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Attacked at a cache


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I think today was offically our last day geocaching. We were doing a series of three on bee-keeping in our area. The 2nd in the series was located on a property were they keep bees and have a little honey store. Permission was granted by the property owner for the placement of the cache and his name was listed in the description.

 

We pull into the parking lot and get out. From the logs you can see the cache from the parking lot but it up a little hill. With my bum ankle I decide to stay back at the vehicle while my son and husband head up the hill. It was a quick find. They shout down that they found a geocoin and will be leaving a our travel bug. Then I turn around and a drunken enraged man starts yelling at me about trepassing,etc. I try to explain geo caching to him, but he clearly doesn't want to hear my explaination. My husband can see and her the rucas and comes down the hill. He too tries to explain geocaching and shows him the gps with the owner's name listed as giving permission. The drunken man starts swearing in front of our son. My husband calming asks him to stop swearing and tells him that we will leave the property. The man grabs ahold of my husband's shirt and starts swinging at him. My son is standing in terror watching these two exchange punches.

 

I call 911 from my cell phone and it bounces off the towers in the next county. She keeps asking me where I am and what county I am in. I don't know!!!! I am panicking as the two continue to fight and my son is crying. I try to tell her that I am geocaching in the country and I have coordiantes of where I am but I am not sure if we crossed the county line and which county I am in. Using th ping from our cell phone she is able to determine that we are not in the county in which the call was sent to.

 

My husband manages to get in the vehicle and get away from the man and wait at an intersection until the police arrive.

 

As the police were taking our statements another geocaching family arrives. The police go over to question them and they too show the gps that shows the property owner has given permission.

 

According to one of the police officers this isn't the first time they have been called to the house. The owner had given permission to some hunters to be on the land and the renter didn't agree so he confronted the hunters and the police had to get involved.

 

As much fun as we had finding #204 caches, I think we are hanging up our GPS and staying indoors. The cub scout pack we run was just starting to enjoy some of the local series like the sponge bob series. Guess we will stick with teaching the boys knot tying this summer.

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Sorry you had a bad day geocaching.

 

I do hope you reconsider giving up the hobby. I was assaulted in a park back in 2004 at a time when I had around 500 finds. 4000 finds later, I haven't had anything happen that was similar to that day's events. I am more cautious and I follow my instincts and leave an area when it doesn't "feel right." But, I still keep finding caches.

 

Even a bad day of geocaching is better than hiding indoors because I'm scared to go out and explore the world.

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I'm sorry to hear that you had such an awful experience while geocaching. If you haven't already, you should notify the cache owner so he/she can take the appropriate action.

 

Most geocaches are not placed on private property, and some cachers avoid those caches that are.

 

I can understand why your reaction right now is to pack up the GPS. Maybe when it's not so fresh you'll feel less traumatized. You had a bad experience because of a bad person, but you are the one who can choose how it effects you in the long run.

 

Thank you for sharing your story here.

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First off let me say that it is terrible that your son had to experience the actions of a drunken fool.

 

That being said I think you are allowing an incident that is unrelated to geocaching to scare you off from an activity that you seem to enjoy and that has probably lead you to many educational or interesting experiences.

 

The incident isn't related to geocaching as evidenced by the fact that the police have had to assist a hunter in addition to your family. I wonder if you have decided to press assault charges on the drunk who attacked your husband? If not you will allow this behavior to continue to others that come into contact with him.

 

Can you use this as a teaching opportunity for your son? Show him that the abuse of alcohol causes behavior that isn't acceptable. Show him that the responsible drinking that your friends and family do, such as a beer with dinner is fine but that the excessive consumption can cause a change in behavior and loss of reasonable thought and communication.

 

Please don't let any event cause you to leave an activity that has so many benefits both mental and physical. If you do the next knot tying lesson that goes awry and has you tied to the tent post may cause you to leave the adult leadership positions in your son's pack and heaven knows we need as many good scout leaders as we can get. Teach your son that in life there are many obstacles and sometimes unpleasant experiences that are part of participating in life that make for a great adventure.

