My parents’ neighbours raise bison. The key is keeping them very very happy, because fences are really just decorative suggestions for them. If you want to keep them, you have to give them no particular reason to leave.
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That’s a valid observation. A nearby ranch raises not bison but true buffalo. Same thing for them - a few years ago, one got antsy and knocked down a section of concrete fence and went walkabout.
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Weirdly, you can thank Ted Turner for that!
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Sounds like a pretty responsible operation.
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Closing the 100 BB tabs of old topics, and see I have replies.(I was also visiting my parents for about a week and my keeping up with BB fell to the wayside.)
Yes.
Well it wouldn’t be physics… From what I understand, wild bison aren’t domesticated like cattle are. There are places that ranch them and other exotic animals like Elk. Those bison have been at some point crossbred with domesticated cattle. So they are hybrids of plains bison. So you’re right, the hybrids are partially domesticated. (And Beefalo are even more cattle like hybrids.)
I really wish someone with land on the stretch of I-35 that goes through the Flint Hills would put a herd out there. That would be super neat to see. Kansas has a reputation for being flat (and western Kansas is super flat), but the Flint Hills is one of the prettiest areas of Kansas with its rolling hills. There used to be a small antelope herd we would try to see on the way to Grandmas, but its been 25+ years since I have seen one out there.
Ammo choice is a lot like what golf club are you going to use. You don’t use a 3 iron for a chip shot. You don’t use a putter for a drive shot. You might use a 6 iron where someone else would use a 4 or an 8. The .223 is the right choice for some hunting applications, as well as some competition or target shooting applications. It is the wrong choice for some hunting applications. Again, hunters tend to use soft nose, hollow points, or plastic tipped rounds that expand and retain their mass, vs military Full Metal Jackets.
It’s fine if you think people shouldn’t own assault rifles.
Well, I gave examples of what some people do buy them for. I concede your point some people are buying them to look cool.
I don’t know what tell tell you. I have given examples of what some people use them for. I don’t know why people can’t accept this as fact.
It doesn’t mean they couldn’t use something else if they had to. It doesn’t mean that other people aren’t buying them to look cool, or just to have, or for nefarious purposes. It also doesn’t mean that one can’t still have the opinion that no one should own them, even if some people have found other uses for them.
It wasn’t “settlers” per se. It was a systematic government blessed pillaging of the bison as a resource. It did double duty of creating lucrative market to sell back East, and to destroy the main source of food, fuel, trade, and items essential for life of the Natives in the Great Plains. It was part the attempt at genocide with the “bonus” of making a profit 
No. These are from wild stock, and hang around in one place because there is reliable food and shelter there. As @VeronicaConnor pointed out, fences don’t work if they want to get out. They are just suggestions. What keeps them around is easy living.
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Ok - then… They aren’t domesticated? They are just made happy enough to stay in the area and harvested for meat eventually, rght?
Nobody asked you to do that. Literally no one has ever asked you to gunsplain on this forum. Owning guns doesn’t make you an expert on anything.
Somebody said, “Nobody needs this weapon,” and when you say, “they could use something else if they had to,” that’s you agreeing with the statement you’ve spent weeks arguing against.
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Go back to the original thread that this topic got split off from. I said, “There are several uses.” And two people asked, “Like what?”
Also - use of ARs was the what more than one posts recently were about. The topic of the conversation.
Has owning this particular weapon enriched your life?
What are you doing with it that you can’t do with other weapons?
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From the very first time I noticed you on this site, gunsplaining and defending your number one passion has been your whole MO; basically eclipsing all other aspects of your commentary.
Hashtag: not a ‘dogpile’, just an opinion.
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Weird that you never mention other uses when it’s more dead kids because that seems to be the number one use for an AR-15.
Would you recommend something different?
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How do you stand having it? That would be like having a decorative hangman’s noose in a country where you read about lynchings in the news every week. Even just as part of a knot collection, I’d feel sick every time I looked at it.
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The original assertion was “no one needs an AR-15 for anything but military purposes.” You responded with “people use them for x,y, and z.” There is a big difference in meaning in that context between need and use. Carl Spackler used C4 for gopher control. That doesn’t mean he needed C4 for gopher control, or that it was even the best tool for the job.
You’re the only one hanging onto “use” in these threads.
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Look, I get it. You enjoy having an AR-15.
