Simple Minded wrote:Typhoon wrote:Typhoon wrote: . . .
manolo wrote:The stuff about home defence is weird to me.
It is irrational.
I simply would not want to be sitting in a MacDonald's in downtown Chicago surrounded by a bunch of incompetent make-believe militia types openly carrying firearms. Same with concealed carry, for that matter.
. . .
Having to walk around everywhere with a semi-automatic assault rifle and a shotgun just in order "to be safe"?
Even to order a cheeseburger?
Seriously?
Typhoon & Alex,
The discomfort with a foreign culture is perfectly understandable. Warm beer and chopsticks are irrational to most Americans.
Well, I've learn to prefer drinking Guiness warm.
As for chopsticks, unless you're Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan they hardly qualify as an offensive assault weapon.
Simple Minded wrote:Pictures on the internet turn even the best of us into lawn chair psychics. Sad, but true.
Travel broadens the mind. Go to an open carry state, sit in a restaurant, and buy a cup of coffee for the next 4 people who are open carrying. Ask them why. You might find out they are not nuts.
I did not claim that they are all nuts, although the one's that are proactive aggressive about open carry most probably are.
Most happen to strongly believe in a particular culture specific myth.
As for travel, a few years ago I counted the number of countries I'd traveled to and came up with 48.
Still have lots of countries on my bucket list. Never been to Africa.
Also, I counted a number of good old boys amongst the friends I made in the US Midwest.
Skilled techs were I worked who thought nothing of working to 1/100,000 of an inch* accuracy be it surveying or machining.
Harley riding, honky tonk drinking, country and western, gun owning, blue collar, git er done types.
Among my colleagues I was an anomaly in this regard. One thing I learned was how class segregated the US is.
Actually preferred their company to the senior people in my group who were precious West Coast types.
I'd rather chew off my arm than attend another dinner meeting only to listen to them go on and on about some restaurant in California that I'd never heard of.
*Learning the US customary system of units was a challenge.
Simple Minded wrote:Virginia is an open carry state (Don't even think about going near DC), someone walks into a restaurant with a gun on their hip, and no one cares.
Did you notice the mounted head in the upper right of the picture? Lunch counter at a big hunting camp or range?
I've been to Washington, DC a number of times. What I learned is that it, like many US cities including Chicago, is highly segregated in terms of risk of violence.
Just like nearby Baltimore.
I haven't been to Viriginia for over 10 years now. Don't recall seeing open carry back then.
The image was one of many. It's generic.
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.