I just wrote this for the Weapons and Combat forum, but it drifted off topic.

Writing this is one of the numerous study breaks I'm taking so that I can put off writing my final paper for my very very interesting and thought provoking Heritage of Western Civilization 55 (55 is for Juniors, even though I'm technically a 2nd semester sophmore and failed 22, and haven't taken 44, oh well.) I'm also on the second bottle of champagne in the last 2 hours (drinking and writing is great), so this might be a bit long and circuitous, not to mention dealing with numerous peripheral information not necessary to the question at hand, and just plain weird (hey, this is how I get when I start writing.)

Anyway, after I turn in my paper tomorrow and take my Spanish final, I get to do my laundry, pack my shit, and be out of my dorm room (yes, I do live in a dorm. I know I suck, but I've lived off campus before and that's why I have a .5 GPA for last fall and had to take off last spring.) In my room, I keep a locking metal briefcase that I refer to as my "situation case." It contains my important documents (diploma, passport, birth certificate, medical records, &c.), some cash, toiletries, and first aid supplies. Since the weekend after I turned 21, it's also contained my CZ-52 pistol in its holster with two loaded mags and the ammo that I have left after visiting the range.

During the winter break, the building staff have access to all the rooms and apparently sometimes conduct searches (which is also apparently legal, as I learned when I tried to defend myself against other landlord abuses based on TX state landlord-tenant law... I digress). Naturally, I'm concerned about my situation case and what would happen if they broke into it. So, I can either give my case to a friend to hold off-campus over the break or I can bring it home with me. I trust the either of the people I'd give the case to, but I'd rather not do that.

So, I plan to bring my case home with me. It's possible that they won't notice the case or won't ask about it, but they're both very smart, observant, and curious people, and I doubt that will happen. If they ask about the case, I want to be able to show them what's in it.

So, that finally brings me to my question of, "How should I explain to my folks that I exercise my 2nd ammendment right by keeping a pistol?" The only reasons I can think to give my parents are the real ones: That I want the gun for personal protection; that it's fun to shoot; and, a very minor reason, being a 50 year old pistol, it has both collectors and possible investment value.

The second and third reason are fairly straight-forward, but can anyone help me find good ways to explain the need for self-protection? Can you think of any other reasons I could give?

Of course, both of my parents are very liberal (although in a more groovy, hands off kind of sense than most people who call themselves liberal today.) A few years ago, I think around the time I turned 18, I mentioned to my parents that I wanted weapons the to be able to carry them concealed, and my parents said that while they understood the need for protection and lauded my refusal to "be a victim" (that I refuse to be a victim was the reason I gave them for wanted weapons at the time), they argued that I would be more likely to shoot myself of someone I love.

Don't construe all that to mean that they're gun-grabbers. My mother might be; I'm not sure. On the other hand, my father is more of the libertarian type liberal. He served in the Army in the 70's (Signal corp, working with the 1st gen satellite technology.) He also owns guns. When I was young, my father hunted deer and dove. A few weekends each fall he and I would wake up early and meet up with one of my father's friends and his son, who was my friend, and drive to a deer leese in the part of central Texas that called "hill country." My friend and I would stay near the cabin and shoot pellet guns or chase around the goats and cows that the owner of the land had. If we were lucky we got to tag along with our fathers and if we were really lucky we could shoot a milk jug or two with their rifles at the end of the weekend. Right around the time that I turned 12 my father bought me a semi-automatic Marlin .22.

I never got to fire my Marlin. It's probably at my parents' house still in the box somewhere. I never got to fire my rifle because a short while after he bought it for me, my father started contracting with an oil company. Since then, he's been on a routine where he works for a month in western Africa then is home for a month minus travel time. He wasn't able to go hunting with that kind of schedule.

So, I guess the real question of this thread is about bridging a gap. How would you bridge the gap between someone who grew up in a rural area around guns, served in the military, and used guns for sporting purposes and someone who owns a pistol for self-defense? I know it can be done, but I don't know how.

I'm actually starting to get teary eyed right now, because, if it's not obvious, there's another gap. There is a gap between my father and me. I've spent the last 9 years of my life with a father who was around less than half the time. I wish I could get that time back. I wish I could go to Africa with him. I have always been cool and unemotional. I learned young to disassociate my emotions from my thoughts as a defense mechanism. Despite my deficiency at feeling emotions, right now I am overwhelmed. I love my father more than anyone on this earth. I cannot continue to write.

ok, 3 questions

Q1: You get pissed on champagne!?

Q2: Can you paraphrase that?

Q3: What was the question again?

I would recomend that you not bring up the personal protection angle.

Emphasize the fun-to-shoot part. Hell, bring your mother to the shooting range and get her to blow off a few rounds if you can.

Make sure to point out that the majority of household gun injuries come from people who are inexperenced at shooting, which does not sound like your situation. Save this arguement as a reserve for if you need it, cause it opens a big hunking can of worms.

