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https://handgun.safety.tn.gov/WebFiles/HESS/2019LegislativeSynopsis.pdf

At 3:17 PM today it has been 50 years since we heard those words. Vice President Pence gave a rousing speech today from Kennedy space center. Reviving the space program would be quite a feat. I’m sure we have the ability, but I question we can get anything done that requires the approval of congress.

That sounds like a wonderful trip! Your grandson is lucky to have you two in his life. Have you all ever considered getting up to the headwaters of the Mississipi? It's a State Park, and a pretty wonderful place. Kind of awe inspiring to see what's there and think about what it becomes... ETA: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/park.html?id=spk00181#homepage

I am quickly progressing to to point where I wouldn't have a carry gun that I couldn't put a red dot sight on.

I was told no Christian is exempt from sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know where this thread will go, but I hope to learn, encourage and enlighten with positive posts, responses, questions, and critiques. I want to be a better Christian today than yesterday and better tomorrow than today. I hope there will be enough information shared for folks make a decision about Christianity, free from hypocrisy and enough discernment to identify hypocrisy. That's what makes evangelism so hard and so I'll avoid it with the truth. Being 50 year old man, but only an 11 year old Christian, I was sure I wasn't prepared. Not a Bible scholar nor a theologian. Nice thing is I see this Christianity thing as a child does...it's not hard, it's not confusing. It has not been tainted by religion, the bias of my upbringing in the Catholic Church nor blinded by hypocrisy. I was actually saved in a Catholic Church, so the cause and event are probably the best place to start. You should all know I am a sinner; past, prssent, and future. I have broken more of God's commandments more times than I can remember. In 1988 I turned my back on God. Mom passed after 9 months of chemo and cancer. It was obviously God's fault, so I was ready to be like Frank Sinatra and do it my way. Had a pretty successful run, ups and downs but mostly up. Then a strange thing happened while bitching about having to wash some dishes in 1997. I had been married about a year and Mrs GtGs was the subject of my ire. All of a sudden, it occurred to me, if Mom hadn't passed, the likelihood of moving to Tennessee was zero. Not saying I'd still be living at home, but I loved my Mom and still miss her. It also revealed Mrs GtG was His gift to me, to love, cherish, lead and protect. Coincidence I had this errant thought, perhaps. Too much opium trying to connect randon events, maybe. God's plan for my life, with revelation of why I had / have trial and tribulation: this is my obvious choice considering my perspective. It was also a healing moment, my anger and hate towards God evaporated because I had an understanding of why. Here is where I missed the boat, when the anger faded, I was cool with God. I was aware of Him. That was about it, I didn't acknowledge, worship, glorify, or give Him any real credit. My lifestyle didn't change much. Went to church a few times, like any good C&E Catholic, I dropped some spare coin in the collection plate on the high holidays. Fast forward to 2007. Life (on the surface) was great. No cares or worries. Health, wealth, marriage...it was picture perfect. So I bought a bigger boat. The first Saturday I owned it, I was sitting on the bridge after washing and waxing. She was shipshape and in Bristol fashion. While surveying mine domain, another one of those errant thoughs, "I'd never thought I'd have a boat anything like this, I'd better get me to church." Strange to say the least, but at that moment the vague awareness of God manifested into, "GtG, you ain't all that and a bag of chips and somehow you think or know or feel God has been helping you out." So I went and talk about a religious experience. The folks in the pew next me probably thought my family just died or I getting ready to die myself. In the Gospel of Luke, there is a parable of the barren vine, the landowner and the gardner. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' I was rocked to my core. This is what I heard and understood. I was the barren vine which had accepted 40 years sun, fertilizer, care, labor, space, investment, mercy and Grace for no yield. God was done with me and I was going to hell. Even my savior Jesus Christ, as the laborer, was willing to shield me, but I had to do something, because scripture doesn't say how long the season is. That's when my heart and mind opened to the truth recorded in the Bible, as I understand it with my childlike perception. The very next week, another religious experience. The Prodigal Son. Yep, through scripture, God revealed there was a party in Heaven over my return to the flock. So when I have zero doubt of heaven and hell and I was certain I was on the hell express, God showed how much he loved the wretched, selfish sinner I was by sending that message to save me from myself. What if I had hit snooze...yikes. So I found the Lord and got right with God and even went and got saved when times were good. I heard and read about trusting, patience, faithfulness. All those things you actually need when times are bad. Didn't quite understand as that stuff doesn't apply to me since time were good. Pretty important, because things got bad. 2009-2011 are tough financial times, I'm working 2 part time jobs to supplement my full time income, our home environment was not marital bliss. I'm reading my Bible a lot during this time, but truthfully, I didn't or couldn't feel God's presence or understand much of what I read. Except for Psalms and Job. There are some wonderful nuggets in Psalms which capture how I want to speak to or cry out to God. In Job, he praises and glorifies God regardless of his situation. He knows the Lord blessed him in the goods times, this is a test of his faith and he will trust God with tomorrow. I clung to this like a drowning man at the end of the rope. 2012 there was light at the end of the tunnel, it wasn't a train, and life got a bit easier with a new job. In August, out AC broke and so did my blindness. Mrs GtG was not happily married and didn't particularly care about the future outcome of our marriage. You see, like Paul, I was still blind to my sin. Yes, I got right with God, accepted who Christ is and what he does for me every day, began to forgive myself for treating God so poorly, but forgot I thing. Why do you persecute me, through her? In my selfishness, I had become a monster. When I looked at my behavior I was ashamed - I wouldn't want to be married to me either. I confessed and asked for forgiveness. Still married and it's better today than day 1. Well, that's my story and it's still being written. Welcome to the religious thread where all are welcome!

