When I was a kid living in Colorado I kept candles and candy bars for the required nutrition if I were to be stranded, as for keeping warm................... speeding tickets......... enough fuel there to last me till the next millenium.

Goran,

You live in Sweden, a "civilized" country where a person walked up and shot and killed your Prime Minister with a .357, so please do not take aim at me in my country. How did this person get a weapon pray tell? He was supposedly mentally disturbed, a person who is not allowed to have weapons in Sweden I believe???

Live in America for a while (I have spent more time in Denmark and Sweden than most Americans BTW) and then you can take a shot at me like above. I can buy a firearm illegally in most of Europe and they are one of the most closely regulated parts of the world, so banning is not the solution.

Every country who has made owning a gun illegal has seen the crime rate increase, and yet you want to tell me that our having a gun for our own protection (and you do not even live in this country) will make everyone safer? I will agree as long as you come up with a plan that rids each and every criminal of THEIR WEAPONS FIRST and you personally guarantee the safety of myself and my family, then you can have mine.

You are the one who is doing the slinging right now, so look in the mirror, then ask about slinging.

Joe

Stone,

Put your maglight between the seat and the door sill. Works on both sides of the car and very nice in case someone gets difficult. Have a 3 cell on the left and 4 cell on the right.

Used to set a fire extinguisher on top of the same area until I got a seat type mount.

Joe

Ah yes, that's right. Note to self:

NEVER GO TO AMERICA

Victor,

Add to list:

New Zealand, Japan, England, Germany, France, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, and so on... China is one of the few places where you are reasonably safe, yet the criminals there are still armed and not afraid to use them. China kills them as punishment every month...

No where on the world is completely safe, but if you are unarmed and the criminal is armed, then you will be a victim shortly.

If you wish, I have a elderly friend in Australia who was savagely beaten to within a inch of his life a year ago. Had he a weapon in his hand and been able to defend himself and his wife, the young punk would be a memory and he would not be paralysed on half of his body. His attacker has not gone to court even now... Look up the name Paul Hawkins on the internet and see what you come up with. He will be 100% ever again...

A victim is a victim is a victim and you can act like any country in the world is safe until some crackpot does something stupid. At least in America the public can and will stand up and defend themselves.

Joe

Joe,

Too late. I spent 10 years in Germany and travelled to Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France and England a fair bit. I met a lot of people, went out lots. Got in trouble occasionally.

Never saw a gun, gun fight, gun toting or gun-otherwise. Although this kid in our apartment block blew himself and his brother up trying to convert an ornamental canon into a pistol. But he was 13 with the mentality of an 8 year old.

And I will be happily spending January and February '03 with my family catching up with relatives in Germany.

Have a safe festive season and I hope for your sake that you never have to look another person in the eye and pull the trigger.

Joe, you edited your post. So I need to add that gun laws are such over here that my owning one would be a criminal offence in the first place. So my choices in weaponry are somewhat limited.

Victor,

Hope no one ever has to do what you mention, but would do it gladly to save my life or the life of an innocent person.

I will be in Sydney Australia in January. Will have a good Aussie beer if you have a good German beer in turn! What part of Germany? Lived in Berlin, Osnabruck and was also based in Stuttgart for a while.

Tchuss,

Joe

Joe,

Of all places for German Beer, I will be in Munich most of the time. Ha ha. Can't wait. I worked there for four years and spent a good part of my childhood in Baden-Baden (sort of near Stuttgart) and a couple of small towns near Freiburg called Herbolzheim and Kenzingen. My mother is from that neck of the woods.

MMMM, beer...

Joe, I live in the most dangerous, populated city in the first country on your list.
I wouldn't even know what a gun looked like if hadn't watched the Persuaders on tele as a kid.

Whatever your reason for thinking how you do, that seems like a mighty large Pandora's box to open. I'm really glad we're not at that level, that's all I can say.

Mind you, the dude who first split the atom- Rutherford- was born here in New Zealand. I guess he's got a bit to answer for now.

Joe, i'm not taking shots at you...just merely pointing to the facts:

Firearm-homicide rate per capita per year is substantially (understatement) lower in those countries you named compared to U.S....even if they are increasing (according to you). Unfortunately, we are not talking few percents or even tens of percent here..we are talking magnitudes.

