Regional Difference Displayed.

[another pake]

Just today my wife and I, along with her two visiting sisters from the Chicago area were having lunch at a local restaurant in the small western Minnesota town where we live. Halfway through our dinner my SIL grabbed my arm and with a worried look on her face and in a subdued tone said,

"That man over there has a gun."

I turned to look and replied,

"Several of them do. It's the local sportsmen club meeting."

My SIL couldn't believe what she was seeing, or that no one else in the restaurant seemed to care. " At home you'll never see that." she said.

No one was killed nor injured while we were there.

 

[Plan2Live]

No one was killed nor injured while we were there.

Last night I held my nose and paid to see a movie with Matt Damon in it. I sat in a "crowded theater" for about 2 hours and 45 minutes (counting previews) and my pistol did not jump out of its holster and harm anyone. In fact it never even wiggled. I think it was asleep. My date even commented that once again we made it through an entire evening with my pistol behaving perfectly.

 

[hso]

That would have been a great opportunity to point out that it was one of many reasons their Chicago homicide rate is as bad as violent 3rd world countries and your entire state rate was lower (even with Milwaukee). <DOH! Minneapolis>

 

[Ed N.]

" At home you'll never see that." she said.

A good response would have been, "And here you'll never see Chicago's murder rate."

 

[BinRat]

(even with Milwaukee)

I'm pretty sure Milwaukee's contributions have very little impact on Minnesota's homicide rate, since it's in Wisconsin.

 

[MedWheeler]

BinRat writes:

I'm pretty sure Milwaukee's contributions have very little impact on Minnesota's homicide rate, since it's in Wisconsin.

Oh, please. Everyone knows location has nothing to do with cities' contributions to other locales' crime rates. Just listen to Bloomberg, DeBlasio, and Coumo; everyone knows my state of Florida's "lax gun laws" are the reason for the violence in New York City, right?

 

[USAF_Vet]

BinRat writes:



Oh, please. Everyone knows location has nothing to do with cities' contributions to other locales' crime rates. Just listen to Bloomberg, DeBlasio, and Coumo; everyone knows my state of Florida's "lax gun laws" are the reason for the violence in New York City, right?

Don't forget Mayor Rahm in Chicago, blaming Indiana and Michigan for all the guns in Chicago. Gun control would work if not for free states nearby.

 

[Ryanxia]

Reminds me when I took a guy and his son from the UK to the gun range. They were in town for 2 weeks and really wanted to shoot. I took out an AR15, AK47, Glock 19, and revolver and they were just wide eyed (but grinning at least). The father said that he was a police officer in the UK for several years and they were just getting around to being allowed to carry pepper spray. He said if you had these in the UK, it'd be all over for you. He also mentioned that hopefully in America they won't pass laws that outlaws these weapons, and my reply was simply, 'it's not like they're going to get half the country to disarm the other half.'

 

[Schwing]

Several years ago we were having dinner at my Mother-in-law's home. My brother-in law was visiting from CA and his wife leans extremely to the left. She was on a tirade about how ridiculous "gun nuts" are and how she would never have a firearm in her home or allow anyone who was carrying one to enter.

I just kept my mouth shut as I was carrying as I almost always do.

When the talk drifted to "how ridiculous" it was that pot was not legal country wide, I had to excuse myself from the conversation.

 

[Carne Frio]

I have seen Japanese tourists get really surprised in the local Walmart
with women shopping, open carrying, and herding their many children
around the store.

 

[X-Rap]

I'm pretty sure Milwaukee's contributions have very little impact on Minnesota's homicide rate, since it's in Wisconsin.

Might be true but Minneapolis is probably more representative to Chicago than Milwaukee.
I think the important point is that unlike Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis residents have much better laws in which to defend themselves than those in Chicago.
Rural parts of all three states have come around but the city mouse will always be surprised and put off by how the country mouse lives I'm afraid.

 

[PJSprog]

Rural parts of all three states have come around but the city mouse will always be surprised and put off by how the country mouse lives I'm afraid.