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Wow! I'm shocked and sorry that you had such an experience, but please trust me that an experience like that is NOT the usual experience of a geocacher. In fact, it had nothing to do with geocaching. It had to do with people, and particularly with people under the influence of alcohol. You could quit geocaching, but you can't quit life that easily, and what you experienced was also a part of life. Could just as well have happened while doing anything else.

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I think today was offically our last day geocaching. We were doing a series of three on bee-keeping in our area. The 2nd in the series was located on a property were they keep bees and have a little honey store. Permission was granted by the property owner for the placement of the cache and his name was listed in the description.

 

We pull into the parking lot and get out. From the logs you can see the cache from the parking lot but it up a little hill. With my bum ankle I decide to stay back at the vehicle while my son and husband head up the hill. It was a quick find. They shout down that they found a geocoin and will be leaving a our travel bug. Then I turn around and a drunken enraged man starts yelling at me about trepassing,etc. I try to explain geo caching to him, but he clearly doesn't want to hear my explaination. My husband can see and her the rucas and comes down the hill. He too tries to explain geocaching and shows him the gps with the owner's name listed as giving permission. The drunken man starts swearing in front of our son. My husband calming asks him to stop swearing and tells him that we will leave the property. The man grabs ahold of my husband's shirt and starts swinging at him. My son is standing in terror watching these two exchange punches.

 

I call 911 from my cell phone and it bounces off the towers in the next county. She keeps asking me where I am and what county I am in. I don't know!!!! I am panicking as the two continue to fight and my son is crying. I try to tell her that I am geocaching in the country and I have coordiantes of where I am but I am not sure if we crossed the county line and which county I am in. Using th ping from our cell phone she is able to determine that we are not in the county in which the call was sent to.

 

My husband manages to get in the vehicle and get away from the man and wait at an intersection until the police arrive.

 

As the police were taking our statements another geocaching family arrives. The police go over to question them and they too show the gps that shows the property owner has given permission.

 

According to one of the police officers this isn't the first time they have been called to the house. The owner had given permission to some hunters to be on the land and the renter didn't agree so he confronted the hunters and the police had to get involved.

 

As much fun as we had finding #204 caches, I think we are hanging up our GPS and staying indoors. The cub scout pack we run was just starting to enjoy some of the local series like the sponge bob series. Guess we will stick with teaching the boys knot tying this summer.

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Looks like the CO took immediate action and disabled the cache, stating that he/she would be checking into it further.

 

Do keep in mind, some people (wouldn't want to specifically point out "drunks") have a habit of "extending" their property lines, sometimes.

 

Sorry this happened to you folks. It is very often extremely difficult to reason with intoxicated people. I would hope that this one incident in 200+ finds doesn't sour you enough to quit.

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Sorry to hear you had an unpleasant experience. But as others have already posted-this wasn't because you were geocaching. If you were to change the thread title to "attacked at a shopping center/ball park/bus stop/county park" would you never visit those locations ever again?

 

I've been caching for almost 8 years, and can count the unpleasant people encounters on one hand. I can't even count the fantastic experiences or wonderful friends I've made over this time; I simply do not have enough hands or toes of fingers.

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So, at the risk of sounding snarky, let me preface this by saying I have very little compassion in many circumstances.

 

Let me get this straight.

You have an activity that you enjoy. Something bad happened during this activity, so you are quitting this activity?

 

That means the drunk guy wins. If the drunk guy wins then what does that make you?

 

YOU need to WIN this battle or forever be a victim. Don't let this idjit control you. Take control of this situation and empower yourself with the knowledge that YOU are a WINNER.

 

OR, you can go hide in a hole because one day out of the XX thousand days of your life, something bad happened.

 

It's your choice.

 

AND, sue the drunk guy for whatever he doesn't have. Behavior like this deserves to be punished and since it's illegal to set him on fire, sue him.