Hell, I’ve fired one before and I have to admit that it was pretty damn fun. The question is simply: do you need one? Would you be willing to give up your assault rifle and settle for a bolt-action rifle and handgun if it meant getting these killing machines designed for war off the streets? This doesn’t seem like it should be such a difficult question.
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I guess taking a page from Marie Kondo, it bring me “joy”. They are fun to shoot informally at like a steel plate set up. They can be accurate for benchrest shooting, trying to get the smallest groups I can muster. And they are fun to build.
I specifically made one in 9mm to compete in USPSA Pistol Caliber Class competitions. I haven’t got to use it for that purpose yet, because of Covid I am still not going out and doing things with people around. I guess if it were banned, USPSA would probably drop the class all together.
And another reason is an exercise in rights and having the same rights and access to weapons as the police. (Which I do not, fully.) More on this aspect at the bottom.
Many people on this forum have their passions for various rights and vehemently defend them. Every single time, even when it is to an offhanded comment about a different topic. And that is fine, I’d never tell someone to not stand up for what they believe in.
Because my opinion is the unpopular one, I guess that is more on the reader to decide if it eclipses my commentary. I don’t know if by eclipse you mean that is all I talk about - because it is not. My non-firearms posts are definitely way more frequent and I temper my replies to that topic because. honestly, it is tiring to defend my position. Or even just talk about misconceptions. If you meant eclipse by, “This opinion poisons my view of you, regardless of your other posts.” Well… sorry to hear that. 
I invite anyone who reads my comment to adhere to the agreement that Melz and I have to just scroll on by when we see one another’s comments. You can just ignore my posts on certain topic, just scroll on by. I ignore a lot of posts on the topic.
If you want a formal agreement for all posts, PM me.
Yeah, weird how I talk about using belts to hold up my pants, and not beat kids with it. Weird.
It’s such a ghoulish, bad faith, baity comment, I should just ignore it. But here we go:
It is NOT the number one use, and you know that (hence while using the word “seems” so you can say you didn’t actually say that). I can tell from your comments you’re a very smart person. You know that of the tens of millions of AR style firearms in the US hurt no one and nearly all of them are being used for things other than school shootings. If you truly do not know that - that is why I am trying to inform on the subject at all.
Again - you can know these facts with out hyperbole and still find AR style weapon ownership shouldn’t be allowed or that their misuse means they are too dangerous for private ownership.
I genuinely don’t know how to respond. Our view on this are so far apart I can’t even begin to try to relate to a common ground. Sorry. I am sure everything I say is nails on chalkboard, so I suggest you skip me when it comes to this topic.
Need is subjective. People using them obviously have found a need that is fulfilled. You’re right with your example, you can use something that is complete overkill and not really called for in the situation. I think the examples I have shown are not overkill, even if one could use a different tool. It be akin to using a power drill instead of a hand drill, they both make the same hole, just one is faster at it.
Going to reply to this comment first. Nearly every firearm is a derivative of, or has the same capabilities as a “weapon of war”. So this phrase is meant to categorize some weapons as being too dangerous based on their use in war - but that literally is most of them.
If you got a new $500 bolt action rifle in .30cal and it performed like the sniper rifles used in WWI and WWII, you would send it back to the factory for being defective. Bolt action rifles are still used as sniper rifles in the military today. The modern ones sold for deer hunting have more or less the same capabilities as the military versions. So which is it - is the bolt action the safer alternative to an AR, or is it a deadly sniper rifle?
This is the problem when trying to categorize certain guns as good or bad.
Ok, I am going to use your comment to do something I avoid doing here, because I am trying to take a neutral tone for the most part. I am trying to inform on the actual capabilities, real world uses, and the general functions of a firearm so one can at least have an informed opinion about what they want to regulate.
Now asked to defend my position, because it can’t be just “Hey, guns are fun! Pew! Pew! Pew!” Or “People use them for target shooting, hunting, and competition.” So here it is.
From an overall view:
In the US whether one likes or not, the ability to own weapons is an enumerated right. You can disagree that you personally don’t think that should be a right. But it is. The concept about a right to arms is not uniquely American. They cribbed it from the English Bill of Rights. This is a bunch of history around the world and within the US about the concept of “freemen” being able to be armed. And even more where royalty didn’t want the populace armed. It has shaped history in a lot of interesting ways.
Anyway, on an academic level, I am supportive of this concept. I think we should be able to own the same weapons as the police state does. That is my personal “what is reasonable” test.
