Greetings from Middle Tn.

[soapy]

Hello all,

I am medically retired for the past 12 years,

and a U.S. Army Veteran.

I did my time in Germany 1976-1979.

I currently live in Smyrna and I have to

travel in a power wheelchair when I'm out and about.

I haven't touched a weapon, other than a knife

since the Army days.

I have been thinking about getting my HCP,

and have been doing some research.

I am still undecided as the places where I spend my time

such as parks and lakes, it is my understanding that I

would not be allowed to carry a weapon in those places.

At least that is my understanding of the situation.

I don't feel like I need it going to the walmart

next to the police station...although

I like to go cruising out late evenings ( in good weather) in my powerchair,

and I have felt intimidated a couple of times by some local wanna be gangster/ punks, who are mostly young teenagers that don't speak english very well.

Usually all I carry is an ipod and a few bucks, id etc, nothing worth fighting

over. (I'm an easy target, but not a worthy target) can't run or fight..

For home defense I have an old S&W 38 special 6 shooter, and I have

an old single shot 410 I hold for my stepson, but it is not loaded with anything.

I've never shot either, but I did buy some new ammo for the .38 as I was afraid

the 20+ year old hollow points in it may not fire. I plan to try and shoot the pistol some in the spring, when the weather is good. I try to stay in the warm house in the winter. I have the ok from the wife, and I would like for her to have her's also, but

I doubt she would carry.

We are worried mostly about being sued if we shot someone, as we are homeowners

but would be hard put to hire a lawyer, as we live on disability. I'm pretty well convinced that a person involved in a shooting will be sued, and have to prove self defense.

So i will be lurking around here, and my ask a question or so, now and then.

Great forum, as I have gained some good knowledge from here , thanks.

Peace

P.S. I'm all Tennessee, I was raised in Roane county, the wife is from Oak Ridge.

Edited December 14, 2010 by soapy

[Guest nj.piney]

welcome to tgo

[kb4ns]

Most parks are ok to carry in. There's more to the issue than I feel like typing out right now, but a quick search will reveal plenty of threads with a plethora of information. Some of the laws can be a little confusing at first, but don't let that stop you from getting your carry permit!

Welcome to TGO and thank you for your service!

[DWARREN123]

Howdy Soapy and Welcome to TGO

It is not so much that you may be targeted because you have wealth, there are some crazy mean folks out there.

Because of your situation I would be armed as much as possible. Take care and stay warm.

[Metalhead]

Welcome to TGO, good to have you here sir!

[JeffL]

Welcome to the site. Just remember, you never plan on needing your gun to defend yourself. Always carry whether you think you'll need it or not.

[7dogguy]

Hello all,

I am medically retired for the past 12 years,

and a U.S. Army Veteran.

I did my time in Germany 1976-1979.

I currently live in Smyrna and I have to

travel in a power wheelchair when I'm out and about.

I haven't touched a weapon, other than a knife

since the Army days.

I have been thinking about getting my HCP,

and have been doing some research.

I am still undecided as the places where I spend my time

such as parks and lakes, it is my understanding that I

would not be allowed to carry a weapon in those places.

At least that is my understanding of the situation.

I don't feel like I need it going to the walmart

next to the police station...although

I like to go cruising out late evenings ( in good weather) in my powerchair,

and I have felt intimidated a couple of times by some local wanna be gangster/ punks, who are mostly young teenagers that don't speak english very well.

Usually all I carry is an ipod and a few bucks, id etc, nothing worth fighting

over. (I'm an easy target, but not a worthy target) can't run or fight..

For home defense I have an old S&W 38 special 6 shooter, and I have

an old single shot 410 I hold for my stepson, but it is not loaded with anything.

I've never shot either, but I did buy some new ammo for the .38 as I was afraid

the 20+ year old hollow points in it may not fire. I plan to try and shoot the pistol some in the spring, when the weather is good. I try to stay in the warm house in the winter. I have the ok from the wife, and I would like for her to have her's also, but

I doubt she would carry.

We are worried mostly about being sued if we shot someone, as we are homeowners

but would be hard put to hire a lawyer, as we live on disability. I'm pretty well convinced that a person involved in a shooting will be sued, and have to prove self defense.

So i will be lurking around here, and my ask a question or so, now and then.

Great forum, as I have gained some good knowledge from here , thanks.

Peace

P.S. I'm all Tennessee, I was raised in Roane county, the wife is from Oak Ridge.

Welcome and get your HCP.

[Grunt67]

Hello all,

I am medically retired for the past 12 years,

and a U.S. Army Veteran.

I did my time in Germany 1976-1979.

I currently live in Smyrna and I have to

travel in a power wheelchair when I'm out and about.

