[QUOTE=Crompsin;2593289]Nice metaphor... but I say having a gun doesn't change any of that alarmist poetry. A gun by itself doesn't turn Joe Wimpy into Joe Hero. It's just a tool, an implement. It isn't a magical merit badge of valor, it isn't burglar repellent, it doesn't do anything that the operator can't make it do. Even the pathetic training I experienced in the military said as much when it brainwashed me with, "Your M4 is an instrument, you are the weapon."
Perhaps it is these paranoid gun owners that "live in fear and do not know what the night holds." I'm not a statistical genius nor do I play one on TeeVee, but I'm sure there is a large number amongst the clutch-of-death-on-a-1911 "living in fear" crowd. Gah, I'm sick of the hoopla. Relax, people.
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I'm all for open carry but this ultra-violent, litigation-happy, guns-will-eat-my-baby Baa!-Baa! society makes it way impractical.
Discretion is the better part of valor. Keep a low profile. It aids in hiding you from the man, ya know.
Legal or not, common sense would dictate that walking around your front yard with a visible piece is a great way to get unwanted attention.
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I never wrote it as a metaphor, just an analogy since it is true in practice as well as in principle. I was not thinking of America when I wrote about people peering out a door thats no longer there.
If you had seen Rhodesia and South Africa before their current condition you would know what I mean. When people are stripped of the means to defend themselves it changes everything for everyone. Neither place was perfect before by any means , but destroying everything that was, was not the answer. (of course it was the answer for Mandellas retribution and his wifes blood lust
The American public has been generally induced into giving up small rights to the point there will be no rights. They have been mis-educated, lied to, taught revised histories, made to believe whatever before was wrong and only what we give you is right.
I don't dispute what you say about discretion, it's true. But as long as I can push you further and make you take more of my crap, and have you bow to it, I will continue to do it. If you don't push back I could keep on until you have nothing because I take everything.
No weapons don't make Joe Wimp into Joe Hero. But to quote Harry Callahan, "a man's got to know his limitations"
If you were in that situation it would be a different story wouldn't it.
Not likely SCSD is going to walk up on you in your driveway even if they see you carrying if it's in a holster. I doubt DK is in much different situation in TX.
That being said I'll throw in another scene.
A former cop working as a bodyguard walks into a building where his employer works.
He goes to the security desk to check his weapons in before proceeding upstairs.
He tells security rather than leaving the weapons bag in his car he wanted to check them in.
Upon opening the bag, the man gets thrown to the wall, spread eagle while being searched and cuffed. He is immediately taken to jail and charged with possession of an unregistered handgun and other charges. He is thrown in lockup and told his things will be held for trial and destroyed afterwards.
The bodyguards boss calls their boss and immediately demands his release and return of his gear. No can do. Was he deprived of due process? Was he wrong for maintaing a low profile?
As far as being approached by 5 armed men of any ilk makes me cautious. On the other hand I choose not to live in a place like that.
Your treatment of this makes me guess you're a nihilist. No? Partial?
Where are you by the way, UMW, Germanna, NVCC?