re guns in backcountry no thanks in article netnews upenn edu egedi ahwenasa cis upenn edu dania m egedi writes in article apr csd newshost stanford edu andy sail stanford edu andy freeman writes in article apr midway uchicago edu pkgeragh gsbphd uchicago edu kevin geraghty writes wrong about the whole guns for protection mindset it ignores the systemic effects of cumulative individual actions if you want fire insurance on your house that s prudent and it has no effect on me but if you and a bunch of other paranoids are packing handguns in the backcountry it makes me and anyone else who doesn t chose to protect himself in this manner pretty f king nervous why if you re not a threat you re not affected at all aha that s the part that makes me nervous too who gets to decide if i am a threat when i might possibly be on the receiving end of a violent gesture then i get to decide for myself if someone does not like it too bad i would be doing exactly what you or any other living creature would do in terms of evaluation what s the big deal based on appearance sometimes would someone feel more threatened when approached by a very dirty smelly slightly maniacal looking person with a slight glaze to the eyes muttering to himself i might doesn t this describe most backpackers after they ve been out more than a couple of days not in my experience and let us not forget that context is often an important factor in evaluating a situation seeing disheveled persons on a hiking trail is not likely to be evaluated equally with meeting a grimey sort as described above on a lonely city street at am anyone that cannot properly discriminate between these two different situations is legitimate fodder for the old survival of the fittest principle or based on something else proximity no room to pass on the trail without getting real close to someone an inner sense now i m really getting nervous sounds like you doubt your own abilities you sound pretty typical in this respect you also seem to think that you ll be safe or safer if others are unarmed this is dangerous fantasy twice when i was hiking the a t i came up on a shelter that i was planning on staying at and saw someone sitting there cleaning his gun softly i backed away and hiked another miles to get out of there i ll freely admit it here i m not afraid of guns i m afraid of people that bring them into the backcountry then you are in need of some form of therapy not necessarily that of an analyst but maybe you should learn about guns your fear is seems to be based in ignorance and false knowledge you see a person with a gun and you feel threatened why is this so have you any legitimate basis for this any first hand experience that lends validity to your fears or are your fears based on mediated experience i e the anecdotes of others such as network news i trust you can see the lack of legitimacy in such mediated inputs and why are you afraid of the people as mentioned above forgive me but you sound afraid to the point of paranoia perhaps you should talk to someone about this i am not saying this to be rude or fascetious but i think anyone with fear as deep and baseless as yours seems to be needs some sort of help living in fear really sucks even if it is only when around people with guns in the back country tell me would you be as fearful of a park ranger who was right in front of you with their side arm in clear view why or why not andy v
