Re: riding and weapons

[Chris Paus <paus@micoks.net>]

Just so you all know -- about my Paden quote. I'm not a Pollyana (who among
us is old enough to remember her??)

I am a newspaper reporter and have had threats on my life by the Bubba
contingent in this county. But I still have not carried a gun. I'm not
anti-gun. My husband collects them, but I don't like them.

I prefer to concentrate on my riding and not worry about what the other guy
is doing. Luckily, I guess, I've never been given a cause to worry except
once when I was 16 and got chased on my horse by a pack of bikers who were
looking for trouble on a horse-s only trail. We outran them.

chris

At 10:10 AM 3/2/98 -0800, Lynne Glazer wrote:
>Interesting discussion.
>
>Here in California, I've never felt the need to have a weapon in
>ridecamp.  I've occasionally packed one while traveling by truck,
>particularly during the LA riots. :)  When I used to hike alone in the
>San Gabriel mountains, I carried a .357 2 1/2" barrel in a plainly
>visible belt holster, and I still own that one.
>
>On horseback, I've never carried anything but a knife and cell phone,
>though I've wondered about the need to put a horse down in extremis.  It
>happened to a friend last year, after a fall of several  hundred feet
>when a trail collapsed out from under the mare.
>
>I tend to agree with the person who wants to think the best of people
>than the worst.  I've learned to make eye contact and conversation with
>people whom formerly I would have taken great pains to avoid, and have
>learned a lot from that. It's been an evolutionary thing, from owning
>and carrying guns for years to this stage.
>
>Some of my conditioning takes place where there is a fair amount of
>transients and poor people partying.  Like Dave Bennett said, the key is
>knowing how not to be a victim, be aware of your surroundings, etc.  
>
>I regularly drive alone through very bad areas of LA, and know that I
>project an attitude that says don't mess with me.  Maybe that sounds
>contradictory to making eye contact, etc., but it's worked for me in 10
>years of self-employment.  I'm also sure that driving the one-ton truck
>and the visible Spyderco knife doesn't hurt.  All that time in the
>military made me quite comfortable with weapons, but I don't want to
>depend on being able to deploy one in a timely enough manner and risk
>having it taken away from me, nor do I want to dwell on the negative,
>defensive sort of way it makes me feel.  
>
>If I lived and trained where family trees didn't fork, I might have a
>different attitude.  I'm not untouched by crime--car burglary twice,
>home burglary twice.  Awareness of surroundings is everything, IMNSHO.
>
>Lynne
>and Rem-member Me
>
>
>