Moped

Really in that price range, you could go out and get a custom made and have a much better blade than a Boker or even a TOPS. Blind Horse Knives, Sugar Creek, Paul Moore and Rick Marchand come to mind quickly as does Turley Knives.

Kershaw makes a good knife. You also might checkout Spyderco (The Byrd Cara Cara has a solid reputation in that price range), CRKT (The M16 seems to be a popular knife), SOG (I like the Large SOGzilla) and of course Buck (hard to beat the old 110, but it's not a flipper). I recommend you also checkout SMKW.com. They probably have the best selection around.

Now this one I like much better!

You are correct about the Brady Act. The 15 day thing was a Tennessee law for purchase of a new or used handgun from a dealer. The thought behind it was so people wouldn't get mad, rush out and buy a handgun and then go shoot the one they were mad at, I guess. It didn't matter for long guns. You just filled out the 4473 and walked out with your purchase. They of course, dropped the waiting period when the State went to the instant check, thank God!

I'm not real impressed with the blade shape. I don't plan on knife fighting anyone and it doesn't look as if it would perform many utility functions that most demand from a knife.

I think the background check for long guns has been in place since 1998. Fortunately we don't have to wait 15 days anymore. I can remember that. I thought the waiting period was one of the stupidest and nauseating laws out there at the time.

Walmart is your friend in Cub Scouts. They don't do a lot of camping. Save the money for the better stuff for Boy Scouts.That's when it starts becoming more expensive. Scoutdirect.com is the bomb with their half price ALPS gear, which is quality stuff. But again, you don't need that right now. Go for comfort. Your going to be doing mostly Dump Camping and will always have your care nearby. For temperatures in the fall you can probably get away with a 30 degree sleeping bag. If you feel it's not going to be enough, pack along a couple of blankets. Get a dome tent big enough to handle a queen size mattress. If you feel that this is something the family might do later on for weekends, go for a tent that will handle a couple of queen sized air mattresses. The Mrs. will appreciate it! One thing I highly recommend is some headband lights. Walmart sells the Energizer brand for $5. They are handy as hell and all the flashlight you need. A lantern might be nice. With kids I recommend a battery operated one for the tent. But it really won't be necessary. Obviously, a air mattress is a great luxury, that I recommend for Dump Camping. The famous Walmart Blue Pad will for for Boy Scouts. In addition to the air mattress, you will need something to blow it up with. Coleman makes a 4 D-Cell Battery pump that is VERY handy! Trust me, when I say you don't blow a queen sized air mattress with your own lung power. TRUST ME ON THIS!!! Before you go buy a stove, check with other parents and see if you really need one. Two or three stoves is all you really need for a medium sized pack. That will save you about $50 or so right off the bat. A lantern is not really needed. I doubt board games will be necessary. Don't forget the TP, warm clothes or two chairs. And as always, a man is not complete without a pocketknife. IT will come in handy.

A .22 will last a life time. A game will last about 3 hours.

Here is my Peasant! I like inexpensive things. Notice I didn't say cheap! I don't have a lot of money to throw around, so when I find things that are inexpensive, I tend to buy them. In blades, I like the Mora knives ( I have three), Opinels, Svord Peasants (BTW Svords are made by a Knife Maker in New Zealand by the name of Baker and the Peasant is his only low end knife. All the rest of his knives tend to be north of a C-note. They all come convexed and they are rare here in the states.)and slip joints like Rough Rider and Bear and Sons Knives. I'm gravitating to simple firearms more and more too in my old age, like bolt and lever action rifles, single shot shotguns and revolvers. I have more fun with them, especially .22s!

I've been carrying a Svord Peasant everyday for the last 8 months! It rides in my right front pocket beautifully! I love this knife! I convexed the blade with wet dry sandpaper and a mouse pad, and it holds a great edge! There's nothing flashy about it. It just does all I ask it to do day in and day out. Mine has the black plastic scales. I've thought about getting another in Orange. While this is an excellent inexpensive knife (I got mine off EBAY for $16 with shipping), it's not a knife I would recommend for Scouts. Boys do too many stupid things with knives and I could easily see one of them folding this one up on their fingers. I think the Opinel No. 6 or higher is a better knife for Scouts.

