Here's a little gem I heard on the radio this morning: Hey, if they'd had guns, this never would've happened....oh, right. I don't want to make light of the tragedy, and I'm actually in favor of the right to own guns, but there's a testosterone-challenged group of gun-rights here in Northern Virginia who are thumping their chests about their right to pack heat in the local Applebys. The usual nonsense about self-defense and so forth. Well, here's a story about hunters, who I assume were armed, but who I also assume were NOT trigger-happy vigilantes in training, and therefore were not ready to 'return fire' when the psycho showed up. I don't know, it just reminded me that back in Charleston SC AND in Lincoln, NE there were robbery/murders at the respective gun shops in our neighborhoods. It just makes a lot of the NRA rhetoric ring pretty hollow.
pissed off people do stupide things... sometimes its with firarms, sometimes with their ford explorer or mercedes benz.
Rocky start? It was opener here in SD this weekend and I filled both my tags. Got 1 huge 5x5 buck and another decent one. It was like World War III out on the South Dakota prairie last weekend with deer season opening up and there still being a ton of pheasant hunters as well.
For the record, the SKS is functionally similar to an AK-47. It's considered to be a "copycat" gun, and wasn't banned under the old assault weapons law due to it's construction.
Deer season's usually pretty limited, is it not? Doesn't take long to bag the state limit, usually. Oh, IntheNet--I'm violating my policy of not wasting time responding to your garbage, but I didn't say anything about being scared of, or opposed to, guns (it would be pretty hypocritical if I did, since I'm a gun owner myself). I was referring to the wanna-be vigilantes who fancy that they'll somehow be ready when the psycho walks up without warning and unloads a clip. At any rate, I just thought it was a good illustration of why some of us doubt that packing heat in and of itself is a crime deterrent OR a good form of self-defense. Again, this is coming from a gun owner.
Not implying you meant this, but just had this go-round on this exact topic at work. For the record, the SKS is similar to an AKS, not AK47, the "S" denotes semi-auto only, not select fire (auto or semi-auto) that is the AK47, so he was not hunting with a machine gun. Besides that, most if not all states, restrict magazine capacity to 5 shots during hunting, so he wasn't using a large clip either. Now back to our regulary scheduled "debate".
In Florida we generally get about a week during Thanksgiving, end of November, then the season shuts down for a couple of weeks (might be only one week) and reopens first half of December. I believe it runs through January and possibly into part of Feb. Plenty of time and honestly it should be shorter, at least in some areas where folks have a tendency to just shoot anything regardless of state laws. InTheNet is a momma's boy wankin' it in the closet so his little sister won't hear cause they still share a bedroom and the last time ITN got the hankerin for some susy lovin' little sis found his Playgirl hidden under the mattress and got ITN in lots of trouble! I'm just kidding, InTheNet!
This woulda been way cooler if they only allowed bow-hunting. There's just something so picturesque about a dead body with an arrow out its back, colored feathers marking the spot. Or a bunch. A dead body with a few bullet holes in it lying in a large pool of blood just isn't the same exit, y'know? Anyway, I respect my bow-hunting neighbor more than a gun-toting one. But not half as much as my other neighbor who only uses ninja throwing-stars.
I once made the mistake of camping along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon during the first day of bow hunting season. Not far from the stretch of road maintained by none other than Ted Nugent. Let's just say that having a bunch of yahoo survivalists in 3-wheel ATVs running around my camping spot wasn't such a good time. And bow hunting my ass. In most areas a carrot for bait and a large rock or slingshot would work just great. I only wish the deer could also carry.
What about the neighbor who sneaks up on his prey and punches the deer in the face in order to bag his trophy?
My one and only hunting experience? me and my gradeschool friends were headed to our neighbors yard for some football. As we first got there, I ran long for a bomb, watching it over my shoulder the whole way. We knew every inch of that field, including the trees that served as goalposts - I would be inside them by a good 3 feet. Well, except for the trussed deer hanging from a branch. A 12 year old running straight into the open carcass of an eviscerated deer hanging down is pretty funny, but it certainly propelled me away from hunting.
Back in college, my next door neighbor in the dorm went bow hunting for deer one day and came back telling me that he almost killed a deer but the arrow hit the deer's ass and was able to get away. I live out in prime duck and geese country and ain't nuttin' like walking outside on a weekend morning and hearing shotgun blasts. Pheasant hunting is pretty big around my neck of the woods too. My ski conditioning coach will be out hunting for whitetail in Wyoming over Thanksgiving.
FYI.. this story was a big one on the Chicago news as some of the individuals were from this area. it supposedly happened on private property.the guy who did the killing was tresspassing and someone told him to get off the property..then he started firing.The guy who was shot radioed to his freinds he was shot, then collapsed.The friends thinking he was shot in an accident rushed to the scene on ATV's W/O their guns.The guy in the deer stand then began picking them off as thery arrived. the word on the guy who did the shooting is that he his Hmong and served in both Canmbodian and US military.
learn the facts before making stupid ass statements.They were unarmed... one of the victims was a teenage boy , who was shot in the back as he fled... w/o a gun.
...said the guy who blamed the Bosnian genocide on the Muslims. LOL. I am glad to know that they were unarmed at the moment, even if I did learn it from the above-quoted jackass. I assume he thinks I was mocking the people who were killed. I'm terribly sorry I got the facts wrong. EDIT: damn, I don't mean I'm glad they were unarmed, I mean it's good to know the whole story. Obviously, I don't care if they were packing or not--they were hunting on private property, they had every right to. Whatever, so the story isn't the perfect illustration I first thought it was. Nevertheless, I have lived a few blocks from two different gun shops where the person working was shot dead during a holdup. To reiterate--I support gun rights, and I'm not against hunting. I just find a lot of pro-gun rhetoric overheated, and I question whether or not the chest-thumping geeks who are packing heat in restaurants around here are making themselves--or anyone else--any safer. And, clearly, it turns out this story isn't as good an illustration of the point as I originally thought. Furthermore, I hope it's clear I'm not mocking the five people killed. If some of you are looking between the cracks for a "they were NRA crazies who got what was coming to them" angle, you can quit wasting your time.
Why is it sad? If it ain't sad that some deer get waxed by some predators further up the food chain, why would it be sad that some humans got culled by a fellow predator? (note, I'm not criticizing hunting or deerkilling, but if people feel no sadness at culling the herd, well, aren't we all part of the predator/prey universe? I personally think its sad that both deer and the hunters are pushing up daisies)
If anybody is interested still:Court documents filed on Tuesday show that the 36-year-old Hmong immigrant suspected of killing six deer hunters in Wisconsin last weekend told authorities he was called racial slurs and was fired on first. Hmong leaders gathered to condemn the shootings and express sympathy for the victims. But some say racial tension between white and Hmong hunters is not uncommon. What gets me is that in other reports the suspect is to have removed his scope from his gun and then started shooting. Now I'm not a gun expert but I'd figure if your gonna turn and start killing people wouldn't you want the scope for better aim?