This was an odd little presentation. Not because of the content or the presenter, but because this was one of the few times I could barely hear what was going on.

When I came in, Kevin Dockery, former army armorer (the last US Army armorer to learn to make flints and cut glass), was discussing how there was at least one photo going around the internet with him pointing a flame thrower at Jack in the Box, Ronald McDonald, “holding them at broiler point.”

Heh. So, yeah, that was fun.

We of course, had some amusing comments around his exhibit, “The Armory,” of which there will be pictures later (they’re on another device, so shoot me). They are guarded by men wearing red shirts. Which prompted the line “my redhisrts don’t do go.”

“Atlanta PD likes us; when you’re carrying a 50 caliber machinegun down the street, and they offer to help you carry it, it’s a nice offer, but no, I want their hands free to shoot.”

There were some things Dockery wanted to point out. For example, that a flamethrower is not a fire arm. A fire arm requires propellant.

He went over a brief history of gunpowder, which probably goes back to 800 AD, but it really took a thousand years to become the propellant that burns the right way. It didn’t start off as a propellant at all; they were searching for the elixir of life, and they were basically just tossing stuff together hoping to live longer. (Well, it certainly helps you live longer than the guy you shot.)

Fun fact: if you touch, smell, handle, go anywhere near nitroglycerin (and aren’t dead at the time), you will get a headache. It’s one way to tell that it hurts.

Early hand grenades are in the 1880s, with a three pound cannon ball. And yes, it came with a grenade launcher.

I also heard about gyrojets…. which I barely caught anything about. But I’ll probably have to do some research. Preferably not on Wikipedia.

There was also a display case with really large bullets. I’d go into more detail, but it would have required me to get a photo of each one and match it up to what he was talking about, and I was too far back for those photos to make any sense.

While I think about it, I do some cute things with .50 cal rounds on vampires in the Honor at Stake series. Heh. You can get my Sad Puppy and Dragon Award Nominated Novel Honor at Stake by clicking this link. Heh.