Want me to dig out actual numbers?

Here:

Germany: 381
France: 255
Canada: 165
UK: 65
Japan: 39
USA: 11127

...note a certain disparity here? Divide that with number of citizens and you'll get per capita figure. Numbers won't get much happier tough. :(

Now, i wish you a happy X-mas to you and all your family, and if that gun really helps you to keep them away from harm so be it, but i really doubt that that our figures would get better if we loosened our firearm-laws.

Cheers.

P.S.
And yes, Palme was killed in a open street by a madman...while walking on the sidewalk, going to the movies with his wife, side with side with ordinary people and without any bodyguards (he didn't find them necessary and nobody found it weird up till then)...

No Glove = No Love,

:eek: But "open" on the ends? Dangerous, Goran!?!
So dont "try" them, unless the "Pro" carries spares...... ? :D

Err...i was talking things that you put on the hands...you know...bicycle-gloves....stuff that Mel Gibson had on his hands during opening scenes of Mad Max I....:p :p :D

I tend to stay out of these discussions. But what the hell? It's the Holiday season! ;)

I find it hard to imagine a PP reader currently resident in the US rationalizing the "carrying a weapon makes me safer" strategy within the context of the other risks we all face on a daily basis. The simple act of driving ANY car kills 4-times as many people each year. How many of us enjoy those spirited drives in the country we so love to document on this site? And, how many drive their p-cars home after a beer or two with the boys?

A gun wouldn't have made me any safer pumping gas while the DC snipers were on the loose. Nor would it have helped my cousin 15 years ago, shot point blank and killed AFTER complying with the thieve's demand to hand over his wallet.

Funny thing with risk analysis - you have to look at the problem from both angles. The solution can be more dangerous than the original threat.

How often do we read of a child being killed while playing with a parent's gun? Or a spouse being killed by their drunk "better half"? What percentage of shooting victims (good and bad guys) killed within single family residences in the US each year are shot by their own weapon or one owned by a member of their immediate family? I don't know, but would like to see that number.

I have a friend that discovered her first husband was having an affair. She told me the story years later. Something in the news that day had us talking about gun control. She was for it. Why? "I was hurt and very angry", she said. "If I'd had a gun available, I would have killed him".

FWIW...

People rob you in your car because they want money to buy drugs. I say, take the middle man out of the picture ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/Jam359.jpg

.....just kidding :)

That's funny! I have a cousin, a native born Melbourne, (actually Geelong) resident. She has, so far, survived every trip here. Amazing.

Joe - can you direct me to the source of this information?

Thanks
Mark

pwd72s,

You where doing well until you typed the word "Geelong". By comparison America would be like taking a trip to Willie Wonkers Chocolate Factory for her. All jokes aside, I spent a couple of formative years hanging out there at night time in the late 80's. Those kids don't need guns to be dangerous.

Mark...the stat to research is what cops call "hot" burglaries...where the perps break into a home, not caring whether the residents are there or not, because the perps know the residents are not going to be armed. You'll laugh if I cite the NRA as a source, but I'm sure the NRA could name their sources.
National Rifle Association, 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030-9400. Bottom line is that pedators flourish when they know their victims can't fight back. The same predators become more cautious when they know they may have to pay a severe price for their activity...

Joe - I've spent a bit of time in Osnabruck, great place, good beer and some beautiful women. Especially my one at the time.

Guns. I tend to not back out of a fight if I believe I'm in the right. Hence I get involved in a brawl about once a year. I've already had two this year so I'm over quota already :)

I once pulled a rifle out of the car to prevent getting beaten up by a bunch of very large ethnic types, and if they didn't skid to a halt then run, I guess I would have shot them in self defence. If I was allowed too, I'd rather like to have a 9mm S&W in the glove box.

Our government is trying to pass a law where if the police shoot someone they can't be prosecuted, whatever the circumstances. I think Joe Average citizen needs to even the playing field and if in doubt shoot first. If you are curious, I'm not a deliquent, I'm a 43 year old male from private school type background.

Yup, me too. LA, SF, NY, ......... Loved your country! Had a ball! :D
You blokes just couldn't get enough of my Aussie accent - "say something, say something ........ again?!" :confused: ;)