Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Re: Guns are not weird, needing them is

A few nights ago, I might have visited one of Hammer's fan's website (Phoenix Ravenflame) , and after reading quite lenghty articles on guns, I decided to leave a comment to show that I cared. Maybe not the smartest comment, but an honest one. I said something like "it was weird living in a country where you need a gun". For the sake of clarification and to stop being hammered by incinuations that I might be ignorant... I explain.

I've lived in a country at war, I saw tanks driving by my school every day, I walked by a ministry building that blew up, I lived on the same street as an embassy that blew up too. I've lived in a country where I could have been kidnapped every street corners. And I've lived in a post-communism country. And you know what? I felt safe! And I hear stories from my friend in South Africa where he walked out of a gun shoot out between gangs and told me with a bright smile "I was lucky they did not take my car." - he does not have a gun either.

This, however is not the point I was making. I could not care less that Americans have a passion for guns. My lovely grandpa was a hunter and he loved his riffles, that's cool. And I understand that America unfortunately suffers from high crime rate. What I meant was that I was very sorry you had to rely on guns to ensure your safety. I am happier living in a country where I am more worried about my customers wanting to slip my dress off my back than walking home from the station in the middle of the night.

One more thing, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, James Bond is a fictional character, and he's hot, with or without his gun. ;)

3 comments:

none said...

Thats a good point of view. I always felt safe myself because of my physical size and the fact that I lived in a low crime area.
Actually 90% of American Violent crime is gang on gang and only in small geographical pockets. Which I'm thankful for.

Now that I have kids and have to travel with them quite often I feel like I need to provide them with an additional level of security.

For example, We were all picnicing in the park when a stray pit bull wandered up to our table. He was about 80 pounds pure muscle. The kids were scared stiff.

Luckily I was able to chase him off butI was glad I had a pistol handy incase he was aggressive or rabid.
I would hate to face a a predator with three little ones in tow and have nothing but my fists to defend them with.

Stucco said...

A large part of the USA is still wild. Until recently I lived in a big city that routinely had bears and mountain lions wandering into the suburbs, eating garbage, puppies, and babies. I don't own or want a gun (I'm more like those that are interested in parting you from your dress), but I can certainly understand the utility of a gun.

As an interesting aside, that town that I recently left leads the nation in police shooting people (per capita). I'd rather have armed neighbors than cops as neighbors.

Steven said...

I don't own a gun.

I would be worried that I'd shoot myself in the foot. ;)

Steve~