Today is my dad’s birthday! Well, actually it’s tomorrow the 29^th, but since there is no 29^th this year, we tell him happy birthday on the 28^th. Yes, he is a Leap Year baby. He has always been able to say that he is younger because of this.

This afternoon, he came over to give me a lesson and Ashley a refresher on our new guns. About a week ago, Kevin went to a local gun shop and bought a Glock G48 for himself and one for Ashley for an early birthday present. They were $450 each. Many people have wondered why we bought them and the answer is very simple; they are for security. If someone enters our home without our knowledge or us allowing them in, they are here to cause harm and we need to be able to defend ourselves. If we lived in another country such as the United Kingdom where they aren’t allowed, it would be different. Since they are legal here and many people own one, it’s best that we own one too for our own protection. Keep in mind that many people own a gun, but they don’t like to admit it for one reason or another. Even if they have it hidden in a locked box in the closet, the fact is that they still own one.

As much as I appreciated him taking time on his birthday to explain things to me, I didn’t take any pleasure from learning how to load and unload the gun or how to check to make sure it was clear from bullets. I did enjoy hearing about how he learned about guns and gun safety at the police academy.

The instructor went to great lengths to prove that the gun would not go off without the safety and trigger being pulled at the same time. Dad explained that they were standing in a concrete parking lot when the instructor had him load the gun. He then told dad to throw the gun into the air and let it land on the ground. It didn’t fire. Then, they had a car run over the gun, but it still didn’t fire. He put the Glock in a Ziploc bag and filled it with water and stuck it in a freezer. After the water froze, he was then told to leave it on the counter for a few days to let it thaw. Once it thawed, he was told to dip it into oil and then in water again. After all of that, he was instructed to fire it into water to show that it was still in perfect working order. He said that he fired 10 rounds with no problem at all.

He said that a new Glock won’t fire without five pounds of pressure applied to the trigger and this is called New York-1 (NY-1) Glock Trigger. They call it that because if there has been five pounds applied to the trigger, that means you meant for it to be fired – you had to want it.

I showed the guns in one of my vlogs on YouTube and someone mentioned in the comment section that he has a gun, but he feels better with his wife having a taser. I asked dad how he felt about that and he said, “You only have one shot with a taser and if you miss, it’s all over. With a Glock you have ten chances.” I can understand that. I will take ten chances over one any day.