Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread

Posts: 2512 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:51 pm

Aneoth wrote:

However, for home protection, I MUCH prefer either my wifes 9mm Glock, or my .40 Glock.
Pistols (Of course) have less mass, and they can be moved about faster and aimed faster than a shotgun, or a rifle.
Even at night or in a darkened room, especially with night sites.........
The bigger pistol will drop the bad guy with one decently placed shot, the other pistol has less kick, yet still has good stopping power.
With either one I have multiple chances to hit the bag guy and can do so very quickly.
I practice with both of the pistols on a regular basis.
The bad guy would be better off spending that night at home watching re-runs of Gilligan's Island, or Oprah.....

Pistols may weigh less but they are more difficult to aim properly than a rifle or a shotgun unless you are firing point blank. The recoil on a pistol with any decent stopping power (.357, .40. , .45) is such that a lot of people dont know how to compensate for it and will altogether miss their target unless they take the time to properly grip the pistol and aim. Something which most people in the situation of home or self defense dont have time to do.

A rifle is not very well suited to home defense at all (unless you live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere and are planning on sniping some poor bloke).

But a shotgun...well now that is a perfect weapon for defending one's homestead. Not only will one shot put your attacker down regardless of where he is hit but you run zero risk of hitting a neighbor since the shot only travels a short distance. Using a pistol may be a bit quicker but you run a greater risk of missing your target. And if you miss with a high caliber round, you better hope your neighbor isnt in the path of the bullet. Not to mention, I have heard cops tell stories of heavy leather jackets soaking up enough kinetic energy of a 9mm bullet to the extent that they did very little damage to the bad guy.

Just dont fire your shotgun in the same room as your D&D collectibles. If you do miss your target you might regret it.

Posts: 2512 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:55 pm

red_bus wrote:

And on a different note. I recently watched Night Watch on DVD. Tonight it is part 2 - Day Watch. Anyone else seen these?

I have seen both of them. Night Watch was a bit cheesy at first but I ended up liking it very much. Day Watch started out great but the end was a bit.....I dunno....anticlimatic. Especially since I have heard that Day Watch wrapped up the storyline. Originally they were going to make the trilogy into three movies but decided to not make a third movie.

I havent read the books (probably because I cant find them at any local bookstores) but from what I have read, they are very different than the movies.

Posts: 1432 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:17 pm

Kingofpain89 wrote:

Pistols may weigh less but they are more difficult to aim properly than a rifle or a shotgun unless you are firing point blank. The recoil on a pistol with any decent stopping power (.357, .40. , .45) is such that a lot of people dont know how to compensate for it and will altogether miss their target unless they take the time to properly grip the pistol and aim. Something which most people in the situation of home or self defense dont have time to do.

A rifle is not very well suited to home defense at all (unless you live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere and are planning on sniping some poor bloke).

But a shotgun...well now that is a perfect weapon for defending one's homestead. Not only will one shot put your attacker down regardless of where he is hit but you run zero risk of hitting a neighbor since the shot only travels a short distance. Using a pistol may be a bit quicker but you run a greater risk of missing your target. And if you miss with a high caliber round, you better hope your neighbor isnt in the path of the bullet. Not to mention, I have heard cops tell stories of heavy leather jackets soaking up enough kinetic energy of a 9mm bullet to the extent that they did very little damage to the bad guy.

Just dont fire your shotgun in the same room as your D&D collectibles. If you do miss your target you might regret it.

Some Good points there.
The main thing is to be ready to use whatever protection you feel comfortable with if the need ever comes up.
Hopefully it never will. Cool

As I said, I do practice often with both pistols and feel comfortable with either one.
If the bad guy is in my house it will be close quarters, or at least close enough for inside anyway.
Its a small house.
And I think I could aim well enough in close quarters, even at night and with all the excitement sure to be running through me.
If the bad guy runs outside, then I am done as far as I am concerned.
Let the cops chase him down.
I will tell them to look for the guy running through the neighborhood with crapped underwear and pee stains in front. Laughing

If it comes down to it though and I do have to shoot, then with the .40 he will indeed feel it, leather jacket or not and wont likely get back up after the first hit.
(Although there WILL be another one to follow the first)
With the 9mm, perhaps the first hit wont be all that bad for him, but the next few will certainly start to get my point across to him.
I keep the pistols loaded with extended clips and we have plenty of extra clips.
We have both practiced with them and with replacing clips with some speed.
But honestly, I doubt we would need to replace the clips.
By that point either the bad guy would be down and out (Or out the door running) or I am.

Of course the bad guy in your house wont be getting back up if you hit him at close range with your scatter gun either. Cool

Posts: 1184 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:25 pm

The only thing I have that could be considered a weapon is my machete.
I have cleared a lot of brush with it and know how to use it.
As an intimidation factor I'm not sure how well it would work but a few good swings should discourage a bugler.
It might not be as lethal as a gun but anybody on the receiving end would probably wish that it was. Twisted Evil

Edit: with enough warning I might even be able to grab my full sized heater shield from my old SCA days. Razz

Posts: 1432 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:32 pm

jasonw1239 wrote:

The only thing I have that could be considered a weapon is my machete.
I have cleared a lot of brush with it and know how to use it.
As an intimidation factor I'm not sure how well it would work but a few good swings should discourage a bugler.
It might not be as lethal as a gun but anybody on the receiving end would probably wish that it was. Twisted Evil

Edit: with enough warning I might even be able to grab my full sized heater shield from my old SCA days. Razz

Bugler

umnnn... never mind........

