Off-Topic: TSA NEWS For The Week

This is a touchy subject in some parts of the country, so I will comment in the vein of humour (so please laugh along with me if you've a mind to);

It's been a few years since I had to step onto an airplane, and at that time there were a few things you couldn't carry through security.... truely dangerous stuff like corkscrews, metal nail files, manicure scissors, or the large jug of Frappachino (unless you bought it on the other side of the screening area).  Any liquids flammable or otherwise over something like 2 ounces (so no duty free bourbon), and I once got practically strip searched because I couldn't clear the metal detector until we discovered the metal shanks in my cowboy boots.  Seriously I was down to the fillings in my teeth, the rivets in my jeans and the boots!

So with all the publicity about what is and is not allowed, and the posters, lists and advisories on websites and ticket counters, we are seeing this kind of stuff being shoved into folk's carry-on baggage...???  I'm thinking that along with better background checks on gun buyers, we need to take a good look at school transcripts too!  I mean what kind of Einstein would think a loaded weapon is gonna be OK?

If you really feel the need to be armed when you get to your destination, just do what I do, find a swap meet or gun show and find the fella in the parking lot with the hand printed sign tucked under his windshield wiper that reads "cheap guns", and buy one outta the trunk.  You can always dump it quick at any inner city McDonald's parking lot for almost what you paid (or more) just remember to unload it before the sale or it could end badly. 

Wear gloves and Travel Safe out there!

We had a long-gun registration in Canada for a number of years, and then it was done away with. There are varying reports on whether or not it actually did anything to curb violent crime, but it cost taxpayers a bundle.

I have four guns and two are loaded at home if I get a break in I will have them ready.

I fly on regular basis to a part of the world where lets just say there are some bad things that happen. some red neck with a gun the plane is not high on my list of concerns

I think you may be misunderstanding us Phill.

I don't believe I or anyone else here would advocate taking a firearm onto a plane.

I have only met a half dozen chordians in person but I can assure you; I wouldn't think twice about walking up to any one of them and shaking their hand even if they should have an AK-47 slung across their shoulder. I can't imagine why they would, but it wouldn't matter.

You see, a gun could just as easily be a hammer. They are both implements; inanimate objects. A hammer can be used to create the most beautiful chateau or it can be used to crush a human skull. It is a matter of who is wielding that implement. I go to the bank several times a week during my busy season. I always have my gun. It has never jumped out of my pocket and tried to make a withdrawal. It has no mind of it's own.

I believe you are doing yourself a grave injustice in writing off some very good people because they choose to be around or own firearms.

I would be willing to wager that most of the active members of this board, that you converse with regularly, own at least one gun, probably more than one. It's part of our culture. .  Unless you were raised in a strictly urban environment, guns were a part of growing up. I had my first one at 10. Started hunting at 12. When I was in high school you could walk around the school  parking lot the week after our Thanksgiving holiday and find at least half of the student's cars with a high powered rifle in the trunk. We went to the woods after school that entire week. That's just the way it was. We didn't know anything different. No one ever used them for nefarious purposes. Our parents taught us right from wrong and how to safely handle a gun. We took courses after school on gun safety.  Now granted, something changed since my teenage years. Personally, I feel it's all the prescription drugs that are now given to young children to "calm them down."

I'm sure I will not change your viewpoint with a couple paragraphs but please believe me when I tell you; we are all quite as sane as you are and you shouldn't feel the need to avoid personal contact with us because we were raised in a different culture.

Well, thanks for listening and I hope I get to meet you some day.

Joe

I do respect Phill's point of view, and understand that there is no place really safe in the world (more so at present).  The UK has a much lower per capita number of firearms than we here in the US, and part of that is preference and part is good sense.  On this side of the pond we still have large furry predators wandering the neighborhoods, not just the kind that might bash you with a cricket bat, pipe, or stick you with some pointy chunk of Sheffield Steel.  I've got Bears, Bobcats, packs of Coyotes, Cougars, and the bipedal variety wandering around, which makes it prudent to have arms available at times.

One does have to admit that walking through an Arizona Safeway Market with every third person visibly packing iron (and half of the rest carrying concealed), does take some getting used to.... there is some comfort in knowing that if someone was crazy enough to take pot shots in a crowd of people, he wouldn't live long enough to see his own second shell casing hit the ground, and it would take a forklift to load his miserable carcass into the meat wagon after from the weight of additional lead. It's a "cultural thing" I guess.

Because most people get killed with their own gun, so ensuring the chamber is empty, you provide your own self a measure of time to think before you shoot, and it prevents the other guy from popping one off at you immediately if he does manage to get your gun.

Every sovereign nation and it's people have different opinions on the right to bear arms. On Russia's behalf, Vladimir Putin weighs in:

It goes without saying that Canada has a lot of unpopulated area, so having a gun is a necessity of life for a lot of people. They are, however, usually rifles or shotguns, and are used for hunting, protecting livestock from predators, etc. Here's a few interesting population and geography stats:

United States
Area:  38,060,000 square miles
Population:  319,000,000 million
Density:  84 people / square mile

United Kingdom
Area:  94,058 square miles
Population:  64,900,000
Density:  690 people / square mile

Canada
Area:  38,550,000 square miles
Population:  35,750,000
Density:  < 1 person / square mile

Whats's even funnier, is that a full half of Canada's entire population lives in 6 cities (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton) with the other half spread out over the entire rest of the country. One Province (Saskatchewan) has a land area of 228,800 square miles (almost 2.5 times greater than the UK) but with just barely over one-million people.

Yup, gets lonely at times here in the Great White North!