Hey fifth, haven't seen anything from you in a while. Thank you for your support.

You're welcome. Just couldn't resist...

I hope your back is OK.

No comment, just FYI. OK to wear your gun into Starbucks.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/In ... =1,1669277
and
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... ee-ON.html

Well, I see LEO's in all kinds of coffee establishments with pieces strapped to their hips and that's been okay. But...

I'm sure I will get some crap for this, but i have found that gun owners run the gamut from super safety conscious hyper responsible types to complete idiots (See Plaxico.)

As soon as some overcaffeinated cowboy blows away a barista because his foam was too dry the party will be over.

Let's just hope cowboys never want a coffee at Starbucks. As for the debate about open and concealed carry there are many opinions. All I really know is a great defence with a firearm will probably deter a lot of would be offenders. From what I have read in the past few years the crime rate goes down when the prey is armed and won't take it anymore. Criminals will always have guns and not play by the rules.

I personally know several friends who were attacked or someone tried to carjack them and when they pulled their pistol out and pointed it in the assailants face he left without any further incident in each case. I don't usually carry my firearms around with me, but I've got no problem with someone who feels they need it for protection. The neighborhood I worked in just south of Atlanta around Christmas was more than a little dangerous and my employer handed me a loaded 9mm to carry while I painted, inside a locked house! I'll have to admit that I was glad I had it while we were there.

Wish the lawmakers in England understood that. ALL handguns are banned, even legitimate gun clubs were forced to disband.(actually, this means that the only people allowed to carry guns are the criminals!) If an armed response police officer shoots someone who is pointing a gun at him, he will often find himself in court, charged with murder, because he didn't have time to shout "armed police - put down your weapon!" before he shot him.

Recently, in England, when several burglars broke into their house, two brothers woke up & chased one of them into the street, where they subdued the violent robber with a baseball bat until the police arrived. Later, in court, the burglar was let off free, while the brothers got two years jail each, for assault. Is that crazy, or is that crazy. The robber wasn't even punished for the burglary.

Alanf, the Canadian laws are much the same. You can't defend your own home and family without being prosecuted. The police themselves have their hands tied by law makers who are afraid to offend some one.

Sign on a fence post in US of A. " Trespassers will be shot ". I like that, it makes sense to me.

Don't worry, cowboys don't buy coffee from coffee bars.

McDaniels coffee is good stuff. you could buy it at save a lot and i imagine you still can. for regular non fancy coffee that is way better than folgers and such crap that cost way more

McDaniels coffee is good stuff. you could buy it at save a lot and i imagine you still can. for regular non fancy coffee that is way better than folgers and such crap that cost way more

Hey Danny, good to see you posting again! Never heard of McDaniels coffee, sounds Irish!

it may be Irish but I'm not sure, it came in a dark red can that was not decorated much. its a value brand coffee but its good.

as far as star bucks and all that i did hear on the radio that all these places sold mid to low quallity coffee. and this came from coffee orginization that went around and tested coffee. i think duncan donuts had the best score out of all the places you could go and it was less expensive.

In today's paper

Is it just me, or does it seem like it would be very easy for a thug to help himself to your Glock when you have it strapped to your waist like that. An (armpit?) shoulder holster or calf/boot seems to offer a more secure way of toting these things around. But I guess those are considered concealed?

Whenever I see these open carry guys, the thought "He's basically got a gun in a fanny pack" crosses my mind. I'm in California, so I doubt I'd ever be able to legally walk around with a .45 on my fanny, but even if I could, I probably wouldn't for fear of some nut behind me in line relieving me of my piece.

Love the Doonesbury's! When I was in high school (late 70's early 80's) somebody cut out and laminated an entire book full of doonesbury cartoons and donated the book to our school library, good reading!

Most of the holsters have some sort of strap that clips over the handle/hammer of the gun so it doesn't fall out and is not easily removable by a bystander. Ever see a gun in a cop's holster on his belt? I don't think you could get that out of there that easily.

Some of them do look a little beefier than others, but many just seem to have nothing more than a "snap" holding them in place. I think cops have far more awareness, training and quicker reaction time than the public. (Some of them are even in pretty good shape!)

I will not be surprised when I read the first story of an open carry wannabe getting held up, or worse, with his own gun.

