JAB

  Yep.  I suppose that a store could post a sign saying, "NO UMBRELLAS ALLOWED" and would be within their rights to ask you to leave or take your umbrella back to your vehicle if you enter their place of business carrying an umbrella.  The only legal trouble you would have would be if you refused to leave after being asked to do so.  You would not have violated a law, would not have to pay a fine and possibly lose your ability to legally carry an umbrella for a certain period of time just because of some stupid sign on their front door.  There is no reason a legally carried firearm should be treated any differently.   I, too, would like to see these signs lose the weight of law and, instead, simply reflect store policy for which one could be asked to leave or face trespassing charges.  There is no reason that people who are legally carrying a firearm should be singled out for extra punishment.

I have to wonder how long it will be before someone decides to ban these from restricted areas because of all the 'pointy bits' on them. After all, wasn't the TSA banning fingernail clippers for a while (maybe they still are - I haven't been on a plane since 1996 so I am not familiar with all the current regulations.) In the linked article I noticed that there was already someone saying, in the comments: Really? A bracelet with tiny, little screwdrivers scares this guy? More and more, every day, we are becoming a nation of pu...er...wimps. I'm not sure I would buy one, though. I have this little Swiss Tech tool that has pliers, a wire cutter and a couple of screwdrivers. It doesn't have a knife blade so I don't know if it would be 'restricted' in some places or not. I'm sure it isn't Leatherman quality but it also didn't cost anywhere near $150 (iirc, it was less than $10.) It doesn't have a bottle opener, per se, but I could probably figure something out. My main concern with the Leatherman bracelet is that I doubt one could get enough of a grip on it to put much 'torque' behind one of the screwdriver bits, etc. You'd have to have forearms and wrists like a world champion arm wrestler to actually drive a screw or do much more than just maybe tighten a loose screw with it, IMO.

  Yep.  Bayer sold and promoted heroin as cough medicine.  Heck, don't forget that the name of Coca-Cola tells us exactly what was originally in it.  Cocaine and cola (the fruit of the kola nut plant which contains caffeine.)  Talk about having a Coke and a smile!   http://www.historytoday.com/ian-scott/heroin-hundred-year-habit

  I'm sure some of those also took more than a few years of practice, too.  Certainly not the sort of thing one just says, "Here, hold my beer and watch this," and then accomplishes without a trip to the ER.  Very impressive.

My mom has an old 6 shot revolver chambered in .22 short that looks almost exactly like the RG in this post:   http://www.gunauction.com/buy/8987760   Hers is of even more questionable origins, though, as the only information regarding those origins stamped on it is "New York".  That's it.  It is definitely made of 'pot metal'.  It loads through a loading gate and has a 'ramrod' for punching out the empties that screws in under the barrel.  My mom didn't even know that little ramrod would screw out and it took me a liberal application of WD40 and a pair of pliers to get it out the first time but now it screws out and in easily with just finger pressure.  It was the first handgun I ever shot and my parents actually thought it was a single action - partly because of the loading gate and partly because the double action trigger pull is comparable to trying to drag a brick through quicksand with just one finger.  All that said, I still actually find it to be fun to shoot, sometimes, and can usually even hit what I am aiming at as long as said target isn't more than four or five yards away.   I would, therefore, have no problems shooting that Rohm as long as it looked like it was in good, working order.  My problem is that they would have to knock about $100 off of the price before I would consider buying it.  Yep, I'm saying that I might be willing to go $25 for the thing.  That is why I don't even bother going to pawnshops to look at guns, anymore - because all of them in this area seem to think that every barrel of every gun they have in their case is lined in gold and their 'asking prices' are so high that - even if they were willing to bargain - they would have to knock 50% to 75% off the top before it would even be a reasonable starting point for haggling.

Well...hmmm. I swear I saw them demonstrating it. Now I'm doubting myself. Maybe I can find it online - unless I am mistaken.

A few years back (when I still lived where cable was available) I saw on one of the gun-related television shows that GunSite was offering a course in using the SA for carry and self defense.  The idea, much like the OP said, was that it made sense for folks who trained extensively with SAs for competitions and were, therefore, more familiar with that style of gun than any other to at least consider carrying one and to have access to training that applied principles of SD specifically to a SA.   http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2010/8/23/single-action-shootout-at-gunsite/   One thing they talked about on the aforementioned television show was that using a speed strip to reload a SA that has a loading gate allows the shooter to reload two chambers at a time.  Some of the guys who had practiced clearing empties and reloading with a speed strip were actually pretty quick at it.       Honestly, I'd rather have the lever gun, myself.  I learned to shoot with my dad's (now my) lever 30-30 and have probably shot that style of gun rifle (edit) more than any other type of rifle over the years.  I am much more accurate with my Henry lever .22 than any other .22 rifle I have shot.  The only AR type gun I have ever shot was my nephew's AR style .22 (and it is not even a real .22 AR but a Mossberg Plinkster with AR-like furniture.)   I don't have a breaktop but had the same thought regarding carrying an SA - that if I did I'd probably want a breaktop because it would be faster to reload.  I think the 3.5 inch model of this one might be kinda nice and it is available in (among others) .45 Colt and .38 Special.   http://www.uberti.com/top-break-revolver

