Chaos in USA

[PHXPhlyer]

As I said previously, I, like Boing, skew the ownership curve, but not too the extent that he does.
I think that one per household, if they own guns is more likely.
Collectors and other gun enthusiasts will commonly have many.
I was in Bass Pro Shop today and saw gunsafes large enough to hold 64 long guns.
Ammo is another question, though. In the last year he price of ammo has doubled or tripled. Shelves are empty except for odd calibers. I don't know what the overall supply situation is at the moment, but I couldn't afford it even if I could find it.
Perhaps Boing might know more about this.

PP

[Dushan]

As I said previously, I, like Boing, skew the ownership curve, but not too the extent that he does.
I think that one per household, if they own guns is more likely.
Collectors and other gun enthusiasts will commonly have many.
I was in Bass Pro Shop today and saw gunsafes large enough to hold 64 long guns.
Ammo is another question, though. In the last year he price of ammo has doubled or tripled. Shelves are empty except for odd calibers. I don't know what the overall supply situation is at the moment, but I couldn't afford it even if I could find it.
Perhaps Boing might know more about this.

PP

That’s why, years ago, people were buying cartons of bricks, to which all of you were flabbergasted. Better investment than gold.

A few years ago I was paying $17 for 550 .22s. You can pay that for 50 rounds today. So your day at the range, for plinking alone, can cost you $100.

[PHXPhlyer]

Not all of us, Dushan.
I still have quite a few bricks, and added a few more before things got crazy.
Fortunately, I also added to my stocks of my most common types.

PP

[boing]

UP

Most of my guns are regulated in either horizontal racks on the wall for my display guns or on pull out trays for the handguns (otherwise they take up too much space). I have 303s from Africa (probably shipped out during Mau Mau). I have Martinis that could have been at Rourke's Drift, one complete with a bayonet and scabbard. Various side by side hunting rifles, some old Austro/German schutzen rifles that must have travelled to the US with GIs. A very nice civilian, long-barreled, target Webley. Quite a few rifles that I converted myself to one of my self-designed cartridges (the 45/90 Express or the 300 Wayland). My pistol collection is mainly European 9mm Kurtz/380 Auto, I don't know why, they are just so diverse and dinky. I also have a few utility guns, you know, one to use yourself, a couple to lend or instruct with. I have a couple of shotguns but frankly I'm embarrassing with those.

Every firearm has a potential story or link to history or a memory of good times with the other shooters. The collector items I do not shoot and unfortunately I don't have much time for the others either. I suppose I ought to sell them so my children don't have the problem. I like the history, I like the links with other parts of the World, I like to think about the original people who carried them. I have actually had two articles published in "serious" collector's magazines.

Of particular interest I have a Brown Bess type black powder rifle with an oval silver plaque let into the stock, awarded to Private Veisey by the "Gunsmiths of Birmingham" at a shooting competition in 1861. Since this rifle was pulled out of a layer of river-mouth silt during construction of a new jetty in the North East US it must have an incredible story to tell. It still functions with the original internal parts, I fired it once.

All pretty harmless I am afraid, or as was said in the Hitchiker's Guide "mostly harmless".

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[boing]

I knew I had a photo somewhere.

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[John Hill]

Most of my guns are regulated in either horizontal racks on the wall for my display guns or on pull out trays for the handguns (otherwise they take up too much space)..

Just what does 'regulated' mean?

[PHXPhlyer]

Boing:
+1

I, too, have some historic pieces that I'm afraid no one will understand their significance.

PP

[boing]

PP
Sympathies. No one can get into your mind and see the image as you do, I see this as their problem not yours. Probably like me you see an old rifle and your mind goes back to the history behind it and the heroism and bravery of the man that carried it, other less imaginative people can see only a scary killing machine. I have tried to explain the history and significance of a firearm to people and sometimes they are really interested but for other people the very fact that there is a firearm in the proximity horrifies them.

I think in a strange way the people who hate firearms do so because they don't feel strong enough to control them. A hammer can be a lethal weapon but most people feel comfortable with them and use them responsibly but in the case of a firearm, which is ultimately no more dangerous than a hammer, some handle them comfortably and other people wet themselves. Anti-gunners feel that the firearm itself is evil which is, of course, stupid. it is always the mind behind anything whether it be firearm or motor car that is dangerous. I have an acquaintance who will shoot at a classic round target all day but if faced with a police style "man" target turns into a bowl of jelly and refuses to shoot. His mind is really twisted because he can acknowledge that both the classic target and the man target are only pieces of paper used for target practice but he can't force himself to fire at the "man" target. He will go out with a shotgun and shoot a bunch of pheasants with no compassion whatsoever whereas I feel guilty on shooting just one bird for the pot. Now, which of the two of us has the problem?

I don't mind people who personally do not like firearm, it is simply a matter of "OK, i accept you don't like firearms so I expect you not to get preachy if I do". But frankly, I don't give a damn.



.

[boing]

John,

UP made a comment about "regulating" my militia, although I know what he meant I chose to convert that into how I "regulate" my collection since I don't have a militia and don't know anyone that has.

On the other hand I did get into a conversation once that, for various legal reasons, I thought I had better avoid because I suspected it was entrapment.

.

[Pontius Navigator]

Boing, I know what you mean. I'm an antique shop in Wendover, just inside the door were some rifles. The first was a Lee Enfield. 303, the early ones as used before the Mk4. All I wanted to do was work the action. I never even got to see if the bolt was fitted before Mrs PN hustled me out. I might add that Mrs PN is one of a very small number of women that have fired a Sterling.