Those of us in down-state Illinois have never subscribed to the silliness of Chicagoland politics. Sure, we have our wackos, too, but in much more limited quantities ... and far outnumbered by normal-thinking people.

 

[gbran]

I feel safer in an armed society. The criminals are already armed.

 

[morcey2]

We have quite a few people from NYC visiting our office where I work for various reasons. On one particular visit, we were leaving a meeting and one of my co-workers mentioned that he was heading to a gun store/gunsmith at lunch. I asked him to check with the gunsmith to see if my shotgun was done because I couldn't get him to answer the phone. Awesome gunsmith, but his communication skills need some work.

One of the visitors had a look of absolute shock on his face. He looked at me and asked "You own a gun?!?"

My answer was "No, I own several." I didn't bother volunteering that I had one on my hip at the time. He looked at me like I had just told him that I regularly torture neighborhood children by taping them to chairs and making them watch college-algebra lesson broadcasts. (It's not that bad; most of them eventually learn something. Sometimes the parents even thank me. )

In our office in Utah, most of the people own at least one gun and many of us are active collectors and hunters. I offered to take him shooting next time he was out and he gave me the "torturing with differential-equations" look. He told me that he would never feel safe in Utah again and would try not to come back out if he could avoid it. One of the other guys said he'd take me up on the offer, but he hasn't been back out yet.

Matt

 

[TruthTellers]

I have seen Japanese tourists get really surprised in the local Walmart
with women shopping, open carrying, and herding their many children
around the store.

Well, since the only thing that remotely resembles a firearm that's allowed to be owned in Japan is a matchlock musket, I can understand their surprise.

 

[TomJ]

I live in the Chicago suburbs and see that attitude daily with the soccer moms as I drop my youngest son off at school in the morning. If they knew I owned guns my son would be a pariah, and they would not let their kids come to our house. One of my neighbors also drops his kids off, and we joined a gun club together a while ago. We manage to discuss guns and going to the range while in front of the soccer moms without mentioning the word gun so they'll have no idea what we're discussing. I don't like that we have to cave in to them in that way, but not doing so and having my son pay for it isn't an option.

 

[stoky]

The sisters need to visit Wyomin'.

 

[barnbwt]

"Gun control would work if not for free states nearby."

Signs your ideology is fundamentally flawed;
#1) It requires unblinking obedience by an entire universe to function even the slightest bit.

"Well, since the only thing that remotely resembles a firearm that's allowed to be owned in Japan is a matchlock musket, I can understand their surprise."
You do realize they invented Airsoft, right? And by extension every kind of dorky tacticoolery? Japan is a massive gun culture, they've just been repressed by unfortunate circumstances. Combination of industrial competence, technological savvy, pride of craftsmanship, and inventiveness allowed them to produce some of the highest quality firearms of WWII (and also some of the most complicated, pretty much on par with any other world power except in quantity) as well as planes, ships, and the industries underpinning them. Heck, they make a better lever gun than we do, anymore.

I'm also fairly confident in assuming that even a matchlock musket is likely contraband over there . Guns are around, but highly restricted & a rich man's game (or an illegal one)

TCB

 

[orionengnr]

He told me that he would never feel safe in Utah again and would try not to come back out if he could avoid it.

My first reaction would probably be "Good! We already have more than enough people who are incapable of rational thought."

In reality, a better reply would have been "Okay, let's compare crime rates between NYC and SLC, and then let's compare gun laws."

However, the outcome would likely have been the same. Many people are closed-minded, and will not be swayed by data.

 

[Ignition Override]

barnbwt: He might have intended that comment as satire.

gbran: With your permission, I will use your excellent summary of why we don't want millions of criminals to have all of the guns, outside the police and military (or Federal ABCs).

 

[Ignition Override]

barnbwt: He might have intended that comment as satire.

gbran: With your permission, I will use your excellent summary of why we don't want hundreds of thousands, or millions of criminals to have all of the guns, outside the police and military (or Federal ABCs).