[at-l] Guns on the trail.

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

> Why a firearm, Shane?  On the AT?

It's the old axiom:  "It's better to have a gun and not need it than to need
a gun and not have it."  In thousands of miles of hiking, camping, and
trekking, I have never had to shoot anything in self defense, and with the
exception of one unfortunate alligator, I've never had to kill anything in
self defense.  It could be theorized that I never will have a legitimate use
for the gun.

I'll offer two ideas, though, on why I do.  First, while less than half of
all police officers will draw and fire their sidearms in the line of duty
during the course of their careers, all police officers still carry a
sidearm.

You can also take this example: http://smokymtns.com/bearkill2.htm.

50 year old Glenda Bradley was killed by two bears.  (She ran from them,
displaying prey behavior, and so...)  You can create the equation:

woman + no gun + 2 bears = 2 dead bears + one dead woman

I would postulate:

woman + gun + 2 bears = one live woman + 2 dead bears

OR

woman who knows what to do when encountering bears + 2 bears = a peaceful
wilderness sighting of bears

(but we'll never know)

In Law Enforcement training, I've seen that the thing that kills many
officers is the mindset that, "It'll never happen to me."  That mindset
seems to kill lots of people when there is a disaster of any kind.  The old
quip is, "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."  I hope nobody ever has
to have a violent encounter with wildlife (or human life), but if you do, I
promise that if you don't have a gun, you'll wish you did - and if you do,
you'll be thankful.

Shane