On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 15:51:34 GMT, "Steve" wrote:

Be polite. Be professional. But... have a plan to kill
everyone you meet.

Bring all of your friends who have guns.

Be courteous to everyone. Friendly to no one.


What in the world is all this?

Granted that there are times when there is no substitute for a gun. However,
who would fill their mind with "plans to kill everyone they meet" or even
with discussion same?

Dont take it quite so literally. Its meant to be humorous, while
providing some basic rules.

I congratulate you on your choice of towns. Now put yourself in the
shoes of a police officer responding to a call in Watts, or Compton,
California. You WILL meet some people that may not have your welfare
foremost on their mind. In fact..the call may have been generated
Simply to get you into their grasp. Now look at that saying again
through that police officers shoes. Or..perhaps that of a armored car
messenger, moving a dolly load of cash though a parking lot in a "bad
neighborhood".
Or perhaps from behind the counter of an all night pharmacy in a bad
area in Cleveland.
If you keep in mind that you may have to shoot someone in self
defense, you are unlikely to freeze when a situation arises.

Your gentleman whom was strangled, got what he deserved. He violated
a number of the rules, not to mention intentionally violating not only
the intent of the law, but the law itself. He went spoiling for a
fight, which is vastly different than being prepared mentally for a
problem that may come up.

Think of it as war gaming while driving on a freeway. What will you do
if that guy on the cell phone swerves into your lane? Will that guy
stop at the intersection or is he gonna blow the stop sign? Its wet
and its the first rain of the season, and the oil is floating out of
the pavement, what will you do if you blow a tire?

At no time are you HOPING for any of those things to happen, or
looking forwards to such, are you? I know Im not..in fact, I pray that
bad things dont happen. Been there, done that, got the scars and the
Tshirt..but on the other hand, Im alive. Shrug..works for me.

Observations:

I am fifty years old. In that interval, 1) 30 yrs. ago I saw one person who
had just been shot (they later died and it was murder over some gal), and 2)
20 yrs. ago I drove one druggie off with a gun from my place of business
after hours in a rather rough neighborhood after dark. In the first
incident, the victim knew the perpetrator, knew they were dangerous and knew
there was a motive for what they did - in short, they had a cause to carry a
gun, and it might have saved them. In the second case, I knew I was working
in a rough neighborhood after dark and kept a gun in my desk for that
reason - i.e., I also had a specific cause to know I might need it.

Sounds like you have had a rather uneventful life.

However, I live in a town of 30,000 people, wherein there have been 3
recorded murders in 100 years - and we don't even know for sure that 2 of
them were murdered here - in those cases, two men killed their wives who
both expressed fear of them, and one disturbed transient fellow killed his
transient buddy.

Sounds like a very nice place to live.

The fact is that - spectacular news reports aside - murder is not a crime
that is evenly distributed over the countryside. If you are not found in
bars after midnight, if you are not habiltually drunk and do not associate
with persons who are habitually drunk and have an actually adjudicated
criminal and mental-treatment history, and don't frequent very rough
neighborhoods where murder is statistically the most common, your chances in
one lifetime of being shot or in the presence of someone who is shot are
essentially nil.

You just conterdicted yourself..see the place where you said not
evenely distributed over the countryside. And you missed a few
things..such as being a cab driver, or clerk in a stop and rob, or a
newspaper delivery guy, or a pizza delivery person.... In Podunk Falls
all such are pretty safe jobs. In East LA, they are not.

I collect guns, like guns, and have an interest in gunsmithing issues as one
of the more elegant machine tool endeavors. I support the 2d Amendment and
RKBA. I also think that if there is a known threat in your life, carrying a
gun may be a reasonable choice for the duration of that threat. However,
there is not a reasonable case to be made that, in most times and places,
one is sufficiently likely to need a gun that they should make the effort to
carry one on them unless they have specific cause to do so.

As you said..all is not evenly distributed over the country....can you
think of places that you go, that you would not go, without being
armed? I damned sure can. Now to that druggie that you chased from
your business with a gun. If you had not had one with you, how would
it have ended up? One doesnt wear seatbelts when the vehicle is
parked, nor do you wear them hoping an accident will happen. You may
drive millions of miles without incident, but the one time you have a
wreck, will you or will you not be wearing your seatbelt?

It's certainly not reasonable to "be courteous to everyone, friendly to no
one," or to "have a plan to kill everyone you meet." This is simply and
profoundly emotionally disturbed.

You read it far to seriously and literally. But then as I pointed out
in the first paragraph..there are times and places and jobs where that
mindset is proper. It may not be, in Podunk Falls of course, but other
places..

I'll leave you all with one final story:

An acquaintance owns 60 acres, through which an easement passed in favor of
the adjoining landowner. The adjoining landowner was one of those fellows
who might subscribe to the Rules for Gunfighting cited above. He was always
well-dressed and well-spoken, and he always carried a .357. I had spoken
on friendly terms often with him, but he was clearly one of those fellows
who "had a plan for killing everyone he met."

This fellow developed a running conflict with his other neighbor over
essentially nothing. One day he went to the other fellow's house and began
to make some sort of dispute while the other fellow was working in the yard
with a rake. In the ensuing altercation our fellow went for the gun in his
jacket and the other fellow whopped him with the rake and grabbed him around
the neck. The other fellow strangled him to death as he fired repeatedly
trying to hit the guy.

When I heard what had happened, I was not at all surprised. I considered
this both an entirely predictable outcome and the best outcome under the
circumstances. This fellow lived a life that flirted with someone's violent
death, he created a situation wherein it was not reasonable for him to use a
gun, and his intended victim killed him precisely because of his attempt to
use that gun. Good day to him.

The guy was a moron, a trouble maker and bad cess to him. I feel sorry
for the fellow whom was forced to kill him, as he will have to live
wth that death in the back of his mind for the rest of his life, no
matter how justified it was. The gent in your story, was exactly the
reason some of us do carry an arm. The gentleman with the rake was
very lucky. If he were to have been armed, and the trouble maker not
aware of the fact, with some mental conditioning, (read the saying
again from inside the gent with the rakes head, at that time and that
place) the situation may have been resolved without gunfire. Most such
do indeed end without gunplay, hell virtually ALL such end witout
gunfire

As I said..read the post with a sense of humor. Take what you need
from it, and if it doesnt fit your mindset..drive on. Shrug.

Gunner







"Anyone who cannot cope with firearms is not fully human. At best he
is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not
make messes in the house."
With appologies to RAH..