Speaking of holster's, I still haven't broke down and picked up my $90 chrome cup holder. Lately I've mainly been riding the GZ to work, so now maybe I'll have to get one for each bike...

You feeling bad for the old girl??

As you say, it'll be the first such story either of us has ever heard of. And people have been open carrying in NH and Vermont since forever, since it has never been illegal here. I've heard anecdotal stories of cops "eating their own gun", but have never heard a verifiable account of it happening, and have never even heard any account of it happening to a civilian.

Some folks don't like guns, and aren't comfortable with others owning and/or carrying them. They can think of all kinds of things to worry about. And they all seem to have a friend who had a cousin who knew somebody that had some bad experience related to guns. Of course bad things do happen with guns. But by and large gun ownership and open/concealed civilian carry has been shown in the largest and most comprehensive studies to be socially beneficial on balance.

Ask yourself how many mass shootings have happened in places that were not "gun free zones"?

I've carried concealed most of my adult life, legally in states where that was possible, otherwise not. I'm pretty familiar with the range of equipment available. Some holsters have nothing keeping the gun in place other than friction. Others have varying degrees of security. A lot of police use a "triple lock" system. I don't know exactly how that works, but I don't think I'd care for it. I like what's called a "thumb break" system. It holds the gun securely, but a quick flick of the thumb releases it.

Lately I've let my license lapse and haven't been carrying. I should fix that. It's on my to-do list.

In the meantime, with or without a license, in NH I could carry openly if I wanted to. I've only done that once, at an organized event to advance second amendment civil rights. The only advantage to open carry is that, if enough people do it, people will get over their irrational fear of guns. It'll work the same way the other civil rights movements have worked. The disadvantage of open carry is that, with all the armed citizens carrying concealed, the crooks don't know who's an easy mark and who can fight back, so everyone is safer.

Maybe a little. There's a couple of other motivators - the thing runs like crap if I don't ride it regularly, it's only 6.5 miles to work and I can go backroads all the way (15 lights, though) and, recently, there has been heavy traffic on the way home and the GZ splits lanes more easily than the Strat (esp on the backroads.) Before I put the saddlebags on the Geezer, I had to bungee my lappy to the bitch seat, a strategy with a single point of failure. Now I have to buckle up the stupid bags I bought, but it feels a lot less risky. It still struggles with the uphill climb and I don't exactly look like a badass (I got pwned by a dude on a Ninja 250 today taking off from a red light [got me to thinking about maybe getting one of those as a replacement...]) but it's probably the best tool for the commute job.

I'm neither pro nor anti-gun myself. I am anti-authority, so my attitude is that if cops and security guards and TSA guys, etc. can own guns, then I should be able to own one too. (I don't actually own any real guns yet - been in my "someday" list for a long time. I do own a BB gun! Seriously!)

I don't have a fear of guns, but I do find the lethality and power of them sort of fascinating.

When I was a scout I shot .22's and revolvers and earned the Rifle merit badge. There's a local indoor range where I learned how to handle various makes of 9 mm's and .45's and two years ago I learned how to skeet shoot (shotgun.) I think I'd like to get a .45 and a "home defense" style pump shotgun someday, but the background check and concern about theft has dampened my impulses. The reality is that unless my home gets invaded, I really can't shoot anywhere but at a range.

When I used to camp, I often thought it'd be nice to have something in the glove box. But then, having a gun might also get me in trouble (I tend to have a low level of tolerance for outdoor idiocy and it would be pretty stupid to go to jail for shooting drunk boom boxers keeping me up all night.)

You got pwned because the Ninja is faster than the GZ. But your ass and back didn't hurt as bad as his though when you reached your destination.

Actually, that's only true for some people. For me, the riding position on the Ninja 250 was more comfortable on longer rides. The seat on the Ninja is certainly no worse than the seat on the GZ250. At least that's true for the Ninja we had, which was the old style. The Ninja 250, as you know, isn't an extreme crotch rocket configuration. The riding position is only slightly forward, and your feet are under you. For me, that is a lot easier on my back, which is what tends to hurt first on long rides. I think it all depends on how we're built. Both of those bikes could do with a better stock seat, especially since they have no aftermarket support. It won't happen, though, since most people get bigger bikes if they're going any distance.

Another one today since we're on the topic of guns and coffee