We are making plans to go on another fall trip. This time my sweetie found an article, in our Country Magazine, about a scenic trip along the upper Mississippi River. They have a Scenic Byway on both the Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois sides of the big river. We plan to drive to Moline Ill and view the John Deer Museum, and cross over the river into Missouri, then travel the Byway north that runs beside the river to Dubuque Iowa. Then crosses back over the Mississippi to Galena Illinois. We have plans to spend 3 weeks on this trip. We will be stopping at Galena, the Mississippi Palisades State Park, Moline, then cross the river to Hannibal Missouri. Explore that area of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, then travel on to Alton Ill, then on to St. Louis where my sweetie wants to go and see the Budweiser Clydesdales farm located there about. We have been shut ins because of the hot weather as I have asthma and can’t take the very hot times of the year. Air conditioning is my best friend right now. Was 98 here yesterday and with the heat index 111. Asthmatics have a hard time breathing in such conditions. Our plan is to leave here on Sept 16th and return by Oct 5th. Then we will spend the last 2 weeks of Oct in Ashville N C, and Pigeon Forge TN. The October trip has been our tradition for the past 15 years. The Great Smokey Mountain N P is one of my favorite destinations and we try and visit a couple times per year. We also like the Blueridge Parkway, out of Ashville N C, equally as well. We have plans to spend a week at each place and do some serious leaf peeping while there. We once hiked a lot, but at 71 and with my knee, and 69 with her bad hip, which is set to be replaced on the 4th of Nov, we can no longer go on long strenuous hikes. We do short ones and do most of our leaf peeping through the windshield now. Our first grandson (26) will be traveling with us. He has been all over the U S with us in our RV. Lack 3 states and he will have been in all the lower 48 states. He has Downs Syndrome and really enjoys our trips. He has a T V and his electronics in the back seat of our truck and enjoys them as we drive. He will be singing Charlie Pooth, Michel Jackson or Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again,” or something else as we drive down the road. He also entertains himself off of satellite TV or Movies he watches on the TV screen mounted on the back of Mimi’s seat head rest. Talk about having it made! I will be taking my guns as Missouri and Iowa honors my TN Concealed Carry Permit; however, Illinois only allows me to have a gun in my truck and does not honor any states CCP. I also keep one(Mossberg 20 Ga) in my 5th wheel RV which I pull behind my truck. So I will be able to protect her, grandson, and myself should the issue be forced upon us. My sweetie carries also which is comforting. America is great, and God is good, guys!

Tominmn, we traveled hwy 2 which goes from Maine to Washington state and stays about 50 to 70 miles south of the Canadian border. We seen the headwaters of the Mississippi while driving that road, but did not go to the park. The river was not real impressive up there. Gregintn, we have camped at the Big South Fork and rode the train to the blue Heron coal mine out of Sterns KY. It was a great trip. We are really looking forward to breaking new ground on this trip. I once worked for a John Deer dealer and sold farm and home machines. They once were the best farm machinery and lawn mowers on the market. Never cheap but the best. I don't know if that is true now or not, but looking forward to touring their Museum in Moline Ill.

I would love that trip. I hope you all enjoy it. I would suggest, if you have time, going up to see Big South Fork, and riding the train at Stearns, Kentucky. it goes through an old mining town. We really enjoyed that, and most people don't know about it.

I’m going to go ahead and ask, because others have got to be thinking it also. Does that not make you think of “Don’t worry Sir; I’m from the internet”?

I will say, in my opinion, cross bolt safeties on a lever action are an abomination. Avoid them at all cost.