Posts: 1742 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:19 pm

Kingofpain89 wrote:

I have seen both of them. Night Watch was a bit cheesy at first but I ended up liking it very much. Day Watch started out great but the end was a bit.....I dunno....anticlimatic. Especially since I have heard that Day Watch wrapped up the storyline. Originally they were going to make the trilogy into three movies but decided to not make a third movie.

Aaaarrrggghhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!

Just finished watching it now. The ending is awful Shocked

I think I probably prefer NightWatch too. This has some really good parts to it, but urgh, the last couple of minutes Embarassed

Posts: 1104 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:19 pm

Aneoth wrote:

Bugler

umnnn... never mind........

Well, you can be certain that the bastard will think twice about waking Jason up by playing reveille every dawn. Laughing

Posts: 7604 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:21 pm

red_bus wrote:

And on a different note. I recently watched Night Watch on DVD. Tonight it is part 2 - Day Watch. Anyone else seen these?

stephen

yes i have seen them both - i saw them on the cinema - good films - very interesting!

Al

*edit* yes i thought the ending sucked as well Smile

Posts: 1432 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:22 pm

Yep.
Seen em both.
Liked em both to some extent.
John gave a good accounting of them in his post above.

Posts: 7604 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:25 pm

i have two weapons....

a morning star and a chinese hand-axe

only time i would ever use them is if i caught a burglar in the house.

Al

Posts: 1742 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:26 pm

killjoy32 wrote:

stephen

yes i have seen them both - i saw them on the cinema - good films - very interesting!

Al

Hey Al.
They would have rocked on the big screen!
Shame they didn't run to a third..

Posts: 1184 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:19 pm

Them damn buglers! Embarassed

Posts: 1283 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:26 pm

Quote:

i have two weapons....

a morning star and a chinese hand-axe

Not too bad, but I have many more than that. I forget how many swords, but at least 3 katanas from Japan (one made by the descendant of Masamune - that sucker was expensive [something like $45k but I didn't buy it... it was a gift!!]) and some other stuff. I like to have them decorate the place. I have used some of the little things in various places and reasons, like in high school, a friend and I staged a fight on film...

Oh, so, umm... don't come trying to bugle my stuff!

[Edit -- I'm only partially exaggerating.]

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:20 am

Kingofpain89 wrote:

At first I didnt agree with you Serl, but then I got to thinking about it and you know what? Domestic cats are probably the most prolific and efficient killers on the planet. Since I have four of the little bastards, I get to see first hand the number of casualties they inflict on our local bird populace. I have read several publications regarding cat behavior and for the most part I think they are all incorrect.

The cats we have stay indoors most of the time. We will let them out into the backyard during the evening when we are home and on weekends they get to go out for the better part of the day. They are not able to venture beyond the fence and never make the attempt to do so. They are happy just being outside. But since we have 15 trees in our front and back yards we have quite a few birds nesting in them. So far this year we have had two blue jays, a cardinal, a robin, and several smaller, unidentified birds fall prey to our cats. When the cats catch them, they bring them to the patio and drop them at the glass door leading into the house. Sometimes the bird has died and other times it is just "playing dead".

It is my unprofessional opinion that house cats think that they are hunter/gatherers for their human tribe. They kill the bird and then parade around with it in their mouth for everyone else to see. Then they drop the animal at the feet of the larger "human" in order to get some sort of emotional reward for providing for the rest of their family.

Now if I can only figure out why the alpha male sometimes shits on the bed when there is a perfectly good litter box just down the hall. Confused

Now...see...these are the kinds of discussions you gotta love the Acaeum for.

And it's on a strand specifically devoted to this kind of thing. PDT_Armataz_01_37

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:22 am

jasonw1239 wrote:

The question I would ask is why are there so many criminals in the US?

What conditions invites people to violate the laws so frequently and in such numbers?

Canada is by no means crime free, but there are very few areas in most cities that people are afraid to walk down the streets.

We are a much larger and more diverse society than most other countries.

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:24 am

Aneoth wrote:

Obama voted twice on state gun laws in his home state (As a state senator) and BOTH times he voted against citizens gun rights.
He spoke about those gun rights and how the Constitution does not give indivudual rights for Americans to own personal weapons.

Oh PLEASE let Obama make himself into a gun grabber. PLEASE!

One Word: 1994

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:28 am

red_bus wrote:

I can’t see how you could remove guns from a society where they are already so prevalent.

Pardon me for posting four times in a row, but I must point out.....

This has already been tried.

We Americans refer to the incident as "Lexington and Concorde."

April, 1775

Posts: 7604 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:04 am

i see Seattle are losing their basketball team...

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12993_3769739,00.html

Posts: 1432 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:58 am

FormCritic wrote:

Pardon me for posting four times in a row, but I must point out.....
This has already been tried.
We Americans refer to the incident as "Lexington and Concorde."
April, 1775

For those who may not be familiar with that date, or place/name.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lexington.htm

However, I must admit ignorance about the meaning of FC's earlier note about 1994 Surprised

Posts: 1432 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:10 am

The Concord Hymn

by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sung as a hymn at the commemoration of the Concord Monument
July 4, 1837

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, or leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.