Re: riding and weapons

[Chris Paus <paus@micoks.net>]

Hi Ann,

I'm from Kansas, as redneck a state as you can find, but I've never even
considered weapons in camp until it was brought up on Ridecamp! We always
have vets and horse trailers nearby to get injured animals. I lock my truck
and trailer tack compartment when I'm away from my campsite and I've never
had anything bad happen yet. My only weapon is my leatherman tool which I
use mostly to break the wire tied hay bales I carry.

As Paden said in Silverado, "You have to go through life as if no one is
your friend or everyone is." I choose the latter. I'm 46, I've seen some of
the seamier sides of life and have still gotten by pretty well by trusting
people.

I would much prefer dogs in camp to protect people's stuff (oh gawd, don't
open THAT discussion up again) than firearms.

Good luck on rides this year everybody. Let's all be safe.

chris



At 09:24 PM 3/1/98 -0800, Ann Hatfield wrote:
>I'm absolutley astonished at how many women wrote to say they carry
>handguns not to mention mace, knives, pepper spray, etc. I assume all of
>them were from the U.S. because in Canada it is VERY difficult to get
>permission to carry a handgun of any kind and now one has to go through a
>training program, a background check and certification to be able to carry
>a rifle.
>
>The weapon carrying literally scares me.  I live in what most Americans
>would classify as wilderness.  We have a momma bear and her cubs on the
>place every single summer and autumn.  In winter we have cougar tracks on
>the driveway.  Coyotes call many nights when I'm out feeding the night
>horse feed and checking on foals.  I lived 6 years in Jasper National
>Park-as wild as you can get-lots of bears and cats.  Wolves called at the
>literal edge of town.  Tourists wandered about everywhere and few ever got
>hurt by animals. You aren't allowed to carry guns, in any National Park,
>unless you are a Park Warden.  I rode on the edge of the Park where the
>Wilmore Wilderness borders it with a friend who is a hunter as well as an
>avid rider/explorer of the farthest reachest into which he can get,  and he
>seldom caries a gun.  When he does it is a rifle so a large animal can be
>stopped at a distance.  Yes, I understand some pistols pack quite a punch
>and can stop a bear but I don't think they are the 'game' gun of choice-ask
>ranchers and hunters what they carry. Pistols are designed to kill humans.
>
> When we were in an area that we heard had a problem bear we rode
>carefully-out!  I was the third woman in B.C. to be hired as a forest fire
>lookout.  I had drunks come up to my look out, which was fairly accessible
>to the public, on  a couple of occassions.  "Whassh a pretty girl like you
>doing all alone up here?"  "I'm not all alone, I had 92 visitors today.
>Are you fellows going to sign the guest book, too?  Feel free to enjoy the
>view and the trail down is that way and the cliffs are right ahead of you."
> Most drunks I've dealt with in Canada weren't dangerous,  just drunk. 
>
>Does the States really have that much more human trouble than Canada that
>ordinary people must really pack all this firepower?  Makes me nervous
>about coming down for rides.
>
>Am I totally naive, or protected here in my Canadian world;  is there so
>much violence around you everyday that you must go armed?  I wonder if
>Canadians, South Africans, Aussies, Europeans carry the arsenal the
>Americans feel comfortable with/reassured by.  I ride with no weapon-ever.
>I ride alone in very rough country. I camp with women friends every year
>and not one of us carries anything more deadly than a cel phone and a
>hatchet to make kindling and it only goes with us if we think we may have
>to clear trail.  Even then it's likely to be left in camp and a folding saw
>carried.
>
>I work with poor, stressed, difficult people.  No staff on the three floors
>carries a gun.  We have panic buttons that connect to the Royal Canadian
>Mounted Police office in town.  Only time they have been called is when the
>alarum installers were putting in the buttons.  "Oops, sorry officer.  No,
>he's o.k., he's installing it!"
>
>Truly scares the tar out of me to think that you ordinary folk feel
>obligated to carry all this stuff.
>
>Ann
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