• I have ridden bicycles with no helmet
• I’ve drank from the garden hose
• I have jumped home made ramps
• I’ve played kickball
• I’ve played baseball
• I’ve played football
• I’ve had a crush on a teacher (still do)
• I’ve chased girls at recess
• I’ve climbed trees
• I’ve fallen out of trees
• I swam in the ocean
• I SCUBA dived in the ocean
• I’ve skinny dipped
• I’ve ridden in a small boat from Florida to the Bahamas
• I’ve driven cars way too fast
• I’ve wrecked cars
• I’ve ridden a train
• I’ve ridden a bus across town
• I’ve ridden a bus across the country
• I’ve raced motorcycles
• I’ve raced cars
• I’ve flown airplanes
• I’ve moved away from home
• I’ve moved back home
• I’ve joined the military
• I’ve seen the sunrise over the Straits of Gibraltar
• I’ve seen the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean
• I helped dig out 241 bodies of American service members from bombed rubble
• I’ve slept on the beaches of the Indian Ocean
• I have swam in the Indian Ocean with no sight of land
• I have traversed the Suez Canal
• I’ve spent a week on a Caribbean Island
• I’ve dined in 4 star restaurants in France
• I’ve had dinner in Italy
• I’ve drank Sangria in Spain
• I’ve gambled in Monte Carlo
• I’ve been to countless European destinations
• I have jumped out of airplanes
• I have slid down ropes onto the decks of pitching ships
• I have slept in the desert
• I’ve helped drop bombs on North Africa
• I’ve swam in the waters of Grotta Azzurra
• I’ve seen ruled people become free in Romania
• I’ve seen wild kangaroos
• I’ve watched the sunset and sunrise in Malaysia
• I’ve been North of the Arctic Circle
• I’ve crossed the equator
• I’ve rescued people at sea
• I’ve seen people die at sea
• I have saved lives
• I have taken lives
• I have been shot
• I have shot
• I have been stabbed
• I have lost family
• I have lost friends
• I have made new friends
• I have been primitive camping alone
• I have driven 4 wheel drive vehicles on mountains
• I have driven 4 wheel drive vehicles in swamps
• I have hunted for food
• I have been hungry
• I have been homeless
• I have seen things no other human being should ever see
• I have seen things every other human being should see
• I have done things no human being should be asked/told to do
• I have done things every other human being should do

When I look back at my life, I realize that I have been blessed to experience so many things that some people only dream of. I have had the opportunity to experience life in so many ways. Not always great. but life experienced.

Would I change anything? Yes. One thing. I would have met my wife much sooner. I would have met her when I was 20 (our age difference notwithstanding). I would have fallen in love with her then like I am in love with her now. So that we could have experienced all of this together.

Beyond that I would not change a thing. My life has made me who I am today. Love it or not. It is who I am. Part asshole and part teddy bear. I love my life and the people in it. I would not change a thing now.

I have had more guns pointed at me tonight than I have had in the last 15 years (or longer).

So I was at Cabela’s in August Georgia tonight looking at pistols.    Standing at the gun counter and waiting to be approached by one of the sales staff.  And waiting.  And waiting some more.

As I am waiting, there is a customer to my right being helped by a gentleman.  The customer is interested in a particular weapon and had brought in a torn out portion of an advertisement.

The salesperson reaches in the gun cabinet and retrieves a pistol.  And like all of their firearms, the magazine is in the weapon.  The sales person is across and to my right.

The first thing he did was set the firearm on the glass counter.  Never dropped the magazine.  Never cleared the weapon in a safe direction.  The muzzle of the firearm was pointed directly at my stomach, his hand was laying on it.  So me being me, and according to my wife an “unapologetic asshole” I do what I do.  Called him out.  Rather loudly I proclaimed that “I would appreciate it if you would point the muzzle of that weapon somewhere other than my belly.”

