wheeling in alaska, most people in the group carried at leaston gun.
one really cool rig i looked at closer had a gun on the dash, one in the center console, and a shotgun on the back seat....
everywhere else i wheeled nobody carried guns.
sven
When I travel in a group, or with no doors on the jeep....no. There is safety in numbers, and without doors on the jeep there is no way to secure the weapon if I needed to.
When I travel solo, or if it is just me and the g/f, then yes, I typically have a .45 ACP along for the ride.
Carry? As in "on my body?" Not normally, although I do have a permit to do so (as does the fiancee.) However, I typically have a handgun with me in the truck for protection. 911 is pretty far away in some of the areas I go to! Normally it's a S&W 686 in .357. Hot .357 loads are my "bear repellent."
Uh oh. Never thought I was ignernt until now. :shakin:
I've spent well over 150 nights camping in Alaska and never carried so much as a sling shot. Honestly, as a mountain bike, mountaineering and sea kayak guide our clients wouldn't respond well to the thought of their guide packing heat to fend off critters, even if it was for their protection. So, we didn't.
Personally, I don't think wildlife encounters warrant gun protection. Millions of people manage to enjoy the wilds right next to wild neighbors with no problems. In reality, many wildlife encounters happen close to towns and neighborhoods.
Case and point - recently a girl was attacked by a bear in a city park in Anchorage while riding in a bike race. No gun would have prevented that.
That's exactly what the border guys keep telling me as I enter the State with no legal way to protect myself. Contrary to popular belief some of us Canucks have guns but its a real pain to try to bring them stateside unless you are hunting or in a competition.
I believe it when people advise never carry a pistol unless you are willing to use it and when people say that many people get shot by their own gun after someone takes it away from them.
I travel alone a lot but do so without a pistol because I'm not sure I could pull the trigger on another person unless that person had already pulled the trigger in my direction or were coming at me with a knife or equiv. I just know I would hesitate if the other person had not already committed.
I see someone else across a barrel and I think that someone carried that person for 9 months. That someone nurtured and loved that person when growing up. That I would be ending a life time of aspirations, hopes and care that others have put into that person. I can't just look at a person in that instant without putting him in perspective of a lifetime. Not unless the threat got high enough to distill my attention to that instant in time. A gun raises the stakes very quickly. Likely stakes that otherwise might not get raised that high.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not afraid of firearms. My step father was a meat hunter and I grew up around lots of rifles, learned rifle safety at an early age and how to shoot as well. I just question my ability to pull the trigger on a person who wasn't actively committed to my immediate destruction and I suspect I would be haunted by the taking of a life afterwords.
That's why I don't take a pistol on trips. Though maybe if I traveled much in Grizzly country. I would still feel more comfortable with a 7.62
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