Today, spent 10 hours doing the CHL now called LTC class.  It went one wayyyyy longer than it should have.  The instructor went into all kinds of personal stories that had nothing to do with shooting and a personal friend of his was taking the class and he kept yapping on and on and onnnnnnn about non-related issues that had absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with guns, shootings, nothing.  I was getting irritated with these people just dragging this out.  I'm telling you that the classroom portion of the training could have easily been cut by 3 hours without all of that nonsense.  I don't want to hear all of that stuff, this isn't a social club, let's get on with it! Turns out I wasn't the only one have the same thoughts.  

I missed 3 questions on the test and that because the instructor didn't go over those things.  I passed well beyond the minimum grade so no biggies.  We then went to the shooting range. As the instructor predicted, there were people there that had no clue, whatsoever, how to use a gun.  They couldn't load it, they couldn't shoot it, they kept messing up and the 50 rounds that we needed to shoot on various shooting tests at various ranges, that could have taken maximum 1 hour, went on for almost 3 hours.  Look, the instructor was an expert, I'm not going to deny that.  As far as information, he was tops.  For example, I found out today that a person on your property committing any kind of crime in Texas at night - caveat is night time - you can legally shoot.  They could be stealing the rims off your car, picking up a $10 lawn implement, whatever and yes, you could go out there and legally blow them away. Kids teepeeing your house - yup, you can shoot to kill.

There are all kinds of circumstances which I would have never thought  that legal force could legally be used where yes, you can blow them away and not go to jail.  Now, I do not believe a person should lose their life for stealing.  If I found someone stealing something from me on my property - and rental is considered your property - I would be highly unlikely to want to kill the person.  I'm not going to say I would use other kind of non-lethal force, but killing a person for stealing or teepeeing your house just.. no.  Someone breaking into your house, maybe.  If they are armed, definitely.  Someone coming at me in my car, again, if they are armed, yes, if not, no.  The castle doctrine here applies to the inside of your car as it does in Arizona.  

Anyway, we got to the shooting part.  I was nervous. Not to shoot a gun, done that plenty.  Just to get enough points to pass. 250 was maximum points you could score, you needed minimum 175 to pass.  The instructor flat told everyone that the kind of gun like I have isn't really good for this kind of test.  Well too late.  Only pistol I have.  It's been at least 8 months since I've shot the thing, which was another reason I was nervous.  

My first shot hit the line on the bullseye.  Several shots after that were too low.  So I raised the gun slightly after I thought I had it lined up and that helped.  But, the rapid succession firing is what hurt with the kind of gun I have and the long trigger pull to shoot it.  The instructor checked everyone's guns and said, ouch, the trigger on this is stiff!  I can fix this and shorten the pull for only $35 to modify it.  Yup, I'm all over that, left the gun with him.  He's a police officer and has all kinds of titles related to training both the public and law enforcement, I figured I can trust the man with my gun. 

Well, all said and done and people who had to be shown how to use a gun - seriously, you're coming to a gun class that authorizes you to carry it concealed and you don't even know how to use the thing, a bit scary - I scored a 221.  Which is a decent score and beat a lot of people there though there was one dude that scored 249.  Still, for the length of time that has passed since I pulled the trigger, I'm happy with myself.  Now, the rest of the stroy.  An online application that has all kinds of hoops to jump through and it can take up to 3 months to actually receive your license.  Oh well.  No big hurry, I just wanted to get this done.  A huge list of states that recognize and allow Texas permit there.  

Well I was with the lady landlord and one of her coworkers all day.  She announced that she had been invited to a trail ride at one of the other worker's ranch next Saturday, would you like to come and bring your 4 wheeler?  I didn't do all that work to that thing to let it sit indefinitely!  She had asked the man if we could bring it and he said yes and that we could bring it anytime, not just during an official trail ride. He lives less than 10 miles away.  Definitely going to take it out next weekend and see how she rides.  The thing fires right up, has plenty of power, the only remaining problem is the bushing at the bottom of the steering column but it's just making noise.  The column isn't loose and it turns easy enough.  I'll replace it, I would have already done so but I got focused on other issues and just let it go for a while.  It's not an expensive part, it is rather involved with removing the radiator to get at it and some other things.  I'm confident I can ride it the way it is.  

The leader of the Communion team called me yesterday and asked me to help out today.  I said yes at the time, completely forgetting about this concealed carry course and had to call him today and bow out.  He asked about tomorrow and I said yes.  Now, I could have said the 11 am service, but I said the 9 am for whatever strange, odd reason and now? I'm regretting that.  After today, I want to sleep in tomorrow.  Oh well.  Getting up at 7:30 isn't that bad, especially if I go to bed earlier than normal.  

Well enough.