RE: Personal safety while boondocking
If I thought I had to carry a weapon to safely boondock, I wouldn't do it. Criminals stay where the most unoccupied houses are - they don't go looking for remote RVs to burglarize.
Now, whether a person FEELS safe is another story.
Weapons posts in boondocking
I agree with the above statement.
By all means keep your head in the sand if it's comfortable there. I am not talking about someone that wants to steal a wallet or TV. The sad and realistic fact is there are sick and evil sociopathic people that will rape,torture,and murder you and your loved one just because you are there and so are they. They are NOT confined to cities only. They may even see you in town buying supplies and follow you. This stuff is in the papers all the time. Wake up!
Remember this?http://www.yosemitegold.com/yosemite/sund.htm
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
If I thought I had to carry a weapon to safely boondock, I wouldn't do it. Criminals stay where the most unoccupied houses are - they don't go looking for remote RVs to burglarize.
Now, whether a person FEELS safe is another story.
Weapons posts in boondocking
I agree with the above statement.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
Shooer--
That looks like an 870 with a mag extension. If so, I had the same "insurance" under my bed in Los Angeles for a decade (post-riots).
Apart from the risk of short-stroking, that is an ideal weapon for defense against bears, providing you are already pointing it at the bear before he starts charging you. Otherwise, you won't have time to swing it. And if the bear isn't charging you, but merely raiding your garbage, you would be commiting a felony be shooting it, and the LEO, when he did arrive, would take you in.
IMO, the iminent risk in the backwoods of the lower 48 is each other, not 400-lb rats raiding our food. There are much smaller tools to defend against each other, starting with our own brains. Forget whether you have a "right" to be somewhere--are you safe there, or would you be safer by retreating? And when it comes to the "last" line of defense, are you really defending your safety, or just your dignity?
I agree with the folks who say that firearms are better to have and not need. But very few of us ever think about the risks of keeping one, and prudent strategies for accessing one in time of actual need.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
Groover, your comment,I heard of an interesting, legal and inexpensive option recently. Carry a can of wasp spray. Most have a range of over 20 ft and it would probably run off most wildlife and humans if sprayed in the face. I feel sure that a good spray in the face would take the fight out of me and mess up my aim with a weapon. Since it is legal everywhere you could keep it closer at hand. A firearm won't do any good if it is not with you when you need it. Also, virtually any family member could use it, not just trained and practiced individuals.
This option certainly is better than nothing.
However, in my experience, pepper spray on some humans doesn't always work. I have seen people that have been sprayed, not affected (certainly not the norm). Beware of spraying dogs with pepper spray unless there are no other options, I have witnessed it not work on dogs. I never tried pepper spray on a bear, but if it failed to work on a dog, God forbid should you spray a bear with it.
I do not have any experience with Wasp spray and am interested in it's chemical makeup, if you have any information on this, I would appreciate it. But please remember even wasp spray will not stop another gun. I have to agree pepper spray does not effect all however every dog charging at me retreated with the spray and always check on wind direction and as being retired Law Enforcement I'll not comment on the gun , Bill:B
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
We carry a .45 auto all the time and a .223 rifle occasionally.
We also have a camp axe, an engineer’s hammer, two limb saws, a flare gun, and two folding shovels. Add to this a knife block with chef’s, boning, serrated, paring, and steak knives. Are these tools or an arsenal?
We boondock almost exclusively in areas that are often used by drug farmers, manufacturers, or smugglers. I see self-defense as self-explanatory. In fact, I see it as self-sufficiency.
We also carry extra fuel, water, food, first-aid items, etc. We carry recovery kits in case we get stuck, a tire plug gun, and spare belts and fuses.
But, for our personal safety, it’s:
1. Situational awareness. If it feels weird, move on.
2. A rather large Akita dog.
3. Then a weapon.
A side benefit is that, where we camp, we can usually set up the PVC target stand and practice with the weapons. (I’m cheap. I don’t like to pay for campgrounds or shooting ranges. ;) )
Stay safe!
LS
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
Let me tell you a short story that occurred several years ago in Florida. Older couple pulls over for the night at a rest stop. In the late night, knock on the door. Man identifies himself as a police officer. Man lets him in. He is a real bad guy. Shoots the woman, shoots at the man. Man runs out of motorhome and hides under motorhome. Another man pulls into the rest stop. Sees the commotion. Shouts what's going on. Bad guy goes over and shoots him. Tries to get to the old gent hiding under the motorhome, but takes off fearing I guess he has killed two innocent people - enough for one night. You make your own decisions about carrying a weapon. Just remember - there are a whole lot of really, really, bad and desperate people out there.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
Here is my spin, I personally keep a weapon in my RV for personal protection. I was raised around guns and did lots of hunting as a kid and was taught gun safety at a very early age. My children were also taught to respect firearms. It all comes down to personal preference, if you are anti gun thats great. If you are pro gun that is also great. I respect both.Crime can happen anywhere including boondocking areas so my philosophy is be prepared for any potential problem. Just one old farts opinion.So true!
