"Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil… prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon." ~ Terry Prachett, Novelist and gamer

Our church men's group went out into the hills to shoot clay discs and eat beef.  Here's one of the launchers, with the pigeons in their boxes.  I am amazed at how many of my fellow country church goers have really nice shotguns, and how good they are!  I only shot 7 out of 25, but we had guys (and teenagers) hitting 21, 23, even 25 out of 25.  

I have to say, the rise of militias in the US actually makes me feel very secure.  As we saw in the recent plot to kill police by a fanatical group, it was another militia group that turned them in.  Despite the fear-mongering of some 'freedom-hating' leftists, most gun owners are freedom-loving and law-abiding patriots who would be around to restore order or defend us in case of terrorist activity in our country.

As evidence, check out this very good NPR story entitled America's New Kinder, Gentler Militia:

As Gulliksen sees it, the militias in Michigan aren't out to destroy the government, they are out to maintain it. They want to lend a hand to local authorities and restore states' rights. He said the group has a good relationship with local politicians and the local sheriff, too.

"I honestly feel that if there was an emergency like a natural disaster or a missing person, I don't think he'd have a problem calling on us to help," Gulliksen said. "If it was more of a law enforcement-type thing, rioting or something like that, he may be a little hesitant."

In fact, a town supervisor in nearby Bridgewater, Mich., has already called on the volunteer militias twice this year to help find missing people. The militias fanned out on foot and horseback. 

I have friends in the Domestic Emergency Network, which is just one of the more broad-based militia/emergency-response citizens groups that feels that the government is ill equipped to respond to disasters or domestic terrorism.