  The obvious solution is that you need a couple more .25s!  I only have one, myself, right now.  Mine is just a little Titan but I really like shooting it.  It is pretty much exactly like the very first handgun I ever owned (which was apparently 'lifted' from my mom's house at some point.)  For such little pistols, mine have proven both surprisingly accurate and reliable.

The problem here is, with the stupidity that runs rampant in public schools (where kids suffer disciplinary action for biting their pop tarts into the shape of a gun) rather than being a way to empower kids to at least defend themselves with something this will end up transitioning into more stupidity by which something that clearly isn't intended to be a 'weapon' will be added to the zero tolerance list.  In other words, as such ideas are incorporated and then the atmosphere of stupidity absorbs them, if a kid's mom packs his/her lunch and puts one of those individual serving cans of, say, fruit cocktail in the lunch box the kid will be expelled for carrying a concealed weapon.   Speaking of those individual serving cans, would they be the 'Derringers' of the thrown can scenario?  Would one need a Class III stamp to buy canned green beans by the case at Sam's Club?

I've told this, before but what the heck?   A handful of years back my mom's main HD weapon was a semi-auto .22LR rifle that had always been a little jam prone (although I pretty much fixed that with a good cleaning and lubing.)  Most of her experience with handguns had been with pocket guns in .22, .25 or .32.  Nothing wrong with those for carry and I'd actually not mind collecting a few (at the right price) but for something that won't be carried, I wanted her to try out a 9mm.  I figured that if I got her a Hi Point she could try out the caliber and if she liked it she could trade up at some point but if she didn't like it I wouldn't be out much $$$.  Well, she liked it so well that I don't think she'd ever even consider trading it.  Hers is plenty accurate.  She used it to qualify for her HCP and apparently shot better than anyone else in her class and I actually think it is kind of fun to shoot..  She likes it so well that when the LGS had a used Hi Point .45 in stock she bought it.  The .45 is also fun to shoot.   The only Hi Point I own is a 995TS.  It is also plenty accurate and I enjoy shooting it.  It isn't currently part of my HD setup but has been in the past and I would trust it to defend my life with.  I do wish that the mags were higher capacity but will probably just end up ordering one of these setups which will allow carrying 30 rounds (one mag in the well and two more in the carrier) on board.   http://www.hi-pointfirearms.net/proddetail.php?prod=HPTS995C011

FWIW,  the story I have gotten is that .25acp is one of those loads that ammo companies generally only run for a short time once or twice a year.  Supposedly, there aren't usually dedicated lines to run .25 so they have to switch another line over to run it.  Once that run of ammo is gone for the year it is pretty much gone.  I have noticed in at least some Walmart locations that the .25 spot on the shelf will suddenly fill up, stacked deep but as it dwindles away it is not replaced.

Love it.  When such discussions, etc. come up I always think of Jim Fixx.  Excerpt from Wikipedia:     As for point #5, I like another 'alternate' take on the original:  "Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day.  Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life."

  Here, here.  I have a run-of-the-mill 2002 Mustang GT and as much as I like being a Mustang owner and as much as I enjoy driving it (sometimes), I find that the older and stiffer I get the more I would rather drive my truck on a daily basis.