Put me in the build it yourself crowd. You're gonna change stuff out on a stock rifle anyway, It's cheaper to just assemble the parts you wanted in the first place. I'd start looking at Palmetto State Armory, BCM, Primary Arms and even Anderson Arms. I also bought a dandy upper cheap from some little company in Florida, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the name. If you don't want to buy the few tools you need to assemble an upper and/or lower, just buy the complete and snap together, or borrow the tools from a buddy. I have them if only you were closer. No doubt a number of members in the Knoxville area would be happy to help you out.

Turnbull is another one on my Hate to Love 'Em list.

This should work on the lower I posted.

We live on a 1/2 mile long dead end road with 8 or so houses. Our place has a hill/mountain behind us and a safe place to shoot so I setup a small range that I can shoot off my back deck out to 30 yards and if I set my shooting stand down the back drive I can get 50 yards. I try to limit the really loud stuff to only once in awhile and only a few shots but often when friends are out to shoot we will do several hundred rounds in an hour, mostly handguns (all calibers up to .44mag) and .22 rifles. I have asked a few neighbors if it bothers them and they said they haven't noticed. I know that at least 4 of us on the road have small ranges setup and another is planning one. Everyone on the road owns guns. When one of the democratic candidates may some comment about hearing gun shots from his house and that was a problem, I told my wife we hear gun shots often and it makes me feel safe. Just be sure you are outside of town and have enough land to setup a safe place and don't be too annoying to your neighbors. I have invited several neighbors to come up and shoot if they hear me out or just stop over, it doesn't take much to get me to go out and shoot. So far only two have taken me up on it.

Oh, I know all about that. No way on earth I’m gonna pay that much for a range toy, lol. I’ve got my dad’s 1980 vintage Marlin .45-70 that provides the big-bore lever action jollies when needed. But a .50 cal would be cool.

That’s ridiculous; get smarter friends. The M&P is a proven performer and you can get it new for around $500, even less on sale. No point in buying a garage build that you know nothing about. Don't do that until you are ready to tackle your own garage build. https://grabagun.com/smith-and-wesson-mp15-sport-ii-or-5-56mm-16.html

Welcome to TN...they have been setting them off here in Maury County pretty much every day but especially on the weekends ever since the fire works stands opened in mid June....who knows when they will run out. I actually quite like it, and I especially like the mortified reaction from all the retiree imports from places like California . In full disclosure I was born and raised in Northern California but escaped via the military as soon as I could. I've been in TN for 8 years now and would never leave.

The wheels of justice grind slowly. As stated above, leave this alone. fugggggeddddddaaaaabbbboudddddittt

