Super Sandy and the gun enthusiast

5280 shooter II

I was about to start an ignorant thread about how Sandy has gotten downtown NYC in a wash cycle....good riddence, and serves them right for voting in idiots like Bloomberg and company.....hope they feel New Orlean's pain soon.....then got to thinking about it...

90% are good conscientious people.....it's not their fault mother nature takes her wrath out on a harbor city.....that's kinda what you get for living so close to the water level...right?

Then I got to thinking.....I can't remember not one person who has joined this forum, who actually lives within the city of New York.....why is that?

Wambli lived miles away in upstate New York.....Calebib has extended family within the surrounding boroughs...like many others.....but not once have I seen anything from 2A topics to PD...from someone living with the city boundries.

Gotham is in shut-down....and Batman may be needed again soon.....but what about the average Joe/Josie? Does he or she not know about forums like this? Is it the reflection of super-urban environments that preclude their thoughts and contributions? Are they so engrossed with their facebook and twitter and daily lives that they don't care to see anything outside their bubble of reality?

I mean, honestly.....the only person on this forum that I know of that could be possibly labeled as an east-coast Liberal is Alpahsigmookie.....but the man is more concerned about the environment and how big corp has affected it....he's been around for a long time.....he gives and takes a good ribbing....and he's come out to to Denver and met MHS.....he's really a damn good guy from what I hear.

It seems to me that the only people interested in talking about guns......other than some spammer from Canada.....are those that hunt with them or have....you know what I mean?

So where are the urbanites? People who would be more concerned with self-defense? From cities where gun-related crimes are paramount?

orchidman

Where was NYgunowner from........? I still miss that guy..

Teach

He ran a "Trading Post" type store in a pretty rural area of New York state called "Adirondack Jack's". Interesting guy- - - -I did a little business with him, buying a piece of retired gunsmithing equipment he picked up at an estate sale somewhere, I believe.

One reason urban inhabitants don't take much responsibility for their own self defense is that they're a lot like a flock of sheep- - - - -they crowd together and attempt to protect the center of the group by being willing to sacrifice a few of those on the edges of the flock to the circling wolves that keep them bunched together. It's sort of a "Feed the predator and maybe he will eat you last" sort of mindset.
Jerry

Bakerman

The smart ones move.

hawk18

AlphaSigMookie---First off, yours was an excellent reply. And, to your credit, I didn’t know you were an “east coast Liberal”. Probably because I pointedly don’t look for that type of thing but I would have noticed if you were frequent or blatant about it.

As to you being a member of the minority gun owners, yes, for now. However, with the decrease in available space, us old “country Conservatives” will be the vanishing breed. Not in my lifetime, or my sons but my grandchildren will probably be a definite minority. The good side of that is that the number of new gun owners, in your group, is growing rapidly and I truly believe that is a good thing.

As to big cities having better services, I don’t think so. I my own small town, (10-12,000) EVERY LEO can respond to my house, from anywhere in the city, in seven minutes or less. And, there’s a fair chance that at least one of them will know me, or a member of my family, or one of my immediate neighbors. Now, a lot can go bad in five minutes, so, I carry a gun.

Teach also has a point. There is security in numbers. The threat level on my street, in my neighborhood, is very low. There is nothing to single my house out as a target. On the other hand, friends that live four or five miles out into the hills experience a lot more petty crime. They are isolated and more vulnerable.

And, yes, there are others out there like you, probably a lot. It’s kind of like; I wouldn’t go to the local Baptist Church if I wanted to meet Muslims.

Hawk

Jermanator

I do recall that we had a member that lived in NYC. I know Doctor Who did for some time, but he is not who I am thinking of.

FYI-- I have met Alpha in the flesh. There are plenty of people that are excited over this election and stuff, and tempers flair. Alpha is good people, and he is one of us. I am not saying that you should somehow hold back in a heated political conversation, but remember what I just said.