Now it is up to the methheads to discover if I'm carrying or not...
For the purposes of this discussion, boondocking far from civilization, you will assume I'm packing. BTW, the people parked next to us are packing also.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
We never go camping without a firearm. Where on the NRA's website are you looking that show it would be a problem having one while camping?
In my mind, there is no doubt that this is a situation where I would much rather have a means of defense and not need it, then need a weapon and not have it.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
we carry a gun ,ITS not a weapon, it is a very important TOOL , use as needed . would I shoot sme one? only to protect my family.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
Groover, your comment,I heard of an interesting, legal and inexpensive option recently. Carry a can of wasp spray. Most have a range of over 20 ft and it would probably run off most wildlife and humans if sprayed in the face. I feel sure that a good spray in the face would take the fight out of me and mess up my aim with a weapon. Since it is legal everywhere you could keep it closer at hand. A firearm won't do any good if it is not with you when you need it. Also, virtually any family member could use it, not just trained and practiced individuals.
This option certainly is better than nothing.
However, in my experience, pepper spray on some humans doesn't always work. I have seen people that have been sprayed, not affected (certainly not the norm). Beware of spraying dogs with pepper spray unless there are no other options, I have witnessed it not work on dogs. I never tried pepper spray on a bear, but if it failed to work on a dog, God forbid should you spray a bear with it.
I do not have any experience with Wasp spray and am interested in it's chemical makeup, if you have any information on this, I would appreciate it. But please remember even wasp spray will not stop another gun.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
Here is my spin, I personally keep a weapon in my RV for personal protection. I was raised around guns and did lots of hunting as a kid and was taught gun safety at a very early age. My children were also taught to respect firearms. It all comes down to personal preference, if you are anti gun thats great. If you are pro gun that is also great. I respect both.Crime can happen anywhere including boondocking areas so my philosophy is be prepared for any potential problem. Just one old farts opinion.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
I heard of an interesting, legal and inexpensive option recently. Carry a can of wasp spray. Most have a range of over 20 ft and it would probably run off most wildlife and humans if sprayed in the face. I feel sure that a good spray in the face would take the fight out of me and mess up my aim with a weapon. Since it is legal everywhere you could keep it closer at hand. A firearm won't do any good if it is not with you when you need it. Also, virtually any family member could use it, not just trained and practiced individuals.
RE: Personal safety while boondocking
If I thought I had to carry a weapon to safely boondock, I wouldn't do it. Criminals stay where the most unoccupied houses are - they don't go looking for remote RVs to burglarize.
Now, whether a person FEELS safe is another story.
Weapons posts in boondocking
RE: Protection?? Yes or NO
*40 Reasons for Gun Control*
1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, & Chicago cops need guns.
2. Washington DC's low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis' high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.
3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics."
4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates, which have been declining since 1991.
5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.
6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.
7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.
8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.
9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should "put up no defense
-- give them what they want, or run" (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die - People Do, 1981, p.125).
10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.
11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seatbelts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.
12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.
13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons, vehicles, buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a "state" militia.
14. These phrases: "right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumeration's herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people" all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arm" refers to the state.
15. "The Constitution is strong and will never change." But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to that Constitution.
16. Rifles and handguns aren't necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.
17. Private citizens shouldn't have handguns, because they aren't "military weapons", but private citizens shouldn't have "assault rifles", because they are military weapons.
18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, finger printing, government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's, anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations, variety stores, Sears mail order, no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms and there were no school shootings.
19. The NRA's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign is responsible social activity.
20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.
21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.
22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is "an accident waiting to happen" and gun makers' advertisements aimed at women are "preying on their fears."
23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.
24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.
25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.
26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a "weapon of mass destruction" or an "assault weapon."
27. Most people can't be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.
28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.
29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self-defense only justifies bare hands.
30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.
31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored, but Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.
32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do "civilians" who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.
33. We should ban "Saturday Night Specials" and other inexpensive guns because it's not fair that poor people have access to guns too.
34. Police officers have some special Jedi-like mastery over hand guns that private citizens can never hope to obtain.
35. Private citizens don't need a gun for self-protection because the police are there to protect them even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.
36. Citizens don't need to carry a gun for personal protection but police chiefs, who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun.
37. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.
38. When Microsoft pressures its distributors to give Microsoft preferential promotion, that's bad; but when the Federal government pressures cities to buy guns only from Smith & Wesson, that's good.
39. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.
