I've been participating on this forum for a few months now but maybe now is a good 'formal' introduction time, and I've had some bourbon this evening so I'm feeling chatty.
I'm a MoCo resident, grew up in Southern MD and my dad had a sporting goods store so I learned to shoot rifles at a very young age and was good at it, but my guns stayed with my parents who are now old and retired in Tennessee and that's where the rifles and shotgun live too. When I'm out there visiting I sometimes shoot with my cousins, but never felt compelled to own anything here in MD as an adult. Until things started getting weird in March and I thought about what might happen to the social fabric with Depression-level unemployment, which is when I decided it might be a good move to arm myself and to seek serious training. I didn't even anticipate the current insanity and that ostensibly intelligent adults might decide they don't want cops, among other absurd things. I'm somewhat left of center in general but I'm a rational moderate who's spent time in rough neighborhoods and encountered some legit dangerous people before, so I'll just say I've fully seen the light on 2A this year. Seems like my feeling about things isn't even remotely unique based on first time gun sales.
Anyway, I took the HQL class at Gilbert as soon as I could, did lots of research and talked to my ex-cop current firearms instructor cousin for advice, finally got my own M&P 2.0 9mm compact (great pistol). Then I went out to TN for 2 full days of real-world defensive handgun training because if I'm gonna make this investment I might as well make sure I know what the f I'm doing, and I'm the type that when I get into a new hobby I get obsessed with it. Besides the practical considerations, that first day at the range I remembered how much fun it is to shoot a pistol, so I might have the bug now. I may or may not start spending disposable income on some less practical toys soon (who doesn't love an old-school .357 magnum revolver).
Glad to have a resource like mdshooters and it's been a great help navigating the absurdity of MD gun laws.
I'm a MoCo resident, grew up in Southern MD and my dad had a sporting goods store so I learned to shoot rifles at a very young age and was good at it, but my guns stayed with my parents who are now old and retired in Tennessee and that's where the rifles and shotgun live too. When I'm out there visiting I sometimes shoot with my cousins, but never felt compelled to own anything here in MD as an adult. Until things started getting weird in March and I thought about what might happen to the social fabric with Depression-level unemployment, which is when I decided it might be a good move to arm myself and to seek serious training. I didn't even anticipate the current insanity and that ostensibly intelligent adults might decide they don't want cops, among other absurd things. I'm somewhat left of center in general but I'm a rational moderate who's spent time in rough neighborhoods and encountered some legit dangerous people before, so I'll just say I've fully seen the light on 2A this year. Seems like my feeling about things isn't even remotely unique based on first time gun sales.
Anyway, I took the HQL class at Gilbert as soon as I could, did lots of research and talked to my ex-cop current firearms instructor cousin for advice, finally got my own M&P 2.0 9mm compact (great pistol). Then I went out to TN for 2 full days of real-world defensive handgun training because if I'm gonna make this investment I might as well make sure I know what the f I'm doing, and I'm the type that when I get into a new hobby I get obsessed with it. Besides the practical considerations, that first day at the range I remembered how much fun it is to shoot a pistol, so I might have the bug now. I may or may not start spending disposable income on some less practical toys soon (who doesn't love an old-school .357 magnum revolver).
Glad to have a resource like mdshooters and it's been a great help navigating the absurdity of MD gun laws.