I didn’t realize that. Thanks

Okay, I’ve gotten some time to come up for air. I’ve reread everything here and will offer a few thoughts. Upfront, there will certainly be folks who disagree with me. Take these thoughts for what they are, and maybe use them to process your own church’s response. It sounds like you’ve got a good engaged leadership. First, this is absolutely Kingdom work. Scripture is concerned with three types of people over and over again - the sojourner, the widow, and the orphan. You might argue that a young drug addict doesn’t fall into any of these categories. But, he’s clearly an “other” who society has little use for. Jesus would see this young man and engage with him. This young man is Jesus’s kind of person. Second, working with folks like this is a long effort. It’s dirty. It’s personal. It can be life changing - for the people doing the work as well as the person being helped. When you decide to help - it will change the way that you see things. Things are rarely as simple as we like to try to see them. And working with folks with needs like these will change the way you see things. We’re a small church (150 on a good Sunday) and have worked regularly with 3 or 4 folks who’ve struggled with addiction and homelessness for years now - literally 8 years in a couple of the cases. There are rarely any clean breaks. We work towards that - but there are definitely systemic issues that make it tough. Be prepared for the long haul. Third, there are going to be some people who will be quite vocal in opposing working with this young man. The way I think about this is sort of like this - if this is Kingdom work - it’s very much at the border of the Kingdom. We’ve built our comfortable suburban churches to be at what we see as the center of the Kingdom. So, we rarely have to get our hands dirty if we don’t want to - and a lot of us don’t want to - so we’re really uncomfortable with it when we experience it. Think of a person who’s only ever bought meat neatly shrink wrapped at the grocery store suddenly having to slaughter their own meat. Many really aren’t going to like it. —- File this next part under the thoughts of a church of Christ guy who is deeply skeptical of some of the ways we’ve organized our churches today. What I’m about to say is likely to offend a lot of folks. Feel free to skip ahead. I’m deeply skeptical of the “security teams” that we’re organizing in a lot of our churches. We’ve organized these suburban churches that give us these curated experiences that make us feel good about our personal relationships with Jesus. But, do we see the Gospel in our churches? if we’re not careful - the illusion of security in our churches can become idolatrous. I think we really need to struggle with this more than we do. To go back to my Kingdom language from earlier, I think we see ourselves as being close to the center of the Kingdom. But, in reality we’ve created these cloistered, walled off churches and don’t realize that we’re way more isolated than we think we are. Jesus referred to folks like this as whitewashed tombs once upon a time - and I think It’s probably worth holding up mirror every now and then and taking a good hard look. The irony of it is, we don’t realize it - but we’re not fully experiencing the Kingdom either. There’s a rich seven course meal waiting, but we’ve convinced ourselves that the stale sandwiches we’re eating are as good as it gets. This young man is isolated in ways that are public. But, what we don’t realize is that a lot of us experience isolation in ways that are just as debilitating - but we suffer in private. One of the things that we’ve lost in the modern Western church is that historically there was no idea of personal salvation. Redemption and salvation was delivered through community. I’d offer for thought that by leaving our comfort and heading to the borders of the Kingdom, we might find that salvation comes to us all. Happy to discuss this further out of this thread. —- Back to this young man, I’d offer some pragmatic thoughts. 1. Let your safety team operate as sort of “congregational concierges.” I think we see shootings and want to see the outsider as an opposition force. But, in the Kingdom, everyone is welcome. This young man may in fact go to the front of the line at the proverbial wedding banquet. We need people on these teams who default to being welcome and generous. 2. This young man may not be in a place where he’s ready to accept help. He may not know that he needs help. But, if we figure that God brings people though our doors for a reason - then we need to see him and invite him into the Kingdom. 3. But, it’s okay to set some ground rules. Sort of a framework like - we’re happy to help - but you can’t be high at services. You cannot ask members for money. Appoint a point of contact (maybe a deacon) and funnel through that person. 4. Think about other resources in your congregation who might be able to help. For instance, you might have folks who would never volunteer for a “safety team” - but who work in other helpful spaces. In our church, we have nurses, a mental health resource, people who work in non profits in housing, and social workers. The value that they bring to the table is infinite. And, it’s great to see them use their professional talents for the Kingdom. 5. Consider outside help. We put something in place a while back where we basically subsidize counseling for our members. Specifically, any member of our church can go to counseling for $5 per session - which basically rounds to free. We pay $70 as a church to make up the difference. I see both the bills and the uptake in our church - and from a pastoral perspective, this is probably the best money we spend in a given year. You’re in middle Tennessee - so I could put you in touch with resources that could set something like this up. 6. Scaffold your help. This is a long effort and there is some fatigue that can go along with it. Have that point person or persons - but check in regularly and have your elders keep up with what’s going on. 7. Work towards reconciliation. This young man needs healing - and his family needs to be a part of it. He and they may not be ready for it - but it’s worth looping back on. 8. Know that the Holy Spirit certainly plays the long game and will work in ways that we cannot even fathom if we’ll just make room for it to happen. That was a long answer to your question - but know you’re doing Kingdom work. Certainly my prayers are with you. Happy to talk further if it’s helpful.

They are catching on, especially for us old guys. I have a Vortex Venom 3MOA on a fullsize M&P Target gun and a BURRIS FASTFIRE 3 3MOA on a AR Pistol. I haven’t got to use the AR yet, but I took the M&P to the range and like it. I don’t really need sights of any kind on my carry pistols, so I haven’t tried them on any of those.

As a former Police Officer I can assure you that unless you start making unreasonable demands; you will not be seen as “problem” for the Police. Do you not have any cops in your congregation? If so you might want to fill them in on what’s going on and let them handle it. If not, and the problem continues you can have an Officer come out and let them handle it however they think best. Keep in mind a couple of things though before you do that. Cops aren’t social workers like they have been in the past. If he hasn’t committed a crime there isn’t much they can do except maybe refer you to some agencies that can help you. If a crime is committed and there is probable cause to believe he did he; he will likely be thrown in jail. Jail is not a good path to help….ever. Sure you will here stories about that happening, but most of them are BS, the real ones are very rare. You would know better than anyone here if his actions indicate a possibility of violence. But it sounds like a good possibility your church or some of its members are about to be victims of property crimes. I guess what I’m trying to say is that as a former cop I believe the pastor and the elders of your church are in a far better place to deal with this problem than the Police. The Police can’t fix broken people, all they can usually do is break then some more. I feel there is more to the story if they have given up??

First thing to do is stop publishing member directories with names, pictures and other personal information

It already is, or that kid wouldn’t be at that church. But that doesn’t mean everyone stands on the sidelines and watches for a miracle to happen.

Can your deacons help find this young man some place where he could seek treatment? It isn’t easy, but doesn’t seem Christlike to give up on someone seeking help.

I'm way more scared of the rural methheads than I am the average city dwelling ignorant moderate.

Oh boo hoo. You're just mad your numbers are gonna drop. Wah.

Just remove the force of law behind no carry signs and I'd be happy.

A former co worker got convicted of child porn and never did any time! In Tennessee.