he left, he was given the option to purchase his duty 96. He didn't have the $100 to spare. We needed every cent, and my dad forever lost the chance to own the Beretta he had trusted for nearly two decades with his life, a gun which had never so much as hiccuped on any ammo.
As time went on, I succeeded very well at undergrad in college while my brother got his Master's degree in Criminal Justice and followed in our father's footsteps to be a police officer. He is an officer now, and a good one. Morally upright, very much respectful of the Bill of Rights, and an expert shot, with a powerful faith in God and a faith just as great in the free citizenry that make America great. He is, as my dad was, and my late grandfather (also a police officer) a strong proponent of private citizen gun carry.
I went another route, deciding to go to law school, with the stipulation that I'll never work in criminal law. I believe my biases would render me incapable of doing that job with the diligence and impartiality it requires.
As I attended high school, college, and law school, my family continued to gift me guns. My first, at age 20, was given by my father. He asked, quite frankly, what gun I wanted, as he believed a man ought to have a gun. I enthusiastically asked for the new (at the time) Beretta PX4 Storm .40. Four years and change later, that gun has proven itself through approximately 4,000 rounds without a hitch. Just like the 96 that inspired my wish.
I had gathered an impressive gun collection as I learned and studied (including my brother's astonishingly generous gift of a Daniel Defense M4V1). However, none of the guns you see in my signature have been purchased by me. So, for the last few years as a student, I have carefully saved every dime I could afford to - precious few - putting them away to purchase my first gun. I recently hit the mark I was aiming for, around $600 saved up with enough breathing room to spend another hundred if I need to.
As I was shopping on Bud's tonight, trying to decide what I'll buy, I ended up in the Beretta tab, and there it was. Beretta 96A1. Not the same model, of course, nor with his badge as the serial, but a spiritual successor.
I decided then, just tonight, that the money I've scrimped and saved for isn't buying me a gun. Not at all. It's buying my dad one.
My dad didn't spent the $100 on his beloved 96 not because he didn't want it - he speaks of it wistfully when we go shooting - but because it was more important to spend countless thousands on my braces, my shoes, my medical treatment, my surgeries, my date nights with girlfriends, and tuxedo rental for prom, my gas money and education and movie nights with friends.
My dad wouldn't spend $100 on himself, but he spent every dime he ever earned to make me and my brother happy, successful, healthy adults.
So, this Christmas, my dad, who won't open his wallet to buy himself new socks but will happily buy anyone in his family the world, will open a present containing a Beretta 96A1. And a box of 50 180-grain Federal Hydra-Shoks, his favorite ammo.
A platform too heavy for the caliber? Probably. A platform a little weaker in the long term than modern designs? Certainly. Snappier than the 9mm 92A1? Yes, it is. With a magazine full of an outdated hollowpoint design? Absolutely.
Because for once it's not going to be about me, or what I'd want, or what I'd get. It's going to be about honoring a father like thousands of others who sacrifice and bleed for their children, a man who has lived a good, Godly life and who has raised children who are vocal, educated defenders of the Second Amendment and principles of liberty.
My dad gave me guns, and all they represent about the American way of life. In return, I'll show him I know how to be generous too.
A long read. Thanks if you cared to read it. I'd only trust TFL to understand.
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