Who are they going to shoot?

Lots of jabber lately about people desperate to buy guns and ammo. Makes me wonder:

Hadn't they thought of this before?
Really, who are they intending to shoot?
Defensive firearm, or one to help them take things from others?
Have they ever considered the mess buckshot makes at close range?
What firearm is appropriate?
What caliber is best? (best for what?)
What are they going to do with all the bodies?
Will they shoot a neighbor across the street if he won't stay locked in his house?
Have they ever dug a grave?
Have they ever moved a dead body?
Have they ever shot through a wall or door, or considered why they may or may not want to do this?
The slide locked back...now what?
Is it dangerous to carry a round in the chamber?
Are they prepared to take another humans life to protect their own or their family?

The answer to many of these questions is a very personal matter. Please just reflect on your own answers and keep that to yourself. I have no use for people who can't answer these simple questions. I consider them dangerous and will avoid them as much as possible, but I'll never miss picking them out of a crowd. Easy to spot someone who's not used to handling firearms.

 

I have a feeling who they intend to shoot and who they shoot will be different things. I assume we'll get a deeply amusing set of idiots who shoot themselves and various stuff.

 

I let you know !!Cops or Fire duds think there above

 

All those guns being bought by scared people who don't know how to use them. A dangerous combination.

 

Most people I know who are just now buying that first gun are going it out of fear of the unknown. They want to be able to protect themselves and their loved ones. I've also heard people in fear from what the government might do and a need to protect themselves from the government. This coming from people who are usually big government liberals.

The worst thing is not so much that they never thought about it and waited until it was an emergency, but the first firearm type they are choosing. Yes, right out of the gate they all buy AR's or similar as their first firearm. Been spending a fair amount of training on safety and battery of arms, also legal ramifications. Freakign TV shows.

One friend in particular bought an AR pistol as her first firearm. She didn't realize that putting the pistol length upper on a non-NFA rifle lower was a Felony as would replacing the "wrist brace" with an actual stock on the lower. Unfortunately she is a 15 hour drive away because I'd like to train her in person.

 

Was reading a survey taken of people buying their first weapon can't find the link to it again but the question of why? was answered with 73% saying it was more impulse and fear driven. 89% had never held or fired a weapon before. 91% Were unaware that they could not simply go in and buy a weapon and walk out with it. Numbers I posted are from memory of something I read at like 6AM so may not be exactly correct. It was in the 80s Percents buying sidearms with the most popular cal being 9mm second on the list was .380s . I kind of expected the 9mm, still scratching my head about 380s Given .380 is not a movie, TV or video game popular cal. Overwhelming thought was gee I am feeling real safe with a bunch of new weapons out there owned by people that can't decide which bathroom is correct for their fluid gender and with zero experience or training with firearms. I am sensing A LOT of accidental gun deaths in the coming months.

 

Interesting thought, fact remains that in my limited experience, being shot at by someone who intends to kill you if they can is a life changing experience and you will never look at life again in quite the same way. The present world is full of people who have been playing shoot em up video games since they were 6 years old and they have a distorted view of both weapons and the fact that in real life, there is no option to reset and play another game. Being 82, I was born and raised in a life style where a firearm was a useful tool, but also a dangerous tool. The movies at the time and the plots in the movies, were in fact usually a form of morality play. Good people and bad people, a struggle, and the good people won, usually with losses and a lesson that in life there were right things to do and there were both costs and benefits in doing the right thing. A lot of the younger people seem to equate firearms with power, kind of a way to both protect themselves and to project power. I see that most often in the 18 to 30 year olds choices in first firearm. They buy a tricked out AR15 and 30 round magazines, a Glock with a few mags, a concealed carry holster, lock them up in a safe, fondle them at times and show them to their friends, and think that it will somehow save them if needed in the future. 75 years ago your first gun was a single shot 22, you fired hundreds of rounds thru it, then usually went on to a 410 or 20 ga shotgun, fired 100's round thru it, then hunted birds and rabbits etc. A little later you advanced to a 30-30, fired it some, and then went hunting deer or other big game. Usually all stages were accomplished with older members of the family and community and you were expected to behave in a certain way and had your place at the bottom of the pecking order. At age of 16 or so you went into a rifle team at school and were taught on the Springfield and at 18 you joined the guard or joined up full time and and were trained in using the M1. Most of those training you had fought in WW2 or Korea and had a very fixed attitude about the purpose and the effects of a firearm. At least in Minnesota there was hardly any pistols, few revolvers, some Lugers and 45's, but even the police only carried 38 revolvers. As a kid my grand dads lever action 30-30 and a pump 12 ga bird gun were the ultimate weapons. and the 45 colt and Luger were the ultimate sidearms, most were either "liberated" WW1 or 2 bring home or surplus purchases. About 1950 I started to see more handguns and if you asked politely you could take them down to the armory and fire them and they would show you how to obey the rules. A lot of 9 mm surplus handguns from Europe showed up and then there was always the inexpensive US handguns. Lived for a while in southwest and handguns were more common, but 95 % were referred to as snake guns and tended to be smaller caliber revolvers, with a 30-30 on a rack in the pickup for game and coyotes, again tools and not some magical device to impress people.
Wish more people would buy a rifle, join a club, shoot a few hundred round safely, then respect it as a useful tool that properly used might save your life. Younger gang tried robbing the bank at Northfield Minn, no one carried a handgun so they thought it would be simple, but most people had a deer rifle and a bird shotgun in their house or store, went and got them and slowly and with careful aiming, destroyed them