40. Handgun Control, Inc. says they want to "keep guns out of the wrong hands." Guess what? You have the wrong hands.
RE: Protection?? Yes or NO
Actually you may be right when you include the milita of a country as "citizenery". For pratical and real world , I would not attempt to do that. You say every able bodied adult has access to a weapon, access and ownership could be debabateable . I suspect that Texas has a greater amount of "armed to the teeth than Wyoming, due only to population, but that in itself is debateable as to how you count. If a citizen of Switzerland or Israel , for instance, decide to go camping, can they take the fully automatic weapon with them? Inquiring minds, like mind, want to know?
I did not post the "cut and paste" to start an argument, but to enlighten some as to the amount of weapons that are out there. Some , like me, lol, have more weapons than kids.
RE: Protection?? Yes or NO
Matthew B, do you really think that I post something that I know is not true or reported to be true?
Honestly, I think your posting what you beleive to be true. I reject your truth and substitute my own, just as you have done with me.
Your posts so far have consisted of cutting and pasting information from politically slanted sources. Yes, the latter was reprinted in reputable papers, but the report itself is from an anti gun group.
This report is slanted in their use of statistics. Those firearms in the possession of the citizens in Switzerland aren't "civilian owned" so they aren't counted. Yet every able bodied adult has access to a full automatic weapon. If it was the firearm ownership causing the problem, Switzerland would be awash with drive by and schoolyard shootings.
You can see a similar effect here in the US.
Wyoming is armed to the teeth... how much gun violence do they have?
RE: Protection?? Yes or NO
Matthew B, do you really think that I post something that I know is not true or reported to be true? Or do you just get up everyday with that "doubting thomas" attitude?
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.
U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.
"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.
India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.
Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.
On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.
France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.
"Firearms are very unevenly distributed around the world. The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons -- these images are certainly misleading," Small Arms Survey director Keith Krause said.
"Weapons ownership may be correlated with rising levels of wealth, and that means we need to think about future demand in parts of the world where economic growth is giving people larger disposable income," he told a Geneva news conference.
The report, which relied on government data, surveys and media reports to estimate the size of world arsenals, estimated there were 650 million civilian firearms worldwide, and 225 million held by law enforcement and military forces.
Five years ago, the Small Arms Survey had estimated there were a total of just 640 million firearms globally.
"Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than we previously believed," Krause said, attributing the increase largely to better research and more data on weapon distribution networks.
Only about 12 percent of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with authorities.
If you would notice the post, BOTH say citizenry, then note the part at the bottom about the armies.
RE: Protection?? Yes or NO
I find the comparison between insurance and firearms to be comical, with both being kept around only in case you need it. Well, that part is true about them being a just in case thing, but I can't recall an insurance policy going off and harming someone by accident.
Yes, now that I think of it, comparing carrying a handgun to having life insurance is a rather weak analogy. Owning life insurance can't save your life, or your family's life - only pay your survivors after you or your family are already dead.
It would be a better analogy to compare carrying a firearm with wearing a motorcycle helmet or wearing a seat belt in a car. Both of these latter safety precautions, while they do have a low probability of increasing your risk of death in a small percentage of accidents, will save your life in many more. Yet some people ignore the risks and choose not to wear them, go figure?
Yes, I couldn't agree more, intoxicated handgun owners are a danger to themselves and others, but so are drunk drivers. In fact I'm sure that there are thousands of times more people killed by drunk drivers than drunks brandishing firearms. A motor vehicle is a much more deadly weapon, when used indiscriminately, than even a machine gun. It's hard to miss someone with a Peterbilt, even when drunk. You hear about drunk drivers killing innocent people every day, buy I've yet to hear about an honest, law abiding armed citizen recklessly killing someone innocent, trying to defend their family while drunk or high. I'd like to see more impaired armed robbers and murderers, as it will surely affect their aim. The penalties for irresponsibly (or intentionally) killing someone should be the same, regardless of the criminal's weapon of choice or their degree of intoxication or impairment. ;)
RE: Protection?? Yes or NO
I pack a xd 40 0n the hip and a 22 or 25 auto on the ancle. have a leagle sawed off 12 ga shotgun in the closet and a 22 mag rifle under the bed. this is just when camping and in the trailer.When at home or the city i just have the two side arms. We do not leave Arizona and New Mexico to camp. so i am ok to pack in both states.
I know i am on the list our govt has because i hunt and have guns. So why not pack them. I have been shot at twice in my 37 years. I did not draw a gun in both cases. I had a gun under my truck seat the first time when to guys tryed to jack my truck at a gas station while running from the cops. I did not have time to draw my weapon in defence so i used my truck as my weapon, I was a good witness. the second i had a rifle in hand and a side arm on. I came up on a wildrness growing pot garden. Was shot at once and backed out of the situation and called in the law. I was a good witness. I am glad i did not have to shoot. I could care less if someone wants to have a gun or not, i will protect you if a crime is being caried out against you and I am around. I have used my fists most my life as a fighter but i would rather not have to even use them. I just want to be left alone.
