We got the week off to a good start at a wine tasting on Sunday at Corkscrew Cafe, our favourite restaurant in Dahlonega. We went with Julie and John Cordano (whom we see regularly at Cavender Creek winery) and another couple. This is not wine tasting as in the days of Charlemagne Wine Club. This is a food and wine pairing exercise, five wines (generous portions) each with a generous portion of restaurant specialities. The quantities are more than enough to serve as a meal. The wines are supplied and introduced by a representative from the wholesaler. The wines were interesting, if not spectacular, but perhaps some sort of theme might have been interesting – what we were served was driven more by the food pairing than any particular geography, grape or other feature of the wine.
On interesting thing during the tasting was an opportunity to meet the prospective new owner of Cavender Creek winery. At the moment, whilst all the agreements are in place, she is struggling to get all the necessary licenses. To own a winery and sell the products needs sperate licenses from the state of Georgia, the US federal government and the local county authorities, and bureaucracy is a big delay. In a hark back to Prohibition times, USA has a wide range of “blue laws” still in effect to regulate the production and sale of alcohol in any form. Some are generally ignored (for instance, I can theoretically only purchase a restricted amount of wine off the Internet, but this doesn’t seem to be monitored in any way). But some are fiercely policed, especially if there are vested commercial interests at play – in Georgia, restaurants have great difficulty in obtaining wine other than going to a limited range of wholesalers.
On Monday we went to another meeting where legal matters were to the fore – a three hour session at the local Sheriff’s office on adult gun safety awareness. Not that we have any intention of getting a handgun, but we do have an intention, as yet unfulfilled, to purchase a shotgun at some stage (in case we ever need to dispatch a snake or scare off a bear). Best that we know the rules before we start on that! It was a big meeting, about 50 attendees, with a slickly presented show by the deputy sheriff. For my thoughts on the material presented, see below.
The weather this week has taken a turn for the cooler and wetter. Several days were overcast, the temperatures were nearly 10 degrees cooler on average and it RAINED! Just under five inches of deluge in four days. But when it rains, it really rains hard – half an inch in half an hour of pop-up thunderstorms. So, it’s all soggy underfoot, but the garden does not really benefit like it would from a gentle English drizzle. And one other bit of progress – we have finally got the necessary admin in place to start on the swimming pool. Off to the pool construction next week to get things moving – but I don’t know how long it will all take.
Robin’s Thoughts on America
Following our meeting at the Sheriff’s office and continuing my very intermittent Thoughts, Likes and Dislikes section, here is my personally opinionated thought for this week on life in USA.
Gun Law
As we want to eventually purchase a shotgun (for use on snakes and the other sort of risks inherent in living in a forest), we thought it prudent to find out the legal position. So we attended a public meeting on gun safety held by the Sheriff, which was very interesting. Legally, Georgia has very limited controls on handguns – no need to register ownership, you can have your gun with you (concealed or openly) around your home, in your car and at your place of work without any permit. To carry it about almost everywhere you need a permit which is not very hard to get (unless you have a criminal record or are insane). There are very few places where you cannot carry a handgun, and the police are legally barred from enquiring of you whether you have a valid permit to carry a gun (even if they can see you are doing just that). “Longarms” (i.e. rifles and shotguns) are even less restricted.
Even more interesting was the underlying assumptions of the presentation. It was clear that most of the people present were interested in having a gun as a personal protection against criminal attack. Fairly detailed information on what to get and do about this were provided – my takeaway of the recommendations was
– Every home needs a pump action shotgun and a handgun (a revolver is better than a pistol for novices).
– You should be able to get your gun and be ready to use it within a few seconds (so forget about keeping it unloaded and locked away in a concealed gun safe).
– Get lots of practice with your guns so that using them for real would be an automatic process requiring little introspection.
– Know how to ensure you are legally in the right if you do shoot to kill.
I found all this a little disturbing – dare I say paranoid. I can understand that sheriffs, who do work at the sharp edge of the criminal interface, need to be able to face down a gun toting criminal. And they do require training to develop the approved mindset about the use of deadly force. But is this something that should be part of everyday life for everyone?
This set me to thinking about the reality of the threat of violence by gun toting criminals in this quiet rural area. Lumpkin County rates as the 8th safest county in Georgia for overall crime. Statistics on gun use for self protection is a bit hard to track down. From my own memory of reading the local paper, there was one gun killing several years ago (an elderly man shot his neighbour with a hunting rifle over a longstanding boundary dispute). The only recent gun incident in the weekly report of police incidents was in May – a woman bent over to smell some flowers, her derringer pistol dropped out of her bra onto the ground and shot her in the left leg.
Maybe the belief that many people DO go around armed acts as a deterrent to crime. Or maybe the paranoia is based on a dangerous illusion.