  The LCSO won't be coming, at all.  I now live just barely on the Roane County side of the Loudon/Roane County line (close enough that I still have a Loudon address.)  It is the RCSO that would respond to my area and I would posit that I live just about as far from them as I could and still be in Roane County.  Rather than 15 minutes, tops, response time would likely be more like 20 minutes at the minimum if I am lucky.  Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if 30 to 45 minutes were closer to reality.   I used to live at 2314 East Fifth Avenue in Knoxville.  That is just off of Magnolia and located about halfway between The Old City and Chilhowee Park, more or less.  A couple of times we had to call the KCSO when I lived there and it never took them less than 20 minutes to respond.  Some elderly folks my grandmother knew had some people break into their house while they were home.  The wife called 911 and was on the phone with the authorities as the home invaders carried their stuff out.  The invaders had carried out what they wanted and were gone by the time the cops arrived.  This was in the city with the Sheriff's office not more than ten minutes away even with moderate traffic.  My real life experiences tell me that the function of police in such cases is to take a report and try to solve the crime, after the fact.  They simply will not arrive in time to stop the crime.   Heck, I have a friend who used to live just off of Middlebrook Pike.  When he and his wife first moved to that house - as in maybe their second or third day there (they no longer live there) - their monitored alarm was accidentally triggered one day.  As the alarm was there when they moved in, he wasn't sure if it was still being monitored or what number he should call so he waited for police to arrive so he could tell them it was a mistake.  After about an hour or so he stopped waiting and went about his business of doing some yard maintenance.  About three hours after the alarm sounded, he came around the corner of his house and nearly bumped into a startled officer.  The officer was responding to the alarm.  Three hours later.  I don't know what company was monitoring it but my friend cancelled the monitoring service the next day.   Now, notice that I did not say that alarms are useless.  Sure, some would-be thieves might be deterred by them but I think it would be more the audible alarm than whether or not it was monitored that would scare thieves and intruders away.  I simply said that a monitored alarm would be a waste of money, for me, and I believe that to be true.

I work close to where Pellissippi Parkway exits onto Lovell Road. There has been a low-flying helicopter passing by here off and on all day. One just did a fly-over and now I see State Troopers on motorcycles going by on Pellissippi. I got a pic of the helicopter on its last pass. For folks who think that black helicopters are an urban legend: Aaaaaand there go the Trooper SUVs, the black SUVs and a handful of black limos. So, POTUS just passed within a probably a couple hundred yards of where I am sitting at my desk. I feel the sudden need to scrub everything down with bleach. I'm going home the back way that should completely avoid his route.

  Me, too.  I think that at a certain point a person has done just about all he or she can do to prepare.  In my case, having a monitored security system would be a waste of money because there is no way police would arrive in time to save my behind.  I have mentioned, before, in discussions about monitored security that police patrols in my neighborhood are so infrequent that when deputies do patrol on my road they leave a little note card in the mail box saying that they patrolled that day because it is such an unusual thing (I guess just to let us know that they do patrol our neighborhood at least once every three or four months - and it literally is once every three or four months, at most, that those cards show up.)   I also think that, for me, the K-9 early warning system is the best option.  I know from previous experience with non-threatening situations that she would be barking long before anyone got close enough to kick in my door.  Heck, she'd be barking before they ever got inside my fence and probably before they ever got into the driveway.  That is why I like a security model shotgun with a mounted light for bedside HD (backed up with a handgun).  Shotguns do not create a 'cone of death' but pretty much if something is centered in the beam from the light - an in-home distances - a load of buckshot isn't going to miss.  No one else lives in my home so as long as I aim high enough to miss the dog (she is a medium sized dog, about knee-high) I don't have to worry about injuring other people with the shotgun/buckshot combo.

Well, just to play devil's advocate, unless a shotgun has rifle type sights on it, you don't aim it.  Instead, you point it with the bead as a reference.  Of course, pointing a shotgun in that manner and simply 'pointing' the muzzle in a general direction are two, different things.  I think some folks would be very surprised at how little a shotgun pattern spreads at short distances.   As for a shotgun racking scaring an intruder away, I don't buy that.  Maybe in places where gun ownership is uncommon (although still doubtful.)  However, in this area - where there is a good chance that even folks who are not really gun supporters will own at least a shotgun - anyone crazy enough to bust into someone's home when the residents are there has to know he or she will likely face an armed response.  That said, I do keep my HD shotgun in so-called 'cruiser mode' just because I prefer it that way.  If I had to rack it in a home defense situation, however, I doubt the assailant would even have time to register having heard the racking sound before they hear the loud BOOM that would immediately follow.

  I suspect it also has a lot to do with the same phenomenon that causes every rifle in any media story about a crime, whether it be a Ruger 10/22 or a lever action 30-30, to miraculously transform into an AK-47 or an AR15.  The same phenomenon that causes any handgun used in a crime to be transformed in the media to something like a Glock 40 caliber fully automatic revolver.  Just because some uninformed (nice way of saying dumbass) reporter says the dog was a pit bull or (even better) a 'pit bull mix' doesn't mean he or she actually knows what the hell they are talking about.   I am not saying that pit bulls don't attack people.  They probably do.  It is even possible that they do so more often than other breeds.  I don't own a pit so I don't know.  What I do know is how the media often completely screws up the type of gun used in a crime because, "AK47" sounds more sensational than "hunting rifle" so I would not be surprised to find that they throw out 'pit bull' just as often because it sounds more sensational than "Labrador/coon hound mix."