I haven't touched a weapon, other than a knife

since the Army days.

I have been thinking about getting my HCP,

and have been doing some research.

I am still undecided as the places where I spend my time

such as parks and lakes, it is my understanding that I

would not be allowed to carry a weapon in those places.

At least that is my understanding of the situation.

I don't feel like I need it going to the walmart

next to the police station...although

I like to go cruising out late evenings ( in good weather) in my powerchair,

and I have felt intimidated a couple of times by some local wanna be gangster/ punks, who are mostly young teenagers that don't speak english very well.

Usually all I carry is an ipod and a few bucks, id etc, nothing worth fighting

over. (I'm an easy target, but not a worthy target) can't run or fight..

For home defense I have an old S&W 38 special 6 shooter, and I have

an old single shot 410 I hold for my stepson, but it is not loaded with anything.

I've never shot either, but I did buy some new ammo for the .38 as I was afraid

the 20+ year old hollow points in it may not fire. I plan to try and shoot the pistol some in the spring, when the weather is good. I try to stay in the warm house in the winter. I have the ok from the wife, and I would like for her to have her's also, but

I doubt she would carry.

We are worried mostly about being sued if we shot someone, as we are homeowners

but would be hard put to hire a lawyer, as we live on disability. I'm pretty well convinced that a person involved in a shooting will be sued, and have to prove self defense.

So i will be lurking around here, and my ask a question or so, now and then.

Great forum, as I have gained some good knowledge from here , thanks.

Peace

P.S. I'm all Tennessee, I was raised in Roane county, the wife is from Oak Ridge.

Soapy, welcome to TGO. Medically retired here as well in '68, Army.

Thank you for your service to your country.

Go ahead & get your permit & for your wife as well. Much better to have it & not be

able to carry in some places than to need it & not have it.

I fully understand the difficult financial time, I'm not riding around in a Mercedes either.

Wish you the best, brother.........

[TGO David]

I have been thinking about getting my HCP,

and have been doing some research.

I am still undecided as the places where I spend my time

such as parks and lakes, it is my understanding that I

would not be allowed to carry a weapon in those places.

Sadly Smyrna parks are off-limits for legal carry. It's something I hope changes but since the city council and not the PD makes those rulings, it's going to take some common sense among our appointed city representatives to make it happen. I mention the PD because we are very fortunate to have a pro-gun Chief and largely pro-gun officers. There are some who don't feel that way, but most that I've met think you and I should be armed.

I don't feel like I need it going to the walmart

next to the police station

Actually that's one of the places in town that I feel that I actually do need my weapon on my person. That Wal-Mart is like a Denny's after midnight; chock full of freaks and thuglets. I've twice had to put my hand on my gun there, once in the parking lot and once inside the store at a register during Christmas when a young black male with gold teeth and ghetto attire asked me if I was paying cash for my purchases that night, all the while sizing me up. He went on about his business elsewhere when I allowed him to see my hand resting on my sidearm.

and I have felt intimidated a couple of times by some local wanna be gangster/ punks, who are mostly young teenagers that don't speak english very well.

Usually all I carry is an ipod and a few bucks, id etc, nothing worth fighting

over. (I'm an easy target, but not a worthy target) can't run or fight..

You just listed a lot of reasons why I'd want to be armed in your situation. Those kids you described are the ones that scare me the most, honestly. No morals, no ethics and no prohibitions toward robbing a guy in a powered wheel chair and perhaps killing him, even if for a few bucks and an iPod. Those cretin will kill each other over a pair of tennis shoes sometimes. Be careful!!!

For home defense I have an old S&W 38 special 6 shooter, and I have

an old single shot 410 I hold for my stepson, but it is not loaded with anything.

I've never shot either, but I did buy some new ammo for the .38 as I was afraid

the 20+ year old hollow points in it may not fire. I plan to try and shoot the pistol some in the spring, when the weather is good.

We need to get you out to the range with the middle-TN members sometime and let you fix that problem. I'd never want a firearm in my house that I hadn't shot, verified the function of, and had confidence in my operation of.

We are worried mostly about being sued if we shot someone, as we are homeowners

I'm more worried about being dead than being sued. I figure if I'm alive to be sued by the surviving members of some would-be-robber's family, then I did something right. It's going to be a seriously hard uphill battle for that family to sue you for defending yourself against their deceased criminal son. Especially given that you have clearly demonstrable physical impairments that put you at a staunch disadvantage in "hand to hand" situations.

At any rate, welcome to TGO. Be careful out there as you enjoy our fair city. It's a great place but my friendship with a few of our police officers has opened my eyes to the fact that some pretty bad stuff goes down around town that we never hear about because the media just doesn't report much about it. I guess that's because we don't exactly have a local newspaper.

