Trespass

[Al Agnew]

Well, this really went off topic...

I've never carried a gun, don't plan on ever getting a CC permit. But I keep a shotgun under the bed at home with the shells within easy reach. Which brings up another of the issues already mentioned, which I will talk about in a minute. In my opinion, an ounce of prevention is worth several ammo boxes of cure. If you are aware of your surroundings and aware of the bad things that can happen, you can almost always avoid them. It took my wife a long time to realize this. She thought that she had an unlimited right to speak her mind, and several times on float trips when she saw some dork doing something really obnoxious like tossing empty beer cans in the river, she'd let them know in no uncertain terms what she thought about it. Which left me getting ready to flee or fight. Fortunately, I never had to fight, but I finally impressed upon her that she was putting me in an untenable position where I was either going to have to start bringing the artillery along or let her defend herself.

But you can bet that, if I was in any kind of work or play situation where the chances of running afoul of bad people you couldn't easily avoid was a lot greater, I'd be carrying. It's just that in my situation, the chances of that are so remote that it isn't worth the added responsibility, the inconvenience, and the discomfort of carrying a firearm. I could get struck by lightning, eaten by a bear, run over by a drunk boater...there are all kinds of more or less random ways you COULD get in serious trouble, and I look upon the possible encounter with an angry meth head on the river as just one more. You can't defend against everything.

Now as to guns and kids...like I said, I keep the shotgun under the bed and the shells in the drawer next to the bed. I've actually practiced how quickly I could grab the pump 12 gauge and the no. 4 shotshells and get the gun loaded. I think that I could do it more quickly than the criminal breaking in could find his way through the house to the bedroom to shoot us. But if I was really paranoid, I'd keep the gun loaded. An unloaded gun is only useful for beating somebody over the head with who is willing to stand still while you do it. But I'm sure a lot of people would be aghast that I keep the gun and shells so close together and so unsecured from prying little hands.

Well, we don't have kids, but we have nieces and a nephew who have spent a lot of time in our house. And they KNOW, because I've impressed it upon them more than once, that the gun is there and to assume it's loaded. When I was a kid, there WERE loaded guns in the house, and we kids knew it, and we were to always assume that any gun we touched was loaded. So as somebody else said, the answer is to do your parenting, and then to trust your kids. An unloaded, locked up gun with ammo locked up separately is about as useful for home defense as a Crock Pot.

[fishinwrench]

Just sayin', you're more likely to get killed by a psychopath, or have your children raped or beaten while participating in church activitys than while enjoying the great outdoors. That's a fact. Do you pack heat in church?

[Flysmallie]

I wasn't saying you are looking for a fight. Did anybody else?

I was honestly curious about the safety measures to take if it was all loaded and ready to go. Out at a campsite you don't have as many options as you would at home.

BTW, I know my dad never knew that I knew he had a loaded pistol in his top left dresser drawer under some hankerchiefs. He thought it was out of reach, heh, heh. Just sayin'.

Sorry, shouldn't have directed that at you. But it's not that hard to keep it hidden and safe. Plus they are girls and aren't interested in guns. They will never find a loaded gun at home since the only one there is an old colt revolver that wouldn't fire if you wanted it to. I don't keep guns in my home.

[Flyflinger]

Pulling out a gun during a fist-fight will land you in prison. The world isn't full of evil strangers, y'all have just been brainwashed.

Do you carry lightning strike protection and a snake bite kit too?

Fist fights are easily avoided. The denial that evil exist does not make evil disappear. Lightning strike protection? If there was such a product that I could carry with me when out on the water...I guess I would....i have had some close encounters with lightning. Snake bite kit...check.

[Flyflinger]

Just sayin', you're more likely to get killed by a psychopath, or have your children raped or beaten while participating in church activitys than while enjoying the great outdoors. That's a fact. Do you pack heat in church?

Yup.

[Flysmallie]

The world isn't full of evil strangers, y'all have just been brainwashed.

Says the guy who thinks the government is sending planes into the sky to spray us.

I go home when it's lightning, a dead uncle taught me that and I'm not really afraid of snakes. But Im smart enough not to pull a gun in a fist fight. That's what a paddle is for.

[ness]

Yeah, somebody mentioned the 33 students at V-Tech, but look at the 10s of millions of kids safely in college before and after that...

Darn near everybody that eats at Luby's survives....

The odds of the things you guys are protecting yourself against are pretty slim. The odds of somebody getting shot go up when there's a gun around. In fact, 100% of shootings occur when there's a gun around.

I lock my doors, have an alarm system and have a couple killer Britannys to protect me at home. I sleep soundly and have sweet dreams every single night.

Al -- you ought to put those shells somewhere else when the kids are over, at a minimum....

[Greasy B]

As a person who has looked down the barrel of a loaded gun on a couple of occasions I want to remind everyone that our impression of violence is influenced by mass comunication. The fact is that we live in one of the most stable crime free countries in the world in perhaps the most stable and crime free time in the history of civilization. Just figured I little historic prospective was in order.

[fishinwrench]

Here's how you handle a situation like rounding a bend on a float trip and encountering someone that you feel has intentions of doing you harm. You just say "yo dude, Heads Up. what's with all the lawdogs upstream?" He/they say " WTF are you talkin' about", Then you say " F#@k I dunno, but I'm packin' a bag o weed so I need to get on downstream, later".

It's all about how you carry yourself. Works better than sitting there looking nervous and wondering if you should reach for your "equalizer". And yeah I've been there, talked my way out of a knife fight on the Niangua (see thread about area below tunnel).

[Flyflinger]

Yeah, somebody mentioned the 33 students at V-Tech, but look at the 10s of millions of kids safely in college before and after that...

Darn near everybody that eats at Luby's survives....

The odds of the things you guys are protecting yourself against are pretty slim. The odds of somebody getting shot go up when there's a gun around. In fact, 100% of shootings occur when there's a gun around.

I lock my doors, have an alarm system and have a couple killer Britannys to protect me at home. I sleep soundly and have sweet dreams every single night.

Al -- you ought to put those shells somewhere else when the kids are over, at a minimum....

You choose to look at the millions of kids that are safe at college, I choose to look at the 33 that could have been saved.

Well heck...most survived? No need for a gun there...I mean come on MOST survived.

Good grasp of the obvious...yes there needs to be a gun present in order for someone to get shot. Yet...for someone to end up murdered you only need people present.

Locked doors and an alarm...good....I hope you back up that alarm with a gun.

thank you safety sally.