Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:11:13 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: Guns guns and more guns
In-Reply-To: <C1E22E0A.3786%npoole@telus.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Same was pretty much true when I was in Alaska. In the major cities -
Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, lot and lots and lot of guns - final
frontier and all that stuff. But lots of city folk also DID NOT have
guns. But get out in the back country - away from the bigger cities,
into the smaller communities, both on the highways and in the bush,
there were guns all over. Handguns and long guns. I had a room full of
guns, but only 4 that were personal to me. The rest were for sale, as I
was at the time a licensed gun dealer. Sold to locals in the bush who
supplemented their meat locker by hunting. Many people I knew carried
hand guns as last ditch bear protection, especially when fishing streams.
BTW, I once owned a rifle made personally by Roy Weatherby - one of his
earliest. - a 30-06 built on a Mauser action. It had a very low serial
number - something like 116 or 119 on the barrel. I traded for it in an
Indian village in the western interior of Alaska. There was only a piece
of a stock, which I removed. It was nearly burned off. Fire in camp or
something. Muzzle end of the barrel was slightly damaged. I kept it for
years, finally sold it to a friend who was into big game hunting -
Safari's to Africa, etc. he sent it to Weatherby, and Weatherby
installed a new barrel re-chambered to a Weatherby 300, and stamped it
with the original serial number, and installed a new wood stock of a
type used on the original gun - screw bean mesquite. It was georgous.
After it was all done, Weatherby did not want to return the gun. He kept
it nearly two years. Offered my friend his choice of rifles from the
catalog - even trade. Finally Weatherby relented, and returned the
rifle. My friend still has that rifle, and it has been twenty four
years since we made the trade.
So far as travel with a gun is concerned, one has to weigh the risks. I
suspect that there is more risk of traveling with a gun, than without,
simply because the presence of one gun against another raises the
potential for violence. To be robbed at gunpoint is bad enough, but to
oppose one gun with another is almost a sure way to get shot before one
can respond with ones own weapon. It's a tough issue, and to each his
own solution.
Regards,
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Nathaniel Poole wrote:
> Thanks all to everyone who responded to my concerns regarding gun
> experiences while traveling. The conclusion I arrived at is that while the
> question is really too large, it comes down to odds being small, but they do
> exist and like many folks said, you have to use common sense. And whenever
> one ventures into the unknown, one is always taking risks. All the more
> reason for doing so. Just wish I hadn't read all those southern gothic
> novels ;)
>
> And for what it's worth, we in Canada have our own armed, anti-social
> rednecks, but in our case the further you are from major urban centres, the
> more likely you are to run into them.
>
> Nathaniel
>
>
>
| 
