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The Awful Price Of Not Being Prepared

HankT

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Here's anice post from the Buckeye Firearms Association, an advocate group that has a nice site. I'm in agreement with almost all of what Inwood says. He makes a persuasive case. One which we can all, of course, agree with.

But I'm bothered a bit by the "sheep" (aka "sheeple") tag that is so popular with us gun folks when referring to people who are underprepared or unprepared for a violent assault. It's an apt metaphor in many respects, I'd say. But it becomes problematic when used against an audience such as theunpreparedfolks who think bad guys won't attack them and that even if they do, somehow everything will turn out alright.

Why use a pejorativewhen trying to persuade someone that they are in error about something? That's pretty dumb, considering humannature.

I think we need a new term for the "sheep" or "sheeple" concept.



The Awful Price Of Not Being Prepared
Posted on Tuesday, July 10 @ 00:10:00 EDT

By Tim Inwood

I know many of you reading this are CCW license holders like me. If so, you probably have friends and family who think you are a little paranoid, if not crazy, for carrying a firearm. Sometimes this is out of ignorance and sometimes it is because they are hoplophobes: those souls with an irrational fear of firearms. Either way I am sure those with their license will at some point encounter these folks and have this conversation. You will find yourself up against the “sheep mindset”. They have a blind faith that all will be well, and if it is not the police will protect them. This wall built of obtuse bricks can be rather difficult to breach. The way to go about it is logic.

When asked to justify why I carry I always point out that, being an old Boy Scout, I try to live up to the motto “be prepared”. They will usually counter that you are so unlikely to be attacked it is not warranted to carry a firearm, or that if you are attacked you are better off submitting. At this point I say, “That might have been what Christopher Newsom and his girlfriend Channon Christian thought.” At this point they look at me with a puzzled expression. The Newsom-Christian murders did not get much, if any, news coverage nationally when it happened in January of this year, but it is a grisly example of what can happen to you if you are not prepared to defend yourself. This is, I must warn, a sad and horrible tale that only took place six months ago. The news media pretty much ignored this. There are many speculated reasons as to why, but I will leave it for you to decide why the networks did not wish to deal with this crime.


The details are so horrible, so gruesome, that most people do not wish to believe this could happen in the United States. Sadly we know it happens all to often. The brutality is on par with the Manson Murders in 1969 and the murders and rape committed by Willie Horton in the 1980s.

Regrettably, there are too many other examples to mention of such brutal slayings. Random atrocities are all too common in our country. No one with common sense knowingly walks into danger. We do not seek it out. Sadly the predatory miscreant seeks his victims everywhere, thus anyone of us could be attacked just about anywhere you can think of. There are no safe sanctuaries. Too few of us prepare for it.

Christopher Newsom, age 23, and his girlfriend, age 21, were both old enough to be able to purchase a handgun and obtain their CCW license in their home state of Tennessee. Sadly neither had done this. I don’t know why; perhaps they never gave it any thought. Young people usually have a belief they are invincible and immortal. They give little thought to their own security. Or perhaps they thought only the paranoid would carry a gun. On the night of January 6, 2007 they went out to dinner and were expected to go over and watch TV with friends. Instead they vanished. I will let you follow the link for the grisly details of their tragic fate. I warn you, it is terrible.

I will say that what happened to them is only possible by adopting the “Sheep Mindset”. The “Sheep Mindset” is something I have written about before and has been a subject that needs more discussion. Like a disease, it needs to be eradicated. Luckily I am not the only one to be talking about this. Talk show hosts Neal Boortz and G. Gordon Liddy frequently speak of the subject and the horrors that result from it. Most people have not given any deep thought as to why they have not prepared themselves in the event of an attack from a criminal. Sadly our culture indoctrinates us at an early age to be passive, much to our hazard. What befell them cannot happen with ease if one is trained and prepared for exactly the sort of thing that happened. The late Jeff Cooper taught us to be aware of what is going on around us. His color codes of mental awareness are something everyone should live by. If you are not familiar with this, Tom Givens has written a very nice piece on the subject.

But in a society that frowns on the concept of defending one’s self, many are indoctrinated to be “sheep”. Most do not even realize it. Thus they walk about in Condition White, not paying attention to what is going on around them. Hence, when the predators attack they are completely oblivious to what is happening until it is too late. This is something I intend to continue to hammer until more people are more proactive in trying to awaken their friends and family from this dangerous lethargy.

This case also debunks the logic of liberals in Congress who want to ban high capacity rifle and pistol magazines. They keep telling us we don’t need more than ten rounds in a magazine. Obediently the national news media parrots this nonsense. Tell someone who is fending off a gang attack they don’t need a high capacity magazine. A gang attack is exactly what happened to Christopher and Channon. There is a growing trend of home invasions where large numbers of thugs break into a house all at once to overwhelm the home owners. There is no logical reason to deny the honest citizen these tools of self-defense. They are necessary to thwart criminals...and tyrants for that matter.

Leaving law abiding American citizens with only ten round magazines is a disgusting symptom of politicians who fear an armed citizenry. Frankly if the politicians were not intent on doing things that they think would cause us to revolt, they would have nothing to fear. Yet many elected officials are intent on tyranny. But that is an issue for exploration another day.

The point I want you to take from this tragedy is that “Sheep Mindset” can only get you killed in the long run. It can result in a prolonged horrible death with the days of torture and rape that poor Channon Christian endured. Please don’t let their deaths be in vain. Let it teach others to not be sheep to the slaughter of wolves.

The next time some buffoon tells you that you are better off to submit to the whims of a criminal. You recount what you read on the Snopes site about what happened to these poor young people, whose lives were taken from them callously by depraved monsters.


