I’m a city dweller. Always have been but spend time in the woods and usually had woods or fields in back of me. Critters know no boundaries.
Have you just noticed?
You have this backwards: you own a gun for the danger. 2/3rds of gun deaths are suicide, most of the others are wives, girlfriends, children, the occasional in-law, parents, friends, that guy at the bar who seemed like a great guy until he cheated at poker or preferred Miller to Bud, the neighbor you didn’t invite to your party (just a few blocks from me). You’re more likely to be killed with your gun by the guy who breaks in than you are to defend yourself. I oppose gun control because I’m a Darwinist.
You may be right Random. I dunno. I’ve been around guns all my life. Always hunted. Took the NRA safety course when I was 13 or so so I could carry alone, without adult supervision. Of course military training for hunting people instead of pheasants. Used to have the shot gun in the trunk most of the time to hunt on the way home from work. Just second nature to many folks in the midwest. Never had one pointed at me and I’m glad that some folks are so afraid of them. Makes me feel safer that when they go bezerk, they are limited to clubs and stones. I do kinda feel though that if someone wants to end their time on earth, they should have the option instead of having to drink poisonous washer fluid.
I’ve never felt the need for one for protection though except maybe critters in the woods like rabid coons. There were a few times in certain parts of Minneapolis though and on a lonely road in northern Minnesota that wish I would have had one along. Pass me, slow way down, I pass, they pass and slow way down etc. for 50 miles and not another soul around. Of course it was against the rules to have a gun during work hours. Back when cars actually had door handles, A friend reported stopping at a stop light and having guys hanging onto the door handles for a block after he went through the red light. We always used to have a bat under the seat but that means you have to break the rule of maintaining a safety space between you and them. Times have changed. Kinda car related.
I only own guns because shooting them is so much fun, especially when someone is keeping score at the trap and skeet range. It’s my bowling and golf. Trap league this Saturday. I’m taking a break from reloading ammo for it to type this message.
After many years of competing in this sport, I only saw one serious accident at the shooting range. Someone forgot to set the parking brake on his car and it rolled forward as he was getting out of it causing the door to close on his ankle as the car rolled past a small tree. Fortunately, one of the shooters was a doctor and they gave him a ride to the ER.
I have no problem with people owning firearms for target practice, sporting, and hunting. The problem comes in when people in highly populated areas want to not only own them, but carry them everywhere. I suspect that many people in highly populated areas that keep firearms for protection just keep them in the drawer, don’t practice at the range, and don’t get much, if any, training. In my area, it is more likely to read about a family member shooting when they arrive home unexpected and late than a home invader shooting.
Hard to get a shotgun in a drawer but I assume you are talking about hand guns. In Minnesota since the “shall issue” law was passed, you need to pass a course first and then have the local sheriff sign off that you are not a felon and so on. There have only been one or two instances of people with legitimate permits that have caused a problem. Most of the problems have come from people that carry illegally. I don’t own a hand gun and I suspect you don’t own any firearm. But a hand gun makes a lot more sense walking around in the woods than carrying a rifle or shot gun unless hunting.
Back to poisonous washer fluid.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Latest on a public hearing on a bill that would lift permit and training requirements to carry concealed weapons (all times local):
11 a.m.
A National Rifle Association lobbyist is telling a legislative committee that guns were a great equalizer for “the blacks.”
Scott Meyer appeared before the Senate’s judiciary committee during a public hearing on a GOP bill that would allow people to carry concealed weapons without permits or training. The NRA supports the measure.
Meyer told the committee that the cost of training can prevent minorities from obtaining concealed carry licenses, adding that guns were one of the great equalizers for “the blacks” after emancipation.
We don’t need no stinking training, So now you could drive with a concealed weapon in your car with no training, wonder how the police feel about that, not in my top ten.
I have a 22-cal semi automatic rifle that I used to “hunt” rats at an open pit dump about 30 miles from my university campus. I haven’t used it since then. I put hunt in quotes because in about 10 trips to the dump, three of use hit rats in the butt a couple-a-three times. They knew how to run across the open paths 50 yards from us so that we couldn’t get a bead on them. As I said above, I don’t have a problem with firearms, just the people that don’t know how to use them properly.
