Future of Parker Collection and Double Gun Collecting

[Mike Franzen]

I have expressed to Dean I would be interested in acting as coordinator for this project. I think it has merit. I also think it could be done simply and with little expense to the PGCA. I think of this as a seed planting endeavor. Maybe in some of the kids that seed will grow into the overwhelming, all abiding obsession we all suffer from. I don't see this as the ultimate solution or maybe even the best solution. But it is an outreach to a generation being lost to shooting sports. We're not going to save the future of collectability but you never know who this might affect and it might change things. It's been my experience that when a kid is introduced to firearms in the right way they generally love it. When they're introduced to old doubles they are curious and fascinated. Like most of us, at their ages they are shooting auto loaders, pumps, o/u's. But just maybe when they pick up that Parker, the age old mystique will communicate with them and they'll be hooked. I Love these old guns for no apparent rational reason. I don't mind investing my time trying to share that with some kids.