Just on the Discovery Health Channel...

[Third_Rail]

Showing a woman who carries firearms, one next to her bed, etc. A quick blurb from her; "I carry them when I fish, I carry them when I hunt, I have one by my bed."

Then the announcer comes on.

"...but her guns were no help the night she was assaulted...."

I love how so many things are given that nice lefthand spin.


I guess it just bothered me.

 

[Low-Sci]

Well...

Maybe they're right. A gun isn't a whole lot of use to a person who is sound asleep immediately before an attack.

When you're sleeping, you're condition white, and it takes a second to break that unless you're used to doing it. I'd actually be willing to bet that her gun was totally useless to her, but only because she couldn't get to it in time.

I sleep really hard, it takes an awful lot to wake me up, and I have noisy housemates, which is just that much more noise that I naturally tune out when I'm sleeping. So if a sneaky perp managed to get into my room undetected by the rest of the house, odds aren't good that I'd wake up, become aware, and get to a weapon fast enough to prevent him doing harm to me.

So I'd actually venture to wager that her guns were no help at all, because its just a mash of metal and plastic and wood without a person holding it.

 

[ATAShooter]

Unless you got the Ambien Sleep Walk thing going and find your bedroom full of holes in the morning and don't know why....

 

[Low-Sci]

So maybe this is a valuable lesson...

We can't simply rely on a gun for protection. To be safe in your home, you've got to have other means of security, and most especially, a means of waking you up in the event of an intruder, preferably before he's in the same room as you.

 

[Rumpled]

My two 80 lb labs tend to do a pretty good job of alerting to anything outside the house at night, rats, possums, raccoons etc.
Don't know about intruders yet, haven't had any.

 

[Leanwolf]

So what's the story??????????????????????????????????

L.W.

 

[mbs357]

Yea...maybe they didn't help.
Guns are just tools. They can't do anything by themselves...it's the person behind them that's up to what happens.
Remember what we say all the time?
It sounds to me like she had plenty of firepower but no plan or no plan for waking up.
Shame. =(
By the way, my plan is = old house. All the windows are painted down...if a guy was lucky enough to get one open, the neighbors would hear the wood squeaking and cracking with the wood window frame. The doors each have a knob lock, a larger bolt lock (I don't know the names of them, one of of them is standard looking and the other one is a large box below the knob) and chain locks. I'm willing to bet anyone forcing their way through will make a LOT of noise.
It might take me a bit to wake up, but when something like this wakes me up (and it has), I'm usually quick to respond.

 

[Third_Rail]

I understand that firearms aren't a magical talisman. The way it was portrayed, she had them and they didn't do anything, or the criminal was unfazed and attacked anyway, etc.

They left it open ended, without saying exactly what happened, just that owning firearms didn't make any difference.

 

[Lupinus]

A gun is only a tool and therefor only as useful as the person using the tool. If you were there sleeping and someone started assaulting you by the time you came too enough to realize what was happening and to grab your gun that time might have already passed and therefor it is of no use to you.

However, that isn't how it will happen and that doesn't make carrying a gun for protection useless. I'm sure plenty of CCWers have been jumped from behind and were injured or the bad guy was gone by the time they could get their gun from the holster, that doesn't mean no ones life has ever been saved by a ccw. Just means that it wont save you every last time.

 

[James T Thomas]

things substantial

Discovery Channel, PBS, NEWS; they are all "productions." There is a person who produces what is viewed. They edit, arrange, omit and you receive the end product of their bias.

That is what TV is about, and it has been this way now for some time.

I was here when it all began; saw the first TV in a bakery shop window behind my gradeschool. My parents bought a "Dumont" set, and when I visited my grandparents; grandad was still sitting in his rocking chair listening to the wooden cabinet, glow tube radio, playing the Lone Ranger.

Since that time, I have regetably watched TV programming decline, until today it is not worth watching. At all. Period.

Get rid of your TV. Save yourself the expensive electric bill, and go to the range, hunt, fish, hike, camp, take walks with your wife and children.
Your quality of life will be so much more satisfying than spending time before the boob tube. And be assured, you will not have missed much, nor will you be ignorant -of the substancial things of life.

 

[Gordon Fink]

I carry them when I fish. I carry them when I hunt. I have one by my bed.

But I would bet she didn’t have one when she was “assaulted.” It’s not unlike the story of a well-known television actress who was raped. She was licensed to carry a concealed handgun in California, but she left the weapon in her car when she went into the rest stop where the two rapists were lurking.

~G. Fink

 

[Third_Rail]

James T Thomas - I'd love to get rid of the TV. Tell my wife that, too, though...

I'd love to save the $120 or so a month the cable bill comes to. I'd love to spend more time with my wife outside, walking, biking, hiking, looking at the stars at night, etc.

She's just not interested in doing that often.

 

[NoahFN]

My two 80 lb labs tend to do a pretty good job of alerting to anything outside the house at night, rats, possums, raccoons etc.
Don't know about intruders yet, haven't had any.

I'm with Rumpled. This is a good reason to have a dog. My 2 Beagles will wake me up should anything go bump in the night.

 

[Leanwolf]

GORDON FINK - "...It’s not unlike the story of a well-known television actress who was raped. She was licensed to carry a concealed handgun in California, but she left the weapon in her car when she went into the rest stop where the two rapists were lurking."
_________________________________________________________________
G.F., who was the actress and what was the incident??? Kinda wondering in what County she got a CCW? It's extemely hard in most Calif. counties to get a CCW.

Thanks. L.W.

 

[tyme]

Since that time, I have regetably watched TV programming decline, until today it is not worth watching. At all. Period.

Fictional TV shows have bias like everything else, but you could just as easily complain about bias in famous works of literature.

Bias in non-fiction is where the real trouble lies, and the only way around it is to consult multiple independent sources and try to construct a picture of reality based on those differing viewpoints. Whether the material is TV news, written history, or written science, it's all subject to bias that you won't recognize from a single source unless you already know the subject matter better than the author. TV has no monopoly on stupidity.

 

[Gordon Fink]

G.F., who was the actress and what was the incident??? …

I can’t remember her name, and a generic search doesn’t turn up any clues, but I think she did a lot of television in the 1980s. Her story was told on a prime-time news program about rape, broadcast by either NBC or ABC within the last 10 years. That she didn’t have her handgun on her when she was attacked was presented in a very matter-of-fact manner.

I imagine she was able to get a CCW permit due to her celebrity status.

~G. Fink

 

[billybob]

Anyone who sleeps without razor wire around the bed is nuts.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Another good reason to get the Claymore Mine removed from NFA DD status.

 

[50 Freak]

My wife used to think I was crazy when I locked our bedroom door every night. Sides, our 100 pound dog will at least buy me some time to get decide if I want to use the G20 under the pillow, the FAL 308 by the foot of the bed or the Benelli M3 in the closet.....