Guns in Alaska

This weekend we took the concealled weapons class. Not because we need to.

Handguns,rifles and shotguns have always been legal in Alaska. The average Alaskan owns 3.5 guns. You can wear them openly.

The only reason they made the Alaska concealled weapons law in 2003 was so that you could wear a jacket over your gun.

Locally, it is wise to wear one while fishing and hiking. Although the great majority of our local brown Kodiak bears are nice, you never know when one might act mean. So we pack a handgun quite often in the woods. And we practice. The indoor range is quite a social place in the Fall and Winter.

So it is no surprise that Kodiak is the number one contrubutor to the NRA in total dollars; even more than the big cities like Dallas.... and we only have 14,000 people!

Here is our class make-up: 30% Coast Guard personnel, 30% physicians, 10% nurnsing, 10% clergy, 10% educational, and 10% other. We all passed.

For the class we had to use an outline of a "human" target". But, I'll tell you, the prior weekend was much more popular. In the Fall and in the Spring they have a "charging bear" event. A poster of a bear is placed on a cart that is pulled to you as fast as possible. The goal is to draw you weapon and incapasitate the bear before he reaches you. Admittedly it is closer to 20 instead of a bear's 30-35 mile per hour charge.

It is a lot of fun.