When I started this thread, my only intent was to forestall a denegration of the forum into a discussion of firearms and agressive weapons minutia.

I was once one of two persons in Callahan County Texas to be simultatneously a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and the NRA. The other was my mother. We humans are nothing without our contradictions.

I seem to have stirred something up by my original post. My persnal position:
Guns and knives are tools, no more no less so than a hammer or a screwdriver. But they are tools to which many in our society attach signifigance beyond their utility. The testosterone factor, in shorthand for aggression, paranoia, and hostility.

I love knives, I love guns. I love the touch, feel, smell of them. I grew up with them. But, this place was originally about survival primarily in the wilderness, secondarily in urban environments, and lately post Katrina. This, IMHO, is as it should be. I belong to other forums where we talk ad nauseum about muzzle velocity and bullett expansion factors. Let it be so.

Sure, let's talk here about a pump 12 versus a 357 mag as a defense gun as part of a kit, or 22/410 survival guns as worth their weight to carry. But I'm not going to clog up the forum with weapons minutia, henceforth. That is my only point.