 

Firstly, I dont ever want to line up my rifles sights on another human being ever again, that experience changes a person forever, and its not something I would ever wish others to have to experience themselves ether! That said, the use of a weapon is, and must be a VERY serious consideration, one that must demand a lot of thought and soul searching!
Im much older now then that dumb 22 year old kid i once was, and not a day goes by that I dont think of what I was forced to do!
A gun is a tool, nothing more, nothing less, its how you use that tool that makes the difference between right and wrong, good vs evil, stupid vs scared , and at the end of the day, you must live with your self and what you have done!
This lworld is full of mostly good folks, honest hardworking and peaceful, and yet there is also evil in the hearts of many, and its those whom we must be wary of, and we must stand ready to defend against them, and if needed, we must be ready to kill them! I make no bones about this, its one of lifes hard lessons, and the sooner people learn this, the better off we will all be!
As to all tjese scared sheeple buying stuff, it goes to the basic need to survive, and while many have been anti gun, or indifferent to them, they suddenly find themselves in doubt, and they revert to their primal needs, and they cast aside their previous attitudes and take up arms, realising that a gun may very well be the only defenseive tool in their tool box! Dosnt take skill, dosnt take training, only the desire and the will to survive, and never underestimate the danger of an armed person who is scared shittless, they may lack the skills amd training, but can more then make up for that in shear will and the primal drive to survive!

Hang on tight boys and girls, things might get a little sporty out there! Keep calm, smile at those you meet, and be ready to dimple a primer on any one of them!

 

The number of new gun owners is a staggering statement on the sudden attitude change of the entire population. I'm thinking of the untrained hands wrapping around unfamiliar grips in unfamiliar circumstances. I've a lot of doubt about greatly increasing firearm deaths, but I do think that a lot of walls will have holes from Barney Fife type shaking. What was it that was said about an armed population? Something about it being polite? Good, if true, says me.

 

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

― Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon

 

To all of you that have had to pull the trigger,My hats off to you!
I look at it like this,The enemy's job was to take you out,
You were simply better trained and faster to the Godless heathens skills.
Let his God deal with him...If he had one to begin with.
Ask forgiveness from yours.

 

Untrained and scared people with guns bothers me. I have had some training when I was in the Navy on how to handle weapons. However when this all blows over I'm willing to bet there's going to be a lot of like new guns for sale.

 

the vast majority of these weapons are getting buried in the back of closets and under clothes in a dresser drawer >>> never even chambered much less fired
not any different than the generators bought for that hurricane and pushed into the corner & forgotten/buried under crap ...
there is more benefit here than anything harmful >>> the anti-gun and gun control side took a beating - all kinds of changes in individual mindsets - and this isn't over yet - could see some violence yet ....
if you didn't buy & stockpile while the $$$ market was stable & down - you missed it for awhile - could be Xmas before you see 9mm sales

 

Themselves.
If/When they and their family get infected with the coronozombie virus after they had to venture out to get their meager food rations from the government cattle lot. They decide they don't want to become a bankrupt zombie and they go on a mercy killing spree in their house ending ultimately with a suicide.

that would suck.

Actually, I have no freaking clue why. They are scared. Maybe they want to protect what they have. Maybe they figured if it goes sideways, they are going to have to go out to get what they need. Maybe they fear the government is going to put them in the FEMA camps (they remember hearing about Katrina and the superdome).

solution:
If companies can keep their supply chains going.
If trucks keep rolling to the stores with food, hygiene and paper products, medications.
If the government could ease restrictions (kinda like they are doing currently).
If the people will trust in each other that we are going to make it to the other side.
And we don't panic.
Most of use will look back at this as time we all pulled together and made it happen.

There are a lot of really smart people working on this. And they are not the ones you see on TV. They are not politicians, pundits, media personalities. WTF do you think we that are working from home are doing? Playing Fortnite? No, we work for corporations that supply the products and services that everyone needs, and we don't want to see our companies go from multi billion dollar global congolmerates to a regional or single state only enterprise. We have thousands of employees and hundreds of suppliers and millions of customers. Trust me, we don't give a shit what the media is saying. We are working night and day to not only survive as a company but we need you as well as a customer to survive.

