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God guns guts and America

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2002-11-18          45103

Last Saturday, my wife and I put on our Sunday best and drove to the farming community of Smith, Nevada to attend the funeral of her elderly cousin.
Only in America could you attend such a memorial service anymore.
This cousin, who was 83 when she died, was a prototypical western woman. She was an avid outdoorswoman who hunted and fished the Sierra Nevada all of her life.
Legend has it that she fired two shots per year, one to make sure her sights were set and another to drop her deer.

The cool thing was the community turned out in force and overflowed the little Methodist church, where proudly displayed amongst the photos and artifacts of her life was a well-worn 40�s vintage fly rod and an equally well-used .30-30 Winchester.
Not one soul there thought it strange, dangerous or politically incorrect to bring a rifle to church and talk in glowing terms about a lifelong huntress.
This is the America I remember as a kid and it is gratifying to find a little pocket of old fashioned American culture still remaining in a world filled with gang graffiti, road rage and inordinate fear of inanimate objects mixed with weird ass animal worship.
Just had to share, it was a sad but good day.


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Peters
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 3034 Northern AL
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2002-11-18          45106

Well Mark that was life as I knew it also. No one mined much if some one hunted or where. One practiced with the 22 and sited the 30-06 in and went out to get your moose that often or not you had to fight the grizzly to keep.
We would normally carry a 22 and hunt grouse all fall. Mind you I grew up about 50 miles from Alaska in northern B.C.
Today it is a different story, the so called hunter has a arsenal not 3 or 4 guns. Amunition is cheap so he pops rounds day and night in the back yard. Everyone has four wheelers and see no problem running all over your land digging up the country side.
If they get hurt on your property riding or shooting it is not their fault and they are apt to put you through court to prove how stupid they are. Naturally you are saddled with the court costs.
Instead of hunting to get your one or two you need to fill the freezer. The avid or rabbid so called sportsman kills 40 or more and throws most of the meat in the woods as it is too much work to clean. Naturally all in the same pile.
If you say anything to him he is as likely to turn the gun on you as the next deer.
I am afraid I find it very hard to be prohunting and still be for conservation. The latest trend is to set up and blast prairie dogs with the high powered rifles and scopes. What is next? To spread lead all over the country side to shoot black flies?
In this area we just got the deer population reestablished. Naturally all the preditors have been decimated a long time ago. With intelligent human management I now have whitetail deer the size of beagles in the neighbourhood.
Guns, Guts, Waste, Stupidity and Godlessness.
Did I see this "type" when I was a kid? Yes, and sorry friends, they all had American tags on their vehicles.
I am sorry to hear of your wife's cousin passing she was definately part of a dying breed, I am not sure we will see people of her metal again. ....

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Mrwurm
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 184 South East Michigan
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2002-11-18          45110

"weird ass animal worship"

Yeah, like everything else, seems they're acquiring
more rights than we have.

Jerry ....

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Mrwurm
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 184 South East Michigan
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2002-11-18          45111

This time of year we get hunters popp'n off rounds just 100ft from my house. They're out there on the property behind my house with their hunt'n dogs and will shoot at anything that moves. Once, they stood 30ft from my bedroom window and shot at rabbits out in the cut-down corn field. I know they were firing the other direction but it still seems kinda careless to me.

Jerry ....

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larry
Join Date: Mar 2004
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2002-11-18          45125

Lets hope Animals never figure out how to use guns
In the Toronto Sun on Friday some "hunter" shot & killed a White Deer drive by style who knows why but everyone who used to stop to enjoy its beauty now can look at a carcass ....

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TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002
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2002-11-19          45160

Despite the subject title, I read Mark's comment as one of sadness and loss and the nature of women who live in the bush.

Many of the women around here live to be truly ancient in terms of years. An 80-year plus women who is a former owner of our house now is stuck in a granny flat in the city with her family and sneaks up here every chance she gets. Her tendency to sing and step dance all night does have to be somewhat managed though. I suspect the women who grew up around here survive so long from shear cussedness due to spending their lives with guys from the bush. The stories about these women are told again and again. Sorry about the loss.
....

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Stan
Join Date: Feb 2002
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2002-11-19          45170

A few years back I had the chance to meet my great Aunt up in Newfoundland.

Still living on her own at 85, still cooking on her wood stove, splitting her own wood (although she has allowed someone to drop of her wood instead of gathering it). She still hadn't ever bought a loaf of bread in her life.

I can still see her in a plaid dress hiked up to her knees, bent over digging potatoes from her garden for the cooked dinner she was going to make for us. And yes, she dug and planted it all by hand.

I hope I can do half the things she could when I hit her age.

Mark - I am sorry for you loss, and sorry for the loss of all people like her. ....

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StephenR
Join Date: Feb 2002
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2002-11-19          45171

A nice visualization. A vision that I try to create for myself and my family here on the East Coast. ....

