Guns

[nemelek]

Originally Posted by Bob_VT

What brand is it? And what is the serial # just use xxx for the last 3 digits and I will look it up.

It has the pre-war commercial grip plates and the trigger has been changed to the long trigger by the looks.

It is a COLT MODEL OF 1911 U.S. ARMY. SN**8474. It has United States Property printed on it.

[*MAD DOG*]

Originally Posted by Nigal

btw- "Gun nut" is seen as a derogatory term with gun owners.

No offense intended, what do people that love guns be preffered to be called? "Gun owners"?

[darthbauer]

I dont mind being called a gun nut. I call myself one all the time.

[darthbauer]

I've often told people that think im going to go postal and take people out not to worry cause it would be a real waste of ammo.

[Black Yaris]

Originally Posted by floydisrock

I wouldn't carry a 9 mm for self defense.
I'd much prefer my Taurus .41 magnum revolver,or my .45 xd.
The wife can shoot either just as easily as a 9mm.

I keep my 9 with hydroshocks more for the home, and the 38 revolver with +p hydroshocks for the road

[Nigal]

Originally Posted by *MAD DOG*

No offense intended, what do people that love guns be preffered to be called? "Gun owners"?

It's OK I wasn't pissed. Anything that doesn't suggest mental instability is fine.

[darthbauer]

Here is my 11-87 by Scattergun Technologies with some paint and a fresh coat of dip in MultiCam.

[*MAD DOG*]

Anyone in CA want to meet up with me at Orange County Shooting Range while i'm over in Jan 09?

[Phaeton]

I've read through this entire post, and from an outsiders perspective it looks like we Americans are a bunch on gun nuts.
I live in an area that is extremely pro gun, lots of hunters, and target shooters. Most of the people I know have guns but don't carry a handgun. They own them but it's not a personal safety issue. We use handguns for target shooting and backup if your rifle doesn't get the job done. I'm not saying you guys from Texas are wrong. Just look at this thread from a different point of view for a minute.

[Nigal]

Originally Posted by Phaeton

I've read through this entire post, and from an outsiders perspective it looks like we Americans are a bunch on gun nuts.
I live in an area that is extremely pro gun, lots of hunters, and target shooters. Most of the people I know have guns but don't carry a handgun. They own them but it's not a personal safety issue. We use handguns for target shooting and backup if your rifle doesn't get the job done. I'm not saying you guys from Texas are wrong. Just look at this thread from a different point of view for a minute.

Many times it depends on the outsider's perspective and attitude towards guns that can shade the subject. And I'm not saying that is what you are doing here but how someone views guns does matter. A gun is a tool, nothing more. some segments of society like to vilify guns as if they are inherently evil objects and by their very nature bad. It's like trying to vilify the because of the number of murders committed with them in Africa.

I never liked the "gun nut" label either because it suggests a certain degree of mental instability and that I am somehow dangerous. Or that it is somehow wrong to be interested in and talk about something I collect. It's OK to talk endlessly about my car but somehow talking about my guns makes me unstable or unhealthy. Am I a "car nut" because I own two cars? Am I an "audiophile nut" because I have over 500 CDs?

[SailDesign]

Originally Posted by Nigal

Many times it depends on the outsider's perspective and attitude towards guns that can shade the subject.

<major snippage>

Am I an "audiophile nut" because I have over 500 CDs?

Nigal, I think the "outsider's" view is always going to be clouded by the fact that guns were invented (if you can use that term here) with one purpose in mind - to kill things. Predominantly human things, although the hunting of animals for food or sport followed very closely after.
When folks hear of concealed carry of a deadly weapon, whether it is a pistol in the US, or a knife in the UK, they think "That person is up to no good".
It is a "natural" assumption since most people's lives do not involve travel in areas where you are likely to be shot on a daily basis. My life is like that, and I actively avoid areas where I would feel the need to "protect" myself.
But I do enjoy my target rifel and my little side-by-side-by 20.

