[at-l] weight/use efficiency & Guns

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

True story - stated here not to further an agenda, but just as a
personal fact situation that occurred recently.  Happily married couple
living in a town in Georgia; wife is the gun expert - always sleeps with
loaded pistol close at hand on nightstand; husband got up to take a leak
in the bathroom [you probably already know where this is going]; on the
way back to his side of the bed, he runs into the dresser - wife wakes
up - sees shadow right near her - still half asleeep the only thing that
registered was danger - she grabs her pistol and fires one fatal shot to
his head; he was just laid to rest two weeks ago, and wife is everything
from suicidal to hopelessly grieved.  Only real point here is that
mistakes happen, but that's true with a lot of things; what comes
through from many of the responsible gun owners who have posted on this
topic is their concern for keeping their weapon out of the hands of
others, or out of the hands of curious kids, etc.  That is a factor on
the trail, for it is hard to have "lock and key" type comfort about your
gear, so you tend to feel "trapped" by the responsibility of keeping
control of the weapon.  I think some folks who start the Trail with a
gun go through a revised cost-benefit analysis along the way such that
they both get more comfortable about the relative safety of the Trail,
and less comfortable about the relative lack of "lock and key"
capability for securing their weapon, and thus sometimes end up sending
the thing home.  For me, the "ball and chain" concerns I had about
adequately securing a weapon, plus my growing rustiness in terms of
using one, led me not to take one - but I can see how others would reach
a different conclusion.

hike on,

thru-thinker

Bob Cummings wrote:
> 
> "...Prove it!" demands Bryan to my claim that "a lot of innocent people are
> killed by gun  accidents each year."
> 
>   Well, I'm quite sure I could, depending of course, on how one defines "a lot."
>   My comment suggested that more innocent people are killed by guns in this
>   country than by bears on the AT.
> 
> Frankly I don't know of anyone ever killed by a bear on the AT. A woman some
> weeks ago was killed a few miles from the AT in the Smokies. I think it was the
> only eastern bear death in years -- may be decades.
> 
> I'm an inveterate reader of newspapers and I periodically read of people killed
> in gun accidents. I rarely read of people killed by black bears. Rather I read
> of a parent shooting his kid. Kids shooting other kids. A butcher shooting a
> woman in Bangor Maine.
> 
> A friend of mine had his son shot by a neighbor in Connecticut. A few weeks ago
> this list debated at length whether we should feel sorry for a father who had
> shot his son while hunting.
> 
> I would classify even these few cases as "a lot," but I suspect a diligent
> search would find scores of other cases of accidental gun deaths in recent
> years.
> 
> Your strident demand to "prove" the obvious reminds me of the anger I find in
> some gun users, which strengthens my opposition to their using guns on a
> recreational trail. The simple fact is guns are illegal on much of the AT. I
> feel uncomfortable mingling with law breakers in a public area -- especially
> when the law violation involves the carrying of a deadly weapon. YMMV.
> 
> Weary
> 
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