"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 00:45:52 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
calmly ranted:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message

What freedom do they give up by purchasing 20-rounders, sir?

Well, that's an interesting question, and we'd have to get into the
consequences of living with a bunker mentality to get into it. But I
doubt
if we'd reach any agreement on the subject.

Bunker mentality? Geeze, Ed. Most people think about these things
ONLY when they're thinking about purchasing things like these.
I don't dwell upon potentialities (your fantasies).

HUH? Aren't you the guy who started all of the fantasy stuff, asking what
one would do if a gang, or a horde, or something attacked you??

Is the 'ol memory slipping, Larry?

Do you plan
your day, or vacations, or how you want to remodel your house?
Do you buy health/car/house/appliance/life insurance? That's all
this is. A quick run-through goes like this:

I go hiking in places inhabited by wild animals (cougars, bears), a
few pot growers, and other wild things.

Do I need a gun for protection? Probably.

Large or small? What do police use? OK, 9mm works for me.

Wait, wait, wait. You're going to use a 9 mm for protection against bears?
It better be a really *little* bear, because if you shoot a big one with
that, and he finds out about it, you're going to be in a lot of trouble.

I'm getting the feeling you haven't killed a lot of animals with a gun. Am I
right? You might want to ask some of the people here who have hunted in
cougar country how you ought to approach the subject of "defending"
yourself. It involves looking up in every tree, and having that gun ready to
fire, in your hand. And then, you'll probably lose. They hunt by surprise,
and they've made a living at it.

Do I need extra magazines? Probably not but they're inexpensive and
handy in a WCS.

If you're defending yourself against animals, extra magazines are
irrelevant. While you're reloading, said animal will have your head in its
mouth. You aren't going to get off 20 shots, or 15 shots, or 10 shots. If
you get off three shots, you'll be lucky, and it will be a very weird
circumstance at that.

People who haven't done a lot of shooting tend to overestimate the value of
having a lot of shots available, and wildly underestimate the value of being
a good shot, and so well-trained that you do your thing automatically,
without thinking. What you need is to be a good shot and well-trained. More
shots won't help if you're not.


What's available? 10 and 15-rd, with 15-rd cheaper. OK, I bought a
couple.

Could it be used for any other purpose? Yes, home defense from
burglars and wandering crazies/perps.

What is it you're anticipating, getting into a firefight with a burglar? Do
you have heavily-armed crazies wandering around your neighborhood? If so,
the answer is simple: Find a better neighborhood. Bigger magazines are not
the answer.


What else do I need? Training and a box or two of cartridges.

A "box or two"? How many wandering crazies do you expect to encounter,
realistically?


DONE! Now I'm "insured". Is this crazy, Ed?

You're not insured. You've just bought yourself a false sense of security.
Training must be at the top of your list. Lots of training. Big magazines
are irrelevant, unless the Mongol hordes invade your homestead. If you have
reason to believe that's the case, an exception probably should be made for
you. But you'd be better off with some landmines or Claymores placed in
judicious locations. g


And which **** and fan are we discussing here, Larry? The Whiskey
Rebellion,
or Shay's?

What part of a "When" hypothesis do you not understand? Or are you
optimistic enough to think that **** doesn't hit fans? (Let's hope
not.)

Some **** hits fans. The trick is to have a realistic idea of what kind of
****, what kind of fan, and what you really need to do in order to deal with
it.

Frankly, you sound to me like somebody who has a modest exposure to guns,
and very little to killing large animals. It doesn't work like that. Big
magazines are not your answer.

I strongly doubt that everything for the rest of my life will
be rosy and I'll never see another setback. And I have strong feelings
that most of us will be touched by anarchy in our near future here in
the US (touched off by our "leader" and his religious crusades as he
attempts to build his monarchy.)

To me, that sounds like a serious paranoid fantasy.

I hope I'm wrong about both, but I'll
try to play it from a prepared position, thanks.

You aren't prepared. You just have a false sense of being prepared.

I'm beginning to think that your entire philosophy is based on fantasies
of
roving mobs swarming across your front lawn.

See my other post. Besides, what we discuss here doesn't rule
my life or take up my waking hours by a LOOOOOOONG shot.


Sometimes he's right. And, if you want to understand the politics of gun

Yes, it's his half-truths which make him believable in the first
place. I watched the first 40+ minutes of Bowling for Columbine
before picking up on his subtle twists.


control in the US, you first have to step back and see how you look to
those
who would vote in ways you don't like. I'm not talking about HCI, but
those
in the general population who might favor one gun-control law or another.

People who are led to that way of thinking by fear mongers who do
it for the entertainment or profit factor? (Fear sells papers and
ads on TV news, y'know.) That's how 10% of the population (HCIers,
etc.) have conned the people into thinking they're unsafe as long
as there is a gun out there, somewhere, and in police hands. sigh
True, I don't understand all the politics behind it and we're on
different enough tracks to agree, so I'll leave it here.

It appears to me that another 10% of the population has conned *you*.

See if you can catch Gunner in an objective moment, and talk to him about
defending yourself against cougars and bears with a 9 mm handgun, and the
relative value of having a lot of training with a gun in defense mode,
versus having a big magazine and a couple of boxes of ammo in your pocket.
That is, if he can be realistic, about real scenarios, and not go off on a
tangent with you about invading Mongol or Muslim hordes. g

Ed Huntress