I just awoke from a dream.  I pay attention to my dreams, especially when they're vivid and meaningful as this one was.

In my dream a group of my grandsons was in a field target practicing with their guns.  One of them did an off-hand shot at an inconsequential target, and I heard the bullet ricochet and thud into something else.  I stopped what I was doing and called everyone over for a gun safety lecture.  Here is the lecture that I gave.  This is mandatory reading for all of my grandsons.

"Did you hear that ricochet?  You have no control over a bullet that ricochets, as they often do.  Every time you shoot, I want you to consider where that bullet is going to end up if you miss your target.  That means looking to see what is beyond your target, and remembering that even the bullet from a .22 can go over a mile.

"When target practicing, try to be shooting into a bank so as to minimize the chance of a ricochet.  Ricochets can do strange things.  Your grandmother's nephew, David Knowles, was a police officer practicing on the target range.  He was shooting at a metal target.  I don't understand the physics of how it could have happened, but the ricocheting bullet came straight back and got him in the eye.  He shot himself, and now has only one eye.

"Have you seen my hallway door?  It has a bullet hole in it.  I've kept it all these years just so that I could use it as a visual aid to educate people about shooting.  That hallway used to be a bathroom and the laundry room.  I went in there one day and was upset to see the window broken.  Then I discovered the bullet hole in the door, and where the bullet had embedded itself in the wall.  I called the sheriff.  His deputy traced the trajectory of the bullet and went over onto the Rock Creek Road which is over half a mile away, down, and out of sight of our house.  He found shell casings where someone had rested their rifle against a fence post and shot.  He went to the neighbor's house, and the neighbor identified two boys, both members of the Church, who had done the shooting.  They had taken a skyline shot at a coyote.  The bullet went over the horizon and had just the right drop to take it through our window and into our laundry room.  It's such a narrow room, and the little window was so high, that if Marjorie had been there she would have taken the bullet in her chest, and you wouldn't be here.  I had those two boys come see where their bullet went.  They were shocked and amazed.

"My brother, Tim, found one of his sows dead in his barn lot.  She had been shot by a stray bullet from a hunter up in the woods.  Be sure you know where your bullet is going to go if you miss your target.

"And I should tell you why I'm not a hunter.  I was probably 14 or 15 years old when I went hunting with my two brothers.  We were in our jeep.  Mac was driving, Tim was in the passenger seat, and I sat between them.  I can still clearly see this episode because it scared me so badly.  We each had our rifles, and we were up by the bridge that crosses the Wilcox Ditch where Katie's house now is.  Tim said, 'There's a buck!'  Mac stopped the jeep, and we all barreled out.  My rifle was pointing straight up into the air--and it went off!  I was shocked.  I don't remember taking the safety off, and the gun might as well have been pointed at one of my brothers.  The fact is that I had buck fever, and was so excited to be able to kill something that all care and reason had gone out the door.

"My father told of going hunting with Virgil Spence when Dad similarly said, 'There's a deer!'  Virgil started firing into the ground while shouting, 'Where?  Where?'  That's buck fever.  Being that excited to kill something is not right and not good.  I might have killed my brother.  I never went hunting again."