The No. 6 is as low as you can go and still get the safety ring, which I recommend in this knife since there is no spring like on a slip joint. It has a 3 1/8" blade, which is plenty for a Cub Scout. The price is $10.95.

I got my Scout Master Certification back in March. It's a great program. As for buying your Cubs cheap knifes to carve soap with, I'd talk to the parents first, prior to rushing out and purchasing cheap knives. Once you get their buy in, then go buy inexpensive knives, not cheap ones. A good first knife for a Cub or a Boy Scout is an Opinel. I really like these. Opinel No 8 Carbon Steel folding knife, Opinel Carbon Knives They are 1095 carbon steel (you can also get them in stainless if you want) and are a locking blade. This is what my son uses as his pocket knife in Boy Scouts. And at $11 a piece, they are a fantastic deal! Careful about buying knives at the Scout Shop. Some of them are dangerous in my opinion. We had a Scout fold a lock back up on his thumb back in he spring. (He was doing something he wasn't supposed to, with it and the lock gave. He got to make a trip to the hospital. It came form the Scout Shop. I think it was a Fury or some such. It looked like one any way. Oh and the investment in bandaids is a smart idea! Good luck and Good Scouting!

I'd go with the Hi-Power. They are great pistols!

After posting here, everyone should go post over there, as I did. That article was a load of crap!

I am a Beer Snob and I freely admit it! I don't drink lite beer. I prefer full beers and really love dark beer. I like Ales, Porters, Stouts and Guiness. My favorite currently is New Belgium 1554! I am not a gun snob. I like things that go bang. Doesn't matter if it's $100 or $500. Actually now that I think about it, I am a gun snob, cause I won't spend more than 6 bills on a firearm. There's not one out there worth more than that, in my opinion. The things I need them to do cost less than this and I see no reason to pay more. I've had one of those Hi-point Carbines that I sold. The reason I sold it was we needed the money. I'm not proud of that. It was a fun little carbine and I miss it. I'll have another one of them one of these days. I'll also pick up a Hi-point pistol one of these days. I've always wanted one to screw around with and their cheap enough to not break the bank.

Yeah, the fact that you've already mentioned it, probably means you'll never get to successfully use it. Mike, it's just not ghetto, unless your holding your pants up while shooting it sideways. Sorry man! It's a fail!

Your better off to stay in West Tennessee and head out of Memphis in any direction. The population in West Tennessee is lower than Middle or East Tennessee. A park probably wouldn't be the best place to go either. You need to get to somewhere that you can be secure in and that has some resources available. You might try making friends with some like minded people, that live in the area you decide to go to. As for camping being like a bug out, well I guess it could be, if you were to practice some survival techniques while you were camping. I'd recommend that you check out some Prepper sites and some Bushcraft sites. The Prepper sites will give you some ideas about bugging out and what you might need to bug out, etc, etc. Bushcraft Sites tend to go into techniques that you can use while in the woods, like building fires, carving, making things to make you more comfortable, gear for using while camping/bugout. One of the best sites to checkout for stuff like this is Bushcraft USA Portal.

I had one for a couple of years. Good little pistol! Not picky at all. For it's size though, I didn't think it concealed all that well. It's got a pretty fat grip. It would have been better with the grip the little Beretta Jetfire had. The Jetfire is a good little pistol to in .25acp.

30/30 is still the old stand by. Great cartridge that it used to be found in many bolt actions. Now-a-days, it seems to be found in only lever guns. I love lever guns, but the 30/30 is almost an entirely different round when you load it into a bolt gun with a spitzer bullet (handloaded). It's as accurate as any round out there. Can be loaded with different types of bullets with weights of 110 to 170gr and is capable of taking any animal in the lower 48 up to Black Bear. One of my wish list guns is an old Stevens Model 325. You just don't see them much anymore.

No one party is responsible for this. Very swinging Richard in Washington is at fault, regardless of party. The sooner the American people realize this and stop voting blindly for a party and instead start voting for a man or woman that is trustworthy (if there is such a thing) and can do the job, then we might see some change. All Parties care about is power and rule! I'm sick of the whole business!

