Greetings from the Second City

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Morning folks,

Born and raised in Chicago where I currently reside after a stint in the Marine Corps.

Work in the electrical engineering field during the day where no one in my family actually knows what I do. I write comicbooks during the evenings, all of which are created on my Linux laptop and desktop, because I've been a nerd since I could move a mouse.

Everyone at the small office knows I'm prior service, and one day a guy asked what kind of guns I have. I drew a blank, then flashback to shortly after my EAS five years ago where I told myself I was going to buy a gun, no several guns as soon as I moved back home.

I had forgotten how much fun it was to shoot in the Corps, and I woke up one morning and realized I had a wife so I should probably protect her.

So I'm here while I run through the Illinois gauntlet so I can get approved for my right to own a firearm.

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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lurker wrote::welcome:
we're going to want to know what you like to shoot with, and since you mention comics we're going to want to see those, too. and we're enablers, and will happily encourage you to spend money. and your wife, get her a gun so she can protect you too. just sayin'.
Well I'm going to the range next week, which will mark the first time shooting since the military. Never touched a gun before boot camp. But when I was in, I took a fondness to the SAW and M240G and shot it whenever the opportunity presented, because who wouldn't?

I had to carry a Beretta M9 for my MOS, but only got to fire it a few times, but I thought it was a solid tool. I'm got proficient with the M16, but I saw it more as a necessity for the job than fun.

My own comic is a SciFi mini series that's taken me years to finish, especially because I got hired by another publisher as a project manager for a true crime one shot.

Here is a few pages from the first issue of my comic: https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... opOFSpjSky

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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CDFingers wrote:Welcome from California where shooting stuff is also fun.

CDFingers
Which part? I travel to California a couple times a year to promote my comic book.

Thanks folks. I do have a list of pistols I want to shoot before I buy. I'm more concerned with home defense and concealed carry for the time being.

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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DMac wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 11:02 am
CDFingers wrote:Welcome from California where shooting stuff is also fun.

CDFingers
Which part? I travel to California a couple times a year to promote my comic book.

Thanks folks. I do have a list of pistols I want to shoot before I buy. I'm more concerned with home defense and concealed carry for the time being.
Oh, come up here to Butte County where men are men and sheep are scared. We have some colleges and various comic book conventions.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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It does take a bit of an expedition mentality to come up here, which explains why almond trees outnumber people. Make better neighbors, too. We just replaced the Crooked House play slide in Children's Park with a new one, so we're expecting an influx of tourists as soon as the temperature stays below 90 for a few days...

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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Hi DMac, welcome to the forum!

I was MOS 2170 (Navy Medical Warrant) assigned to the 1st Marine Division in the 1970s. We were the lucky souls in Cambodia building that damn concrete road.

My job was to patch Marines up with holes in them - Marines play too rough - someone is always getting hurt.

...

"Home defense" is a very different use case from "concealed carry" - I have now owned several CCW firearms and I settled on "smaller is better" for my needs.

I have a lightweight J-Frame that can shoot .357, but I actually carry Critical Defense .38 sp in it.

And, I have a Sig P238 .380 ACP (it is a 1911 clone).

Both are small, easy to carry all the time and conceal well.

...

I like the cartoons - really.

...

Linux - what a nerd!! Do you use Gimp? Inkscape? Krita? Karbon? Something else? What are your favorite tools on Linux? :clap2:
Last edited by max129 on Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Greetings from the Second City

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Mac said:

... political machine here have been foolishly treating the effects of gang culture (violent crime) as a gun problem.
As they have everywhere.

If you draw the line forward, you get to England, where you cannot buy a kitchen knife until you are 21 years old. Oh, and they just banned Lever Action Rifles there as "assault weapons" - I kid you not.

And yet, their violence ebbs and flows with time based on social conditions, gangs, economics, drug use and so forth - unrelated to weapons ownership in any way.
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Re: Greetings from the Second City

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I was 2311 and I was actually attached to a MEU for a year for Libya. So I spent a lot of time with the Navy, aside from Corpsmans.

Marines doing stupid shit and getting hurt? Never heard of that...

So here in Illinois it takes 90-120 days to get approved for concealed carry and that's after I get my FOID and complete the CCW class. So I'll have time to get accustomed to a home defense gun before I can even carry. Which means I'll end up with at least two pistols.

You'll pry my Linux kernel from my cold dead hands. I use GIMP and Krita for managing files from my artists, and I use Scribus for layouts.

I also program Bash or Python scripts for various redundant tasks.

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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max129 wrote:
Mac said:

... political machine here have been foolishly treating the effects of gang culture (violent crime) as a gun problem.
As they have everywhere.
True, but there is a reason why Chicago has such high crime rates compared to the other two major cities. Without boring you with details, the gangs have actually gotten worse since policies were implemented a decade or so ago.

Lever actions are assault rifles now? Lol

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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DMac wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 3:44 pm
YankeeTarheel wrote:Hi, from NJ!

(Still jet-lagged from driving most of the length of Cali, and part of Oregon--from Eugene to Irvine and then on the red-eye back east)
I have a simple rule: If the trip is a minute over 4 hour drive, I'm hopping my ass on a jet.
Too simple! My son had to move his car and all his stuff back to Irvine. Besides, we enjoyed ourselves doing it--but it was grueling.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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DMac wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 3:44 pm
YankeeTarheel wrote:Hi, from NJ!

(Still jet-lagged from driving most of the length of Cali, and part of Oregon--from Eugene to Irvine and then on the red-eye back east)
I have a simple rule: If the trip is a minute over 4 hour drive, I'm hopping my ass on a jet.
Funny, my rule is six hours. I guess your airport must be closer to you and easier to traverse.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Greetings from the Second City

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K9s wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 10:39 pm
DMac wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 3:44 pm
YankeeTarheel wrote:Hi, from NJ!

(Still jet-lagged from driving most of the length of Cali, and part of Oregon--from Eugene to Irvine and then on the red-eye back east)
I have a simple rule: If the trip is a minute over 4 hour drive, I'm hopping my ass on a jet.
Funny, my rule is six hours. I guess your airport must be closer to you and easier to traverse.
Two airports, actually. Life in the big city. :cool:

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