Are owning a gun a bad thing?

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Yep, pulling a magnum out of your pants does tend to impress the ladies, though it's not so much the size of the bullets as what you do with them. Shot placement is everything.

sand wrote:

Fraid not: It doesn’t guarantee anything but that you have a tool at your disposal to aid in dealing with certain threats that may arise. The necessary addition to that tool is the right mindset.
Going looking for trouble armed is a legal and civil liability. I wouldn’t want to even try to explain to a jury what I was doing Saturday night in the darker side of town that got me into a situation where I had to shoot the “victim”. I personally know lots and lots of gun owners/carriers that see it the same way.



Danger in this case is the strong feeling that life and limb (that of you and yours) are in imminent danger. It doesn’t mean you can cap someone on suspicion or fire a few shots into the dark where you are about to tread just to clear the way.
Since we still live in a civilized country with laws we have to justify our actions. I’m not saying everyone does but most do and that’s as good as it gets.



Without any more info than that I’d say he surrendered his balls to his controlling wife.
Seen it before…………

I would say come back with an argument with some merrit but since there isnt one.........

What’s your definition of a gun culture and which gun culture or gun cultures are you referring to?
In case you didn’t know, Canada does have a fairly strong gun culture and you can find evidence of it on the internet.

Still what evidence is there that carrying a gun significantly improve safety? The bad guy can always hide and shoot first before one have the chance to pull the gun.

Really? Shot placement is everything? I've always thought bump firing was the way to go lol.

It's true that it's usually one person getting the drop on the other, but in the event of say a mass shooting or if you can spot things going wrong quickly enough, it definitely helps. I think it's naive to think only a gun matters when social skills and street smarts are bigger determinants of your safety, as well as determinants to you knowing when to pull a gun out. You have to be able to spot when things are going wrong quickly enough as well as knowing things are going wrong at all, so a gun is useless if you aren't able to all do that

I don't feel the need for concealed carry, though I do feel the need for home defense. For those that do feel the need to carry a gun though, I'd advise em to work on their social skills as well as learn about the dynamics of how criminals operate so that they can not only spot when things are going wrong, but can avoid a lot of situations with both sets of skills alone.

Or, they could opt for a safer line of work, which is in fact indicated by some of the stats associated with states changing over to right to carry. Violent crime goes down, while property crime goes up, a pretty good indicator that crooks prefer less risk of getting hurt.

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With the potential threat for rabid animals in my back yard or just plain shootin fun, a gun has its place.

I keep it locked as in photo, because I don't want to be shot with it in case it was found, or a yougster to chance upon it in the house.

So, what's the X-factor? Why is it that in Canada we have one-third as many firearms per capita as the United States, but only one thenth as many firearms homicides? Why is it that South Africa has one eighth the firearms, but ten times as many homicides?

If we can get past the gun-control rhetoric, and get to a discussion about the responsible control of guns by their owners, I think that there is room to consider this question. So long as the two solitudes are braying, "Confiscate them all!" and, "From my cold dead hands!" We lose the ability to have that conversation.

I don't want to confiscate firearms, but I want a diminishment of firearm related violence. How do we go about doing that?

Well, I was actually referring to Canadian gun culture when I said 'involving deer steak', and American gun culture in the one that should take it down a notch. Many of my friends and their families are part of this so called Canadian gun culture. I also have many friends who are a part of American gun culture, and also some of my family down in Florida. I can highlight a few major differences that I have noticed:
My Canadian friends never drink and play with their guns while my American friends seem to like going off to quarries, getting sloshed and shooting at targets, and possibly small animals
I've noticed Americans see the gun as some kind of god given right whereas Canadians see it as a sporting good
Most Canadians do not own a handgun; as those are basically for killing people and we're interesting in hunting game, not impressing our ghetto buddies or redneck pals. Canadians almost exclusively use rifles, which is one reason there's such an outcry here against gun registration, but that's a whole argument I'd rather not stir up (mostly because I don't care lol)
Though obviously left wingers or right wingers all over the States like guns, the impression I get is that mostly its right wing oriented people who are part of the NRA or can be categorized as part of American gun culture. In Canada, I'm pretty certain that gun owners fall on a much broader political spectrum, rather then mostly on the right

I'm not trying to whitewash Canada though, our gun culture has its own outliers. I still remember the Dawson school shooting here in Montreal. Several of my friends witnessed it, and my own college was evacuated because there was a rumor that all of the colleges in Montreal were under attack.