[jclo3313]

Originally Posted by SailDesign

Nigal, I think the "outsider's" view is always going to be clouded by the fact that guns were invented (if you can use that term here) with one purpose in mind - to kill things. Predominantly human things, although the hunting of animals for food or sport followed very closely after.
When folks hear of concealed carry of a deadly weapon, whether it is a pistol in the US, or a knife in the UK, they think "That person is up to no good".
It is a "natural" assumption since most people's lives do not involve travel in areas where you are likely to be shot on a daily basis. My life is like that, and I actively avoid areas where I would feel the need to "protect" myself.
But I do enjoy my target rifel and my little side-by-side-by 20.

Amen brother.

[Malaya1221]

IMO, guns just make your balls feel a little bit bigger....like to use my feet, my wit and my fists for self defense....and for hunting, this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMC8tVSJ4pw

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by SailDesign

Nigal, I think the "outsider's" view is always going to be clouded by the fact that guns were invented (if you can use that term here) with one purpose in mind - to kill things.

Not quite..... guns were created as a tool of warfare. War is organized violence and organized deterrence. As a consequence of the latter term War was also intended to prevent conflicts by bluff, intimidation or maneuver.

One of the reasons that the US and USSR never fought was because of an exquisite balance of terror - in a like sense an armed populace can deter crime and sometimes genocide.

Originally Posted by SailDesign

When folks hear of concealed carry of a deadly weapon, whether it is a pistol in the US, or a knife in the UK, they think "That person is up to no good".

What bigoted rubbish!!

The tens of thousands of civilians legally licensed to carry firearms in the US are minding their own business, are not Vigilantes and do not have "big balls". The numbers of permit holders who have been prosecuted for murder and assault is almost statistically insignificant.

Such persons go about their lives and do not bother anyone. Just like the victims of racial bigotry, ethnic bigotry, religious bigotry and many other groups who have been targeted for injury by the willfully ignorant.

If you were to say something as derogatory about a member of a "protected class" you'd be held up for approbation here. Well, that's not the case but someone has to speak the truth. I think your remark is bigoted non-sense.

Originally Posted by SailDesign

It is a "natural" assumption since most people's lives do not involve travel in areas where you are likely to be shot on a daily basis.

Ironically enough most of the people who do travel into such hostile areas are not armed. They're "bystanders" and "collateral damage".

In large US cities where firearms are tightly regulated for the law abiding the average citizen hides in their dwelling armed with caveman weapons. They live in terror of armed hoodlums who are free to prey upon them. The gangs, which can obtain guns from the people who sell them drugs, are at the top of the food chain.

In my neck of the woods armed citizens are not common, I'd guess perhaps one to five percent of us are armed at any given moment on the street. In our homes it's different, probably half of us own some sort of firearm.

We are heavily armed but we are not dropping like flies from murder. The last murder in my town occurred five years ago, maybe more. In contrast in New York City they can't go half a day without a needless, shameful death.


In some of the desolate areas where I go Law Enforcement is miles away. My cell phone doesn't always reach a tower. There is no 911 for me.

The Police out in the sticks are busy coping with all sorts of stupid crimes. They are not obligated to defend me, that's been hashed out by US Courts. The Police do not have defend you, cannot be sued for failing to defend you and are there to clean up the mess and gather evidence for prosecution.

In reality we are at the sufferance of those around us, unless we have the power to fight back.

How often do I carry? Damned rarely. I'm not allowed to bring a piece onto my employer's property. When I'm out in the sticks I might carry and might not carry.

The ironic part is that I'm a lot more meek and mild when I'm armed. I go to considerable effort to avoid trouble. When I'm unarmed I can be an asshole.

Originally Posted by SailDesign

I actively avoid areas where I would feel the need to "protect" myself.

That's always sensible but not always practical. You, of course, have the choice to hope that someone saves you in time. Some of us are a bit less confident of "the System" and prefer to take our own chances.

It's not "rugged individualism", it's accepting the realities of life. We have an obligation to deter violence in others by presenting to them the possibility of violence in return. Their economic calculations must include this prospect and as a consequence such folks go to where their predation is not punished.