While I've not seen a lot of fixed blades carried in public, I have seen several this summer. Last one was a guy in Halls carrying a Buck Pathfinder. One of salesmen at Blue Ridge Mountain Sports carries a Becker BK-11 on his belt and another fellow I saw was carrying an old Schrade Sharpfinger. Nice looking older blade. My point is LEO's weren't bothering this folks. The only illegal one was the guy with the Buck Pathfinder. He had it hanging from is belt, but tucked into the back pocket of his jeans. It's like anything else, if your not causing trouble, it's going to be ignored most of the time. Now if your doing something stupid, then yeah, it's going to used against you.

Cities will go down in days, not weeks or months. There isn't normally enough food in a city for the entire population to go more than 4 or 5 days. Once the food runs out, then the population is going to start moving out. If the civil authorities can't keep order, then that's when the true breakdown will begin. But I don't think we will just see a sudden major breakdown nation wide. I think we have a long way to go before everything just falls apart. People will have lots of notice before it happens, if they (we) don't choose to ignore it. We may actually be seeing the beginning of those signs now. In my mind a Double Dip Recession would be a strong bellwether. That's something I think we are on the verge of now. Remember, the Great Depression was nothing more than a series of recessions in a row, where joblessness got worse and worse. Throw in a series of natural disasters and we start to see society meltdown. I also think you will see the major cities go first, New York, Chicago, LA, San Fransisco, Memphis, etc, etc. Then it will be regional. The North East, in my mind, would be the first to slip into anarchy. I think once you see something like that, it's time to start packing up and moving to where ever it is your going to hunker down. That is if you plan on getting out ahead of the masses. Personally, I don't think the Southeast is much better off than the Northeast. It's true we have more farm land, but our population is growing larger and larger. I would imagine that if the civil authorities don't get a handle on it quickly, then it's going to may the dark ages look like a cake walk. A lot of people will die, from disease and violence. And probably rather quickly too. The place to be in my mind would be in the Great Plains near a water source with a whole lot of seed and some stock on the hoof. The population density there is a lot less than anywhere else in the country. You would have a much better chance of getting through whatever happens, especially if you have a group your part of that is in that area, where you can band together from mutual protection. If your around here, it's still best to band together in order to have a chance. A single individual family is going to have a hard time fighting off a horde of hungry people. That means you also have to have a stronghold with plenty of water, stored food and seed for later on. Livestock is going to harder than hell to protect. Game and livestock are going to be the first to go, because they are immediate food sources. If it gets that bad, you'll probably see people turn to cannibalism. I think this is all a worst case scenario though. Throughout history, during hard times, people have always tended to come together and work through whatever was happening, like during the Great Depression. I think that would be the case again for the most part. But one thing humans have never had to contend with before, is a huge population. That could be the one thing that tips the balance against the survival of civilization.

I'd be willing to sale my Chinese Type 53 for $250!

The M9s are made here too. That was one of the requirements for foreign competitors to be considered. They had to agree to build a factory here.

I don't really care which pistol they get, I would like it to a U.S. Company or at least U.S. made. What I would like is to see them go back to the .45ACP. If your going with FMJ and sticking with the Geneva Convention (which we will), then the obvious selection is the .45ACP hands down. The flat nose would be interesting and could make it more effective. I see no reason why a female shouldn't be able to handle the .45ACP. That being said, I don't expect them to bring back the 1911. There are cheaper and just as effective weapons out there. The S&W being one of them. The beauty of the M&P is that you can change the butt around for bigger or larger hands. That should help with smaller female hands. It will be interesting to see how it does with some of the environmental tests the military will require. Note to all, the pistol in the military is not necessarily a last ditch weapon. Many occupations in the military can only use pistols, due to their specific jobs. When I was in, surveyors were one of those occupations. It is a defensive weapon though. I think some consideration also should be given to a short rifle (shorter than the M4) like the FN PS90, but in .45ACP, in order to limit even more pistols from the inventory.