[Links2k]

Welcome

[soapy]

Thanks for the welcome all. Especially the info/support.. Come better weather and better health I will take someone up on help. I am currently recovering from a fall getting out of the shower..Ouch!

Yup, new advances in drugs, has given me the ability to walk short distances and I was setting personal records. A month after the fall I am slowly exercising my way back. I haven't been able to get out much the last 10 years, nor paid much attention to what was happening, as I never thought I would make it this far...Times have changed as my neighbor put it..

and you veterans, back at ya... thank you also.

[soapy]

Ok I'm all in.. Glad I found this Sh*t hole.. Good active board.

TGO David does a good job.

Since I'm still green,

I selected a slingshot as my first weapon,

ummmmmK?

and me,

I look like Mr. Mackie

Southpark.

Humm let me look and see if I can change my nick to Mr. Mackie.. lol

[TGO David]

???

[soapy]

???

exactly.

I blames the drugs. Chemo every other month for one year now, for CIDP, not cancer.

It ain't that bad, and I am getting stronger than I have in years.

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I also suffer from OCD.

Like this

YouTube - Howard Hughes - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

I've come back from the dead, and I like to have a good time...

This looked like a good place..

If I need a reference, talk to dude at the kwick cash pawn, Enon springs rd..

don't know his handle on TGO,

but he will tell ya,

I'm crazy..

[Guest John J]

Welcome to TGO

[soapy]

???

TY John

I meant my first avatar is a slingshot. My weapon right now, is a walking cane. One with a sword inside it would be cool...

I'm not qualified on/with, any firearms at the moment. Without some training, I am chicken, its been a long time since I fired an

M-16 A1 rifle. Had to carry an army 45 cal, I don't remember ever firing it, but I must have qualified with it..

I'm weak, and I'm slow, I'm not going to let that stop me.

you'll just have to duck!!! when it's my turn..

[soapy]

Ok, where was I. O yeah.

I qualified and liked the M60 machine gun so well, I would volunteer to lug the heavy B*** so I could shoot it now and then. The others, seemed like toys after firing that.

RedEye anti-aircraft missle, later replaced by the Stinger. I went to a range in germany called Graph in veer. Don't know how to spell it.

I spent months learning to visually id aircraft, went to the range, and in the simulator , technology wasn't what it is today, I shot down the wrong aircraft a couple of times. was hard as heck to see em on this big screen that surrounded you. Out on the range, they were alot of duds, and some went every which way.. I didn't have to fire one, so I didn't. I still passed the course, ha, and the next couple of years during Nato exercises, I could get a jeep and trailer, throw a couple of missiles in it, grab a friend and an M60, go hide at the edge of a grape field, and drink wine for 3 days.. thats as close to the fighting as I ever got.

[soapy]

My Youth

I got my first BB gun, I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade. Shorty after, I walked into an apple orchard, spent the afternoon killing birds. The next day, I was ashamed and felt terrible for what I had done. I grew up in the woods, but I never killed anything but snakes after that. I was afraid of snakes.

If I'm scared, I can kill. (check)

I was around 10 or so, we went to my grandmothers sisters' house after church one sunday. No one was home and on the way out, we met the family in a car. Her husband had just committed suicide. Shot himself behind the right ear, with a 22 pistol.. I can remember it like it was yesterday.

A neighbor boy about my age, and I went into the house, and there was a small pool of blood, just inside the kitchen, not very much at all.

We got paper towels and cleaned it up. I never could go in there again without looking at that spot.

Over the years, I've lost relatives and friends to the gun, suicide, accidents, murder, you name it...

It weighs heavy on a mans heart.

[RobertNashville]

Welcome to TGO! I live in the "Boro" and am former military myself (USN '73-'81).

There is a TON of good info here that you'll find helpful...firearms are both useful for self-defense but also a heck of a lot of fun and you'll find plenty of info on both here.

When the weather gets better we'll definitely need to get you out to a range and let you do some plinking; I know I and many others here will be happy to let you shoot any of or weapons.

I guess I was about the same age as you when I got my first BB gun...my uncle (who was only 7 years older than I) used to shoot birds sometimes as well but we only shot the ones that were a problem for our 1 acre garden (we never shot any of the song birds or birds like Robins, Cardinals, etc). I guess I got my first real gun when I was about 10...it was a 410 single shot shot gun! Did some rabbit hunting with it...graduated to a single shot Savage 12 ga a couple of years later and used it for both rabbit and pheasant hunting (although I have to say, neither the rabbit nor pheasant populations of southern Ohio had much to fear from me!).

