A) How does that work? I’ve never heard of such a thing. “By leasing this house, you must relinquish your 2nd Amendment right to defend yourself.”
C) Not necessarily. Here’s a S&W .38 Special revolver for $200.
We have a .22 . and I am a crack shot, TYVM
But no shells. It’s on my to-do list…for 12 years.
So, I think a louisville slugger would be more effective in the Home Protection department. (And kitchen tongs. Those things are nasty.)
I also think a can of Aquanette and a lighter would work surprisingly well in a pinch.
Off topic: My friend bought a brand new Beretta 92FS that had lived quietly in its box for 11 years. The cop/agent who bought it never even took it out of the box when he bought it! $600 for a brand new gun, eight hi-capacity magazines (Bretta-branded, six still in their packages), case, documents…
My friend tapped the breech end, installed a set screw with a hole in it, and ground off the locking lugs. It’s now a blank-firing gun. It can be converted back to fire live ammo by replacing the barrel and the locking block, but he says he will never do it. He just picked up a SIG and is going to perform a similar operation on it.
Am I the only one sitting here in awe of dutch superiority?
People who think that I as a private citizen should not be allowed to own a gun because its “bad” for “their” society actually make me glad that Bush is in office and that republicans control congress.
As to the OP - been wanting to get one for a while, might actually get one if I ever stop drinking, I just don’t trust my wasted self enough for there to be a deadly weapon around me.
Not me. I’m not even remotely likely ever to own a gun. I’m sure I’m much more likely to kill myself or a loved one with it than anything else. I have a bad temper and a gun lying around would really tempt fate.
Well on the bright side, as long as you guys keep your guns, we will be reminded why we should never make them legal again. If you were to ban them, some people here might start forgetting why that was a good idea. Same for the death-penalty. So in a way, I guess we should just be really grateful.
I can’t forget the Dutch couple who ended up stuck in New Orleans, sought refuge at the Dutch consulate, and when they were picked up after 5-6 days, the man (an emotional wreck, in stark contrast to his wife, incidentally) explained that he could now tell a pistolshot from a rifleshot.
In truth though, guns are starting to show up here more and more. While I can happily say I have never in my life seen or heard a real one (except non-functional antiques owned by my brother-in-law), a few times per year some criminals do each other in with one.
Well kudos for that! Hope that once you get one, you’re sure you’ll never fall back into old habits, spurred by, say, your spouse leaving you for another man or something like that.
Why? I hate the very idea of guns because I abhor violence in all forms and I see guns as a tool of violence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all guns are used for killing or all gun-users approve of violence. I just don’t like the idea of personally being charged with operating a weapon of violence. And, yes, I have shot guns before at the target range. I have friends that are competitive shooters and they think I’m crazy. It’s largely an irrational fear and I recognize that, but that’s how I feel. I have immense respect and gratitude for all of the responsible gun-users out there. 
FWIW, I’m the second- or third-most non-violent person I know – in spite of a collection of firearms that are the things the nightmares of Sarah Brady are made of.
Guns are also handy for getting some dinner when the grocery store’s been emptied of nonperishables.
As the wife (don’t ask) and I watched the disaster in NOLA unfold we looked at each other and did a quick assessment of what could happen in Denver that could equal that kind of chaos. Too close to the hills to make a tornado very likely, to hilly where we are for long-term flooding, any earthquake predictions for this neck of the woods include all new topo maps and vast stretches of unowned and unsettled real estate, snow goes away after a few days. It’d take something pretty major I think. Like a plague and/or total social collapse. In which case a good rifle would be handy for survival in all of it’s various forms.
But no handguns. If Inigo comes at you with a handgun the safest place for you to be is right in front of him. Unless I throw it at you. But then I’d probably opt for a metal boomerang if…ok, I’ll shut up now.
No. Not more likely to own a firearm for home defense. I know my kids, the gun would stand a much better chance of being messed with than it would have of protecting us from an intruder.
Nope.
I don’t like them, I don’t want one, I don’t need one.
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- I think the concept here is not so much “what having a gun would get you in a disaster”, but really “that having a gun in such a disaster would greatly increase your chances of keeping whatever you’ve got”. The history of humanity has not shown it to be a peaceable species, particularly in times of great distress. If you are one who is willing to believe that nobody would take your car full of food and clothes and leave you and your family stranded just so they could comfortably escape, then you have a lot more faith in people than I do.