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I was once attacked by six teenagers, in broad daylight, in a busy parking lot. They shoved me around and sprayed me with silly string (yeah, the stuff in a can). The cop who arrived on the scene didn't seem particularly interested in doing much about it.

 

I wasn't hurt, and they didn't steal anything from me, but I was still very upset about it. I felt powerless, violated, and angry. So I wrote letters. I wrote to the city, I wrote to the newspaper, I wrote to the company that manages the property where I was attacked, I wrote to the city transit commission (other similar attacks were happening on transit property around that time).

 

A local reporter picked up on the trend of increasingly aggressive attacks at this shopping centre, and started using his column to report on it. Within months, the shopping centre where the attack increased their on-duty security force, the city police doubled the number of on-duty beat cops for the area, and the city transit authority added cameras and improved security at the bus terminals.

 

I don't know what became of the kids who attacked me, but I still live in the same part of town I did then, and I still frequent that shopping centre. It's a safer place now, and I played a small role in making it that way.

 

Take some time to recover, but don't let this event control you or rob you of happiness in the long term. You have the power to decide how this story ends.

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Get a gun and keep geocaching. Sadly there are jerks everywhere and avoiding any activity is no way to avoid them. But it does take time to get over something like this. Take that time. Talk to someone if you need to. It's not as easy as a lot of people think it is to shake an attack off. It's scary and you feel so helpless. Time helps. Taking power back and pressing charges helps. talking or writing about it helps. Don't listen to the people who give you nasty remarks, listen to ones who are helpful. I worry about your son the most and you need to do what is best for him. I can't say what that would be, but I'd try not to leave him feeling like Geocaching was the problem and not someone who you might just as easily have bumped into in a parking lot when he decided you had parked in his space. Either way it sucks. We all need to be remined to use care when we are geocaching. Maybe another good reason to carry a long sturdy walking stick.

 

Take care of yourself and your family. I am truely sorry that this happened to all of you. If you need someone to talk to send me an email and I'll send you my number.

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I, too, am shocked and sorry that you had such an experience.

 

I hope that your post is just your way of venting. Quitting geocaching will not punish the drunk who caused your angst. In fact, he will probably know you've quit. And, even if he did know, he is unlikely to be remorseful for having caused you to quit.

 

The reality of the world and of life in it is that sometimes bad things, like what you encountered, happen. There is no way to predict when they will happen. There is no reasonable way to prevent them from happening.

 

You could barricade yourself in your home and never go out. Some people have done that. They have jobs that they can do from home over the internet and they shop and interact solely over the internet. They may have insulated themselves from any number of risks, but in my view, their lives are far worse than they would be even if all of the things they feared actually happened.

 

So, I ask: If you and your family had been assaulted by a drunk in the parking lot of a restaurant where you had gone for dinner, would you give up eating out?

 

Respectfully

Bruce (aka HH242)

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I'm so sorry to hear that this has happened to while Geocaching. I hope that you will be able to find some way to continus enjoying the game while avoiding places that might lead to situations like that. Also remember that this same incident could have happened anywhere, while you were doing any activity. Best wished in getting your wits back. I know that an experience like that can give you the willies for a long time. It took me years to get over my fear of any car at night that had more than two people in it. (after getting attacked more than once by large groups of thugs while walking at night).

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:laughing: so less than 0.5% of the caches you have done gave you a bad enough experience to stop you from caching? ;)

What is wrong with state, county, twp., city parks?

 

Ease up. You know what she is talking about.

I don't think I was being hard and if it was I apologize.

I do know something about what it is like. Twice in one metro park that advertises geocaching by their police force.

I chose not to go to that particular metro park ever again, not forsake all metro parks or the game.

I just find it confusing to equate an outside force with spoiling the entire thing.

Now if it was another cacher doing that.. Frell yeah, automatic bad opinion would be much more understandable.

 

I don't know about the laws in her area, but if it happened around me I would be yelling SBA.

Here, unless the landlord is actually on the property they can not dictate who is and is not trespassing, that is the tenants right. So in this case maybe she should ask the CO to archive it and not let one jerk spoil the fun.