The Buckeye Firearms Association wish to express our condolences to the families and friends of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian. We are pained by their suffering and do not want this to happen to anyone else. I want to assure the family that in talking about what happened to their loved ones, I am not meaning to cause them any pain or further grief. I am however hoping that by bringing awareness of what happened to them, that others might escape a similar tragic fate by being better prepared for the dangerous world we live in.

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/article3838.html
 

Pa. Patriot

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I call them sheeple. I could care less about persuading them. If a perfectly fitting and self explanatory pejorative like sheeple doesn't put the thought in their own head then they deserve the moniker.


Reminds me of this past winter. We had a F2 tornado go through (not a common thing in NEPA that's for sure)
Power was out in my area for more than 4 days.
By the end of day three we were the only residents on my block still here. Everyone else (all the sheeple) had gone to hotels, friends, relatives and whatnot.
Pretty pathetic that folks whom clearly think themselves to be better than me in all facets of life (I live in a "snooty" area) have no preparations to sustain life on their own for more than 24 hours.
It was a wonderfully quiet few days :)
 

cs9c1

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Pa. Patriot wrote:
It was a wonderfully quiet few days :)

You should see the things I can cook on a grill. They make wonderful no power needed stoves, ovens, grill, rotisserie, etc..

Dogs as the burglar alarm.

S&W, Springfield, Glock, and Mossberg as my protective services.

Oh yeah, Dewalt to give me all the light, TV, Refrigerator, and power I need.

I know the generator is cheeting, but I roughed itenoughfor20 years and I like my electricity.
 

markand

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"Sheep" might be an appropriate appelation. Sheep are probably one of the dumbest animals on the face of the earth. If a sheep sees food on the other side of a fence and sticks its head through, but can't reach it, it will die of starvation straining against the fence to get the food.
 

Reverend73

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Anyone seen the new Scion commercial? They have a bunch of sheeple (they use that actual term, even have wool around their heads) running around being eaten by these demon type creatures. I dang near fell out of my chair when I saw it. I'll try to find it on you tube....



found it, here ya go: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5470392319419791298&q=scion+sheeple&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0



I have no idea what the heck this commercial is trying to convey, but they got the sheeple down pat, I'd say.
 

longwatch

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0x9Vh47OhU Searching for 'sheeple' came up with that. Give it a few minutes.
As for the analogy of sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves,I never liked it myself. Its kind of elitist and there are plenty of those who would call themselves sheepdogs who would consider civilian gun owners sheep and not one of them. Also some of those sheepdogs look like wolves now and then.
 

Tomahawk

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longwatch wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0x9Vh47OhU Searching for 'sheeple' came up with that. Give it a few minutes.
As for the analogy of sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves,I never liked it myself. Its kind of elitist and there are plenty of those who would call themselves sheepdogs who would consider civilian gun owners sheep and not one of them. Also some of those sheepdogs look like wolves now and then.

+1. I have never liked that analogy either.

For once, HankT has a point, sort of. I know lots of people who don't carry a gun but they are very politically aware. They just never took the step to carry, or they live in NJ where even buying a gun is a big time hassle. Calling them sheep to their faces is uncalled for and a good way to lose an ally.

I sometimes use the term sheeple for the population in general, not for individuals. People in groups tend to act collectively stupid, the herd mentality. Individuals are usually more intelligent.

One thing about humans, though, they need leaders. Somebody has to have the balls to be first and lead the way. A lot of you guys fit that bill; it takes alot of guts to get over the hump and OC when none of your buddies would dare it, for instance (right, Hank?;)). Leadership is desperately needed to get people to take an active role in securing their liberty. This can be by organizing, or in our case, just doing something that says, "I'm exercising my freedom, and it's not so bad, see?"
 

longwatch

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Tomahawk I should give you credit on the last line in my post, I know I heard it from you before. Anyhow the only distinction between us and the 'sheep' is that we are 'enlightened' about being responsible for ourselves in terms of self defense.
 

.40 Cal

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longwatch wrote:
(snip)... the only distinction between us and the 'sheep' is that we are 'enlightened' about being responsible for ourselves in terms of self defense.

Actually, that's where it begins. We are also the sheepdog, as many of you know. We are enlightened enoug to know to be responsible for ourselves, but we also know to protect the sheep. We make it a point to make ourselves ready for the unexpected by preparing for the unknown.If youread this and say: "how does he know how to prepare for what is "unknown"?, say Baaaaa, put your head back down, and let me do my job!
 

New2Atlanta

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I've been enjoying catching up on all the info an opinions of the gun related forums and starting to think about things that really never occured to me before.

The term sheeple shows a mindset that is not helpful to keeping our rights to carry. We need an agressive mindset when dealing with the political / legal system but I'm not convinced it does much good to invite encounters with the public and LEO's. The term sheeple is most used by the OC advocates in respect to their encounters with the public. Some of these encounters end on a positive note at least as reported by the one with the gun. My bet is that lots of these encounters consist of sheeple seeing the gun and making a mental note that only reinforces their already held opinions.

Spooking enough of the sheeple, in person, or with some unhappy event reported on the news will only make more trouble for us. Lots of sheeple vote and most vote their pocketbook and their emotions in that order. They outnumber us thousands to one and most believe pretty much what the TV tells them to - and most believe the government only exists to create a frictionless world for them.

As a practical matter, given the overwhelming police power of the government, our rights are whatever the Supreme Court and other courts say they are. I'm betting the Clinton crowd will be back in power soon and that alone complicates our self defense strategy enormously.

Well you can tell that my preference is self defense with a low profile but I'm very interested in the different points of view.
 
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