Teach

Ditto to Jerm's comments- - - -since Alph chooses to stand downrange and hold up a big target, some of us just can't resist the temptation to shoot his arguments full of holes. At least he's consistent! Maybe someday he might come around to the right way of thinking, but in the meantime, life on the forum would be boring without the occasional liberal to tweak!
Jerry

Teach

alphasigmookie wrote: »

When everything works it can be a nice lifestyle- - - - - - - - - -In general it seems the bigger the city, the greater the opportunities, but also the higher the costs/risks.

Point taken- - - - -however, anytime a huge number of people face a disaster such as New Orleans after Katrina, and quite possibly any big city on the east coast hit hard by the present storm, the potential exists for a complete breakdown of the thin veneer we call "civilization". Crowd millions of people elbow-to-elbow, and then disrupt the day to day social services they depend on, and there's not just the possibility, but a definite probability that those unprepared to survive will begin to prey on others. Add enough stress on law enforcement and other first responders to make them unequal to the tasks they face, and the people who normally require constant supervision just to maintain a minimum level of acceptable behavior will take advantage of the situation. In that event, people unaccustomed to providing for at least some of their own well-being will be low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking.

In March 1985, Just about the entire state of Tennessee experienced a winter storm of epic proportions- - - -a couple of days of nonstop heavy sleet, and temperatures that droppped to sub-zero levels and stayed that way for a week. Here in middle Tennessee, the temp was -17 degrees, and my sister in Knoxville recorded three days of -21 degrees. Power lines broke the first couple of days, and it was two weeks before power got restored back in our rural valley. The cities didn't fare a great deal better. A local grocery store owner in Fayetteville, about 20 miles east of us had a generator, which meant his meat locker still had power. He allowed people to bring the contents of their home freezers and store them in the locker, "just label it well" as long as there was room- - - -no charge! We had just butchered a calf, and saved 400 lbs. of beef from being ruined that way. Guess where we buy most of our meat now that we're not in the cattle-raising business anymore? Hint- - - -it ain't Wally World!

Small-town people consider people for miles around to be their "neighbors" and they go out of their way to help those in need, not with a cash donation, but person-to-person assistance. That just doesn't happen in even medium-sized cities! Noo Yawk- - - -"Fuggedaboutit!"
Jerry

5280 shooter II

Helping others around in our modern suburban America still exists. We are by no means a small or "tight knit" community......but people will help their neighbors shovel snow, especially if those neighbors are old or infirm....it's just the decent thing to do. I remember going 10 miles in a blizzard to shovel out my girlfriend's driveway in the middle of the night so she could get her and her daughter to work/daycare. Guess why it's one of the reason's she agreed to marry me! :tooth:

That was the past.....now....my neighbors and I continue the same group effort. Watch each other's houses when they're gone.....water their yard...clear the snow so no one thinks "oh, they're not home, let's break in!".....

it's a loose-knit community......but it's still a community, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

bruchi

Wambli has a buddy that came over for a short spell that not only worked in Manhattan, had a store of sorts, he had an NYC CCW.

beartracker

Places I have lived in my years of schooling to obtain my degrees are the following - Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi. The places I have lived because of my military service and work (my daughter was Born in Kowloon China) - Thailand, Hong Kong (Kowloon area), Korea, Belarus, Tanzania, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana, Wisconson. Places I have visited and spent at least three weeks there or more - all of the above and Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virgina, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, California, Massachusetts, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Taiwan, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Austria, Italy, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, Israel.

Now that said, I like where I am in South Mississippi. The above do not count the states or countries I have traveled through on my way to a certain destination. I would not mind living in Arizona or Middle Tennessee, but you can have the north east part of this country from DC to Boston and everything in between. After all of my travels and experiences I don't like the big cities period, not for me, but that is where I am and I can respect someone liking what I don't like, because of their experiences. I have lived in enough big cities in the US and abroad to turn me off to big city life and never again if I can help it.