Gene

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by Phaeton

I've read through this entire post, and from an outsiders perspective it looks like we Americans are a bunch on gun nuts.
I live in an area that is extremely pro gun, lots of hunters, and target shooters. Most of the people I know have guns but don't carry a handgun. They own them but it's not a personal safety issue. We use handguns for target shooting and backup if your rifle doesn't get the job done. I'm not saying you guys from Texas are wrong. Just look at this thread from a different point of view for a minute.

Some of us don't post pictures of our firearms and don't get all macho about it. To me a firearm is a tool, nothing more or less. What I have is legal for my locale, on the books (registered) and is my business. Nothing personal, but while I'll post a cute photo of me holding a relatives AK I don't post my own stuff. It's just not comely to me.

I honestly couldn't care less what the folks in Europa and Asia think of Americans and our "love of guns". We're a nation of people who ran away from tyrants and busybodies. We've genetically selected ourselves to be wanderers who don't like to be told what to do, or barring that chase opportunity and adventure. That means all of us of every stripe, because you don't come to America to have others tell you what to do, you come here to get away from something or get something.

I think that the rest of the world is worried about our nuclear weapons, our high tech killing machinery and our swaggering "we know what's best" attitude. We have more people overseas, in more bases, doing more stuff in more places, than any other nation. We have thirteen Air Craft carrier groups armed with nuclear weapons. We have ballistic missile submarines prowling the oceans. We have missiles in concrete silos. Enough warheads to wipe out the world many times over.

The recent Iraq adventure follows about fifty years of bombing, building bases, saber rattling, nuclear testing, collateral damage and some really awful mayhem. For example, how many Americans know that during the Korean conflict one in five Koreans died in the war, many from "strategic bombing" campaigns carried out by SAC? SAC (strategic air command) deliberately broke a series of dams in North Korea, washing their rice fields into the sea. Most of the people in the north were living in caves by 1953. SAC got so wild assed that they burned down Pusan, a town in southern Korea.

How many Americans know that for every dead US soldier in Viet Nam forty Vietnamese perished? That there are parts of Viet Nam decades later that are covered in unexploded munitions, stripped of vegetation by herbicides and that parts of Laos are uninhabitable because of the "secret war"?

I don't think the rest of the world gives a shit if half of us own a gun and keep it at home. They'll never know if we don't tell them

If we were more like we were 120 years ago, when the US Government couldn't call up enough Militiamen to invade other countries because they refused to go overseas, the rest of the world would probably consider us harmless eccentrics. Alas, we're an Empire now and it annoys the rest of the world.

Gene

[Nigal]

The insinuation that those who choose to carry a weapon are somehow scared is nothing new. I get that all the time. And of course the insinuation of penile compensation is never far behind that. I can't speak for everyone who carries but I practice avoidance much more than someone who doesn't carry. Why? Because I never want to have to shoot someone, criminal or not. It's also a common misnomer that because I carry a gun that I desire to use it on someone. The trauma, psychological damage and legal ramifications of taking another life is just this side of better than being the one dead.

People who say to me they've never felt the need the carry I always ask them if they ever saw a victim of crime on TV saying, "Oh I totally saw it coming. I wasn't surprised a bit when I was attacked.". It always happens when you least suspect it. "These things never happen to me."

[SailDesign]

Originally Posted by GeneW

What bigoted rubbish!!

Suggest you look in the mirror if you are looking for a bigot, Gene.
'Nuff said - I'm out of this thread. Have fun arguing, boys.

[jclo3313]

Originally Posted by camelll

Well some of us are proud to be gun owners and posting pics of our firearms does not mean we are trying to be macho. I am just as proud of my firearm as I am of my car and I post pics of that as well. Please don't lump people that post pics of there firearms as people trying to being all macho about it, cause that is just simply not the case. Someone trying to be all macho is the guy who pulls his gun out in a situation that does not call for it, these people could also be considered idiots.

+1 on that. Like anything this thread has been turned into a lame political my junk is bigger than your junk thread.