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Time to get a gun?
Chicago Tribune ^ | 09/06/2005 | Eric Zorn

Posted on 09/06/2005 5:57:55 PM PDT by Jack Wilson

Time to get a gun? Along with our powerlessness against nature and the fecklessness of the government's response to a crisis, a third frightening aspect to the tragedy of New Orleans has been the breakdown of civilization in the disaster zone that accompanied the snapping of the so-called thin blue line.

Among the questions it prompts in my mind is one that is old and unresolved: Should I own a firearm?.

Thirteen years ago, when Los Angeles was up for grabs during the rioting that followed the acquittal of police officers charged in the Rodney King beating, the images of shopkeepers unprotected by police staving off looters with rifles knocked me off my comfortable anti-gun perch. Who wouldn't want a firearm under those circumstances? And who knows where such circumstances will occur next? .

It's hard to bring this up again without sounding like one of those cackling vigilantes who would gladly shoot someone swiping a bicycle out of his carport, or one of those basement-bunker survivalists besotted by paranoia..

I resisted back in 1992 and still rely on 9-1-1 and a pitching wedge under the bed to protect my family. But the rapid descent from crisis to chaos to anarchy in New Orleans was another reminder that paranoia can come to look like prudence in hindsight.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; guns; katrina; liberals; looting
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To: Cobra64; dljordan
A pump chambering a round is a scary sound hearing it in someone's home at night.

Indeed, it is a scary sound and an affective tool to scare the bad guys away. IF, you are wide awake when the bad guys enter your home.

121 posted on 09/06/2005 7:35:48 PM PDT by TheMom (My husband rocks!)
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To: Eaker
If possible keep the light low as you know where your furniture is and they don't.

My wife has one job when something goes "bump" in the night...kill the lights.

122 posted on 09/06/2005 7:37:26 PM PDT by papertyger
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To: Squantos

I just don't see an "pat" answers to this. Eventually you've got to announce yourself somehow. If you rack the slide, they're probably either going to beat feet or shoot at the sound. If you don't know for sure how many there are or where they are, I don't see any downside to using the sound to flush them out, as long as you keep moving.


123 posted on 09/06/2005 7:37:27 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: tennmountainman
I am going out and get a gun or shotgun.

What, exactly is a "gun?" I have eighteen "guns" of all shapes and varieties; but I am confused. Could you help me catalog my "guns."

124 posted on 09/06/2005 7:38:47 PM PDT by Cobra64
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Good luck. Hope your phone is on speed dial and you got a great arm.


Better have a cell phone in case the guy takes out your phone first.


125 posted on 09/06/2005 7:39:09 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Nov3

I think we are on the same page for home defense


126 posted on 09/06/2005 7:39:10 PM PDT by mylife (The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: varmintxer

FWIW Savage and a good caller are talking about this now.


127 posted on 09/06/2005 7:39:17 PM PDT by Mr Cobol (I can hear it now, Hi, I'm Hillary and I'm here to help.)
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To: mylife

Yeah except for the pistol grip!


128 posted on 09/06/2005 7:40:15 PM PDT by Nov3 ("This is the best election night in history." --DNC chair Terry McAuliffe Nov. 2,2004 8p.m.)
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To: Cobra64; Eaker

The only difference between our families is our children were taught to shoot with handguns first; long guns second.


129 posted on 09/06/2005 7:40:27 PM PDT by TheMom (My husband rocks!)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

My bad there HTB :) I got that bassackwards..

Shot from a slug barrel? gives the swirly effect L0L


130 posted on 09/06/2005 7:41:20 PM PDT by mylife (The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: hoboken109
If you try to buy a hand-gun, you'll be on a waiting list for at least 6 months. If you're concerned for home self defence, I'd suggest pump action shot gun. BUT - GO TO THE STORE, BUY A CASE OF SHELLS, THEN GO TO THE RANGE AND FIRE THE WEAPON! 50 ROUNDS EVERY WEEK.

When the black and blue marks diminish, then you can have fun at trap, skeet, sporting clays, hunting...

131 posted on 09/06/2005 7:43:12 PM PDT by Cobra64
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To: laker_dad
We live in an area where you really don't need to lock your doors at night, so why do I need a gun?