By the Lee Enfield were other rifles. In that brief moment I only identified an AK47.

We went into another antique shop in Riga, or should I say I did. I was dragged away PDQ. It had genuine Hitler alarm clocks, potato masher, Sten Guns etc etc.

Even good friends round the corner, she is Dutch, have an old rifle on the wall. It has memories.

Despite Mrs PN's reluctance to let me look, she did not mind me target shooting with a .22 air rifle. She didn't like our neighbour shooting though as he didn't observe clear range.

[prospector]

Who and how educates these specimens? I wonder how many of these murders were committed with legally held firearms.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/portland- ... pushengage

[boing]

There is no law enforcement in Portland. The City Attorney has said he will only press charges on people the police can positively identify which, since most of this mob wears masks and/or motorcycle helmets, means the police actions are only for show. The riots have been going on for around five months and nothing has been done, downtown stores are still boarded up.

Even Molotov Cocktails were used earlier. This fellow screwed up but unfortunately he did not burn to death.

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[Undried Plum]

UP made a comment about "regulating" my militia, although I know what he meant I chose to convert that into how I "regulate" my collection since I don't have a militia and don't know anyone that has.

Boing,

You really ought to read the text:

A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

A well regulated militia. That is the fundamental part of the Amendment. That is what has been lost to minds of the gun nuts of a Murrica.

[Dushan]

That is the fundamental part of the Amendment.

The Supremes disagreed, at least twice. There is that pesky comma that separates the two parts.

[OFSO]

Baby, Love.

[boing]

UP

I will leave the interpretations to others. People a thousand miles away pushing their guilt trips and agendas don't really concern me when it is I that possibly face the tough situations in my own home.

In the past I was legally tasked with possibly killing hundreds of thousands of people that had not personally harmed me or my country at Her Majesty's whim, everybody was happy with that idea. So why do you object to me defending my family and myself on my private property with lethal force? Forget the niceties of legality and explain to me why you reject my fundamental right to self-preservation? Is the life of a criminal of more value than mine? If a criminal appears with a weapon, or even if he simply enters my home making threats, he gets carried out. I don't care if he is mentally deficient and not really a threat, in the time available I cannot make that judgement. He made the mistake.

Whether the weapons I possess are used for personal defense or to defend liberty as I judge it does not matter to me, I won't choose a fight in either case but if the fight is carried to me I will fight, and if the powers that "think they be" remove the possibility of using a firearm, I will fight with a spear of home-made sword. Makes no difference to me.

So, why do I, or anyone else, need to be a member of a "well regulated" militia? If you knew enough you would know that several groups in the USA have tried to become well regulated militias by carrying out group training exercises but their activities have been duly considered illegal because the last thing the US government wants is trained opposition. Not my thing but that is fact.

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[Pontius Navigator]

Boing, there was an interesting article in today's press. Essentially this couple were approached by a man, presumably black as BLM was quoted. They were about to enter their home.

He asked for directions to a non extistent street. He then threatened to knife them. He left, they rang the police who caught him. He did not have a knife so they let him go.

I suspect that in America he would have had a gun. I also suspect that the couple would also have been armed and as they were on their own frontage would have been aware and probably fired the first shot.

Would you blame them?

Had he left, as he did here, I think the police would have arrested him at gun point and even ***** him if he made a suspicious movement.

In UK one outcome would have been two innocent people knifed with life threatening injury or worse. In USA likely one dead. Who's right?

We are where we are.

If someone intrudes into our home he might get lucky and I hit him with a scabbard. If he is unlucky he might get the scabbard off me

[boing]

"We are where we are."

True, we recently had a series of home invasions in a local well to do community, not gated, this was an old community. The criminals simply drove up to the house and entered the home occupied or not. They then demanded the valuables, tied up the homeowners and left. The crime was made simple because, being an old community, the house were wide apart, had long drives and vegetation to screen them from the next house. Trade vans visiting a house are not unusual so they raised no suspicion.

Quite unusual that an occupied house would be raided but they moved so quickly people were caught unawares. I do not know what would have happened if anybody fought back, certainly they had no chance to get armed because of the speed of events.

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[G-CPTN]

I believe it is referred to as 'steaming'.

the practice of a gang of thieves moving rapidly through a public place, stealing things or robbing people on the way.

[prospector]

What will be the repercussions if this is enacted? Just the Fed reserve going to print a few more trillion in Quantitave Easing)

Senior Biden Adviser Says White House Will Start Acting on Reparations Without Congress
BY JACK PHILLIPS March 1, 2021 Updated: March 1, 2021biggersmaller Print
A senior adviser to President Joe Biden said the White House will act without Congress to develop proposals for reparations, or direct payments to African Americans.

White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond told Axios on Feb. 28: “We don’t want to wait on a study. We’re going to start acting now.”

“We have to start breaking down systemic racism and barriers that have held people of color back and especially African Americans,” Richmond said. “We have to do stuff now.”

“If you start talking about free college tuition to [historically black colleges and universities] and you start talking about free community college in Title I and all of those things, I think that you are well on your way,” he said, noting that a timeline for Congress’s commission to study reparations wasn’t known.

Legislation for reparations was first introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) in 1989. In recent years, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) has repeatedly introduced the measure.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki last month told reporters that Biden is open to creating a commission to study the proposal.