[at-l] Guns on the trail.

[Josh Wilkins" <jtwilkins@mediaone.net (Josh Wilkins)]

Heck, and I always figured people carried guns because they personally feel
inadequate.
doh was I wrong.
watch out for dem bears
JTW
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shane Steinkamp" <shane@theplacewithnoname.com>
To: "Martin Fors" <revmrf@kingcon.com>; <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 1:49 PM
Subject: RE: [at-l] Guns on the trail.


> > 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
>
>
>
>
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