I've never fired an HK of any type but I hear good things about them.  Enjoy the new family member!   Why hide the serial #?  Well, why not?  I usually do.  It isn't like doing so hurts anything.     Well, it would be about as effective on the rhino as a .45, anyhow. :)

  My problem with that is the things for which the access/user fee is being charged.  We aren't talking about a service such as trash collection here - we are talking about natural resources, land and so on that belong to everyone.  The government doesn't own nature.  They don't own the deer in the woods or the crappie in the lake.  They own none of it yet they charge increasingly larger fees for using/accessing it.  In some ways, it is like requiring people to pay for a license to legally breathe the air or a fee for the rain that falls on their garden.   I understand that there has to be some management of wildlife, natural areas, fish populations and so on and I realize that some fees must be collected in order to do so.  That is just the way it is.  I simply think that the people who make the rules and decide what the fees should be have gotten carried away.

  I don't know.  I was actually basing my opinion on something I was told by a TWRA officer once.  He said that most of the 'fish management' rules were pushed through by bass tournament guys who wanted to make sure there were huge bass to catch.  Further, he said that the way fish are managed in this state is directly the opposite of the way it should be done because, rather than push for diversity and a large number of 'average' sized fish so that there will be healthy populations (not to mention more fish available to harvest), the rules are set up to cater to the tournaments and promote a much smaller number of fish that are 'tournament size'.  He, as a rank and file TWRA employee, definitely did not like bass tournaments.  However, his opinion was that the folks who actually make the rules (and may or may not have any kind of background or training in fisheries management) cater to them.  Of course, that was just the opinion of one guy but he made perfect sense and I figure that as an employee of the agency he knew more about it than I did.

  Ha!  Nope.  Although when I saw that thread yesterday I did have to pause and consider it (NOT!)

I hate to hear of the health issues you are having.  I hope to read a post from you soon saying that your surgery came off with flying colors and that you are quickly recovering.

  With due respect, just because it has been ten years since any government fee/tax has gone up doesn't automatically justify jacking it up.  Especially when the fee is already too high.  I mean, really, 28 bucks for a resident to fish off the bank in Watts-Bar, etc. and maybe haul in a few bream when that same resident still has to pay for an extra stamp just to be able to legally harvest trout in public waters (another 18 bucks) and then has to pay for yet another ($5.50) license to fish for trout in places like Tellico/Citico?  That's $51.50 for a chance at maybe catching a trout and the bag limit is seven.  I could buy a handful of dinners at Red Lobster for that and just skip the hassle.  I know TWRA depends on our licensing fees and so on to maintain and manage certain resources but sometimes it seems like us regular folks are being asked to open a vein so that they can cater to bass tournaments.

  I kind of see your point.  I mean, if I owned a Glock I'd want to hide it, too :rofl: .   In seriousness, though, keep in mind that blanket statements are often invalid.  Everyone's situation is different.  A personal example:   I used to kind of be of the mindset that anyone could carry at least a 'compact' size gun if they chose (even though I didn't necessarily always choose to do so.)  After my recent surgery, however, my eyes were opened as to the lack of validity in that opinion.   I was unable to wear anything other than sweat pants or gym shorts due to the surgery wound (a roughly nine or ten inch long gash starting just above my navel and running downward that was left partially open so it could drain.)  Forget concealing a larger handgun - I wouldn't even be able to open carry one.  Any sort of weight in the pockets of those things and the pants will quickly be around your ankles.  This meant that in order to carry anything - wallet, keys, flashlight and so on - I had to use a small 'man bag'.  Even a 'fanny pack' wouldn't work because it would have had to go around my waist and would have caused the same problems as the waistband of 'standard' type pants.  For that reason, my P3AT was about it for what I could carry and that had to be in the aforementioned 'man bag'.  Yeah, I know some folks carry a bigger gun in a bigger bag (like a messenger bag, etc.) but that would be a lot slower to access than the P3AT in the much smaller bag I was using - not to mention I don't want to haul a messenger bag around all the time.   Even now that I have returned to work I have to wear very loose fitting slacks with an elastic waistband.  I am wearing suspenders with them as I still cannot wear a belt.  This means belt/waistband carry is out.  The fanny pack is still out, too.  A belly band is also not an option.  I don't consider carrying anything larger than a P3AT or j-frame in an ankle holster to be practical even if I could access it quickly and easily enough when needed.  So, even with slacks and suspenders pocket carry or using the man bag are pretty much my options.  Hopefully that is a temporary situation for me but I am sure there are a lot of people with permanent issues who absolutely cannot carry anything much larger than a pocket gun.