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First off the property owner overstepped their boundaries. With renters on the property the renters should have been consulted. You mentioned there was a bee store on the property. Does this guy attack folks that go to the store? Since this guy actually attacked your husband I think I would be talking to the police about a citizens arrest and filing assault charges. He certainly can ask you to leave, he can not start hitting. As has been pointed out, a needs archive log seems to be in order.

 

It certainly was an unpleasant experience, but I would not stop caching because of this. I too was confronted by a very irate property owner. We did not come to blows, but this property owner blocked my exit and was venting loud and continuous. When I pointed out that I was unable to leave because my exit was blocked the property owner got out of my way and let me exit. I understand the cops were called but I was long gone. I have been confronted another time or two by property owners that were not happy I was there. I did not let this stop me from continuing from caching. Now if it appears that if the cache is on private property and unless the CO says it is their property I now pass on the cache. The world is full of caches to find that do not have problems attached.

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I think today was offically our last day geocaching. We were doing a series of three on bee-keeping in our area. The 2nd in the series was located on a property were they keep bees and have a little honey store. Permission was granted by the property owner for the placement of the cache and his name was listed in the description.

 

We pull into the parking lot and get out. From the logs you can see the cache from the parking lot but it up a little hill. With my bum ankle I decide to stay back at the vehicle while my son and husband head up the hill. It was a quick find. They shout down that they found a geocoin and will be leaving a our travel bug. Then I turn around and a drunken enraged man starts yelling at me about trepassing,etc. I try to explain geo caching to him, but he clearly doesn't want to hear my explaination. My husband can see and her the rucas and comes down the hill. He too tries to explain geocaching and shows him the gps with the owner's name listed as giving permission. The drunken man starts swearing in front of our son. My husband calming asks him to stop swearing and tells him that we will leave the property. The man grabs ahold of my husband's shirt and starts swinging at him. My son is standing in terror watching these two exchange punches.

 

I call 911 from my cell phone and it bounces off the towers in the next county. She keeps asking me where I am and what county I am in. I don't know!!!! I am panicking as the two continue to fight and my son is crying. I try to tell her that I am geocaching in the country and I have coordiantes of where I am but I am not sure if we crossed the county line and which county I am in. Using th ping from our cell phone she is able to determine that we are not in the county in which the call was sent to.

 

My husband manages to get in the vehicle and get away from the man and wait at an intersection until the police arrive.

 

As the police were taking our statements another geocaching family arrives. The police go over to question them and they too show the gps that shows the property owner has given permission.

 

According to one of the police officers this isn't the first time they have been called to the house. The owner had given permission to some hunters to be on the land and the renter didn't agree so he confronted the hunters and the police had to get involved.

 

As much fun as we had finding #204 caches, I think we are hanging up our GPS and staying indoors. The cub scout pack we run was just starting to enjoy some of the local series like the sponge bob series. Guess we will stick with teaching the boys knot tying this summer.

don't quit. if you do, the angry muggle wins.

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Guns are bad, hiking sticks are good.

 

I'm going to take the opposite approach. If you feel you need to quit this hobby to regain some of your mental stability, happy trails. I like to think I wouldn't quit, but I'm not you. Hopefully things turn out okay for you, you have my best wishes.

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Wow! I'm shocked and sorry that you had such an experience, but please trust me that an experience like that is NOT the usual experience of a geocacher. In fact, it had nothing to do with geocaching. It had to do with people, and particularly with people under the influence of alcohol. You could quit geocaching, but you can't quit life that easily, and what you experienced was also a part of life. Could just as well have happened while doing anything else.

 

Yep, I was attacked while walking down a street once. I haven't stopped walking.

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Thank you for all of your kind words. Just a littlie more information. I did let the owner of the cache know about the experience and he has disabled the cache and emailed the owner who winters in Florida with his bees.

 

I do have a nice walking stick that my son made for me at mom & son camp. I did have it out of the vehicle as I was going to attempt to go up the hill with my familly.

