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Posted on 05/13/2013 9:06:48 PM PDT by marktwain
“A Dude From The Rainy Left Coast” asks if I would prefer to live in a world with no gun controls or one with reasonable gun controls, and why.
We had a world with no gun controls, once. A world in which you could hop a coastwise trader in New Orleans, and get off in any port north of Guyana. With your life preserver hanging on your belt, and without as much as a raised eyebrow from anyone.
A world where wide areas of the world had four or five murders a year for every million population. Most as a result of some dude violating, or attempting to violate, the ‘unwritten law against adultery.”
That was a world where a man who wanted to could cut a stout walking stick in Calais, put a life preserver in its holster, and walk to Moscow and beyond. With the good wishes of everyone he met, including the border guards.
Today, we have what generations past called “reasonable gun control.” While gun control laws have become less strict, and violence has responded by becoming less frequent, we know what the results of “reasonable gun control” are. Sky high murder and violent crime rates as well as overmuch government hostility.
Within reason, you can have any violent crime rate you want by manipulating the gun laws. Absolute gun bans result in violent crime rates as bad as Venezuela. Or worse.
Semi-absolute gun bans with large quantities of forbidden weapons coming in from the outside results in Chicago.
And so on down the severity scale until you get to Kansas City, 1895. Which needed only modern health care and sanitation to be a near ideal place to live. And to live without idiotic, and enforced, restrictions on who could buy a gun, or where they could take it.
My son had to learn that the hard way; with a 12 gauge, #6 shot at close range, about 25 feet.
If he would have just called me and asked, I would have told him to get back at least 30 yards.
Kids , what can you do.
Scoped 22 long rifle at about 40 to 60 yards, get them in the brain box and no stink.
Thank you gentlemen.
.50 He only “borrowed’ them from Ft. Bliss a couple of times but it was exciting for 10 to 15 year old boys. He bought us a lot of ammo.
And keep the dog inside while you’re setting up. Don’t ask me how I learned that.
Dog got spritzed four times already. Thanks.
Yeah. It’s...uh...never mind.
I lived in a rural area and people didn’t even secure their firearms, they were hanging on open racks in unlocked vehicles and homes. I never heard of anyone stealing firearms. Everyone I knew had those rifle racks in the back window of pickups, always at least one rifle in it, even in my high school parking lot. People I knew didn’t even secure firearms from children, I grew up being able to access them at any time. My dad had a pretty severe firearms training program at our house- I guess most did. I never knew any children that had firearms accidents either, I did hear about a few on the news but never personally knew of any.
“buy them buy the case of 20 barrels - $75”
“Thompson 50 rd. magazine - $14”
i always held a reasonable gun is what the cops or feds carried.
for reliability reasons, and so that if i ever had to use such a gun, if i owned any, i was using what the cops used, and wasn’t trying to appear to use ‘more gun’ than what the cops believed they needed - freaking trial lawyers mentality.
rabid skunks’are’a’problem, as is any rabid thing,
some people actually keep em as’pets, great documentary was done on them. learned a lot about them in general.
and the druggies, once they ran out of money, started breaking and entering to steal anything not bolted down.
Saw one belonging to the son of a MI supreme court justice about 20 years ago. I drooled from a safe distance (he had about 200 rounds of assorted ammo, too), but told him, very loudly that he at least had federal audio and video running. I think they trusted he couldn't run very far with it. He even said I could take it home, because I was good for the $2K he was asking, even though he never saw me before in his life. We met up through a mutual acquaintance.
The weapon was in immaculate shape, with top-notch workmanship. It was also totally complete with skis for the bipod, a towing harness, and the complete wooden shipset for all of the pieces it would take to maintain it at the depot level. I think the top-mounted box magazine held ten rounds, and he had a few dozen of those too. The Finns called the big box that held everything, including the rifle as "the coffin".
I mentioned once again, very loudly, how I appreciated seeing his toy, but it was beyond my means, even if free. I made a wide circle around the Lahti, saw myself out the door, and hauled ass from the ritzy part of Ann Arbor. Never did get a knock on the door. A single fingerprint would probably got me a different outcome.
Still, he was a persistent salesman, and as I was spraying gravel during my escape for the family estate, he yelled that if I came back in a few weeks, he'd have his cherry MP40 with several crates of NIB mags, but it was at one of their Arizona ranches at that moment.
skunks are adorable, lovely sweet creatures. Please don’t shoot them. Just leave them a bit of cut up fruit or vegetables on paper plate - skuns are easily tamed, and they bring good luck.
Walked into a few of those obvious bear traps over the years. Grinned and said silly stuff like ...”is that a Martini Henry Zulu Rifle ?” ....Then walked away.
... My own large calibers are a original M82A1 Barrett 50bmg, a 460 Weatherby Magnum Ruger No 1H Tropical that was rechambered from a factory 458 Win Mag and my own sod poodle slayer a Dakota Longbow in .338 Lapua Mag. Add in a old TC long tang Hawken front stuffer in .54 cal, assorted 50-70 and 45-70 single shots and a 500 Linebaugh Ruger Bisley and my .50GI Glock conversion from Guncrafters and that is my exercise in recoil and large caliber.
One of the hardest recoiling rifles I ever fired was an original AMAC 50bmg Bolt gun (Daisy BB Gun Company Design) with no brake or mule. That exercise took 100 points off my 10 point IQ. Hurts just thinking about that shot. Our EOD teams were looking for something to replace our “accurized / scoped MaDuce M2’s” to disrupt ordnance and IED’s with. The McBros, AMAC and Accuracy International lost out to Ronnie Barrett’s design.
Crazy that 20mm thang....
Stay safe 300 !
Reasonable gun control? I take this to mean Posse Comitatus limits on the federal government, 5th Amendment prohibitions on the taking of life without due process, 4th Amendment prohibitions on search and seizure without a warrant, and other reasonable restrictions on the government turning this country into a police state.
Say rather that no one you knew was assaulted or lived in a broken home.
Dysfunctional or broken families and assault have always been around since the Fall.
Drugs have always been with us. It is drug laws that made the difference.
We have tried the drug war for about a hundred years. It has been a monumental failure.
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