Fwd: [at-l] Gun story

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Phil Heffington wrote:
>My favorite story about using firemarms for protection is from a
>Reader's Digest, if I remember correctly, from about 20 years ago.
>Seems some convict had escaped from a prison in Tennessee and was
>reported to be in a certain area and was "armed and dangerous".

Phil -
MY favorite self-defense story came from my (at the time) 66 year old 
mother.  It involved her Social Security check and the fact that her mailbox 
was in the first floor vestibule of the apartment building that she lived 
in.  After the first time she found someone waiting in the vestibule on the 
first of the month (when the check showed up in the mailbox) she started 
carrying a gun when she went to get the mail.  At least twice during her 
first year on Social Security, she used that gun to back down some @#%^&*# 
who thought she'd be an easy mark.

The Readers Digest story ignores the fact that there are upwards of two 
million crimes (robbery, rape, murder, etc) prevented each year by ordinary 
citizens who have a gun handy. For over 50 years there's been a feature in 
the NRA monthly magazine that presents 15 to 20 incidents (each month) where 
people used a gun of one sort or another to prevent death, injury or 
robbery.  All of those incidents come directly out of the newspapers.  But 
those who fear guns and gun owners tend to ignore those stories.


>Unfortunately there is no real unified theory of psychology for gun
>owners.

Maybe not in the circles you run in.  I'm assuming you're a college 
professor - possibly psychology?  There have been a number of studies, most 
of them 15 years or more ago.  Getting funding for that kind of study now is 
extremely difficult because it's not politically correct.  One study, for 
example, was a correlation of political attitude and the willingness to 
"pull the trigger".  It was a DOD study and the results of that one were 
buried VERY deep by the "politically correct" crowd.


>They pretty much run the gamut of sane and crazy, responsible and 
>irresponsible, just like the general population.

Not really.  Being an irresponsible gun owner will get you in jail sooner or 
later.  "Legal" gun owners, as a group, are the most "sane" (although you 
might want to define that term, please), responsible and law abiding segment 
of the population.  It's a VERY SMALL group of gun owners, and mostly either 
criminals or those under the age of 25, who can be called "irresponsible".  
And that's to some large degree because they haven't been taught what their 
grandfathers were taught about gun safety and usage.  Crazy Plum's 
recollection of NRA taught safety classes in school coincides with my 
memories - only those classes aren't taught anymore -- and the kids are 
growing up ignorant and fearful.

You might best pray that we never need those kids to defend this country 
cause it's hard to defend anything when you're more afraid of your own gun 
than you are of the enemy.  That kind of fear WILL get you killed - and it's 
the kind of fear that most of today's kids are being fed as a matter of 
course.


>I only know that when I'm around people who start talking about protecting 
>themselves, by almost any means, I start to get nervous.  I know there are 
>exceptions but I figure I have at least as good a chance of talking myself 
>out of a situation than I do in getting out of it with a firearm.

The Readers Digest article also ignores the fact that, for a lot of people, 
having a gun in their hand doesn't mean they're "armed".  Personal 
experience - a holdup where I didn't have enough money to make the man 
happy.  So he told me he was gonna kill me - and then pulled the trigger.  
Not something you're gonna talk your way out of.  No - I didn't die - nor 
did I take a bullet - I took the gun away from him.  Back then, I didn't 
need a gun to be "armed" - and he wasn't "armed" even though he had the gun. 
  But it wasn't words that got the job done.


>It is sorta like something I believe someone on this list said one time, 
>"It's pretty hard to come out the winner in a knife fight without losing a 
>lot of blood."

Yep - and it's as true now as when I first said it.  But I don't take a 
knife to a gunfight either  :-))

>Not having any experience in actually shooting another
>person I figure I would hesitate just a fraction of a second longer than 
>the other guy with a gun and I would end up being the one dead.

Good reason for not carrying.  And I wouldn't wish the shooting  experience 
on you either - but there's a lot more to self defense than just whipping a 
gun out and spraying lead.  There's a whole psychology to it - including how 
far you can talk before the gun becomes the only thing between you and major 
injury or death.  Sometimes the talk works - sometimes it doesn't.

>There are only two kinds of guy toters, the ones who know what they're 
>doing, and the one's who don't.  Both of them scare me.

The ones who don't know what they're doing scare the hell out of me too.  
Usually it's an amateur who bought a gun and didn't bother to put in the 
time to learn how to use it - and just as importantly, how NOT to use it.  
They're the ones who brag about it, show off their toys, sometimes even play 
with them in public. My cure for them is a 2x4 upside the head and removal 
of the offending object.

The guys who DO know how to use a gun are people you should thank, because 
they make the world you live in a little safer.  I've rarely seen one of 
them even talk about guns except with others who understand the subject.  
Except - when they're "poking" someone.

But then - maybe I lead a sheltered life  :-)

Walk softly,
Jim


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