Ready To Return Fire

Forgive my laziness please. This is a direct scan of the carbine itself, my 30-30 Winchester model 94. It had belonged to my friend, the late Spencer Tiger, and a few months ago Flo, his widow, brought it over to my house with a "Here, Spencer would have wanted you to have this." The day he bought it I was visiting the Tigers on the Miccosukee reservation and managed to put a bullet through the same hole that Spencer had just made. We knew that I'd succeeded because the far side of the can had two exit holes. That was shooting with open iron sights. Spencer bought the scope later.

About 4 PM today I was sitting here at the computer, the windows closed and the AC humming, when I thought I heard shots coming from out back. The shots themselves weren't all that loud but I could hear the projectiles hitting the back of the house I grabbed the gun as I speed dialed the police and cautiously peeked out the back. I saw two young teenage boys through the bushes. They were firing at a can perched on their back fence across the alley from my house.

At that point I'd already chambered a round, ready to go! Once outside I could tell from the sound that it was a pellet rifle powered by a CO2 cartridge. The cops came and had a talk with the boys. Later I went back there and looked at the bullet riddled can. It was a 22 caliber pellet rifle, able to do some serious damage. They're lucky that I could see that they were young teens, and that the police arrived so quickly. I could easily have claimed that I had a "reasonable fear for my life" and shot the both of them.

I emptied the round from the chamber, went back in the house, wiped down the gun with an oily cloth, and put it away again. I don't want to kill anybody but I suppose that I'm ready.