As for leaving it in your apartment/dorm/whatever while searches may be leagel taking anything or opening locked boxes, safes, etc... is illegal.

The right to self defence is the most primal of all rights. The judicious Locke (a real liberal) said, "it being reasonable and just I should have a right to destroy that which threatens me with distruction; for, by the fundamental law of nature , man being to be preserved as much as possible when all cannot be preserved, the saftey of the innocent is to be preferred; and one may destroy a man who makes war upon him."

Your CZ 52 will only be a good investment if you purchaced it for $25 from an adolesent soldier in some war torn country. They made so many of those things that they will never be scarce. Don't bullshit your parents, give it to them straight:

1. You are a responsible adult who does not (I assume) go about comitting crimes. Therefore, there is no reason why you shouldn't have one.

2. The right to keep and bear arms was not put into the constitution so that rednecks could slaughter deer and water foul, it is there because they realized that the most the right to self defence is the right that ensures all of the others.

3. Police are not here to prevent crimes. They are not capable of preventing violence, they only take care of the aftermath. Even in East Germany where the police monitered more people's daily doings than anywhere else on earth, violent crimes still took place.

4. People who donot take mesures to prevent crime are somewhat responsible for crime. If a man breaks into my house to steal's my television, and I chose not to shoot that man, if he goes on to rape my neighbor the following night I am partialy responsible for that rape.

5. Genocide is always persuant to guncontrol. It is imposible to carry out ethnic clensing against an armed population. Look at the gun control measures that were undertaken in germany prior to the genocide that occured there. Imagine trying to carry out such a thing in Somolia, where a high persentage of the people own machine guns.

I really really shouldn't post drunk. Sorry about all that.

I decided to bring the gun home with me. I'm not going to say, "Hey! Look what I bought!" but if my folks ask I'll show them. I just unloaded the magazines; A loaded gun might freak them out a bit more than empty.

I think I'll try to play up how fun shooting is and play down the self defense. I know its a cop-out, but my parents already know that I'm pretty weird, I don't want them to think I'm a weird guy who feels threatened.

If they really press the issue, I will point out that it's my right to own a firearm and that I'm not a criminal nor do I intend to be one (unless you count things like tax evasion and failure to yield to the highway off-ramp ). I'll also point out that my school isn't exactly in the best neighborhood; When I lived off campus the house on the corner at the other end of the block was a crack house, and a good friend of mine was just robbed at gunpoint about a week ago. Then, if they really press the issue, I'll just say that I wanted a gun before the fascists ban them. They'll have no idea where to go with that one.

Thanks for the advice. Again, I apologize for being really drunk and emotional and rambling last night. When I'm supposed to be writing a paper, I'll write about just about anything and everything else.

Regardless if your parents have prior experiance with firearms. Start off by giving them a safety demonstration, showing them how to clear and determine if the gun is unloaded. Going over the basics should gain you some leverage. Atleast they'll be able to say to themselves "well atleast he knows how to handle a firearm safely."

Out of curiosity what state do you live in?

Nevermind, texas.. are you going to apply for your texas CHL (concealed handgun license)?

Carry of a firearm is prohibbited,

quote:

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on the premises where a high school, collegiate or professional sporting event of interscholastic event is taking place, unless the license holder is a participant in the event and a handgun is used in the event

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That's the only thing i could find regarding college's, dorms, etc.

So if they would to discover your pistol while conducting a "invasion of privacy search" it is legal for you to have.

The only place you could not carry with or without your CHL would be a sporting event that you are not taking part in (shooting competetion, etc.).

AND if they would happen to take your pistol, they would be commiting a felony and your immediate reaction should be to notify law enforcement.

Here is chapter forty six of the texas penal code...
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pe/pe0004600toc.html

Another option would be to purchase a safe for your car that can be bolted down? or one for your dorm room?

I would also start looking for another place to live.

[This message has been edited by I Love Poop (edited 12-13-2002).]

I think the case should be left with me.

If you want to leave your gun at home, just go home and leave the case in your closet or something. Theyre not gonna find it.

quote:

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Originally posted by I Love Poop:
So if they would to discover your pistol while conducting a "invasion of privacy search" it is [b]legal for you to have.

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It will be legal to have, but the college most likely has fine print somewhere that specifically prohibits firearms and possibly all weapons. It probably also has a provision that allows room searches included in some type of paper work that was signed. They won't be able to prosecute him, but they can suspend him or kick him out of the dorms for not following the rules.


If your parents still don't like the idea of having a gun in the house after calmly explaining it to them, then don't argue with them. It's your right to have a gun, but it's also their right to decide not to let you have it in their house, it works both ways. It's also their right to charge you rent or boot your ass out, so don't push too much. There's plenty of indoor ranges and even some gun stores that will rent out space in their vault or you could use Poop's idea with the safe in the car.