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- I think the concept here is not so much “what having a gun would get you in a disaster”, but really “that having a gun in such a disaster would greatly increase your chances of keeping whatever you’ve got”. The history of humanity has not shown it to be a peaceable species, particularly in times of great distress. If you are one who is willing to believe that nobody would take your car full of food and clothes and leave you and your family stranded just so they could comfortably escape, then you have a lot more faith in people than I do.
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No, I am not more likely.
Still just as good a chance of hurting myself or a loved one with the gun as an intruder. This is my choice and I don’t wish to impose it on anyone else.
If people go through training and include the household in the training, than more power to you.
I’m one of 7 children. We had loaded guns in more than one closet all the time. Never were messed with, never misused, and one time when our front door was kicked in during dinner by a lunatic, a 12 gage shot gun was used to as a ‘go away now’ persuader.
Have loaded guns in my house. Unloaded guns make lousy ball bats.
Keys to motorized vehicles are by far more likely to be dangerous to children in my experience.
It is hard to believe that anyone thinks the government will protect them or even has their interest in mind these days…
What happened in this storm is the new reality. It will not ever really get better from here on out.
Don’t yell at me now, just mark the thread and in 5 years bring it back up.
Katrina didn’t make me more likely to own a gun (I have two,) but she did make me think that I ought to add them to my emergency evacuation “take with” list. I grew up around guns, and was trained on them as soon as I was strong enough to hold a .410 parallel to the ground. That wasn’t because my folks were any sort of weirdo survivalists, but because wild animals in the area could pose a risk to people, livestock, and livelihood. (Apparently, to an alligator, a pen full of cows or hogs looks exactly like an all-you-can-eat buffet! Plus, there were rattlesnakes as big as some of the gators!)
In the event of an emergency that might cause social breakdown, though, both of my guns might prove handy: From my father, I have an Ithaca 37 12-gauge, which is fairly ideal for personal protection. I sincerely doubt whether I could shoot someone to save myself or my property, but if you threaten my children or my dog, all bets are off! Besides the shotgun, my stepfather gave me a (cute little) .22 revolver after I divorced last year. Knowing that I couldn’t safely keep a loaded 12-gauge handy with small children in the house, he figured that the .22 was small and light enough for me to store atop the tallest cabinet near the front door. (It is, but I still keep the trigger guard locked. Probably worthless for protection, but that’s what the baseball bat and the dog are for.)
Another reason that I’d take the guns? Seeing images of all the abandoned, starving, sick pets in New Orleans makes me realize that it might be a kindness to shoot those animals that can’t be saved. Poor kitties and puppies!
More like “Hi, I own this house, I don’t want any guns in it. If you don’t like that, rent somewhere else, sign here.”
“OK.” I sign the lease
That said, I live in the sort of town where I’m not particularly concerned with getting shot by people during a crisis. If I lived in a bad part of Houston or something, I’d probably have a different list of priorities than I do here.
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- I can see your point–and I have also noted that if I lived in an area where I really thought getting shot was a regular risk, I’d probably concentrate on moving rather than buying weapons of any kind.
…but still…
What if the renter had said “I don’t like people like you voting, if you live here you’re not allowed to vote”. What would you have done? I would move in and vote anyway myself. If he found out, let the fuckwit drag me into court, or kick me out and I’d do the dragging. Either way, a judge would laugh at such a thing–a lease that requires you to surrender constitutional rights? Yea, sure. :dubious:
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- I can see your point–and I have also noted that if I lived in an area where I really thought getting shot was a regular risk, I’d probably concentrate on moving rather than buying weapons of any kind.
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Bad analogy. The lease basically says that he doesn’t want us to have guns in his house. As far as the lease is concerned, I could keep a mobile howitzer parked around the corner as long as it wasn’t on the property.
Now, if the lease stipulated that I could not vote for anything while on the property, then I’d make it a point not to open up a voting station here during election season. 
It’s that person’s right, of course, to demand his renters give up their rights. It’s pretty silly, if not downright offensive.
And this is not directed at Raguleader specifically but to every one who says something to the effect of “Well, if I lived in a more dangerous place…”. I agree, I only wear my seatbelt in place where there are lots of wrecks. Also, I don’t have a fire extinguisher in my house because, well, houses don’t burn down that often in my neighborhood.
Me, too. Or rather, it made me upgrade the bug-out kit some. It used to just have a .38 snubbie and 1 speedloader of ammo. Now it has that, plus one of the .45s, with several loaded magazines. The wife gets the .38, I’ll take the .45. If I could figure out a way to arm the cats, I would.
They’re already armed - the problem is getting them to not run away.