I am lucky in that I live in these United States. This makes me one of the wealthiest people in the world. The poor of the US are richer than many rich people in other countries.

I remember reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and listening to her describe the house in which she was living. While it was old and well built, most people on Section 8 housing allotments would refuse to live in a home that small or that required so much manual labor to keep running.

We are rich.

I grew up in a home that where there were no firearms. My parents, at the time, were not anti-gun, they just didn’t own any. I still got to go hunting. I still got to learn how to handle a shotgun. There are pictures of me as a kid with a good half dozen rabbits from a rabbit hunt I went on with 4 other adults and another boy my age. I was in grade 7, maybe?

The point being, I wasn’t a “gun person.” I wasn’t afraid of them. It was just something that I wasn’t around.

I lived in a home with an actual firearm for about 4 or 5months. I was renting a room from my boss. My parents had moved after I graduated from high school and I was slated to start University in the fall. So I stayed. Shortly after I moved in, my boss showed me the derringer he had attached to the side table next to his TV chair.

He told me the safety rules and told me not to “play with it.”

Of course I did. I had to examine it. But I did treated it as loaded and kept my finger off the trigger and the gun pointed in a safe direction while handling it.

It was scary.

At University there was no firearms. Hell, they had problems with me having a real knife.

The only firearms I handled during that time was when I went on a rescue call for our technical assistant. She had heard somebody prowling around her home and her husband was away. So I drove out to her place. When I got there she meet me holding a M1 Carbine. We talked for a while, made sure that she was ok and I went home.

It wasn’t until right now that I put together what she said about that gun and what I know now and was able to identify it from memory.

After I left the University I went to the range a couple of times with my Mentor. He had a Colt AR-15, a Ruger .22, and a German Mauser that his father had carried in WWII.

He was the person that got me started in gun rights.

During this time I was a working stiff. I got a divorce and lost all of my savings and ended up paying a large part of my income to support my ex.

I was poor. Yet I ate every meal, stayed in a warm home and had a car. I didn’t have money for frivolous things, and firearms fell in that category.

Then I got very lucky and had a big windfall. After paying the US Government their cut, it was still a big windfall.

My 2nd wife then wasted most of the rest. But I came out of it with three motorcycles and some firearms.

The firearms I purchased I purchased because of the ammunition they used.

• 9×19 This was the standard NATO pistol ammunition and was the standard ammunition used by the MSP
• 5.56×45 This was the standard NATO rifle ammunition.
• 7.62×51 NATO. Again, the standard NATO rifle ammunition.
• 7.62×39. This was the standard Soviet/communist block rifle ammunition
• .44Cal Black powder pistol. Just in case I couldn’t find ammo for the pistol.
• ?? Cal Black powder rifle. Again, just in case I couldn’t find ammo for the other 3 rifles

I’m sorry to say that the black powder rifle still sits in my safe. I’ve never shot it. My lady has. She loves it. But I have not.

The pistol I purchased was a used Glock. It had belonged to the MSP. My magazine was loaded with the standard MSP ammo. I also purchased 1000 rounds of 9mm range candy. There are still a couple of 50 round boxes from that purchase kicking around the house.

The rifle I purchased was an AWB era AR-15 heavy barrel by Bushmaster. There were only a couple of manufactures at that time, that is what I decided on. It came with a 5 round mag. I alos purchased a 2000 rounds of of NATO surplus that came in a wooden crate. Some how a couple of 20 round mags and a 30 round mag found their way into my car. I certainly didn’t purchase them during a standard capacity magazine ban.

The second rifle was an AK-47 style with a thumbhole stock. 2000 rounds of Wolf ammo came home with it. Along with a box containing “garbage” that the FFL was throwing out. Said garbage turned out to be 2 thirty round mags and the original furniture for the AK.

The third rifle was a Remington 700 originally with no sights. I didn’t know I needed sights. Don’t all guns come with sights? Later it had a Nikon scope put on it. It is still my deer rifle of choice for long distance shooting.

The AK and AR and the Glock all took three weeks to purchase. Maryland had a 21 day waiting period at that time. I think it was actually a bit longer than 21 days because they sold it as 21 days (three weeks) but they meant 21 business days or four calendar weeks.

In contrast, buying the black powder rifle and pistol took but minutes. Yes, that’s what I want. What do you mean there is no paperwork? Oh great! Thank you, have a great day.

Since that time my purchases have tended to be ammunition centric OR something classic.

The last rifle I purchased was a Henry in 45-70. This was to match the Springfield Trapdoor ammunition.

There is a lever action plus SAA replica in .45Colt. Because I wanted a pistol/rifle combination that used the same ammo.

Same reason I have a PC-9. It is a breakdown rifle that shoots 9mm and uses Glock magazines. Then I had to buy a Glock because I suddenly had a bunch of Glock magazines and no Glock pistols.

Even today, my next firearm purchase is going to be a lever action in .357 Magnum to match my last revolver purchase. Then a SAA in .357 to match the lever action.

I have way to many calibers today. But it feels like they all had a logic to the purchase.