Take care..stay warm...Merry Christmas!

Edited December 20, 2010 by RobertNashville

[soapy]

where was I? murder , *nods his Head*

I was lucky to be raised in church with a musical family. That left me with a good ear, and I taught myself to play bass guitar.

I entered the army in the last year of the original GI BIll. I was able to enroll in roane state, and make my own way when I got home.

I wanted to play music, and I hooked up with a gospel group, and played with them on the weekends, student thru the week.

School is where I met Jim David Adkission. We had alot in common. Veterens, older than the other kids, he played guitar with his girlfriend, who was also an excellent guitar player. She could sing like a bird. We where peter paul and mary, *laughs* we played alot of little gigs togther. Some at school, we got invited to play for the UT chapter of NORML, the year the Worlds Fair was going down in K-Town. * whistles* got our faces on the nightly news.. Tv just set up, it was our turn, we played the song rhiannon by fleetwood mac. At one time, David and I shared rent on a trailer for a few months. David made fun of me for that gospel gig.... but not in a bad way...he just ragged me.... like a buddy would..

Somewhere in here I got tired of the gospel, and went active reserve for a weekend job. I was assigned to an engineer group in k-town.

I spent a month that summer at Ft Meade MD, going to medic school. I bought a new bike with my travel money and cruised up the coast from k town. good time. Soon as I returned home, I got an offer to play in a band. A good band, with groupies. I was hooked, and I never could seem to get up and make those weekend army meetings anymore. I got an offer to make some time up during the week. First day, I found the dead file, while fileing crap. If you had been active duty, and you quit attending the reserve, all they did was take your rank. I never went back, and was Honorably discharged as an E-1, three years later.

[soapy]

*waves to robert, goes for some lunch.*

[soapy]

The old man awoke with a start, and stared at the angel on top of the christmas tree.

He silently reminded himself to thank Robert for his service, and his company.

"then what did you do grandpaw? "

Well, in spite of all the parties, booze, and drugs, I graduated from Roane State with a good GPA. The economy was in the toilet. You think its, bad now.. he said as he slapped his leg. Shoot they was lines at the gas pumps, people fighting each other in the line.. You couldn't buy a job in E. Tennesse. Jimmy Carter was president. interest rates were 12% and up. Lost everything I had, band leader left for texas looking for work.

Got a country band together, and got a job as the house band at the VFW. Good thing about that was, u didn't have to move all that equipment.

Remind me someday kid, and I tell ya about time I roadied for the band John Kay and Steppenwolf. They had a few hits your probably too young to remember. Magic Carpet Ride and Born to be Wild were a couple if I remember correctly. Oh well, I'm rambling again, now where was I?

[soapy]

Oh yeah.

Just when I was about to hit bottom, God looked my way, and I got into a VA approved your gona be an electrician program. From then own, I worked 6, 7 days a week chasing the almighty dollar. That ended my music playing for many years.. No time at all for that.

David? We all called him Asskission. Our paths crossed a few times up until 1987, when I headed west. Then sometime around christmas, the year was, it's so hard to remember exactly, but I think it was between 2001 and 2004, somewhere in there.. I was already long in a wheelchair, my dreams washed away by disease, and time. Got a call from Asskission. He was down on his luck, but he had just gotten a job at the car plant in columbia. He asked if I could help him out with a place to stay, until he got a couple of checks. I said sure, thinking about all the good times we had pickin, and I looked forward to him coming. It didn't work out that way, he worked most of the time, when it came to playin music, I was really weak at the time, and he would get really drunk. He cussed every other word and his heart was full of hate. He hated women. Hated em.

He stayed a coupe of months, and I asked him to leave. He moved to the boro, and he came by one time after that to pick up some of his stuff.

The next time I heard anything about him was on the news boy, couple of years ago. He walked into a church in K-town with a shotgun in a guitar case, and opened fire. When the smoke had cleared, he had wounded 6 and killed 2 people, and was in police custody. I blame it on mental illness, caused by only God knows what. From things he told me, I have an idea why he picked the church. I better take those to the grave with me. Mental illness is a terrible thing boy, and it don't care who it gets.

He pleaded guilty to all charges with no trial for life in prison. I got a song out of it. You know, He was a songwriter, and if it had been me that lost it, he woulda wrote a song about it I bet. It took a long time, I cried for a year every time I tried. Pre-Mediated Murder it was, I got a copy of his manifesto right here, take a good long look..

The old man laid the paper on the table, and drifted off to a restless sleep while the boy read quietly. The lights on the christmas tree blinked quietly, as the old man mumbled something intelligible about a peanut farmer.

http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/021009church-manifesto.pdf

Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edited December 20, 2010 by soapy