Read entire thread with great interest. Growing up in Pennsylvania, my grandfather taught my brother & I how to shot when we were young, he lived in a very small, rural town. But then some 2nd cousins had a mishap where the 6 y/o shot/killed 3 y/o brother playing cowboys & indians. Careless, reckless father left loaded gun on table. It made a BIG impact on me...I was terrified of guns, never touched one since.
BUT THEN........I lived in Los Angeles (Long Beach)...during the Rodney King riots. My hubby had just left on a mexican fishing trip and was unreachable by phone. We didn't have a gun. I was all alone. I listened to radio 24/7 and learned how to work hubby's police scanner. Heard random shootings getting closer & closer to my HOUSE. I was scared to death. Luckily nothing ever happened. But we had a Glock and a .22 w/in a week or so of hubby's return. (Can't recall if there was a waiting period or what).
I certainly wish we had low violence in this country but the reality is just plain different. I've always been very impressed by the UK stats on gun crime (lack thereof). What I saw on TV happening just blocks from my home (in a "decent" neighborhood I might add) changed my mind forever, and I NEVER thought that was possible. They had caught footage of young teen riding a bike and some random thug shooting him in the head, RANDOMLY!.....like 5 miles from my house. Then another teen sitting at a bus stop, bam, right to the head, again random, during the riots. I've never been the same.
Zoom forward 12 yrs to 2003........ to getting stuck in the Rio Grande river in our D90 (see my gallery pics). We were in one of the most remote places in the Country, on xmas day, stuck in the middle of the frikkin' Rio Grande, 10 feet from Mexican border. We'd been told by the Park Rangers that many drug deals and other illicit activity takes place along this portion of the R.G./ border, and to be very careful. So we were there in daylight, in 4" of water (we thought), then wham, we got stupid and got stuck. We ALWAYS carry a gun on any of our off road trips or driving vacations.....but the gun was in a compartment under the drivers seat...really difficult to get to in the best of circumstances. With us basically sinking further into the silt, trying to wrangle the seat to get to the gun caused the truck to sink uneven, and the water was JUST at the door level....any more movement and we would be flooded, and way above the D90's threshold w/o a snorkel.
Long story short, nothing happened, but our gun will never be "inaccessible" again.We've learned from our stupidity and believe we all have the right to bear arms.....doesn't mean I'm going to touch it, but I can if I want to. It might be a false sense of security, but it's better then being w/o.