From a practical level:
I avoid beating what I call “the defense drum” here. I find it a tiring subject. It is always a point one can bring up, but it is too often dismissed out of hand and I have seen it argued for poorly too often that I don’t bring it up. But the right to defend yourself should be a universal right. Firearms are part of the ability to defend yourself. (This doesn’t mean going looking for trouble, like that Rittenhouse jackass.)
To be frank, with all of the worry about sliding into authoritarianism, something that is actively happening even with Democrats trying to at least put it in neutral, it boggles my mind anyone genuinely worried about his isn’t taking some steps to prepare. And I don’t say this as some wanna be Rambo. I have no delusions of heroism or grandeur. I am, overall, pacifistic in the way I live my life. I don’t yell at people. I don’t flip people off in traffic. I drive defensively. When I went out in public, I actively avoided trouble. I have a gammy leg, walk with a limp or a cane, and I can’t run. I won’t be actively fighting against a worst case scenario if the right wing’s push for fascism succeeds. But I can support people who do. But hopefully, these goons will be continually be pushed back under the rocks they crawled out from and the worst case scenario won’t happen.
From a rights perspective:
And I am not alone on this view point of preservation of rights. Everyone rails against the NRA, and rightly so. They have turned themselves into a dumpster fire of corruption and being manipulate by the right. But there are lots of non-right wing gun groups. Sure they are smaller, some of them are less formal and are more of a social media group, but they are out there. A short list off the top of my head:
The Liberal Gun Club
Chapters of the John Brown Gun Club
Armed Equality and Pink Pistols for LGBTQ+
Socialist Rifle Assoc
National African American Gun Assoc
And I should mention the anarchists who I don’t think have a formal org, but definitely are out there, especially in the 3D printing community.
Two very progressive activists I have seen that are pro-the right to bear arms is Killer Mike from Run the Jewels (and other projects like his interviews on Love and Respect with Killer Mike). And Beau of the Fifth Column, who people seem to generally think he has a good head on his shoulders, said in his videos he isn’t ready to say AR style rifles should be banned, because of his various videos staring out with, “Well hello there, internet. Today we are going to talk about 10 signs of Fascism…” etc. (and he can’t even possess firearms.)
Yeah, yeah, I know. It is an appeal to authority. But it illustrates that I am not alone in this viewpoint. It is not just right wing boot lickers and Nazis.
What it doesn’t mean:
Now, this doesn’t mean I don’t think there should be some limits and checks. I have softened some in the last 5 years on this. Instead of a ban, we could implement a licensing system where different types of weapons require different levels of licensing. That is how it works in several other countries. It should just not be cost prohibitive (though even time costs will be prohibitive to some people, it shouldn’t be overly so.), but require other checks/tests.
The new legislation passed to close the “boyfriend” loop hole is a great one! Domestic violence is one of the big correlations with gun violence. After street crime, it is the number 2 cause of homicides. I am for bolstering the NICS system. It is 2022, we should have the ability to for people to be flagged for infractions happen almost instantly. If they could make this so that average users could login, register a private sale and get, that would be even better and then you could make it required. I would be ok with making Semi-Auto magazine fed center-fire rifles require waiting until 21 to purchase. They would be treated like handguns, basically.
The Liberal Gun Club has a whole section on Cause Mitigation, which is what I generally believe will do the most good, not just for gun deaths, but for society as a whole. The whole “we don’t need the government help people” attitude is objectively not working.
So in conclusion, I support several options between “doing nothing” and “ban something”.
Well holy shit, this took way too long to reply to. Yikes. I better get back to work.
I am trying to reply to everyone earnestly and openly and proof read to not have my brain sneak in wrong words when typing.
I hope it was at least informative on a different perspective, even if you don’t agree with it.
Take care.
This doesn’t sound like a unique experience that requires this weapon.
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Except this is the opposite of that metaphor. You’re using a cat-o’nine-tails to hold up your pants.
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Apples and oranges, yo.
Our passions don’t kill and maim helpless people by the score, with more needless violence happening every goddamn day.
I can’t ignore your apparent lack of consideration for the lives and safety other human beings.
Your POV is one that actively enables the endangerment of all of our society.
It seems selfish and over-privileged and frankly, it genuinely saddens me that otherwise, you seemed like a decent guy.
But you essentially ‘sleep with the enemy,’ and so you are considered no ally of mine, nor anyone I strive to defend.
Unlike some others who share my core values, I won’t argue with you pointlessly over and over again… but I won’t just ignore your apparent lack of ‘give a fuck’ about everyone else, either.
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