Comments on: Hard Times Are Coming

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:21:58 +0000

Yeah, being on your own property is the starting point in most states, and the requirement that a “reasonable person” must be able to see the threat.

In Florida it’s no criminal record and $150+ to take a course and they are required to issue the permit.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Mon, 02 May 2011 05:45:30 +0000

Actually, it’s very rare that shooting someone in self defense will result in charges against you here in California. That’s assuming it’s *really* self defense, where any reasonable person would be in fear for his or her life, just stepping out your front door and shooting a random passerby and claiming he scared you isn’t going to be enough, and I understand that in Florida that *is* enough :twisted:.

What *is* difficult here in California is getting a concealed weapons permit. Even celebrities have problems getting those. It’s at the discretion of the county sheriff, and other than in a few rural counties, county sheriffs here tend to frown upon concealed firepower in their jurisdiction. You best also not do so anywhere but on your own property or in a location where it’s legal to carry loaded (generally only when hunting), otherwise you’ll get arrested for carrying a loaded weapon in public (it is legal to carry an *unloaded* weapon in public, as long as it’s not concealed, but that’s a different story with lots of other rules attached to it). All of which is quite theoretical for me, since I have no intention of carrying, legally or not.

So it goes. For all its reputation as a loony bin, California by and large isn’t the horrific place that its reputation in Redneckistan makes it out to be. The state government is dysfunctional but that’s different from virtually every other state… how? So it goes…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 02 May 2011 03:50:26 +0000

In reply to Badtux.

Before I officially stopped hunting by no longer buying a license, I used to track in the woods. That was the skill, finding the suckers, not shooting them. For several years I took my “shots” with a Pentax, not a Springfield 30-06. I quit when I felt the need to start returning fire when I was in the woods.

Orange blankets with the word “COW” on the side in large white letters were becoming popular among dairy farmers, so I said to hell with it.

These canned “Cheney hunts”, are not hunts in any normal sense of the word. It’s like hunting Caribou in Alaska, when you drive up the road to where the herd is crossing, shoot the chosen victim, and load the carcass into the bed of the truck. It that case you are going to the supermarket; you damn sure aren’t hunting.

Well, California makes it difficult to shoot humans, and that isn’t much of a problem in Florida, as long as you can say “I felt threatened”.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:45:47 +0000

Same applies in Louisiana, Bryan. If you’re “connected” and can get in with one of the hunting clubs that have arranged leases with the timber companies, you can get assigned a spot in the woods for your stand, and then sit there waiting for the bucks to come eat the forage that was planted earlier in the year (baiting is illegal, but planting stuff that deer like to eat in a big patch right in front of a stand isn’t, go figure), but there’s none of the real hunting that there was when I was a kid, when you could go out in the woods and stalk and kill deer or other game without a second thought. It’s like one of my old bosses in Louisiana said, shaking his head over the whole thing, “that ain’t huntin’, that’s just an excuse to sit in the woods with a few six packs and get drunk waiting for a deer to come along.” There’s some state wildlife areas where you can hunt, but they’re way overcrowded and dangerous during the season.

At some point you’d think that Southerners would figure out that “property rights” means “property rights for OTHER people, not for me”, but they never seem to. All you have to do is point at someone with dark skin and shout “Nigger!”, or point at someone dressed like a college preppie and shout “Liberal!”, and it’s like all sense goes out of their head. Not that there was a whole lot there anyhow, these are descendants of the same folks who thought seceding from the Union was a good idea despite the fact that the South’s industrial base was so backward that there was only one single iron foundry and forge in the entire South capable of building steam engines (thus why Richmond was made the capital — to protect the Tredegar works) and these are descendants of the same people who thought electing Jefferson Davis as President was a good idea despite Jefferson Davis’s sole major accomplishment as Secretary of Defense being a new hat, but… (shrug).

So it goes. My condolences for those of you stuck in the South for whatever reason. It’s hilarious that there’s more hunting opportunities here in California than there are down there in redneck gun worship land!

– Badtux the Former-Southerner Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:39:12 +0000

Caged bird hunts and deer farms, they are all over. We have the Eglin reservation when they open it, but most of the “woods” are pulp farms, and they are posted. We are getting to the point where people are going to hunt regardless, and if it means a gun fight, so be it.

In upstate New York the problem is people just aren’t hunting any more, and no predators. People I know up there say that doe seasons, which were once very rare are now happening all the time to try to reduce the size of the herds. They are “invading” the suburbs and people want something done that doesn’t involve “killing”. I’m not sure you can convince the deer to go on the pill.

It’s a mess. If you wipe out the wolves and coyotes, you had better be prepared to take over as the top predator.

It’s hard to believe, but in Florida you can shoot people anywhere, but it is really hard to find a place where it’s legal to hunt deer.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sun, 01 May 2011 04:23:17 +0000

One problem is that the good ole’ boys have managed to snarf up most of the good hunting land via hunting leases with the timber companies, leaving the game refuges and the national forests as the only places left to hunt unless you’re willing to brave possible gunfire from the good ole’ boys to go hunting for woods rat (deer). The good ole’ boys don’t want a lot of hunting because they want to guarantee that they get their limit every year, so overpopulation of deer is a big issue ’round the holler back home, they’re everywhere and you can’t hardly go anywhere without hitting one of them with your car and having major damage. That’s one reason why folks out there tend to like *big* pickup trucks, it’s easier to pick deer bones out of the grill than deal with deer in your lap through the windshield of a car :twisted:. Now, I know folks who violate the “KKK Hunting Club NO TRESPASSING” signs and snipe them some deer anyhow to haul back for the freezer back home, but these are some mighty scuzzy characters who even the good ole’ boys tend to be scared of, so I doubt that’s a strategy that will work for less fearsome types…

Yeppers, Southerners have gotten themselves twisted up yet *again* using “property rights” to keep people from feeding their families. And you wonder why I moved away from there?!

– Badtux the Formerly Southern Penguin