Re: Way OT: OpenDNS
On Sep 10, 2008, at 5:57 PM, Alex Samad wrote:
:) I am allergic to guns, plus I love it down under
Everyone is. Lead poisoning.
It's not like you see people walking about packing firearms (in most
places) - sheesh. You gotta love the media. What crock are they
feeding you down there about us in Oz, mate?
Everyone's a gun-toting mad man, ready to shoot people at a moment's
notice? Sorry, the only places that happens are in the ghettos where
drug dealing is rampant. And even then, there's a lot of drug culture
folks who refuse to carry weapons because they know they'll go away
for life if they're caught dealing with a firearm on them.
Issue everyone a gun, the "scare" of them goes away. They're a tool
like anything else.
Of course, I live in a metro area and have virtually no regular use
for mine - but I'm also an hour and a half away from being far enough
back in the mountains/woods, that I could be dead in a single rainy/
snowy night without proper clothing and shelter -- and I've had enough
scares with bears (mom and cub) that there's no reason NOT to take a
weapon along when out in the woods. Quite a few Mountain Lions here
too, but the reality is that if they're hunting you and you're the
prey, you're probably not going to hear them until they hit you -- so
a stand-off weapon like a firearm isn't going to be as much help as a
good old-fashioned hunting knife.
And the few people that have things like "concealed carry" permits are
the ones that are playing by the "rules" so much, you know they're
ultra-respectful of weapons and know how (and when) to use them.
99.999% of the time, the answer to that question is... You don't.
Draw the weapon, you'd better already know it's a kill or be killed
situation -- and there's not too many situations where that's the
case... so... being scared of an "armed population" is pretty silly.
Being scared of armed criminals who don't get their weapons legally
anyway -- yeah, that's why you get the concealed weapon permit in the
first place, if you frequent those places where that type of crowd
hangs out.
Where I live in the U.S. we do have what's called a "Make my day" law,
where if someone is IN YOUR HOUSE threatening your life, you can shoot
them. They even so much make it outside to the front porch, and you
shoot there, you're probably going to jail for a very very long time.
Frankly, anyone who knows guns also knows that regular guns are a
menace inside a residential structure... you're as likely to fire the
thing through the wall and kill the kids sleeping in the next room as
you are to hit the bad guy in the house. Shotguns are the proper
weapon for home protection, not handguns. Handguns are for shooting
beer cans with your buddies.
Feel free to CC me (unlike most of the whiners on the list about CC's
- I actually delete so much of the train-wreck that is debian-user,
that I just might miss any replies to this one... the OpenDNS subject
line caught my eye but the thread rapidly turned into DSLReports.com,
and I'm just not interested in sharing ping times from DSL/Cable/
Residential lines... it quickly headed toward the "who cares?"
category for me... heh heh...) on replies.
--
Nate Duehr
nate@natetech.com
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