Grandpa’s Savage 99 .250-3000 Carbine

Savage 99 .250-3000 Lever-Action Carbine

The Savage 99 lever-action carbine is a great shooter. I inherited my grandfather’s deer rifle, after his death, when I was about ten or eleven years old. It had been heavily used but was in great operating condition and had taken a fair number of deer in its lifetime. It was a much different time back when my grandfather owned it—he practiced sustainable hunting—hunting to put food on the table to feed his family. There was no controversial gun control argument raging back then, my family survived the Great Depression in some measure due to this carbine.

I support RESPONSIBLE gun ownership with appropriate restrictions and regulations (I don’t want crazy people or criminals having access to firearms—but they always will—if not legally then illegally). I’ve handled and shot firearms for over sixty-five years (I started with my dad at age five). I’ve used firearms for protection, hunting (though I only hunt with a camera these days), target practice and in combat in Vietnam. When I left the States in early 2012 I gifted all of my weapons to my son (a former Marine and twenty-four year veteran of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department).

My grandfather’s Savage 99 was one of those guns and it is now in good (safe) hands. The world has changed and not for the better I’m afraid. And although I am a strong advocate for private gun ownership I do realize that the way we regulate guns in our society has to change. I fully understand that not everyone agrees with my point view on this issue, it is controversial for a very good reason—many innocent lives are being lost to senseless gun violence in our country. I don’t have the answers but it’s time to have a serious, honest and non-hysterical debate on the subject. It has to stop.