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Mr Ed
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2002-11-20          45213

Mark:

I also grew up in that world and to a certain extent it still exits where I live in Virgina. When I was growing up in the 70s, almost every boy had a 22 and most had a shotgun as well. We all belonged to the gun club and boy scouts. We all learned to shoot and learned firearm safety from NRA certified instructors and/or Marines (typically Gunnys) who would volunteer their time. I can remember one of the highlights of going to scout camp was archery and shooting.

Our parents thought nothing of giving us access to our guns. I often came home from school in the fall while in high school and would go out for a walk in the woods to see if we could bag some birds such as pheasant, quail or woodcock. No matter how angry we sometimes would get at someone, nobody would ever think of using a gun on another person.

Fortunately here in Virginia, many people still hunt and you are not viewed as some type of lunatic by having a gun.

I would say to those people that have posted here their observation of people using fireams in a manner they think is inappropriate to check their local laws. Here where I live in Virginia, you only need to be 50 feet from a home to discharge a firearm. While I would consider taking a shot at something from within 50 feet at my own home, I would never do this at someone else's house without their permission and first determining that it was safe to do so. If you are seeing behavior that breaks the law, you should call the police. If you do not want people to hunt or shoot on your property, you should post it. ....

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chris82715
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 16 Four Corners, WY
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2002-11-28          45502

Sorry to hear about your loss my friend. Reminds me of my grandmother - a homesteaders wife who never wieghed over 100 lbs could kill, drag and dress her deer, antelope, steer, cow or anything, plus carry fenceposts for 160 acres in North Dakota winters. As a cop, paramedic, NRA life member and a hunter I know there are a few people out there who have no concern for the safety of the rest of us, but all I can do is try to educate as many as I can. Here in Colorado I could have filled my elk tag at 5:00 this morning in my front yard, but it was still dark and I did'nt, and now the elk are gone; some of us still have ethics! the best we can do is to pass all of this on to the next generation as I have done with my 2 boys, and pray that everyone gets the guidance they need. ....

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cutter
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2002-11-28          45507

First of all, I have attended funerals like and have felt those same emotions for the old timers that taught me to hunt, mu condolences.

I stopped hunting on public land due to the abuse/carelessness of a few that made it dangerous for all. I attribute that to a lack of upbringing brought about by a lack of family values, single parenting (where the father or mother just walks away from the kids to find themselves) and the entitlement mindset that goes along with too many public subsidies. Not to mention too much too soon, by that I mean many of todays generation do not place a value upon other people's rights or the sight of an undisturbed mountainside in a light snow with whitetail running between the leafless trees. I used to sit and watch that in my favorite spot in Prattsburg NY.

There is no shortage of huge white tail around my house or in this area, in fact there are so many they have become a nusiance. Not many people hunting and when they do many times they are harassed. They have their predators around here too, domesticated dogs belonging to irresponsible owners running them to death, cars, trucks, starvation due to overpopulation and so on. I had one charge the side of my truck in October doing thousands of dollars in damage and get up and run off. That was 200' from my driveway on my way home from work late on a rainy night, he still hangs around my yard. He has a huge rack and runs with a bit smaller eigth point. Hunting has received a bad rap due to a small group of bad people participating in the sport and a media blitz to disarm us all. If they worked as hard at throwing the law breakers in jail we wouldn't have the positive reinforcement society presents now to commit a crime of any type, illegal hunting, rape, robbery or whatever.

God bless your cousin, I hope she has plenty of kin to carry on. She was a true American woman. ....

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2002-11-28          45509

Yes she was. I found out she ran the Colorado river several times, but not in some sissy inflatable raft. No she did it in a wooden dory, and she stood to on the oars!! ....

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Misenplace
Join Date: Jul 2003
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2003-05-26          55669

Mark; it seems ours is a dyeing way. Stained by technology overcrowding and many who simply no longer know the meaning of ethics. A time when the good guys and gals wore white hats. I am reminded of my great great aunt who did much for me and at the same time I am so very thankfull that I have a wife who likes to hunt and loves the out doors. It seems our whole society has become a bunch of go along to get along follow the leader drones who rarely take the time to ask why and even more unusually take a stance. Thank GOD for small town USA. There are many days when I think to myself at 41, my God man you are a dinosaur in your thoughts and then I remember that there are many like me, like us waiting to put our boots and hats on when called upon one last time. sorry for your Loss. ....

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tracer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 49 boyce Va
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2003-06-30          58616

Mark
Sorry for your loss. I am sorry for the rest of us too in that we all are better for the presence of good folk and we all lose when one leaves. Take heart though, for as long as we recognize the Good Folk and promote those beliefs we will perservere.
I can only live well and teach my twins to live well and respect the good and recognize and avoid the bad then the world will be a better place. We shoot and hunt and respect the beasts as well as the humans although sometimes it seems the humans are harder to respect in some cases.
There are a fair number of good folk out there, witness this forum.
Again, sorry for your loss and ours....
Tracer ....

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