 

As for carrying a gun, I wish!!!! They are trying to get the concealed carry law passed here and I really wish they would for many reasons. I am an avid hunter and fisherwoman and would love to be able to legally carry a gun.

 

As for assault charges I am not sure what the police were doing. They took our verbal statment and my husband's written statement. They had to try several times to get the statement of the tenant. Not sure why it took several attempts. One police officer went to get his statement and came back to tell the other officer he was unable to get the statement and he felt that both of them needed to try again.

 

As for going out again I think that it will take time to heal. Thank goodness we have had a few inches of rain over the past few days and things are mucky and muddy right now. Time heals everything. I am just not sure how long it will take before I am comfortable enough to head back out into the world of caching again.

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I've had a property owner get mad at me before. I was driving up to the cache and the guy said, "Do you have a reason for being here" I tried to explain geocaching and how pastor simons of the nearby cathedral gave permission. He didn't want to hear it. I then drove away. I'm not going back to that one...

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I try to avoid caches on private property even with permission. The property owner may have given permission, but they aren't always there and the people that are there are not always briefed about that permission.

 

And, geocachers always look suspicious if you don't know what they are doing. Just a recipe for unpleasantness.

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As for going out again I think that it will take time to heal.

I think that's key. I'm glad you've decided not to burn the bridge behind you. You and your loved ones had a highly emotional/physical encounter with a drunken idiot. Those can happen anywhere/anywhen. Locking yourself in a mental dungeon means the idiots win. As the impact from this event fades, I hope you'll come to terms with the fact that the activity was not to blame, and if you enjoyed it once, you can enjoy it again.

 

I'd tell you to give it some time, but you've already figured that part out.

 

Kudos!

 

Hope to see y'all on the trail some day. :laughing:

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I'm sorry to hear that you had such an awful experience while geocaching. If you haven't already, you should notify the cache owner so he/she can take the appropriate action.

 

Most geocaches are not placed on private property, and some cachers avoid those caches that are.

 

I can understand why your reaction right now is to pack up the GPS. Maybe when it's not so fresh you'll feel less traumatized. You had a bad experience because of a bad person, but you are the one who can choose how it effects you in the long run.

 

Thank you for sharing your story here.

 

Good advice there.

 

There are plenty of safe caches around, hope you will not let one goofball stop you.

Edited by hoosier guy
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So the owner rents out property and then gives other permission to use it. Sounds to me like the problem is with the owner. If I had that cache and saw even one of those logs from people about the confrontation i would archived it immediately. You might want to drop him/her a note and suggest that.

 

If I recall my Cub Scout and Boy Scout days one of the traits they try to teach is to overcome adversity and not let one incident get you down and prevent you from achieving other things. I guess they don't teach that where you are.

Edited by Walts Hunting
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Sorry to hear about your bad experience and that your son had to bear witness to what type of people are really out there in the real world. I work in Law Enforcement and deal with this type of behaviour all the time. The one thing I tell anyone who has become the victim of a negative incident like this while enjoying your hobby is to NOT stop doing what you enjoy. Why would you stop doing what you enjoy because of some scumbag? Do not give in to the What If? or I should of done this or that? replay going on in your head! Get out there and cache dammit. It you stop, you loose and they win, period! I'ts your community, your forests, trails and vistas to explore. DO NOT let the actions of scum prevent you from creating many more fond memories with your family. If your not comfortable with firearms, pack some OC spray and practice with it a couple times, plus it's great for stray and mean dogs too. Don't dwell in it what ever you do. Learn from it and carry on. I really hope you move on and continue to cache, time will help you.

Respectfully

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Forget the gun (please!). Get a good hiking staff, instead.

 

How about both a gun and a good hiking staff. I have a CCW and I carry where I am allowed to, and yes I also carry a nice 7 foot hiking staff as well. The gun is my last resort. But sometimes the old saying never bring a knife to a gun fight could come into play here. You never know what your opponent may have. I would rather be safe then sorry. I know my first reaction would have been to just get in the car and leave as quick as possible. Yes violence is always a last resort, but you would be surprised how quickly someone’s attitude will change when you point a weapon at them.

