[at-l] This and that....

[SaraSW@aol.com (SaraSW@aol.com)]

In a message dated 1/30/02 01:20:39, shane@theplacewithnoname.com writes:

> I would appreciate it if someone would explain why my selection of a
>piece of gear makes me fearful, insecure, etc...  There
>seems to be a few people here with a morbid fear of guns.

Well, I don't have a morbid fear of guns. I own a gun. I've done some trap 
shooting and some hunting. One place where we lived was so surrounded by riff 
raff that I slept with my shotgun in brackets attached to the sideboard of 
the bed.

This is because I was insecure and fearful. We were robbed seven times in a 
year and a half, and the state police would go through the roster of our 
rural neighbors, lining out who was in jail, who had just gotten out of jail, 
and who was under suspicion. Once, we returned home to an empty whiskey 
bottle and a loaded gun propped up in a corner.

Don't know why they didn't steal the gun. Too drunk, I suppose.

After that we moved to a totally different kind of neighborhood where I 
didn't feel insecure and fearful. My gun lived in the closet, in a different 
bedroom from where I slept, with the shells in a separate place.

Although I don't have a morbid fear of guns, there are places where it would 
make me nervous to see somebody carrying one, I suppose because I wouldn't 
think of carrying a gun in those places am would wonder why someone would. 

I would wonder at a person carrying a gun into church, or to the office, or 
with them while shopping at the mall, or in an AT shelter. In a shelter, I 
doubt I would think the person had a gun for self-protection. I would wonder 
if they had a tendency to trail rage or were a crazy who would shoot me for 
my gear or somebody who would think a hiker returning from the privy at night 
is a bear and shoot.

It wouldn't be fear of guns per se that would keep me from stopping at that 
shelter, but nervousness over somebody bringing a gun to a place where it 
seems so unlikely to be needed.
Vcat