I intend to run my true colors up now, in this post, and hope some friends see them. That way, if I'm not going to fit in here, I won't have to spend weeks or months annoying everyone before I get banned. And if I will fit in here, we can all know that after one post. It will, therefore, be a relatively long post.
(Note: it's WAY longer than I thought it would be. Sorry about that! But there's plenty of information here, there should certainly be enough to decide definitively whether you welcome me here or not.)
I don't have a good record with gun forums. Like everyone, I'm a mass of contradictions, I am not a one-issue voter, and I usually don't get along with fanatics of any kind, with the possible exception of those who are trying to stay sober. (I am not, but I can see how that struggle may need to be fanatical at times.) No tolerance for fanatics sort of eliminates most of the folks who inhabit common gun boards.
A side note, in jest: at a job interview, the boss asked the old man what his main fault was, and the old man answered “I tell the truth.” The boss said “I don't think that's a fault!” and the old man said “I don't give a fuck what you think.”
With me, we could start there. I'm not ancient, I'm 63. That's not real old, but my back tells me (constantly) that I'm not young, either. When it's coupled with retirement, it's plenty old enough not to care what most folks think of my votes, hair, powder choice, scope or holster. 63 means that one of my earliest memories is JFK's funeral on a black and white TV.
Some facts, then, about me, as well as some of my opinions. This way, you won't have to wait until I reveal them, and you don't have to suspect me of anything. I'll just tell you. Here. Now.
I'll start with the basics, and write down stuff as it occurs to me. This list contains many, many different reasons why I have been banned from common gun forums.
- Ylatkit is a last name, although that doesn't really apply. The name is Hinmaton-Ylatkit. Translated from Plateau Salish to English, it means Thunder-Rolling-Down-The-Mountains, or Thunder-In-The-Mountains. There is a chance that you've heard of him as Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perce.
- I am San Poil, one of the bands in the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. That's in Eastern Washington.
- Except for a few years, I have lived my whole life in North Seattle. I grew up in Ravenna, and currently live in North Greenlake.
- I am an army veteran. I was in the infantry, I served in Korea and Fort Campbell.
- I served at Camp Casey and Camp Liberty Bell in Korea.
- I was at Camp Liberty Bell, assigned as a rifleman to Alpha, 2nd Battalion 9th Infantry, on August 18th, 1976. I was clearing, getting ready to come home.
- Professionally, I was a general contractor. I was licensed for 20 to 22 years, depending on how you count.
- By trade, I'm a journeyman carpenter. I served an apprenticeship with locals 131 (Seattle, then, now I understand it's just local 31) and 1797 (Renton).
- I've been a dump truck driver, a loader operator, a real estate salesman, a bookkeeper, a hod carrier and a ditch digger.
- I have a degree as a paralegal from a community college.
- I have a certificate as a surveyor.
- I hated construction. I wanted to work wood, and cut fine dovetails. I poured concrete, more concrete than most people have walked on, by the acre at Sea-Tac Airport, all through downtown Seattle, and I dug ditches, many, many ditches, and waterproofed basements.
- Don't ever get a reputation as a guy who can dry out a wet basement. It'll be the last time you see the sun.
- I retired when I was 48. We set a number, the house paid off and this number in the bank, and I was counting the days down until that last check cleared. Then I just walked away. Didn't even clear out the storage shed. I just sold the keys.
- I've been with The Lady That I Love for 28 years.
- I was trained and certified by the NRA as an instructor in a number of pistol disciplines.
- I won an RIA milspec in .38 Super in a steel competition.
- I don't really care for .38 Super.
- I built a 1911 in a week long class with Bob Rodgers. It was a long, exhausting week.
- In a strange twist, he lives on the Nez Perce res in Idaho. He moved there from the deep south. So I spent a week rattling around a town where everyone knew who Hinmaton Ylatkit was.
- I'm fairly new to rifles. Other than the army, not much experience. I'm a 1911 guy.
- I was stunned to learn that one buys a rifle for his scope, not a scope for his rifle.
- I've loaded all my own ammo since I started competing, in about 2003, or 2004.
- I stopped competing in about 2008. I just got burned out on it.
- I carry an RIA milspec virtually everywhere.
- Unless you're a cop or a soldier, carrying a weapon is an act of fear.
- Yes, I've heard all about sheep, sheepdogs and wolves. Real sheepdogs carry badges.
- I met Her on a dive boat in British Columbia.
- She was a Senior Scientist at the UW, a genuine, Princeton trained, Ivory Tower, ACLU card carrying, bona fide lefty-liberal Moonbat.
- When she heard that term, she promptly started a new main in WoW, and named her Moonbat.
(WoW is an online game.) - Her work has been quoted in one of the decisions the Supreme Court made.
- The Supreme Court. Yes, that one.
- Our second date was in Oslo. I had to get a passport to date her.
