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How do you defend yourself against wildlife when hiking or approaching a climb?

Mathias · · Loveland, CO · Joined Jun 2014 · Points: 306
rocknice2 wrote: There is no question that bad people with guns do most of the killing. Its the shear quantity and availability of guns that's the difference between these 1st world nation. Canada, France, Germany has no shortage of kooks, its just harder for them to find a gun and mow down innocent children. I'd say that Canada has a higher murder rate because of its proximity to the USA. Your nasty guns seem to find their way up here.
There's a black market for guns in all of those countries. Mass murder just isn't cool there.

What you're selling is the idea that if guns weren't available, we wouldn't have mass shootings. I completely agree with you. Innocent children would not be mown down with bullets from a gun.

But I'd be willing to bet that more people would be robbed, raped and beaten. And that violence in general would increase as bad people became less scared of being shot whilst committing crimes. You can disagree with this all you like, but the only way to be sure would be to get rid of all the guns. It didn't make the UK any less violent from what I know, it just meant less people get shot. Violence doesn't come from the barrel of a gun. I wish it did, because if that were the case, we could easily make the world a much better place.
Tom Sherman · · Austin, TX · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 433

I keep checking back to this thread to see if there's any response to my Bill Burr video/excerpt quote, but apparently that plug was vastly underrated... Shamelessly re-plugging...

Tom Sherman wrote: Guns Are Dangerous
Anyhow carry on with your maps, arguments, liberal-shaming (see what I did there), and bickering
Tony B · · Around Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 24,665
rocknice2 wrote: That argument is total crap. Other civilized nations have not found the need to keep their governments at gun point. Its called democracy.
Neither works, actually. If it does, why are the most "democracy" people the ones complaining that congress is sold and bought? That corporations, not the voters, control it?
Healyje · · PDX · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 422
rocknice2 wrote: There is no question that bad people with guns do most of the killing
By actual deaths it looks as though depressed and distressed people do most of the killing, by suicide. And it's a pretty steady year-in year-out percentage compared to the other metrics.

rocknice2 · · Montreal, QC · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 3,847

Look at the wounded by bad guy.

rocknice2 · · Montreal, QC · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 3,847

It may be that is too late for the USA to ban guns considering how many there are on the black market.

Healyje · · PDX · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 422
rocknice2 wrote:Look at the wounded by bad guy.
One could easily suspect that most of the people wounded by 'bad guys' are themselves not 'good guys'...
Joy likes trad · · Southern California · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 71
rocknice2 wrote: May you need to get your facts straight. nationmaster.com/country-in…
Look up the statistics for intentional homicide (and yes it includes suicide) canada has a us beat by a long shot.
Jon Zucco · · Denver, CO · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 245

How do you defend yourself against bad guys with guns when hiking or approaching a climb?

Mark E Dixon · · Possunt, nec posse videntur · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 974
Jon Zucco wrote:How do you defend yourself against bad guys with guns when hiking or approaching a climb?
Hey Jon!

I keep a couple of poisonous snakes in my pack to throw at bad guys.

People don't kill people. Black mambas kill people.
Anyway, you can have my banded krait when you pry it out of my cold dead hands!
Medic741 · · Des Moines, IA (WTF) · Joined Apr 2012 · Points: 265

Since getting chased up a tree by a pack of feral dogs I carry bear spray if there's a rural or wilderness approach.

Joy likes trad · · Southern California · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 71

I carry this almost every place I go. City, wilderness, car...The only time I don't carry it is when I know I will be having more than one drink or when I have to carry my rack. The extra weight is just to much at that point. I think I need a sub compact...

Adam Stackhouse · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 13,970

An old Alaskan guide told me, "if you use a pistol, better to shoot yourself then the bear".

That said, many folks living in real wildernesses have a 44 mag and a rifle. But I'd like to have something rather than nothing.

csproul · · Pittsboro...sort of, NC · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 330
Adam Stackhouse wrote:An old Alaskan guide told me, "if you use a pistol, better to shoot yourself then/than the bear". That said, many folks living in real wildernesses have a 44 mag and a rifle. But I'd like to have something rather than nothing.
one letter changes the entire meaning of the sentence
Joy likes trad · · Southern California · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 71
Adam Stackhouse wrote:An old Alaskan guide told me, "if you use a pistol, better to shoot yourself then the bear". That said, many folks living in real wildernesses have a 44 mag and a rifle. But I'd like to have something rather than nothing.
The pistol isn't for bears. The bear can is for the bears.
Adam Stackhouse · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 13,970
csproul wrote: one letter changes the entire meaning of the sentence
Agreed.
Jon Zucco · · Denver, CO · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 245
Mark E Dixon wrote: Anyway, you can have my banded krait when you pry it out of my cold dead hands!
Do you wield them like nunchucks before you throw them? Please tell me you do a little snake chucking before you chuck them.
akafaultline · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 225

As one of the few people that have used bear spray or ever shot at an animal in self defense I still like the option of using bear spray first. That being said, bear spray is miserable stuff and even if you don't spray it on yourself at all-you still feel the effects of the mist.

I have seen 4 brown bears in the last week, all of them acted perfectly fine. The moose this week was a nasty piece of work on the other hand.

I was hiking down crow pass in Alaska and saw a moose 50 feet away or so-not a threat at all and my dogs were in leash because I was concerned about more brown bears in the area. Moose saw me and just got closer and closer. The moose charged me once and I ran away and dropped my backpack. It went and smelled my backpack and then trampled my pack-which caused me to start yelling at it even more. It then Chaeged me again and go so close that I could touch Its about until I sprayed it with spray. It immediately bolted the area.

Part of me thinks the effectiveness, at least initially of bear spray is the noise and mist coming out of something (a person) which the attacking animal doesn't remotely expect. Then, nearly immediately the pepper kicks in and makes everyone mis

moose trampling my pack
brown bear fishing for salmon on crow pass

Andrew Wood · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 60

when you poke something with a knife, and the blood oozes onto the grip and then when you go to poke it again and your hand slides over the blade. This is my only fear.

Healyje · · PDX · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 422

Yep, moose and hippopotami - bad news when surly.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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