I think guns are fine, but why should an individual need a 9mm pistol or an AR-15? Guns should only be for hunting, or worst case, self defense. There are probably some areas of the United States where not having a gun is unwise, like South Central LA, but this is another issue of crime and sociology... I don't really think guns are the big issue in the US rather the very vocal minority of right wing gun owners is. It seems to me that most things in the US work this way nowadays. The loudest minority will tend to win out and get all of the attention, which is unfortunate, because there are millions of American gun owners who are just interested in sport or building collections

Vigilans wrote,

Unfortunately there are hooligans out there and there’s not much that can be done about it in practical terms. By the same token we have even more that get sloshed and get in there cars and tear off down the road. That’s illegal under all circumstances but they still do it and its much more of a menace to the public.



Actually, an alarming amount of Americans see guns as sporting goods as well. If I had a dime for every time someone asked me what I need a handgun, AR-15, or M-14 to hunt with I’d be rich.



Handguns come in many flavors. Just in my safe I have handguns designed specifically for target shooting. At the other end of the spectrum I have some big bore magnum revolves with long barrels that would lend themselves much more to hunting than anything. And, of course, a good many of mine were designed for killing and that’s the simple truth and I won’t even bother tap-dancing around it. The .40 caliber Glock in my truck is just for that. It has tritium sights and ammo designed for expansion in human bodies. It’s not there out of paranoia of attack any more than the spare tire and jack are there out of paranoia of a flat tire. Both are a just in case thing because it’s better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

I can’t help notice you love to generalize Canadians and Americans a lot as if we were a separate species or something. We have lots of Canadians here in Florida and they blend in quite well with all us ghetto dwellers and uneducated rednecks.
By the same token I’ve been to Canada and did not feel out of place. Maybe they didnt notice my horns and tail....




The NRA has done more to curb wrongful and accidental firearm related deaths than anything through gun safety education and fighting to keep the playing field level so that the law abiding can defend themselves from the wolves of society.
As an NRA certified Range Safety Officer (RSO) I’ve kindly helped many shooters at our shooting range to a better understanding of safety that may someday save them some grief.



I’m sure you heard about the Virginia Tech shootings in ’06. About the only thing we learned from that is NOT to expect the cops to rush in and save the day. You’re on your own in that kind of scenario until the shooter runs out of ammo, people to shoot, or he caps himself.

And forget the notion about screening potential gun buyers to make sure some nutjob doesn’t get a gun. Simply stated there are too many holes in it.



If I feel the need or desire to own an AR-15 then that’s entirely up to me.

It’s not about need or deer hunting it’s about a human right. The right to bear arms is a basic human right of all free people. The 2nd amendment to our constitution does not give us that right but affirms it as a right that will be upheld in the United States for its citizens.
There is a reason why that right was seen as important enough to have in the constitution back then and that reason is alive and well to this day.

Many other country’s citizens (subjects) do not have this right so therefor I cannot view them as being as free as they are entitled to be as humans.

I could write a dissertation on this alone and demolish all the feeble arguments to the contrary without breaking a sweat.

Take it down a notch? No, I think I’ll pass on that………..

I notice your gun lies on some kind of shrine or in a place of honor. Complete with a red cushion. Do you polish it up and clean it even when you haven't fired it for a while? Do you gaze upon it fondly?

ruveyn

It seems likely that running the hand back and forth along the barrel might evoke a good deal of pleasure.

A few things:
-A blued gun is vulnerable to corrosion; even a fingerprint left in place will rust into the metal as an orange print.

-This piece is a collectors item as it was discontinued in '99.

-The "shrine" is the actual gun case unfolded.

-Picture was for insurance reasons.

And also to Sand: LOL. There is something to the above, though, for sure. A fascination with certain things.... 'a beauty of design,' not necessarily an enablement of power, per say.

As of interest: I'm more into ballistics as a science. I reload and chronograph to tailor the loads.
Saves money for one. This waxes and wanes though. I'd bet I shot this gun a dozen times since '93.

Last edited by Mdyar on 20 Jan 2011, 12:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Awesome piece Mdyar,
Pythons are sweet. I had a chance to buy a stainless one with a 4" barrel for a good price but I foolishly passed on it since I'm more into semi-autos. I have some revolvers, though, but most are Smith & Wesson.
Looking back I really wish I'd just gone ahead and bought that Python.

Since I had the safe open I figured I'd drag a few out for a quick pic.

Clockwise from top:
1970 vintage Smith & Wesson model 29 .44 magnum with a 6.5" barrel.
Heckler & Koch USP .45 ACP
Sig Sauer P-228 9mm
Springfield Custom Loaded 1911A1 .45 ACP.

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Interesting.
It appears the 45 ACP doesn't have the usual 5" inch barrel. The commander had I believe a 4.25" barrel. Maybe the pic. is descaling it or is it shorter? And looks as though it was accurized by the trigger?