- After watching me carry a 1911 for twenty years, she said “if all gun owners were like you and Pete (the guy who taught me to shoot) I wouldn't have a problem with guns.”
- Five years later, she bought a Ruger 22/45.
- A year later, she denied owning a gun, and when we talked about it, she said “let me clear this up for you. When I want to be a gun owner, the Ruger is mine. I will keep it in your safe. You may borrow it to teach your classes. But when I want to be a hard-core lefty-liberal Moonbat anti, the Ruger is yours. Any questions?”
- Nope. Got it.
- Never try to persuade a liberal to own a gun. The only way that will work is patient example and honest answers with complete, dead-accurate information.
- Besides, that way you get to keep your self-respect.
- One way to tell if someone knows what the hell they're talking about is the words “I don't know.”
- I dropped my NRA membership. I cannot stomach the current state of that organization.
- I can't stand LaPierre.
- I can't stand Nugent.
- The format of the “elections” of the Board of Directors for the NRA is designed to keep current board members on the board for as long as they want to be there, and the board keeps LaPierre at the top.
- I will not re-join the NRA until and unless LaPierre and Nugent are gone, there is logical way for all members to vote on the Board of Directors, and there is a mechanism for instructors to change the curriculum of their classes.
- I can't stand virtually any of the politics associated with the NRA.
- I can't stand the stance that we are in a WAR with the liberal enemy.
- We are not in a war, and liberals are not an enemy. I know what war is, and I sleep with a liberal.
- I can't stand virtually any of the politics associated with every gun board I've joined (and been kicked off of) to date.
- I've taught professionally at five ranges around the Puget Sound.
- My student count is somewhere in the low thousands, both NRA and Cooper curriculums.
- We are a capitalist society. The one putting up the money calls the tune. When the range provides the guns, the ammo, the instructor and the space for a class, the owner of the range sets the curriculum.
- At some ranges, (Kenmore, Renton Fish & Game) that curriculum is a straight up NRA curriculum. Others need not apply, and there can be no deviation.
- The NRA Intro curriculum is 16 hours long, a weekend, and includes a two hour block of instruction on “Why We Own Guns”.
- I taught at one range where the Intro class included a tour of the attached gun shop.
- The Cooper Intro curriculum taught at Wade's is four hours long.
- “Tell 'em the safety rules, demonstrate stance, grip, sight picture, trigger squeeze and follow through. After that, why are you still talking? Put 'em on the line, hand 'em the weapons, let 'em shoot, wrap it up, count the weapons and let's go to Red Robin.”
- I've made as much a $100 an hour explaining the Tueller Drill and what 21 feet means.
- The Tueller Drill is the most difficult thing I teach. It's by far the thing that confuses the most students. Even cops. Maybe especially cops.
- I had my own company for a while to teach freelance, but it didn't go anywhere. You make $100 an hour for four hours, and that's it for the month. But I got to set the curriculum.
- We've had a home invasion.
- Joe Biden is the President-Elect.
- The election was not rigged.
- I'll lose respect for you instantly if you tell me the president is going to have a second term because of the legal bombshell that...
- I'm a half-breed. I have no tolerance for racism. I wouldn't know which hand to hate.
- I have no tolerance for overt racism, racist language, covert codes, dog whistles or implied racism.
- I will speak up, every time. (Think about that before you decide if you want me here. That can be a problem. How I speak up is negotiable, I intend to do so in a way that preserves my self-respect and follows your rules, but no, I won't let racism go.)
- Take everything I just wrote about race and racism, and apply it to gender, religion, country of origin, LGBTQ or lack of religion issues.
- Equality is not equal pay for the WNBA. Equality is a female center in the NBA and a female MVP quarterback in the NFL.
- At our house, home to a world class Moonbat who loves an idiot ditch digger, you respect the other points of view living here or you sleep on the couch.
- I've found that after all this time living with mutual respect, I hold those who don't do so in contempt, and I've also found that I do not wish to live without that respect for my views. So far, this eliminates every gun board I've joined.
- I believe in open borders. People are the ultimate resource, leadership the ultimate skill, and the larger the aggregate number, the better.
- We get stronger every time an immigrant crosses the border.
- Yeah, there's one of those other issues that I consider when I vote.
- I've voted Republican, I've even stood as a representative for King County Republicans.
- President Trump and the people who enabled him have cured me of ever considering the Republican party again.
- If you're writing secular law for religious reasons, I'm against you.
- Being born to the north or the south of an imaginary line doesn't get you any points, nor does it get any points counted against you.
- Black Lives Matter. If your answer is that “ALL lives matter”, that tells me you don't understand the issues or the situation behind the slogan.
- I am proud to live in a Sanctuary City.
I know enough about shooting, 1911s, reloading and self defense to have a lot of questions. I'm willing to write what little I know in return.
I await your decisions, and I honestly hope this is a gun board I can join, as myself.
~Ylatkit