Originally posted by grhazelton RML,
Are you telling us that in some places it is illegal to carry a cane? Would this apply to those with a gimpy leg, or would one need a handicapped sticker of some sort?
Interestingly, especially in the most gun-happy states, it can be so.
Quote: I wonder if a short kid-sized baseball bat would be okay. Or, a Manfrotto monopod. Seriously, it would make a fine defensive weapon; no one ever heard of a drive-by shooting with a cane or a ball bat or a monopod.
That's kind of the point.
Quote: I have no brief against firearms; I shot competitive target in college (and was briefly a member of the NRA before they went wonky) and I've done a bit of hunting. But much of the current flap is absurd. Who in H*** really needs an AR-15? I remember seeing an ad in The American Rifleman, the NRA's once-worthy mag, for a 25mm tripod mounted belt-fed anti-tank gun, ammunition sold separately. The ad said it was no longer full automatic, but any competent, unethical gunsmith could remedy that small problem. Just the thing for that inconsiderate neighbor who mows his lawn too early for your tender tastes.
Here's a thought. Why don't the Supremes who are originalists in terms of interpreting the US Constitution - Scalia, are you listing? - consider what sort of arms the founders were speaking of. I'd imagine flintlocks, swords, daggers, pikes - 18th century hardware. Not a Glock, S & W or Uzi available then. I'll bet those folk wouldn't want the average swinging d*** (sorry!) sporting the sort of firepower that the NRA et al feel we all need.
Enough. Time for my afternoon meds; its too early for a double Martini.
Also probably the point, too. Yes, control-freaks fetishize weapons politically. Also try to make it a wedge issue where any 'compromise' is really the most impractical thing to piss off the right-wing 'base' with.... as well as ordinary folks who just want practical firearms for various purposes.
Not quite sure who you intend most to satirize, but I'm not what you'd call a pacifist. Actually, I'd always loved the dance of blades for what it was, but I think I just saw one too many people bleeding for stupid shit to ever *really* want to pick that stuff up again. And I *do* know that all along, there's been people wanting to sell guns and fancy knives that claim to be for the 'Second Amendment' but also want to say 'You can't have a stick, you need a gun, or maybe a fancy knife. ' ...ie ...harrass poor people, sell guns and maybe knives, when, you know, a stick is enough to ensure gentility, deter aggression, and at need, function defensively. You can't really defend with a knife or gun. Only threaten or counterattack.
Sticks, you can defend with.
I also almost always carry a very nice little Benchmade someone gave me that I'd probably never open in a fight, (especially not with my arthritis) but has a nice shape for the kind of compliance moves I once learned.
People don't ask if you need a gun, never mind one with a thirty round magazine to *walk,* but they *do* in fact hassle people (even 'cripples') if they feel like it. Even in Texas. If they feel like it. )
A lot of this is about certain ideas of 'threat' and machismo, and certain sellings of ideas that anyone who comes to a city needs to be strapped like Rambo to walk where my grandmother always did... (But of course LGBT people aren't routinely harmed/threatened.)
I dunno. For me, I'm sick of seeing people bleed. And I always preferred an ASP baton over pointeys, if it came down to it. (And to be honest, the fact that they don't search girls so much meant I was willing to risk breaking the law to carry one rather than risk cutting someone someone with a 'legal' knife. )
But I've been among groups of people ...in Texas, (my first night there) where we were detained for hours cause I was with someone walking with a cane and I myself was detained for a couple of hours for wearing a pentacle. Appears someone had told their supervisor that there was some manner of 'Occult gang' activity' about people touring their fair city in the company of someone walking with a cane.
Meanwhile they scream 'Oppression' if you can't buy a fifty round pistol magazine to shoot Gabby Giffords and anyone else may be standing around, with. You know, on the way to the massacre. Whatever.
Can't say I haven't been scared enough in my times down south, particularly by the hate-rhetoric, to want a gun. Frankly, though, it all disgusts me. And as the haters go, come down to it, I might rather spit on them than shoot them. Certainly I'd sooner crack their crowns than clean a sword.
And it's kind of a thing about swords and guns, no one gets takesies-backsies, and I don't think anyone's particularly thinking straight these days.
Anyway, I dunno about some of this stuff: it's always been fairly high on RML's ' list of 'Rules to live By' that 'The Bad Guys Always Bring Plenty Of Weapons.'
But if I were to think abut it too much, I might want a little revolver. Getting to feel like an old lady here. Whatever.