Comments on: Guns VS Sewing machines

By: MediaGuys

MediaGuys — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:04:14 +0000

A story I heard first hand in Brazil (2004) : A french cruiser awoke in the middle of the night and pulled a rifle on someone stealing his dinghy. It turned out to be a police officer (stealing his dinghy). They impounded his boat and put him in jail for 3 months. The charge was that He hadn’t declared his gun when he entered Brazil. The corrupt cop turned everything around and the captain was lucky to get his boat back and only get 3 months. Nasty but true.

By: jmullins68@hotmail.com

jmullins68@hotmail.com — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:09:10 +0000

There have been two pretty high profile cruising incidents this year where cruisers were shot and killed. You have probably all read about them. Most of the initial reports were just of that, just poor cruisers that were murdered. Subsequent and more in depth reports of their deaths revealed that both of the gentlemen tried to use a weapon to surprise the attacker. Both were killed. Although I am trained professionally to handle a weapon in life and death situations, I can tell you that in the civilian world I have chosen to use a weapon twice in home invasions. Even with my training, it was one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life. If you make one mistake, you die and risk the lives of everyone around you which one of these men did and caused horrible injuries to his wife while he lay dead. The discipline it takes to get the weapon, take it off safety, load a shell, aim the weapon, all while not being noticed, for a must kill or completely disabling shot, is not a decision to take lightly. If you are trained and confident that you can kill all attackers before they kill you, you can make that decision. Otherwise I would say that most robberies, like said before, are just that, robberies and they don't want the extra attention of a murder. It may be a horrible experience but an extremely high percentage of time you can walk away. My 10 cent's worth.

I hope everyone has a wonderful sail this week.

Jeff
Oklahoma

By: svplanb4@aol.com

svplanb4@aol.com — Thu, 28 May 2009 06:01:00 +0000

BEEN CRUISING 7 YEARS AND THE MOST DANGEROUS THING I HAVE SEEN IS ALEX LOSING HIS CHAIR WHILE WATCHING SUPERBOWL IN COLON,PANAMA…CHEERS BRO LOVE TO MY GIR GUINNEY…….BUY HER AN ICE CREAM FROM UNCLE ?

By: blowinganddrifting

blowinganddrifting — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:14:14 +0000

He said they were all hollering all kinds of stuff back and forth, one was a long stand off, and, one shined back 4 or 5 big ones back at them and then they left too. I'm not sure if that article is available on line or not, didn't try looking on line. I had a nice rainy day to read the rag for half a day drinking coffee, Just the way I like my Latts & Atts. :)
Glad your in on the COOLEST SAILING MAGAZINE "OUT THERE". I give my old ones away when I'm in a marina meeting people that haven't seen it.

Peace, Love and a nice long drizzling rain.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:44:33 +0000

Still trying to figure out where Darren is??? Eventually I want to put a remote spotlight on the bow, didnt think about shooting people with it though. I’m thinking that it probably wasn’t a real threat.

By: blowinganddrifting

blowinganddrifting — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:13:06 +0000

I was reading my Lats & Atts today, there is a great article from Joyce Green called "A bright defense". They have had trouble a couple times at night and shined thier 2 million candle power spot light on them and it worked!!!!
Being blinded they backed off, probably not much real threat but hey, what ever works!!!

Man I love that magazine!!

Dean

did darren miss out on the syurp?

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:26:16 +0000

Hugh,

Good to hear from you. Yup, lots of people in the S. Pacific want .22 LR for hunting, Mr Elmore is the one who actually taught me to shot chickens with a sling shot, I got pretty good at it :) We had fun eah?

The truth is Splendid will not be going to the bad parts of Venezuela or the Indian ocean. Sam and I are peaceful people and don't look for trouble. I know a few people who have had incidences with pirates and usually it was because they were mixed up in drugs or showing off their money. The expensive boats are the ones that "tend" to get robbed, and 9 times out of ten, it's just that, a robbery and non violent.

To answer Stephens A rifle (.762) is very handy at deterring boats at sea, and yes, handguns are useful in tight quarters. I'm with Emily though, throw flowers.

At the end of the day cruising is safer than living the average life of fast food, highways, and fearful people.

Enough said about guns, I'm done with it, don't propagate the negative, right?

Peace, Love, and Peace.

By: h_elmore@yahoo.com

h_elmore@yahoo.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:21:34 +0000

I think an issue no one discusses about firearms is that many countries draw a line between .22 long rifle caliber long guns and all other guns. In Mexico many many people have 22’s in their homes or even hanging on a peg on their porches. In French Polynesia i never saw .22’s, but some native people asked me if i had any .22 ammunition to sell, so i reasonably presume there were .22’s around.
Now, there is little to no stopping power in a .22 long rifle, but no one wants to get shot. and still many people have been killed by .22’s.
maybe the best firearm related defense strategy would be to learn to say in the language of every place you cruise “i have a gun, and i will kill you if you do not get off of the boat.” I intend to throw in some curse words for emphasis, but as is all of this debate, that is a matter of personal choice.
and in closing, remember this, never forget this, guns can put holes in things, and most accidental shootings occur when someone is showing off their gun. They are useful tools, but never ever toys, props, objects’d’arte, or visual aids.

By: puddle-j@hotmail.com

puddle-j@hotmail.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:07:32 +0000

When it comes down to it first could you really pull on another human, and second how steady could you be under that kind of stress. I’m a very active shooter but I don’t really think I could take down a person. Stick and stones!
Stay with the sewing machine, shoot with the camera.

By: kg4bsf@yahoo.com

kg4bsf@yahoo.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:19:05 +0000

Having finally being able to get back on this log and say a few things first I would like to welcome you and the family back up here in the Ft. Myers anchorage….good to see Splendid again, about you having guns aboard I feel that you should, as I have, and their all loaded….nothing in the chamber….but their loaded….and now is the time, actually it was a few months ago that you should have gotten ammunition……hard to come by these days and getting expensive….the world is changing and changing fast……now is not the time to think about it, now is the time to do something about it…be prepared…..a while back I was boarded by the coast guard and told them I had several aboard, their loaded and told them where each one was and they weren’t the slightest interested in seeing them…I also believe it’s how you handle yourself when you’re approached by authorities. Enough said….I say, get em, load em, lock them up especially from children, but if you need em, you’ve got em. Capt Dave and Trish. S/V MORNING STAR.