semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
If you need "a few extra clips" of .357 mag, you have placed yourself in a situation where a pistol or revolver is unlikely to be a viable passport to "safety."
taskoni
Well-known
That's why I am wearing my Swedish clogs instead - lethal yes and yet easy to handle.
dave lackey
Veteran
Yesterday, my bride heard me take the battery pack out of the R4 motor drive and then the sound as it was slid back in and locked....
She asked if I had another pistol!
It really does sound like pulling the slide back on my Walther. Don't think it will help much for protection except to use it like a hammer!
dave lackey
Veteran
When I first read the OP days ago, I thought maybe the solution would be to move to a nicer neighborhood.
The next day, our local newspaper runs an article about a body being found in the creek along our golf course. Seems a 17-year old was shot in the head and dumped off the bridge that I walk across every day. So, what lesson to learn from that? I dunno.
The next day, our local newspaper runs an article about a body being found in the creek along our golf course. Seems a 17-year old was shot in the head and dumped off the bridge that I walk across every day.
So, what lesson to learn from that? I dunno.
zauhar
Veteran
When I first read the OP days ago, I thought maybe the solution would be to move to a nicer neighborhood.
The next day, our local newspaper runs an article about a body being found in the creek along our golf course. Seems a 17-year old was shot in the head and dumped off the bridge that I walk across every day.
The lesson is that life is fragile, and to thank God for another day. ;-)
There is also that old saw (Goethe?) "That which does not kill me only makes me stronger".
Happy New Year Dave!
Randy
TennesseJones
Well-known
Christopher Hitchens was rather good on this precisely-
Christopher Hitchens • Vanity Fair • January 2012
On whether or not whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger:
“Before I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer a year and a half ago, I rather jauntily told the readers of my memoirs that when faced with extinction I wanted to be fully conscious and awake, in order to ‘do’ death in the active and not the passive sense. And I do, still, try to nurture that little flame of curiosity and defiance: willing to play out the string to the end and wishing to be spared nothing that properly belongs to a life span. However, one thing that grave illness does is to make you examine familiar principles and seemingly reliable sayings. And there’s one that I find I am not saying with quite the same conviction as I once used to: In particular, I have slightly stopped issuing the announcement that ‘Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.’
In fact, I now sometimes wonder why I ever thought it profound. It is usually attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche: Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker. In German it reads and sounds more like poetry, which is why it seems probable to me that Nietzsche borrowed it from Goethe, who was writing a century earlier. But does the rhyme suggest a reason? Perhaps it does, or can, in matters of the emotions. I can remember thinking, of testing moments involving love and hate, that I had, so to speak, come out of them ahead, with some strength accrued from the experience that I couldn’t have acquired any other way. And then once or twice, walking away from a car wreck or a close encounter with mayhem while doing foreign reporting, I experienced a rather fatuous feeling of having been toughened by the encounter. But really, that’s to say no more than ‘There but for the grace of god go I,’ which in turn is to say no more than ‘The grace of god has happily embraced me and skipped that unfortunate other man.’”
Christopher Hitchens • Vanity Fair • January 2012
On whether or not whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger:
“Before I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer a year and a half ago, I rather jauntily told the readers of my memoirs that when faced with extinction I wanted to be fully conscious and awake, in order to ‘do’ death in the active and not the passive sense. And I do, still, try to nurture that little flame of curiosity and defiance: willing to play out the string to the end and wishing to be spared nothing that properly belongs to a life span. However, one thing that grave illness does is to make you examine familiar principles and seemingly reliable sayings. And there’s one that I find I am not saying with quite the same conviction as I once used to: In particular, I have slightly stopped issuing the announcement that ‘Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.’
In fact, I now sometimes wonder why I ever thought it profound. It is usually attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche: Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker. In German it reads and sounds more like poetry, which is why it seems probable to me that Nietzsche borrowed it from Goethe, who was writing a century earlier. But does the rhyme suggest a reason? Perhaps it does, or can, in matters of the emotions. I can remember thinking, of testing moments involving love and hate, that I had, so to speak, come out of them ahead, with some strength accrued from the experience that I couldn’t have acquired any other way. And then once or twice, walking away from a car wreck or a close encounter with mayhem while doing foreign reporting, I experienced a rather fatuous feeling of having been toughened by the encounter. But really, that’s to say no more than ‘There but for the grace of god go I,’ which in turn is to say no more than ‘The grace of god has happily embraced me and skipped that unfortunate other man.’”
rjbuzzclick
Well-known
...and then start arguing about scopes vs. peep sights, have polls about which people prefer, and the inevitable "which one should I buy" posts. If we allow laser sights, we could have digital vs. analog debates too...
I bet scopes would have their own "Evil Scopes" sub-forum.
Reid
Medium Format-S&W Model 27-II .357, N-Frame, 8 3/4" Barrel
Small Format-Crossman pump action pellet/BB gun
Toys-various Nerf dart guns
oftheherd
Veteran
I just came across this thread. Whether or not you are a ghoul is likely decided by the reason you were there and deciding to take photos or not. Just documenting something isn't being ghoulish. Discomfort is another thing. Most people are uncomfortable with death, especially violent death. That is likely what you felt.
I used to photograph crime scenes as part of my job. I think that people who investigate, or document, violent crimes find a way to deal with it. I always tried to just do what needed to be done to document the crime and move on. Some deal with it by coming up with false bravado, or off-color humor. Many policemen do the same when dealing with the bad side of their job.
Many people hearing macabre humor, think the police insensitive. Mostly, it is just a defense for unpleasant experiences they have no choice but to be part of.
Sorry for you having to have something like that happen so close to your house. Feeling uncomfortable can be for several reasons. Not the least of which is that your house (castle) may no seem a little less safe.
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
Dreadful though the topic of this thread is, we should not lose sight of the fact that the United States has experienced a steady decline in violent crimes, including murder, for twenty years (since about 1990).
The reasons for this decline are not clear. One fascinating idea is that the decline is traceable to the elimination of lead from gasoline and paint.
The reasons for this decline are not clear. One fascinating idea is that the decline is traceable to the elimination of lead from gasoline and paint.
Sparrow
Veteran
Sparrow
Veteran
It was socratic irony, sorry
Creagerj
Incidental Artist
Just my two cents but it probably doesn't have much to do with removing lead from gas and paint. In fact, it probably has nothing to do with that at all. I think that is a notion some people have because they have never been privy to the many social ills and injustices of inner city life.
My belief is that violent crime has dropped considerably since the 1990s due to a dramatic increase in arrest and a dramatic increase in prison construction since due George H.W. Bush's augmentation of the war on drugs.
Well that was pretty OT. Anyway I just wrote a brief academic essay on the subject. If anyone wants to read it I would be happy to send it to them. Just send me a PM.
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zauhar
Veteran
Thanks for that, which was very apropos.
Eloquent writing from Hitchens (RIP) - but weirdly off the mark. After all, his cancer was terminal, and he knew it. He seems to be trying to say: "That which DOES kill you does NOT make you stronger", which if not logically equal to the original Nietszche/Goethe quote is certainly compatible with it; and yet he seems not to recognize that.
Randy