Gun Control

[no1son]

Good nite #1 and LT. Pay attention to the parrot.

For years we had one, named Banshee, that raised a ruckus any time anything happened outside his window.

[Lowellhturner]

As have already posted "shall not be infringed upon' HAS already "been infridged upon"; it became ILLEGAL to possess "FULLY AUTOMATIC" weapons and "CREW SERVED" weapons in 1939 by a rater lop sided ruling of the US Supreme Court with only a few exceptions. And the 1st Amendment does NOT allow you to publish or promote EVERY idea. Child pornography is an example. Ultra leftist or right wing "Round `em all up and put them in the gas chambers' or "Shoot them without charges, trial or conviction !" statements are also illegal and like other "ideas" are PUNISHABLE in a court of law...and THANK YOU in all sincerety GOD Almighty that there in the US they ARE.

[Lowellhturner]

Should clarify something. Wasn`t joking about using "chemical weapons' as a means of "home defense". Have an older home with no heat or A/C ducting upstairs, just a thru vent, which is at the foot of my side night stand looking directly down at the the stair landing facing the solid oak 3 steel strap reenforced VHD hinged door with deadbolt that blocks the stairs. 3" stout decking screws on the striker plate and other hardware. Gonna take 30 seconds (at least) to break it down, and since it opens inward away from the steps, maybe longer. The point is have a rubber booted wide mouth Mason type jar filled with rather STRONG chlorine that will water your and anyone else`s eyes at a fair distance. And a gas mask for each of us, literally can`t find 1 for the dog. Directly over an intruder`s head...this would be the "WARNING" shot. Unless you are SUPER HUMAN you may find that you just lost interest in proceeding any farther. Mask provides total protection to us, and is actually fairly easy to clean up, largely just diluted with water and proper ventilation. Does burn the eyes a little...

[fishingpox]

For years we had one, named Banshee, that raised a ruckus any time anything happened outside his window.

We had a Lhasa Apso....spelling..... That sucker would let us know if anything was outside. She was a good dog

[no1son]

We had a Lhasa Apso....spelling..... That sucker would let us know if anything was outside. She was a good dog

There have been three dogs over the years that were like that in my life.

The family's last farm dog when I was still at home was a border collie type. He had some steel in his backbone but was not mean. He let us know if something was going on. Not a house dog but he slept on the porch outside my folks bedroom. I could never even sneak back home late from a party but that he let my parents know. The Avon lady took a swing at him with her hand bag once and always after that she had to be escourted out of her car to make a sales call on my mother. But I don't remember that Prince ever bit anyone. My father who hunted a lot relied on the farm dog to discourage strangers on the place when no one was around and it worked so well that I do not recall even someone stealing a tank of gas from the gas barrel despite the fact that it turned out that a three state farm theft ring was operating from a base not three miles from our family farm. We were never bothered without locking anything up nor ever having any gun except hunting ones (except my mother would secretly lock the house if dad would be gone overnight, which he was from time to time on church business or something like that - later on she admitted that she decided not to bother him with that "little" detail at the time).

The second was a feisty dog type, the last survivor of a litter some idiot abandoned that wandered into the small factory I was working in down in Tampa. She and I hit it right off which amused the rest of the crew. You could see her think over a problem. She actually met the first dog when I came back from Tampa to the Iowa farm. The old dog recognized my car and came to greet me at the car window when I drove back on the yard the first time, and I almost had a dog fight right there in my lap when The Waif thought he was attacking me for all that he was three times her size. She became their first house dog somewhat over my father's initial objections, adopting them for her own and stayed with them when I moved to town.

The third was a miniature Schnauzer, otherwise almost identical in temperament to the second. An offstandard pup who was offered to us, since the breeder couldn't bring herself to destroy him like most would have. Brutus had the personality for the whole litter. I only saw once where he was cowed by anything, and that was one time when we were out for a walk and passed a young Indian woman with her baby in a stroller. On her lease had to have been a full blood wolf, big, blueeyed and moved in the most graceful float I have ever seen. Brutus ducked behind my legs with his head and tail down. It almost seemed like the wolf and Brutus came to some instant agreement that as long Brutus stayed duck and with his head down the other would agree not to notice him. That was the only time I ever saw him back down from anything except what punishment he knew he deserved if he broke the house rules. Nobody entered our house with him around except they passed his muster. Some folks never completely did, but I do not remember him biting anybody either. He would just sit close by and never take his eyes of them, which can be really unnerving. Some of those folks stopped coming over because of it. Their loss. We also had cats back then, and there never was any trouble between them, they all knew Brutus outranked them in the family order. He moved right in and that was that. He lasted 18 years until a stroke robbed him of all his senses. My wife had to leave the room at the end; he died in my arms and I don't think I will ever quite forgive the vet for not allowing us to bring him home to go in the ground in his own yard.

A good dog? you betcha! One you shed tears over when the time comes. I am not at all ashamed to say that tears still come to my eyes when I think about any of them, especially the last two. Not something that you would ever be able to put a price on or even think about selling. Way better than a gun if it comes to that. For those who have to have a house gun, also an excellent first line of defense and alarm.

You want a dog that will become a companion and a family member, one that will stay with you for all its life, one that carries his own weight if only given half a chance, and one that bonds with the whole family on top of everything else, which is not the case for all breeds, either. In that kind of dog a moderate amount of appropriate gruff without getting mean is almost automatic. But don't get yourself a stupid dog; they are worthless and worse than worthless.

A family dog can be the best defense for a household there is, besides the willingness to stand up for oneself and one's own and be smart about it, that is, and one really doesn't need a gun to do just that.

It is very American to protect oneself and one's family and property, even if the ways to do that vary even by law from place to place. It is not so much that way in much of the rest of the world. That is part of what sets us apart from so many other places in the world.

[HillBilly]

I know exactly where your coming from,I have pictures of my two hanging on my wall

[Cane Pole]

Last dog I had was a democrat. He kept on peeing on my rose bush thinking it belonged to him.