The problem is that the type of people you are worried about are already carrying guns. You see, not having a concealed carry license and “gun free zones” don’t stop these people from packing any more than stop signs and red lights make cars stop.
The NRA has long held a position of enforcing the laws that already exist instead of using crimes as a pretext to add even more burdens to the law abiding. If laws aren’t enforced, if gang bangers get released with a slap on the wrist, then we can enact laws 'til we’re blue in the face and nothing will change.
What do you think is more effective in combating speeding? Making the already ignored speed limit even lower or putting lawmen out on the road to pull people over and leaving the perfectly good speed limit alone?
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Well I typically am within the ten over speed limit philosophy, but consider the conceal carry for everyone with no constraints reckless abandon, I do not own a handgun, may someday, but to eliminate any requirements to have a conceal carry I do not get it, sell more guns I guess. I have been through training for worst place scenarios, and the salient point was run, not pull out your gun and shoot, I cannot imagine being a police officer, 5 people with guns, then having to figure out who is the bad guy and who is the good guy.
I guess I tend to agree. Nothing wrong with training requirements. I was never allowed to have a hand gun. My dad said they were too dangerous. He said he had one once and just about shot himself so threw it in the lake. My fate was sealed. I do think though that there should be reciprocity from state to state though so that a permit is honored in other states-just like a drivers license.
I’ve still got a gallon of washer fluid on the shelf so don’t need to get anymore. I’m sure I’ve got more washer fluid than vodka though. Haven’t bought that stuff for 40 years.
I too have no problem with most people owning guns. But there are many who own guns because they are so scared of everyone who’s not white that they feel threatened around them. Those are the people with guns that scare the hell out of me. I’ve seen a neighbor of mine who carries when walking in a home depot puts his hand on his gun when ever he’s near a person of color. If there’s ever an robbery at the store he’s in I’m afraid he’ll pull that gun and start shooting and the only people left standing will be white people (even the robber who’s white). I wouldn’t let my kids go over and play with his kids because he has guns out in plain site and easily grabbed by anyone.
Scared men with guns are a bigger threat to my safety then anything else in this country,.
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Perhaps we should bring the subject back to that commonly owned form of transportation that’s statistically more likely to kill you than guns owned by scared white people.
You know, cars.
That stats means that most people are more likely to be killed while driving. You can’t then equate that stat to an individual person. A person who lives in NYC and doesn’t own a drivers license is highly unlikely to be killed by a vehicle. A person who lives in a high crime area is more likely to be killed by a flying bullet then a car.
I could write volumes concerning firearms and do on appropriate forms but if I add anything here I will try my best to include a motor vehicle or at least something with wheels.
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Yeah, and scared white women who carry like my dental receptionist. But then she had a reason to be scared and held off the would be minority attacker with her gun and called police. Not every fear is irrational. She said most of the people at the gun range are women and you’d be surprised how many women are carrying.
This is a complete Myth.
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Not having a driver’s license and not driving does not remove you from the auto fatality risk pool. In the year 2014, there were 32,675 automobile accident fatalities in the United States, 4884 of those fatalities were pedestrians, that’s 15% of auto fatalities. NYC has plenty of cars and pedestrians.
While cars are getting safer for drivers and passengers, they are still as dangerous to pedestrians as they were in the older days. That’s one reason that the percentage of auto deaths that are pedestrians has been rising over the years.
I have seen that in Mexico where tequila is so cheap it is 2 to1 with mixer. I have seen liters of it costing 66 cents. I am not that brave. When I served with the Russians in Bosnia and visited their base they were short on food but had copious amounts of vodka.
Reminds me of a tale of the Texas waitress who had a male customer “eyeing” her that left just before closing time. She had no car and walked a few blocks to her apartment. Shortly after going to bed the customer suddenly appeared in her bedroom and jumped on her. She grabbed her .357 magnum revolver and emptied it into the obvious rapist. While undergoing the required homicide hearing the prosecuting attorney asked why she felt the need to shoot the alleged rapist six times. She answered: “Because when I pulled the trigger the seventh time it just went click”.
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