He quickly turned it.  Towards his OWN stomach.  Keep in mind the weapon had not been cleared yet.  He then proceeded to hand it to the fine customer standing there with his little torn out coupon or whatever.

Mr. Potential Firearms Purchaser proceeds to pick the weapon up, didn’t clear it, and points it over the sales person’s shoulder.  Sales person informs him that he must squeeze the grip to activate the on board laser pointing device.  Mr. Purchaser, with his finger on the trigger sweeps the muzzle of the still as yet uncleared firearm across the chest of the sales person, me, and other people standing near me and proceeds to point the weapon around the store.  With his finger.  On the trigger of an uncleared weapon.

While this is going on, another sales person behind the counter his handling a semi-automatic shotgun.  He took it off the shelf as I had walked up and was showing it to another potential customer.  I counted no less than six occasions when the muzzle of that shot gun swept my torso while I was standing there.

It is NEVER OK to hand someone an uncleared firearm.  Ever.
It is NEVER OK to sweep the muzzle of any firearm across the body of another person.  Ever.
It is NEVER OK to put your finger on the trigger of a firearm unless you are ready to shoot.  Ever.

I don’t think I will ever go inside that store again.  Ever.

Cabela’s.  If you need some firearms safety training for your staff please contact me.  I have several friends who are professionals and you can contact them directly.

UPDATE 1

I received this via Twitter on December 9th at about 10:47AM EST:

Could you please send us your contact details to customer.service@cabelas.com w/twitter in the subject. We’d like to contact you about this. -Melanie

UPDATE 2

I received this in the afternoon of December 9th from an anonymous source:

As a former gun counter employee at that fine establishment, there is no training hands on with any firearms. They “figure it out” as they go. One of the many reasons I happily left.

UPDATE 3

And this later that night in an email:

Response By Email (Melanie D.) (12/09/2017 09:18 PM)

Hello Scott,

Thank you for sending in this email.

I have sent your contact information over to our Supervisor.  They will be arranging to have a member of management contact you.

Thank you for visiting cabelas.com.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Cabela’s.

Sincerely,
Melanie D.
Customer Service

UPDATE 4

Received a call from I believe the District Manager for Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s.  He apologized for the incident and said it would be taken care of.  I am not sure what that means but I do know that I will not go back into that store.  Not happy.

So this article has been floating around in my head since Hurricane Harvey specifically and the 2017 hurricane season generally. And might even go back to 2016 and Hurricane Matthew in some fashion.

Who are the First Responders? The obvious answer is law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and others who are paid (in most cases but lots of volunteers in these positions as well) to be there. No question. These are all people who subject themselves to piss poor pay for for piss poor working conditions, putting their lives on the line everyday. I was one of them.

My thoughts about first responders started changing a while back. It started with a thought that I started voicing a couple years ago.

“I am responsible for my safety as well as my family’s. Law Enforcement is my back up. Not the other way around.”

The more I thought about this, and watching the first responders on the television, I realized that that title is not limited to public safety.

My friend David McCoy of Loadup Ammunition in Grovetown, Georgia and his team are a perfect example. I don’t know the other team member’s names. But in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, they loaded up trucks with supplies, grabbed an airboat and trailer, and left Georgia, left their families, left the comfort of their homes and headed to Houston Texas.

They spent their own money. Used their own gear. Ate MREs. Drank bottled water. Just to go to Houston and help people they didn’t know who found themselves in a bad situation. They helped local public safety rescue people. Retrieve medicines from flooded homes. Retrieved people from flooded areas.

They went into areas local public safety had no way of getting in to. They responded when no one else could. They responded first.

This isn’t about Dave and his team. They are just one of many who responded. I just happen to be friends with him. Proudly. This is about widening the scope of the term First Responder.

It is not just for public safety.

It is the most American thing we can do. And these guys did it unselfishly and absolutely without expectation of any payment or reward. They helped other human beings and are true heroes.