So chill the fuck out. Wash your hands. Stay home and if you must venture out, send only one person out that pretends everything will kill you. Practice social distancing. And for the love of god don't go out pretending that it won't effect you, cause you might wind up killing grandma.

You can start panicking when because of stupid people the power goes out, the water stops flowing or they post the EBS tone followed by government announcements. Because at that point all of the efforts of the smart folk have been for nothing.

 

Heinlein had it exactly right, in a society where everyone is comfortably armed. This is the situation on the range. I've found only one glitch, and it seems to apply to males only. I'll be polite and call it Pistol Envy. It's a situation I see when I wear a larger sidearm in an exposed holster. I get an aggressive and belligerent attitude from some men. Some of these knuckleheads are now old friends, but there was that initial friction that could've gone sideways under more primal circumstances.

Over a couple decades of people watching and testing this inconsistency in the normal polite interactions I have with my shooters I've found that concealed carry has many benefits. For an older gentleman who'd rather side-step and avoid conflict I'm comforted by the fact that I have the means to even the odds in a fight, and that I don't project an image that makes conflict more likely.

 

Guns are proof that Time is a one-way street. Once you send bullet on it's way, there isn't any calling it back, and once it hits someone there isn't any way to make it so it never happened.

The only time you pull the trigger is when the other guy won't allow you not to.

And once they do that, they've just gone down that same one-way street.

Then you do what you must--and NEVER waste an instant regretting it.

The best gun a person can possibly own is one that has set ready for use for forty years, been meticulously cared for, exercised from time to time, and never fired when there was no other option.

 

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

― Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon

CATCH 22......GAINESVILLE,FLORDIA, ALACHUA COUNTY, UF....the odd colored spot in the middle of the state.....
it is a dem county ....with all the best of SAN FRAN and ORLANDO
AND MAYBE 40% HAVE NO MANNERS IN THE BEST OF TIMES

"The Alachua County Sheriff's Office reported 4.5% more crimes in 2018, including seven of the year's 14 murders. The city of Alachua had two murders — its last previous murder had been 10 years earlier. The Gainesville Police Department had five murders, up one from 2017.Jun 25, 2019"

"Yes, violent crime in Florida has consistently decreased for the last 20 or more years. However, for every one of those twenty years national crime statistics have also decreased. The most recent statics show that Gainesville is safer than only 8 percent of the cities nationally with a population of 25,000 or more.Nov 22, 2010"

SO....WE ARE SAFER THAN 8% OF "cities nationally with a population of 25,000"

92%....OF THE CITIES OUR SIZE...IN THE US....ARE SAFER

"THEY" say food is being delivered to the big cities more so than the small.
this i can believe

AT THIS POINT, i hope gainesville is big enough to rate food to feed the dems

gainesville was not a big city in 1970
it has gotten a lot bigger in 50 years
it has become a dem stronghold in the middle of the state

most everybody still had manners in 1970

 

Uncle Morgan is right, when a sober law abiding citizen uses a firearm, everything else has failed. Haven't had to fire a firearm in anger or to protect myself in the USA ever, have them, have kept out of areas where I might have to use them and God grant my wish that I never have to use them. That being said, I would not wish to be in a situation where I had to depend on a lawman being 45 minutes away or not coming at all. Have only used my short term food supplies once, ice storm, don't know if this will be the second time or not, but my health insurance costs about $1,000 a month, and house and car insurance about $2,500 a year, so a few hundred a year for gen set, fire arms, food storage, etc, that could save my life seems like a cheap investment and I also enjoy the firearms, reloading, etc as a hobby. In my mind preps are a mindset, a pistol and 2 boxes of ammo on the top shelf in the bedroom may meet your concepts, but so do unicorns in some peoples mindset. YMMV re Gainesville and 1970, and at that time most people still worked for a living, got married before having kids, bought or rented houses for many years at a time at one location, were members of some community and often church and had no credit cards. Been a few changes in our society in the last 50 years and few have been what I would call improvements.

 

Rusty, I'm glad you are here to share some hard learned lessons. Stay in touch.

 

Pulled this out of a news story last week. It struck me as both amusing and pathetic at the same time. Seen similar things coming out of many of the more violent Cities, with Mayors and City Officials asking Gangs to have cease fires. Obviously not all armed societies are polite societies.

The Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, urged gang members to stop shooting each other, saying hospital beds are needed to treat coronavirus patients. Following a spate of shootings on Tuesday night, Mayor Jack Young said: "We cannot clog up our hospitals and their beds with people that are being shot senselessly because we're going to need those beds for people infected with the coronavirus.