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Pistol sights

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Re: Pistol sights

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're willing to go through the red tape, you can buy a suppressor (silencer) and a bullet trap and do target shooting with your 9mm in your living room. (I have no affiliation with this company. It just seems to be an informative website on the process of buying a silencer.) https://www.silencershop.com/how-to-buy-a-silencer

This is a terrible idea. Leaving aside the backstop issues, your living room does not have sufficient ventilation to safely shoot relationally.

I wondered about that. But people around here do it, so I assume they've also installed adequate ventilation or just don't care.

Re: Pistol sights

#112
post #51

Anyone who is diehard anti-gun for personal use, I recommend taking a pistol class from a reputable organization, and keep an open mind. No one is telling you to get a license or buy a gun, just go take a class. They will teach you all about safety, how to shoot, gun cleaning and maintenance, and all of the basic skills needed to properly own a gun. Then if you are still diehard anti-gun, great! But if you have no ex…

I suggest the same of people who are rabidly against drugs; set aside a day of your weekend to take some LSD. If you have no experience, then taking a day to learn more might help you understand how the other side thinks.

Re: Pistol sights

#113
post #51

Anyone who is diehard anti-gun for personal use, I recommend taking a pistol class from a reputable organization, and keep an open mind. No one is telling you to get a license or buy a gun, just go take a class. They will teach you all about safety, how to shoot, gun cleaning and maintenance, and all of the basic skills needed to properly own a gun. Then if you are still diehard anti-gun, great! But if you have no ex…

Out of interest, do high schools in the US teach this kind of stuff? The reason I ask is that my son was taught to shoot, gun maintenance etc. at his high school in the UK and we're usually regarded as "anti-gun" as a country!

Anecdotal but related: My grandfather shot competitively and as a hobby for most of his life (mostly skeet, occasional trap and pistols). Until the 90's he also taught gun safety and competitive marksmanship at a (comparatively very wealthy) area high school. He was dropped from that role as a knee-jerk reaction to the Columbine shooting, as it was deemed "too dangerous" to allow guns, even well controlled and in professional hands and for the purpose of teaching safety and responsibility, on the school property.

I don't know how this played out in the rest of the US, but I have a feeling that there aren't many (if any schools) that allow guns on their campuses, even if for the sake of education.

Re: Pistol sights

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to shoot rifles when I was a kid, I even won prizes. Winning a beer mug as an 11yo kid is the height of country living, and I still use it proudly to this day. Guns definitely have their uses, for instance hunting. Target shooting is also quite fun, but these guns are rather different from the ones most gun enthusiasts like to own. I think personal ownership of guns should be restricted, thought I will not mak…

> Personally, I think guns belong on shooting ranges, and nowhere else, unless used for a practical purpose, such as hunting. I take great issue with this. You say you came from 'country living' - but I find that hard to believe in light of your comment above. Anyone who lives in the country, where it will take the cops 10-20 minutes to respond, knows damn well why we have the 2A and the right to keep firearms in our…

I'm interested that you don't see this as an issue mostly with police response time.

In the UK, the situation is a bit different:

Rural/Country living is still much closer to urban areas because the country is much smaller

The strict control over firearms means that it's very unlikely that a home invasion robbery is going to involve guns on their part.

Personally, if that happens - despite the fact that I own 3 shotguns, I'm not going to resist. Insurance will give me back all my stuff.

In my opinion I think comes down to a fundamental difference in attitudes. We're happy to let our government run things, we trust them with guns rather than anyone else. For (large segments of) the US population there isn't that trust. They don't like the idea of a government having all the power, there is a fundamental lack of trust there (please don't take that as criticism, I'm beginning to come round to that point of view!). It's the independent frontier mentality. Maybe due to difference in age of country? I don't know.

Re: Pistol sights

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, I think guns belong on shooting ranges, and nowhere else, unless used for a practical purpose, such as hunting. I take great issue with this. You say you came from 'country living' - but I find that hard to believe in light of your comment above. Anyone who lives in the country, where it will take the cops 10-20 minutes to respond, knows damn well why we have the 2A and the right to keep firearms in our…

The experience of "country living" in Denmark may be different than yours...

Agreed - I admit I was speaking from a very 'US-centric' mindset.

Re: Pistol sights

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is good advice. I grew up hunting and shooting, but in adulthood have come to agree that reasonable gun control is really something we have to do. However, the gun vs. anti-gun divide in the US is as pure a split as exists on any policy position. Few on one side know or understand the thinking or positions of any on the other. People who don't shoot often don't know even the most basic things, like what differen…

I believe this pure split you refer to is the fault of the gun control advocates. In the mind of the 2nd amendment folks every compromise they have made has led to that being the new normal to build the next compromise, thus sliding down the slope. Both political parties would do well to soften their purity tests.

Imagine if we had such a staunch advocate for other constitutional rights, like privacy and right to protest?

Re: Pistol sights

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, I think guns belong on shooting ranges, and nowhere else, unless used for a practical purpose, such as hunting. I take great issue with this. You say you came from 'country living' - but I find that hard to believe in light of your comment above. Anyone who lives in the country, where it will take the cops 10-20 minutes to respond, knows damn well why we have the 2A and the right to keep firearms in our…

I'm interested that you don't see this as an issue mostly with police response time. In the UK, the situation is a bit different: Rural/Country living is still much closer to urban areas because the country is much smaller The strict control over firearms means that it's very unlikely that a home invasion robbery is going to involve guns on their part. Personally, if that happens - despite the fact that I own 3 shotg…

You are absolutely right here. It's a lot to do with the 'frontier mentality' of the American west (self-reliance, self-protection, etc).

Short of that, it does also have a lot to do with visibility / response times: If i were able to see the sheriffs dept. cruising our backroads more frequently - I would feel much more assured of my safety, and probably be less concerned with keeping weapons for personal defense.

Re: Pistol sights

#118

Interesting that the author didn't mention ambient light levels explicitly. A constricted pupil (from daylight) has a much greater depth of field than a dilated one (from darkness). So everything will appear sharper in the light of day. Do at least some practice in low light conditions.

He explicitly does:

> That last number might be twice as large in the dimmest of light or half as large in bright light; and the blurriness from being out of focus scales in direct proportion to it. So if you’re shooting in full daylight, you might have only half as much blurriness as shown in the following images. But your enemies may not do you the courtesy of attacking in full daylight.

Re: Pistol sights

#119
post #51

Anyone who is diehard anti-gun for personal use, I recommend taking a pistol class from a reputable organization, and keep an open mind. No one is telling you to get a license or buy a gun, just go take a class. They will teach you all about safety, how to shoot, gun cleaning and maintenance, and all of the basic skills needed to properly own a gun. Then if you are still diehard anti-gun, great! But if you have no ex…

Out of interest, do high schools in the US teach this kind of stuff? The reason I ask is that my son was taught to shoot, gun maintenance etc. at his high school in the UK and we're usually regarded as "anti-gun" as a country!

I suppose that if you are in JROTC (junior reserve officers training corps), maybe so.

Re: Pistol sights

#120
post #22

Kind of off-topic. But I had a thought the other day: without the US we wouldn't have action movies like James Bond or FPS and other shooters video games. It's interesting to see that guns are rare in other countries' movies/discussions. Maybe FPS would all be like Nintendo's octopus thing.

James Bond comes from a time before handgun control in the UK (the films are based on books written in the 50s and 60s). Gun culture existed in the UK then in a way that it doesn't now.

That doesn't mean we can't and don't produce creative works involving it these days. Plenty of gunplay in prime time British drama.

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