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Yes. Why don'twe all just pull out a gun whenever we feel threatened?

 

In case you people don't already know this, you aren't allowed to shoot someone just because they hit you with their fist. In fact, I have a relative who is in jail for pointing a gun at someone who was physically accosting his wife.

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Yes. Why don'twe all just pull out a gun whenever we feel threatened?

 

In case you people don't already know this, you aren't allowed to shoot someone just because they hit you with their fist. In fact, I have a relative who is in jail for pointing a gun at someone who was physically accosting his wife.

 

I never said that that would be my first action, but I can tell you this if I feel that my life or anyone in my families life is in danger I have the legal right in the state of Kentucky to shoot them. You can check out "KRS 503.055" Physically accosting someone and someone hitting you or putting your life in danger is two totally different things.

Edited by kywaterfowler
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but I can tell you this if I feel that my life or anyone in my families life is in danger I have the legal right in the state of Kentucky to shoot them.

Just make sure your definition of "life is in danger" agrees with that of the police, public prosecutor, judge, and jury. And you do know good lawyers, right?

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but I can tell you this if I feel that my life or anyone in my families life is in danger I have the legal right in the state of Kentucky to shoot them.

Just make sure your definition of "life is in danger" agrees with that of the police, public prosecutor, judge, and jury. And you do know good lawyers, right?

 

Correct, but I still have the right to protect myself and my family at all cause. And once again deadly force is only justified if you have no other way to avoid the situation. If you can get in your car and leave or simply walk/run away then by all means do so. Also don't think you won't get in trouble for beating someone up with a good sturdy walking staff too. Where some of our geocaches are located you never know what you might run into, whether it be a pot plant cop out in the woods or a active meth lab out in the woods. But those situations usually don't end to well. Granted the odds are slim to none on running into either of those but you never know.

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take it brother all the way and then you're scared

don't want to be unprepared

you're getting paranoid, and then guns are shared

you guys think you're hard

but you're in fear of getting harmed

I fear no man and I am unarmed

 

A verse from one of my favorite songs.

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take it brother all the way and then you're scared

don't want to be unprepared

you're getting paranoid, and then guns are shared

you guys think you're hard

but you're in fear of getting harmed

I fear no man and I am unarmed

 

A verse from one of my favorite songs.

 

What is the name of the song? I would like to listen to the rest of the song.

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take it brother all the way and then you're scared

don't want to be unprepared

you're getting paranoid, and then guns are shared

you guys think you're hard

but you're in fear of getting harmed

I fear no man and I am unarmed

 

A verse from one of my favorite songs.

 

What is the name of the song? I would like to listen to the rest of the song.

 

Guns (are for *******) by 311

 

It's a classic :P

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Get a gun ....

 

NOT good advice.

Ditto.

 

Ditto. NO GUNS!

 

I've been thinking of looking into buying a gun. Swords are so HARD to throw long distances, and throwing knives get dull after they catch on bone too many times...

 

:P:lol:

 

Oh, did I say that out loud?

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Yes. Why don'twe all just pull out a gun whenever we feel threatened?

 

In case you people don't already know this, you aren't allowed to shoot someone just because they hit you with their fist. In fact, I have a relative who is in jail for pointing a gun at someone who was physically accosting his wife.

 

I never said that that would be my first action, but I can tell you this if I feel that my life or anyone in my families life is in danger I have the legal right in the state of Kentucky to shoot them. You can check out "KRS 503.055" Physically accosting someone and someone hitting you or putting your life in danger is two totally different things.

Yes, but you will also probably spend your last dollar defending your actions. You'd better be 99.999% certain that your life or the life of a loved one was in danger. Talking about carrying, and therefore possibly using, a gun is something that should not be done so casually. While it may save a life, it will also probably ruin yours. Not a subject that deserves a three word sentence, "Get a gun".
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