After reading the story of the father and son whose rights were violated in New Jersey I felt sick. After I read on some Facebook pages comments from well meaning folks warning others not to post pictures of their kids shooting I felt fed up. So fed up I decide to come out of the blogging alias closet.
“My name is Shelby McKenzie. My husband’s name is Phil and this is a picture of 3 of our 5 children…with guns. There are many pictures of our other two kiddos holding and shooting guns as well. We are standing with the father and son in Jersey whose rights were recently violated. I will not hide. This is us. This is who we are.”
I understand it is not much. It will not make all that big a difference in the grand scheme of anything, but it is one less person hiding. One less person being intimidated. One more person standing up and saying enough. Seven more people actually.
For your viewing pleasure I once again post pictures of my husband and I proudly teaching our children how to be responsible gun owners and citizens.
That last one was just cuz TSM is extra special sexy in that pic.
Good for you! It’s time we ALL came out of the closet. I’ve wondered if I should change my profile pic cos I’m totally ga-ga over the rifle I’m shooting, and then I think “why hide it?” Why should we let society think we are doing something wrong?
I especially like how your pics show how careful you and TSM are about supervising the kids.
In the article you refer to, I noted the following: The blitzkrieg happened after 8 p.m. In our state, in order for that to have happened, CPS would have had to investigate (pay a home visit) the home, convince the police there was a case of imminent harm to the child, and (hopefully) asked a prosecutor to sign off on it. From the sounds of it, none of that occurred. CPS= epic FAIL. Overzealous, uninformed, jackasses.
You are right. By showing the world that we’re not all planning to shoot up the mall, or raising the next mall-shooting by raising our kids to respect and handle guns properly. Good job!
Seriously nuts!!!!!
I am so new to this that sometimes I think I do not have a right to comment, but honestly even in my “guns scare me: days, I never ever thought simply having a gun or letting a child shoot one was abuse or neglect or cause for concern of any kind.
Proud of you Shelby! If we all would teach our children the proper and safe way to use a gun then there wouldn’t be so many people afraid of he unknown.
We are right there with you teaching the next generation guns don’t hurt people. Ignorant and crazy people hurt other people.
Your family is adorable and I love that your making wonderful memories together. 🙂
Thank you!!
Several people know who I am in real life, but I’m sticking to my blog name, simply because I *need* that extra layer of “security” (albeit, it’s not much). People who know me IRL know that I’m not hiding my shooting or love of it, but I’ve already had one stalker, I’m not inviting more.
Please be careful letting your real name out there, please. There’s a difference between hiding and taking precautions.
And, you know me, sometimes I write something that comes out the wrong way. Don’t take offense, I wasn’t criticizing you for coming out (<- see, even that sounds wrong), merely explaining why I won't.
I love you so much for caring and for speaking your mind. Two of my favorite things about you.
I have thought a lot about this and it actually wasn’t made today. The more I teach, the more I speak, the more I let the people in my personal life know what happened to me and who I am, the harder it is “hiding”.
We have lots and lots of layers of security.
I so appreciate you!!
Howdy! My name is Art Scheel. I live in Ogden, UT. I have 2 young boys and the older (3 years old) holds my guns all of the time. I don’t have pics, but I can’t click a camera if I’m helping my boy with my guns.
Oh yeah… and I make my son eat his food! (younger is only 4 months old)
Molon Labe
I don’t make my kids eat all their food…lol
There’s a story behind that statement. 😉 http://daysofourtrailers.blogspot.com/2011/04/libelous-ladd-everitt-csgv-strikes.html
Oh good grief. What a goof.
I am all for your kind of parenting!
I grew up with guns in my parents closet, or was it the hall closet? The guns were loaded and propped in the corner. We would have been in terrible trouble if we touched them. None of us touched them. Children handling guns without permission has lots to do with a permissive parenting approach, an approach that leads to rebellious children and juvenile delinquents.
Did the police think the kid would shoot them? I hope the Child Protective Services stick to coming to the aid of children who have been injured instead of leaving them to be killed by parents.
My cousin has 9 children. All handled guns and were given guns. One day, the parents took a nap while the children went to friend’s houses or just did what they wanted. They were all old enough not to need a constant eye. The youngest, just nine, went with their permission to hunt in the woods, just like he did when they parents were awake.
He did not come home at suppertime. They went to look for him and found him shot through the head with his rifle, killed instantly. He had propped his gun on a barbed wire fence so he could crawl through. The gun slipped when he moved the fence to slip though. It was a total accident. No one blames them in the countryside of Tennessee. This was a child who grew up around guns. He had done this same thing before. It could happen to any adult.
This is not to hold any parent guilty. But, our families had guns. This was the only incident in the family. I am so glad CPS was not looking for kids with access to guns back when I was a child.
Sad story. I am sorry to hear of it. Thanks for sharing.
The hat would earn him points in Calif.