Locking your doors is the very first step of securing your family. We practice zero-tolerance with leaving doors unlocked. There is no excuse for not having your keys. Period.

132 posted on 09/06/2005 7:43:45 PM PDT by papertyger
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To: TheMom

My preference is the handgun.

You apparently are comfortable with a Glock.

Lauren seemed to be comfortable with a SW 5906 or Berreta 92

Thanks for the input


133 posted on 09/06/2005 7:44:44 PM PDT by mylife (The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: papertyger
Locking your doors is the very first step of securing your family

Yes, you are right of course. I should have added that even though we don't need to, I lock up anyway...

134 posted on 09/06/2005 7:46:38 PM PDT by laker_dad
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To: papertyger

Y'all have thought about it.

That is the first step to beating back the goblins!


135 posted on 09/06/2005 7:48:17 PM PDT by Eaker (My Wife Rocks! - I will never take Dix off of my ping list as I have been asked to do.)
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To: TheMom

By the way, I was suprised to see 250 evacuees across the street from work this AM


136 posted on 09/06/2005 7:50:11 PM PDT by mylife (The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: mylife

A handgun is a handgun . . . what is important is which one you are comfortable with.


137 posted on 09/06/2005 7:51:05 PM PDT by TheMom (My husband rocks!)
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To: Eaker; VeniVidiVici
Sorry for the delay...

My house has three levels. Family bedrooms are on two of them. I can't afford to sit in bed and dial 911 with daughters sleeping downstairs, if i sense a threat I have to investigate. However, 911 will be called by the wife and if there were no others in the house then the right course of action (if you are certain of an intrusion) is to sit tight, be armed and ready, and call the cops.

138 posted on 09/06/2005 7:54:20 PM PDT by wtc911 (see my profile for how to contribute to a pentagon heroes fund)
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To: TheMom; Cobra64
Baby girl at 10 years old shooting a Glock 27.





A few years later shooting a full auto-Uzi.


139 posted on 09/06/2005 7:54:37 PM PDT by Eaker (My Wife Rocks! - I will never take Dix off of my ping list as I have been asked to do.)
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To: Jack Wilson

Don't trust the government that does not trust an armed society.

There is a reason why our founding fathers wrote the "Right to bear arms" into the Constitution.

Even if you look outside our boarders, it's always the same story. Disarm the people and you have them by the balls! It's the first thing the NAZI's did (Germany’s first gun laws were under Hitler), the first thing that the Serbs did as Yugoslavia was falling apart and later they started killing the Bosnians and others.

Crime and gun ownership correlations have been proven to be bogus relationships that in fact have backfired on many who tried to establish them. In many places where concealed carry became legal, crime dropped. Some of the cities with the highest murder rates (Washington, LA, New York….) also have some of the stiffest gun laws. This however, does not discourage the gun control fetishist. As gun laws got stiffer in Britain and Australia (I believe Australia as well), crime went up, not down. Yet they keep grinding the same old disproven dogma of guns equals’ crime.

The right to defend and protect yourself is as instinctual and basic as breathing itself. Those who think the Police is always there, that the government is your friend and can always be trusted, that people are all good natured and moral are naïve at best.

Yes, buy a gun and join the crowd of gun toting weirdo Americans. We’re such “Cowboys” and so redneck stupid to believe in this “Right to bear arms”, yet many foreigners just don’t seem to understand why we have lasted so long as a democracy. Do you think 6 million Jews would have gone to the ovens as easily had they been able to resist? In a society such as the US, a government has to “think” about what decisions it makes. Waco and Ruby Ridge were horrible events, but they also caused for a reevaluation of policy and how to go about dealing with people.

This sums it up best: Armed you’re a citizen, once disarmed you’re a subject.

Even in Iraq we allow the people to remain armed. Fact is, the ones with an AK at home are not the ones building IED’s or even shooting at us. Even there, the gun owner is no real threat. Even there the statement that the “bad guys” will get the weapons anyway is true. In fact, they will get a lot more than AKs.

Red6


140 posted on 09/06/2005 7:55:08 PM PDT by Red6
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