[realnola]

Well the facts are, the gun store was not able to evacuate the inventory, the owner barely made it out with his own life. The store was Action shooting Supply in Chalmette louisiana AKA St. Bernard - the hardest hit area.

Tom Duchman is one of my best friends, he got my wife and myself into competitive shooting and reloading and we would spend every Friday at the shop with Tom helping with what ever he had going on. It was our second home and its gone, I am still in shock even after going over there and salvaging guns and equipment, still i remain in shock at the devistation. I compiled some photo galleries of tom's shop and the aftermath of what 20 feet of salty water does to guns after soaking for two weeks! Here is a hint, the only gun that made it out in flawless condition was the HARD CHROMED STI EXECUTIVE

I am uploading this as I type this letter, it hard to understand unless you see the other galleries I post below. http://www.realnola.com/gundamage/

These galleries are ready for viewing. I feel like this will recieve a massive response but it note worthy to mention that its therapy for me to talk and we are all alive Yes I personally had an experience for two months in New Orleans being involved in LE as a Director with the Justice System. My story is at the root of realnola. Tom's story is what's important, he now owns the one gun, some few clothes and a truck and trailer. he lost everything including both his homes and the trailer is industrial for equipment, now living.

Tom has setup shop here at my house somewhat unaffected in Jefferson Parish and we have been working our tails off to clean and restore as much equipment as we can. You can view some other galleries here
Note that these links are not publicly linked on the front end of my site but feel free to pass them along.

http://www.realnola.com/cleaning/
http://www.realnola.com/duchman/
duchman is thte gun store
the link below is St bernard, his house and his gun shop. Its tragic!
http://www.realnola.com/stbernard/
I am the one pictured holding the .45ACP wheel gun pulled from the mud. I forgot to mention when the water went down, it left 4-8 inches of thick liquid black STINKING mud.

You can feel free to email me with any questions at [email protected]
We are NOT accepting donations and we appreciate all the offers of assistance and help but ethically its best we dont accept monies however, we can use manpower this coming week we need to move a safe, move heavy display cases and tables along with a monster compressor and other heavy equipment - its all trapping guns and other salvagable stuff underneath.

 

[stickshooter]

Tell him to come to Hammond! We need a gun store with a large stock of guns! Covington is in about the same shape gunshop wise, the Northshore would be a great place to set up shop. There are no large stocking dealers between Baton Rouge and Slidell and the area is begging for someone to build a range, indoor or outdoor!

Hope everything works out.

 

[realnola]

Gun stores

Just when we thought We were prepared for ANYTHING Katrina comes.. I got some serious trigger time but it was all AK trigger action, i could not bring anything nice out into the water. I did bring my model 550 and my Kimber .45 everywhere I went. We can't say whats going to happen with the store, Tom is dealing with it n, its a total loss. he needs a whole new inventory.

I am telling you, everything except the one hard chromed STI was a loss. The pitting in some guns is so deep its a wall hanging gun and reminder to prepare earlier for evacuation with your inventory next time.

Shooters club in Jefferson has a massive inventory, we just scooped up an M4 there. Elliots is always open as usual. Come to Metairie, all the gun stores are open

If Tom does relocate, I think it will be Lafayette or somewhere abouts. His wife worked at University Hospital so where ever they put her they may wind up moving unless they can handle the comute.

 

[Hades2662]

those pictures made me cry

 

[realnola]

Yep

Any red blooded gun loving competitive shooting American can easily shed a tear or more looking at those pictures. Experiencing it in person is another whole issue, we all have some degree of PTSD from the Storm - my Wife and myself rode it out and worked with SAR and the police, it was not only a war zone, it was a zone of awful humanity and misery. Once everyone was rescued it was a matter of getting the right people to their homes to retrieve documents and other materials related to City or Government in one way or another. It was then the waiting for the water to go down, all those trips to houses were by boat. Once the water went down you experienced a whole new level of disgust and misery, the matter of cleaning or salvaging what you can and knowing most have lost everything they have ever owned, its a real tear jerker I have to say.

I am thinking of making T-Shirts that say "I AM ABOUT TO F____ SNAP!"

Everyonme has their limits, mine were reached a month and a half ago, i have cried and that part is over, its a matter now of dealing with everything trapped inside still. Every time you leave your house (and we are FORTUNATE we have a house) you relive it all over agqain having to see the mess still everywhere. the City STILL has no electricity, we went a month without strictly on generator power. It was a fight for water, gas and food. Gas was the hardest, you had to take it out left cars, neighbors sheds, etc. Finally the Sheriff's Office took over a gas station with generators and we were able to get fuel by signing for it - we are in Law Enforcement so it was a blessing for us but others had to get it where they could. Looters was the most distressing issue, we had to sleep in shifts and never do or go anywhere or anything without at least a pistol. To answer your burning question, yes we had to do what we had to do and i did discharge my weapon. It was a matter of them or you and that went on for a month. Cry, been there done that now its a matter of when we snap.

My Wife kept a detailed diary from the day before the storm to current, its taken a whole notebook up so far. She is thinking of getting it published just as it is in diary format. It details everything we went through and everything we experienced and felt throughout the whole ordeal. CNN and other news stations not to mention pictures do this no justice. One thing the news did do was twist facts and spin bull **** to the public.

 

[NaturalSelector]

Brother that is a dadgum shame.... You're right it is enough to make a grown man cry... Prayer for you and yours and those fellas too...

God Bless and yall be careful brother..

 

[nater]

That is terrible man. I should post pics of my custom remington 700. It would make any man cry. That is the only gun I lost though (sitting on a table instead of upstairs in the safe with the rest of them).

As for Shooter's Club, they are open and have a good amount of stuff. Someone just dumped a ton of milsurp stuff for sale.

 

[stickshooter]

I am thinking of making T-Shirts that say "I AM ABOUT TO F____ SNAP!"

.

Interesting you say that, I've notice the tension level has increased dramatically on the northshore. I'm surprised there haven't been more incidents of road rage and parking lot squables.

On another note, I own an A/C company on the northshore and it looks like your friend will need some work.....maybe we can do some professional bartering