Sign Of The Times

[Kelroy]

Actually, this is the type of rampant absurdity I was referring to. A 50 ft tapeworm seems entirely plausible by comparison.

I must confess I just don't 'get' this whole zombie-killer craze. Everything from knives, machetes, ammo, even the guns themselves with stupid zombie or bio-hazard logos on them. Are they marketing to pre-schoolers now? $400 Nikon scopes? $1000 AR's? With the word "ZOMBIE" on the side?? Eugene Stoner would roll over in his grave. What's next? Ninja Turtle switchblades? Hello Kitty hand grenades? It's a miracle Schumer and Bloomerburger and Moms Needing Action aren't already all over this with congressional investigations. Could we please stop marketing deadly weapons to our children? They will discover them soon enough on their own, I promise. Shameful.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, it was a funny joke until the advertisers jumped on the bandwagon. Now I'm really getting tired of the whole zombie thing.

Risk versus reward, convenience versus necessity. Does the risk of something bad happening because you're carrying (accidents of all kinds from accidental discharge to shooting the wrong person, or somebody taking it away from you and using it on you) outweigh the possible reward of actually being able to use it when you need it and have a good outcome? Does the inconvenience of carrying and the heavy responsibility outweigh the chances of you ever needing to use it? For me the answer to both questions is yes, so I don't carry and don't intend to start carrying. If I was forced to live or work in a high crime area, I'd have a different answer to those two questions. But on the rare occasions when I might venture into such an area, situational awareness seems to be more important than having a weapon.

Humans aren't good at weighing relative risks. We get all freaked out about mass shootings in public places, but even with the apparent increase in such things, we're still only talking about a few hundred people at most per year being exposed to that kind of danger, out of well over 300 million people in the U.S. So your chances of encountering such a situation are one in a million, perhaps, and your chances of being able to use a firearm to get out of that situation are even less. Just your typical violent crime? Your chances are much better of encountering that...but it all depends upon where you live and work and visit. The guy living in the typical small Ozark town or rural area...far less chance. Inner city? Far more chance.

On the other hand, there's a shotgun under my bed and the shells are close by...and the chances of me needing it are pretty slim, too.

[jdmidwest]

I never really got the Zombie ammo either. They market it in a different box and add a few bucks to the price. I wonder how much sits on the shelves at homes waiting for the day the Zombies come to life? Some people will believe anything and there is a market for those idiots.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I never really got the Zombie ammo either. They market it in a different box and add a few bucks to the price. I wonder how much sits on the shelves at homes waiting for the day the Zombies come to life? Some people will believe anything and there is a market for those idiots.

Much like those multiple layers of protection so you can sleep like the rest of us.

[jdmidwest]

Violent acts are stopped every day by armed citizens. Case in point, crazy with a knife beheads woman and is stabbing another when stopped by armed boss with a gun.

[Kelroy]

My heart goes out to the brave father whose 17 yr old daughter was nabbed at the street by two gunmen and forced back into her home at gunpoint. They got into the living room and were confronted by the father, and his gun. One of them put his gun to the girl's head and tried to hide behind her. Dad shot both of those turds right there in the living room. One died there, the other slithered away to be caught at the hospital. Mom, dad, daughter without a scratch. "I had no choice" he said. "He had my daughter, I did what I had to do."

Seems like a humble man, not likely an IPSC Master, SWAT instructor, or Navy SEAL. Just an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. One thing for sure, he was not in Hollywood. He was in Bevo Mills, south St Louis. June 10 of this year.

[Feathers and Fins]

for birdwatcher

http://youtu.be/ZLNoYujxeRo

And now to being serious

I have read this entire thread and just have to ask why people are so against the evil black gun. I have one for hunting it is an automatic it is only allowed to hold the legal amount of rounds in its magazine as the hunting regulations call for no different than any other automatic rifle. Where it does differ from most is it has Kriegar barrel, Swarovski Ballistic turret scope, and fully polished and customized lower, It has a bipod on the bottom and adjustable stock fully synthetic stock. She is light and easily carried and in 308 is more than a match for any deer. She is a great hunting gun and I plan to have a 338 built for Elk just like her and their little sister is in 22.

Most people buy the crappie press about how EVIL the AR is! Evil is Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and any Criminal using the AR or any Weapon on another person, But then again we just had a beheading in Oklahoma yesterday with a knife. SO was it the person or the knife that was evil?

I also own automatic pistols and wheel guns and even a couple over unders and enjoy shooting them all equally, We have this Pesky Constitution that allows me to do it and Liberals, Democrats and misinformed people find it very pesky to bad for them. Guns are not evil and all have uses from Plinking to hunting and in the unfortunate cases murder or self defense. It is the user that is evil not the gun, I have never seen a gun laying on a table just go off ever without someone making it go off.

As to home defense I want reliable always and a S&W 357 Or Colt 45 wheel guns are the definition of that, but I promise you I will also have Mr Glocks monster on me as well, both are in arms reach of me sleeping and my wife will be nice and safe with Mr Remingtons 870 MODEL and his 10 dogs barking. But and AR for home defense would be the last choice for that matter any rifle would be for the simple reason it has the high potential to leave my house and strike someone in another house. The idea is to defend yourself not kill the bad guy and the neighbor.

[ozark trout fisher]

This is a world with 6 billion people. Pretty much everything within the law of physics that can happen already has happened to someone, so you can find an example to post here. Doesn't mean that the likelihood of it happening to me is great enough to be in a constant (and what has to be exhausting, right?) state of preparedness for something that, statistically, has an almost infinitely tiny chance of ever occurring. If you think about it, by taking your family on a float/camp trip you are probably putting them in more danger due to flash floods/weather/car accidents on windy, shoulderless, generally terrible Ozark roads if you go your entire life without "self defense".

The bottom line is we can't account for every danger. That can be tough to deal with but it's a reality we might as well face. We just have to decide which ones are worth worrying about, and ideally, one should do that based on statistical knowledge of what actually has a decent chance of occuring. That double cheeseburger is way more dangerous to me than the possibility of an "armed gunman."

[Chief Grey Bear]

Well that's it.

I won't sleep now!

[mixermarkb]

I played guns as a kid. I bet AR's are still fun to play with at the range. Why can't people just say shooting is fun?

Why make up all the crazy scenarios about self defense?

If you like to shoot, good for you, it's legal, have at it. Just don't try and make it more than what it is to justify it to those of us who play with other toys.