Greetings From Seattle!

1
My user name is Ylatkit. This rambling screed is to introduce myself to this forum.

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.
And finally, I hope this works. I'm not a troll, in spite of the fact that I understand China is paying fifty cents a post, and what I've written above is the truth. Being accused of being a troll is when I know I won't be a member of that board for long.

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
Last edited by Ylatkit on Thu Dec 24, 2020 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Greetings From Seattle!

7
Hi from NJ!
IMHO, there's no such thing as too long an introduction...the longer the better. But there is such a thing as one that's too short--and we get plenty of those.
Actually, you sound like you'll find a home here.
My FAVORITE line that had me laughing and reading it to my wife was:
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.
That is SO true! I worked as a journeyman carpenter after college and even summers when I went back to grad school, in NC. All I needed to get a job was have someone check whomever my last employer was: "He shows up on time everyday and will work on a roof." Believe me, that was GOLDEN in the late 70's and early 80's!

I grew up in a Progressive household, north of NYC, youngest of 3 aging brothers (I'm 65). I enjoyed the occasional riflery at summer camps, one brother achieved Marksman status on our HS riflery team, but guns were strictly "verbotten" in our house, toy cap guns barely tolerated. Still I had very mixed feeling about 2A.

That all changed the morning of November 9, 2016, when it was clear that SOMEHOW the man known in New York as a crude, inappropriate, tasteless, dangerous, lying, incompetent buffoon had weaseled his way into the WH, only the 5th man to do so while losing the popular vote. He had inflamed his followers against immigrants who weren't White, European, and Christian, had winked at blatant anti-Semitic chants at his rallies, encouraged violence against critics and protesters, and was obviously, and still is, a direct threat to my family. We're Jewish and our younger son was born in Central America and given up for adoption at birth. He's smart, talented musically, athletic (cross-country), handsome (a totally unbiased opinion by his father and mother). But he's Mayan and is a naturalized citizen since he was 5 1/2 months old. And the people at the border who are separated from their kids, the ones being raided by ICE, look a lot more like him than we do. His older brother, now in LA County, is fiercely protective of him, and despite a big age gap, they are very close. He wanted a brother, didn't want to be an only, and asked that we adopt him one! So we did and it was one of the 3 best things I've done in my life--the other two were marrying their (future) mother, and fathering him.

He's a Jewish Mayan Immigrant, and the fact that he's 100% legal means nothing to the red-necked red hats. And so, I became a gun owner, handguns--two striker 9mms, and .357/.38 revolver, 3 PCCs, 2 9mm semis, 1 .357/.38 Marlin, and a .308 AR-10.

Also married to a PhD--Econ and Finance. In love for 35 years, married 33 of them--isolated together since March and we almost never have cross words.

BTW, my dearest and best friend for 45 years, was my best man, is now a member of the LGC, and lives in Renton. After going to college in the 2nd rainiest city in the US (Binghamton), he decided decades ago to move to the rainiest--Seattle! His parents were Puerto RIcan (RIP) and his DNA is a mix of, well, everything. And he's a Wiccan! (My wife describes me as "a devout Agnostic").

(I can be long-winded and wordy too! :roflmao:)
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Greetings From Seattle!

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tonguengroover wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 7:04 pm Cool, missed that into dude.

I'd like to hear more about that home invasion unless it's too stressful.
Guy who turned out to be crazy came down our street breaking windows, beating on doors, bashing cars with a bat. It happened at about 5:30 in the morning. I was still awake, I was reading, when the dog suddenly woke up and went off.

My door happened to be the one he actually got through. When I got to him, he was sitting on my couch, talking about demons and lights, like we were in the middle of a conversation. We adjourned to the porch, and waited for the cops, who were arriving in a hurry from both directions.

He spent fourteen months locked in Western State (the local loony bin) before being released back into the streets.

As you can see, there were more than two hundred people involved before it was over, and my part was actually one of the smallest.

I was proud of all of them, including his defense team, right up until they released him back into the streets.

Re: Greetings From Seattle!

16
Welcome from another Seattle resident. Born and Raised. (actually born in Bellevue when it was just a tiny village, but raised in Seattle) Like you I am married to a liberal, a NYC girl I met while serving in the Coast Guard. Like you, I used to vote Republican, but when Reagan got elected that ended and when Heston took over the NRA so did my membership. Oddly enough from 1991 to 2004 I lived less than half a mile from their HQ in Fairfax VA. I was working at USCG HQ in those days. And, in my family we don't tolerate racism or discrimination. We are both of white European stock, mostly German and Irish. But, my sister in law is native American, so is my son in law. Another sister in law on my wife's side married a Cuban. (unfortunately that marriage didn't last but it had nothing to do with his heritage) My younger sister was married to an African American for several years and one day he just packed up left Seattle and went back to Bakersfield. Now why would anyone go to Bakersfield? I've been there, it's too hot! Oddly I was raised in Church that has a history of pacifism. But I don't think they preach that any more. Not since a pastors son was nearly killed in Vietnam and became a paraplegic.

I too am a 1911 guy. Cut my teeth on them when I enlisted and have had several over the years and still have one. Unlike your wife, mine would never ever own a gun (but she does know what to do with one because I taught her many years ago. She just doesn't like them.
Anyway welcome. Maybe I'll run into you some time.

And by the way I know very well who Hinmaton-Ylatkit is, History of the American west is one of my favorite subjects and years ago I did a research paper on the Nez Perce War. Strangely the guy who pursued Chief Joseph, Brig Oliver Otis Howard, is the same person who founded Howard University in DC, for people who were freed by Lincoln, to get an education. The Nez Perce licked 6 army units before they got run to ground just a few miles from the Canadian border in northern Montana.

PS: About a month ago there was a shooting just outside our apartment house. I (and a lot of others) called the police and the dispatcher asked me if I was sure they were gunshots. I really had to bite my tongue and just said yes I am sure. The police caught the shooter a couple blocks away, Fortunately he was a really lousy shot and no one got hurt.
Peter D. EIkenberry
http://newboatbuilders.com
"Don't tell me that I can't, tell me how I can!"

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