🙂
I kinda like “AGirl” . . . . . 🙂 Nice to meet you Shelby. I think this kind of “cool war” against gun owners will just get worse. Saw a story today about an anonymous call in line in New York to report violators of their new gun laws – what could possibly go wrong.
Love the pictures, looking forward to the granddaughters getting a bit older to do exactly the same thing!
I like AGirl too and I hope people will still use it.
In all this time communicating with you, did I forget to tell you my name?? I do that a lot…lol
While I am torn about your decision to come “out of the blogging closet” – I applaud your determination and dedication for doing so. You and Phil have a beautiful family.
I am blessed to have you as a friend.
Bravo! And Ef them!
Thank you!
I am so happy to see you come out of the closet so to speak. I am new to the shooting and am enjoying so much I look forward to my childern learning when they come of a proper age. My children know we have riffle in the house and are not allowed to touch them with out my husband or I with them. Everyone needs to teach kids how to respect guns if you have them in your house or even if you don’t. I don’t want my children to be scared of them or complacent for that matter.
Good for you and good for your kids!
Bravo! Feels good out in the open air.
I feel priviliged to have “known” the real you before you outed yourself, but it’s still a gutsy move. I’ve nibbled around the edges of my IRL identity on the blog from time to time, but I must keep my IRL and Blogger IDs separate for now. I don’t have any photos of me and M&M to share yet anyway. They don’t make guns small enough for a 16 month old.
As to the TSM pic: “Man walks down the street in a hat like that, you know he’s not afraid of anything.”
The privileged has been all mine and I do appreciate your views on this!!!!
Thank you for keeping it on the downlow util I was ready.
Shiny!
Daddy Hawk:
He was one of my favorite characters in Firefly and Serenity; and you know that Baldwin is one of us, right? Read his tweets and you’ll see he is right on target and unapologetic for his right / conservative stance.
Slobyskya, I have a hard time picking a favorite. I enjoyed the entire cast’s performances. Mal and Shepherd Book are probably my most favorite. I had heard that Baldwin was a good egg. Too bad the rest of the family aren’t as good.
That brightened my day. I learned to shoot before I was old enough to go to school.
Love it!
I already knew how courageous you were just from your starting this blog and opening your heart and your home to all of us; DO retain some degree of your OpSec, though, just for your own peace of mind. As for me ( and of course my job precludes my revealing much of my non-super-hero identity) , I can state that my own Dad taught me to shoot beginning when I was six, starting off with .22s and moving up the scale to 7mm Mauser, 30:06, 9mm and .45 by the time I was in high school. I was actually pretty good, and used some of what I had learned to help some guys hone their rifle skills before they shipped out to Nam. And oddly enough, not a one of my weapons has ever attacked an innocent civilian, shot up a post office, or taken a hostage.
God bless you dear friend. You are a treasure, and your beautiful family is a blessing to us all.
I will unashamedly tell people, whenever they kid me about “coming out of the closet”, that I came out YEARS ago, and will stand straight and strong and proudly proclaim my deep lesbian nature. Its not my fault that its trapped in a man’s body. LOL
I don’t mind giving my name out online (Kirk Lowry….heck, just take a gander at my email, if you couldn’t figger it out from that, then I have nothing to worry about!), but I still try to keep at least a modicum of OpSec, such as never posting “Hey, I’m about to start a 3-hour movie, please rob my house!” or “leaving on a week-long vacation, take your time, the livingroom TV is older and heavy” comments on FB or blog. But I will admit that I had that moment of worry about someone calling CPS if pics of the munchkin holding (sorta) Daddy’s Mosin (I think the bayonet is taller than she is) were ever posted online. But, like you say, screw it. Life’s too short to live in constant fear of what someone else will think. She’s supervised every step of the way, so I have no worries about her and our guns. And she’s going to be around a bunch of them this weekend, and will be allowed to shoot them if she so desires. Supervised, of course.
Wonderful post. I liked the photo of the little one with the AR and the pink ear muffs so much I posted it on my facebook page. Give em hell, bad ass.
Bless you Shelby. Lu and I stand firmly with you. The grandkids will be visiting us for a few weeks in June and I already have the training planned out and the guns chosen.
More people know me as “skidmark” than know me by my legal name. I have nothing to hide, but seeing as how easily confused I can be I just try to return the favor by not confusing others.
A search of the gun boards ought to lead anyone to my legal name and the on-going story of a certain Ferry Tale. (Hopefully that will wrap up soon. Two years is a long time.)
It’s nice to know that you are a “real” person and not just a name on the intertubez. But for what you are doing and becoming, AGirl seems to suit you well. It also sems to have helped other “girls” come over to the dark side for something besides the excellent cookies we serve.
stay safe.
Way to go, Shelby!
Jeff (and Whitney & Brandon)
Wow, just wow! I tip my hat to you Shelby.