For the Love of God and the Arab Rising

  Chapter Twelve: The gun shop. It’s now Friday morning and we head off to do some shopping; some serious techie type shopping. First call is a good old fashioned gun shop; here we go: Bud’s Gun Shop in down town Bridge Water Township, family owed since 1952: bloody wonderful. The old time dingle of a mechanical door bell alerts the counter staff of our entrance and we browse our way past waist high display cabinets of an exotic array of armoured decadence. Long guns, short guns, shot guns, fully automatic, semi automatic, spray and pray; you name it and it’s here; on display and on sale. ‘Good day sir, how may we help you?’ ‘My wife and I are looking to purchase two hand guns as gifts for our relatives here in Bridge Water Township, is this possible?’ The shop manager, or possibly the owner gives a clear and concise narration on what is, and is not possible.

  ‘The feds say illegal aliens, that’s immigrants, non residents and visitors to you sir, may not purchase fire arms; but: An alien legally in the U.S. may acquire firearms if he has a State of residence. An alien has a State of residence only if he is residing in that State and has resided in that State continuously for at least 90 days prior to the purchase. An alien acquiring firearms from a licensee is required to prove both his identity by presenting a government issued photo identification and his residency with substantiating documentation showing that he has resided in the State continuously for the 90-day period prior to the purchase. Examples of qualifying documentation to prove residency include: utility bills, lease agreements, credit card statements, and pay stubs from the purchaser’s place of employment, which must confirm residential addresses. Are you able to do this sir, in any manner? I want to sell you a gun sir’. ‘No can do, we are on vacation; we thought we could purchase a couple of small gats and leave them with our relatives’ is there any way we can do it, it would be great fun’. ‘The only way I can do it is if you were to be taking part in a registered and competitive event’. ‘Well that’s just fine then. Would you be able to register us for such an event? I kind of opened my wallet and let him see a hundred dollar bill, it appears to be working. ‘That will be fine sir, let me show you some of my finest pieces; you can come back in an hour and my man will have completed the paperwork. Over here sir, in this cabinet you will see an extensive selection of finely engineered hand guns from the foremost companies in the world.

  ‘Firstly: a ‘C2 SP01 Phantom 9mm at $451.00, a beautiful piece, but maybe a little heavy’. ‘Then: a Kimber Pro SP in slate grey $999.00, top of the range sir’. ‘Thirdly: a Glock 37 4GAP in green at $379.00, not for you I think sir’. ‘The New Ruger LCP .38 auto the ultimate pocket monster sir, a snip at $290.00’. ‘A Smith & Wesson SW40E as used by the NY Police department, $269.00’. ‘Then: a Heckler & Koch USP40 at $540.00’.

  ‘That’s it, no more, that’s enough. The small one, how many rounds does it hold?’ ‘Good choice madam. The ‘Ruger LCP .38 auto’ Designed with both male and female shooters in mind; the LCP is as affordable as it is reliable. At just 9.40 ounces with an empty magazine, the LCP is lightweight and ideal for an all day carry. And to answer your question madam, it carries six in the magazine and one in the pipe. ‘That’s it Steve’. ‘Two please kind sir, see you in an hour’. ‘Would you like to try one in our range madam?’ ‘No, that’s fine thanks’. ‘’That will be 580 dollars, plus 460 dollars for the licenses and gaming permits.’ ‘How are you going to pay sir?’ ‘Is VISA ok’ ‘That will be fine Madam, see you in an hour’. ‘Catriona’ ‘Yes Steve’ ‘I always said you were a gun nut, you loved every second of that’. ‘I just can’t help it, it turns me on.

  That first day on the Army Range during basic training was a revelation to Catriona, to finally be out of that bloody pink bedroom and be empowered by this beautiful piece of engineering that just slipped into her hand. She was the first to achieve the crossed rifles in her platoon, a ‘marksmen’ at nineteen years of age. The combined feeling of power and control over her target and environment was total; Catriona never looked back. ‘Now what’? ‘Well, last night. Whilst you were asleep; I asked the Motel manager for some help on where they sell electronics gear, radio’s etc. Its surveillance kit we need, but I didn’t want to sound really weird or suspicious so I played it down and acted like a real geek. Apparently there’s a place a couple of blocks away, so if we move quickly, we may get what we need today. Come on, we need to get a move on’. Some 40 minutes later and we finally hit the centre of town; ask a few people for directions, turn a few corners and then, there it is: a whole street of electronic gadget shops selling mainly televisions, laptops and camera’s. About half way down, we find what we want and have a good peer in the window before entering: night sights, microphones, binoculars, knives and guns; it’s all here. We are greeted by the normal friendly staff you would expect and I’m beginning to feel good about this one, it should be a lot easier. We just need a couple of things: a well designed night scope, and a good quality camera, which must have an optical zoom. So we purchase a total darkness infra red scope with 5x magnification, good for surveillance up to 150 metres. Then, on the top shelf, I see it: the piece de la resistance! A 9 volt bionic Ear with a sound amplifier that allows you to ‘zoom in’ on sounds and whispers. The unit comes complete with headphones, a 12 inch parabolic dish, a booster and an Omni-directional microphone to amplify signal reception; providing clarity & directionality while eliminating background noise. Spot on! This is my scene to a ‘T’: surveillance and counter terrorism. It’s a 10 inch disk, but we should get away with it. I’m a little worried as we head back to the gun store; our little agreement with the store manager seems all too easy. But we are greeted with a reassuring smile and no one pops out from behind the counter to arrest us, so we pay up and run for it. We stuff the gear in the back of the car and race back to the motel.

  Now in the room; we unpack and test the gear. The night scope is compact, so much so, that it does not have a charger circuit and runs on batteries. It’s a fantastic device, you can see clear as day in the dark, albeit in a light green hue; the cross hairs simulating what a sniper would see as he scopes a target. The bionic ear is a little clumsy, but I have no intention of getting too close to our ‘brothers’. I fit the batteries and open the hotel window; it’s time to give this $1,200.00 baby a test run. We are not on a main road, but the traffic and ambient noise is such that it must be impossible to hear what someone is saying at street level, even with this device. I put on the head phones and switch it on, the obligatory red LED can just be seen in the present daylight. ‘Try that delivery driver Pete’. I aim the dish at Catriona. ‘What are you doing Pete?’ ‘I need to calibrate the dish for speech, it’s essential we do this otherwise I will never be able to pinpoint a target. So keep talking for a minute’. I slowly adjust the frequency and gain pots; it only takes a couple of minutes at this range. Good, I swing round; the delivery guys are just raising the tail gate of their truck. They are chatting away; I struggle to align the dish for a few seconds, but then: ‘Did you see that chick josh?’ It’s a little faint; so I adjust the gain and frequency. ‘Yeh, not bad eh, I would rather have a tip than an eyeful though’. ‘You’re not wrong there mate; come on let’s get out of here’. ‘There you go Catriona; how good is that! Sight and sound sorted, now what about those ‘gats’. Catriona was in her zone, she was all ways good at this, it excited her so much; you could see it in her face. ‘There pretty damn gorgeous don’t you think, the whole thing is less than the size of your hand, brilliant for a pocket sized self defence piece. The only downside I can see is the sights, they are a bit small and do not have the white dots to assist you in low light. But to be fair, I can see why the sights are not a top priority, it’s a point and fire piece’. ‘You’re not wrong Cat, have you got the ammo?’ ‘Yes my love. Winchester Silvertips; they have a more rounded tip and hence there is less chance of a jam. Remember to put one in the pipe’.