I can get behind this revision
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I’ll answer both your and Torn Paper’s question here. First of all, I don’t carry ‘on’ me. I am not licensed for that. When I camp or when on road trips it is packed away, but accessible if needed. When I used to go hiking, backpacking, anywhere in the wilderness I never carried and I never thought about protection from people. I always considered wild animals more of a threat than people. I do carry pepper spray for bears and a Leatherman, but that was about it. In hindsight I remember several instances where I found myself in a bad place in the back country. In one instance in the Sierra Nevada while backpacking solo, two hunters came out of nowhere. These guys looked exactly like the crackers in Deliverance. They actually crossed my trail, one ahead of me and one behind me. I didn’t even see the guy behind me until I had already passed. I said ‘Hi’ to the one guy and he just stared at me with a look that would curdle your blood. When I passed them and looked back, both of them were off the trail watching me. It was pretty scary. Another time in the San Gabriel’s in L.A. on a backpack I encountered a guy with a dog that ran up on me barking and snarling. I only had a big rock and told the guy to call his dog off or I was going to hurt him. The guy called his dog off and staggered up to me. He wanted to know if I had any drugs on me. This guy looked like he had been wandering around in the back country for several days and appeared insane. I have had a couple other similar experiences with people in the back country. That was all before I owned a gun. So, then, me and my girlfriend were camping up in the Uinta Mtns. in Utah and just over the ridge there were a bunch of rowdy rednecks drinking. It was pretty scary because they were shooting just over the ridge and and getting closer. I didn’t own a gun at the time but my girlfriend had her .45 revolver and her .306. I felt SAFER knowing we had some kind of way to protect ourselves if these guys came stumbling over the ridge, drunk and looking for trouble. We were both members of a Henge (Heathen/Pagan spiritual group), that is how we met. One of the members was the son who founded Browning. Our Chieftain was an ex-Marine who taught handling weapons. All of them brought weapons to our back country camp outs. Maybe some of them did have fantasies of confronting persons while armed, but believe it or not we were all pretty Liberal and Progressive minded. Everybody is different and I certainly do not entertain shooting anybody. When you are in the back country as much as I have been, you realize you do need some kind of protection. I still won’t carry one while backpacking. It’s simply too heavy. I carry pepper spray. But camping, yes, I do have a hand gun with me. So, that’s why I carry, but by no means can you tell me I harbor fantasies of shooting anyone.
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Fair enough, but it is still nice to have a semi-local group of similar people to pull information from.
This. I can’t remember where I read it, but the thought was: The only way to get sensible gun regulation in the US is to have Black lives matter or a similar group organize gun-buying parties for people of color. Have a hundred black or latino guys walk in and all buy AR15’s every week for a month or two, and things are going to change very quickly. Even quicker if they parade them around in open-carry states.
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Well on a Friday afternoon a Seattlite is a two hour drive to proper airport amirite
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I recently acquired a gun. And I’m mostly thinking “gee I hope this family heirloom doesn’t explode when we test it for target shooting” and occasionally about nailing a tasty rabbit or other edible critter. The other day I realized this is the rifle my grandfather used to slaughter pigs and I began to wonder if I could get my brother to raise a pig or six on his newly acquired, agriculturally zoned back yard.
While what your describing is the dominant narrative in firearms marketing and the foaming at the mouth political end of the subject. It’s not at all universal, or inherent to the subject. And the level to which it’s been bought into is both disturbing and dangerous.
Then why carry it. The idea that you need a gun for protection is a myth. The chances of any individual encountering such a situation are vanishly small and in large part a gun is going to make it vastly more likely you’ll be hurt in such a situation. The gun doesn’t make or keep you safe. In so far as the gun itself is dangerous. Inherently. It’s presence in your home or on your person put you at risk. It’s why typical requirements for safely storing and transporting fire arms are typically do complex. Maximise the chance that the gun can’t fire.
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Yeah… we’ve already got that here in Denver. It’s called ‘the Cartel’. They especially like to parade around while under the influence.
Thank God my house is made out of concrete.
I can’t imagine the police response to a African American gun buying party at a gun store.
One black guy was refused sale and the owner called the police on the guy.
This seems like the gun shop is denying rights … but then again these aren’t cakes for gay weddings.
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Are we related?
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Also the odds of being in a car crash are much higher than the odds of being in a shootout…
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I find it ironic that firearms are now being painted in toy-like colors (to appeal to women? children?), when gun-like toys have been, in recent years, painted in bright colors so no one (police?) confuses them with a real gun.
Also, has Ralphie’s fantasy of thwarting home invasion with a trusty firearm taught us nothing as a society? In real life, it almost always ends in some version of shooting one’s eye out.
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In a car crash the seatbelt means you are vastly less likely to die.
In the shootout the gun makes it vastly more likely that you will die.
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And that’s really stretching the original premise, which was, "When you have a gun, you are either thinking of killing somebody. Or somebody killing you.” Intent is pretty clear there, especially when you read the rest of stillwaves’ comment.
I used to go to the range and shoot and one of the most entertaining things was talking to the people there. Start a conversation and it usually only takes about 10 minutes before they reveal their fantasy scenario where they get to shoot someone. Home invasion, stopping a store robbery, “Mexicans climbing over the wall in the backyard” ( The guy who spoke that gem, is now dead by self inflicted gun wound and his wife a week later by the same means)
The implication that “thinking” means “fantasizing”, meaning that buying a gun satisfies some fetish for killing. Personally, I reluctantly have firearms in the house, and the #1 reason I have a shotgun in the house is because I’m about a 25-minute drive from the nearest sheriff’s office and ditto for animal control. What am I going to do if there’s a rabid raccoon in my yard and one of my kids is being attacked by it, get out a garden hoe? No, I’m going to shoot the thing and take my kid to the hospital if my kid’s been bit. This is not a scenario I fantasize about, any more than a woman who keeps a baseball bat next to her bed and pepper spray in her purse fantasizes about being raped.
Jesus, people.
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And it was actually that law, and the realization that the law affected everyone, that caused the NRA to realize that hey, we should be on the Black Panthers’ side.
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I agree that a lot of gun owners have this fantasy. But not all, of course.
Myself, I do not have a gun yet, but when I get one it will probably be one from my dad’s collection that I will remember him by once he is gone.
Also I love venison, and there is no easy way to get the wild gamey stuff. So I may have a go at shooting a deer as well.
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Read my reasons why that I had previously posted. I don’t ‘carry’ on me at all times.
While I completely understand your/Neal’s point, that false urban legend really needs to stop being proliferated.
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Isn’t that the truth. When I lived in the East Village of Manhattan and traveled for work, I had to allow 2 hours to get to Newark airport which is (maybe) 11 miles away, same for JFK if it was evening or weekend.
So, yes, you make a good point. But he’s 2+ hours driving on two lane roads at 50-60 mph.
“Portable killing machine” might be the greatest re-branding ever.
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