Guns are not the problem!

There were 40 or 50 of us gathered at a remote location in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town had one store with three gas pumps. Only one was operational and sold only the cheapest unleaded gas. You had to go inside to pay. The card readers didn’t work.

We arrived in an assortment of pickup trucks, SUVs and cars. Many towed trailers with all-terrain vehicles on them. Everyone was decked out in camouflage and ready for action!

All had long guns. Most were semi-automatic weapons but there were a few double guns like my own.

There were several highly-trained canines lounging about.

My estimate was that, as a group, we had 10,000 rounds of ammunition. We could easily have taken the town with one store and held it until Gov. Kemp sent the National Guard. We could have laid waste to the local population but we didn’t. Instead we laid waste to the local dove population.

The occasion was the opening day of dove season Sept. 7. We were all on the Montgomery farm. The little town is called Mauk. The farm is a massive spread put together by the late Freeman Montgomery. Freeman died in January 2021 of COVID. He served as a county commissioner in Talbot County for 50 years.

Freeman started the dove shoot some 60 years ago. Donations from hunters go to support the nearby Pine Level Cemetery where Freeman, his son Ricky, his parents Seaborne Lafayette Montgomery and Emmie Lou Lumpkin Montgomery and a host of other family members are buried.

Robbie Montgomery, his brother Roger and mother Barbara continue the tradition. The next generation of Montgomerys are being taught how to keep it going when this one is gone on to Pine Level.

Work on the dove field starts well before spring. It includes fertilization, weed control, the planting of millet and sunflowers and seemingly never ending weed control. Once the crops are mature, they have to be harvested properly in order to attract and hold mourning doves.

Having considerable experience in preparing dove fields, I can attest this one was perfectly done.

We had a safety meeting, a heartfelt prayer, a superb lunch of barbecued chicken, barbecued pork, coleslaw, beans, deserts, sweet tea and lemonade.

Then we went to the field and shot up most of the aforementioned ammunition. Fathers and grandfathers shot. Many young boys – children and grandchildren – served as retrievers. No one had to rock them to sleep that night.

Lead flew from just after 1 p.m. to near dark. Darting doves hurt some feelings but no one was injured.

There were no accidents. We all know firearms and how to use and lock them away properly.

I wrote all that to write this. Guns are not the problem that leads to school shootings!

What does lead to school shootings? I would lead off with piss poor parenting. In fact, when these things happen, the parents should be immediately arrested. The father of Colt Gray, the Apalachee High shooter, was arrested. His mother is a meth head with an extensive criminal record. Both bear equal responsibility for the killings their son is no doubt guilty of.

Another factor is drugged kids. I’m talking about legal ADD, ADHD and other psych drugs that are prevalent among our children.

The foremost reason is a lack of a deterrent. Already the talk is shifting from his victims to Gray himself. We will pay for his legal counsel and all sorts of psych evaluations. We will hear about how he was a good kid twisted by his environment and how he can be rehabilitated, his soul redeemed and he can be freed to kill again.

That’s BS. There is no place in heaven for Colt Gray and his ilk and never will be.

He will never sit at my grandmother’s heavenly table and eat her lacy cornbread.

The school resource officers who had him in their sights could have killed him on the spot.

But, they controlled their firearms.

Given the carnage they no doubt saw, I’m not sure I could have done the same.