I assumed it was beginner’s luck and was still a bit nervous when I lined up with several bloggers yesterday at the firing line of Red’s Indoor Range South in Austin, but I was almost as good with the Glock they gave me there. This time I even have video to prove it, which will appear on PJTV in a few days replete with a shot of the Governor praising my shooting. (Yes, I asked him to do it.) Of course, I was nowhere near as good as Perry who, as expected, was about as schooled a governor with firearms as we have. He was also an extremely gracious host, showing several of us how to operate laser guided pistols and so forth.
At one point, after Kathleen McKinley was done getting a private shooting lesson from the Gov. of Texas (seriously, how cool is that?), Gov. Perry looked over at me and asked if I wanted to squeeze off a few rounds with his personal handgun. I jumped at the chance. So there we are, Gov. Perry and I, squeezed into a 5′ wide alley…and the next thing I know, Gov. Perry has cocked and loaded his handgun, and hands it to me and says, “It’s live.”
There I am, standing no more than 6-9″ from the Governor of Texas, holding his loaded handgun.
There’s nothing his Security detail could have done if I had bad intentions (other than shoot me dead after the fact). But Governor Perry didn’t even blink. Honestly, standing there shooting guns with the Governor of Texas the way we did today was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done (politically), and only further increased my respect and admiration for the Governor.
I don’t think there are more than 2-3 other Governors in the US who would have put on an event like this.
It’s one thing to say you support the second amendment, it’s an entirely different matter to practice what you preach in such an open and awesome manner.
I am in Austin attending Gov. Perry's blogger conference. I am sitting in a panel session right now. Yesterday we got to go to the gun range with Gov. Perry and it was awesome. Perry showed me how to shoot his little Ruger with a lazer sight. So cool. Below is one pic with Gov. Perry.
Well I had the privilege to chitchat a bit with the Governor on Friday evening... he had just returned from the shooting range with a bunch of bloggers (around for the Perry Blogger Summit [pdf]) and supporters where he had fired his own weapon that he personally carries (paraphrase: "I know I have a bunch of guys around, but if something goes down I'm gonna be in on the action").
It was good to catch up with Andrew Breitbart, too. Since he’s out on the Left coast, I don’t bump into him as often as I’d like. I greatly admire his passion for exposing media bias.
I also had a chance to chat with some top operatives, and sometimes sources, like Dave Carney (Perry’s “Karl Rove”), Kevin Lindley, Bryan Preston, Sarah Floerke, and my pal and fellow blogger extraordinaire, Dwayne Horner. And I also made some new friends and contacts, as well.
I’ve spoken at a lot of “New Media” seminars, and, in terms of content, I can tell you this was one of the better conferences I have been part of. I hope more governors and elected officials replicate this idea in the future…
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Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.