steve1

Kallend, Probably not. I'd rather jump with you than argue. Best of luck. Steve1

Kallend, If it looks like bull shit, and smells like bull shit, it's probably bull shit. Maybe you can analize that carefully. Steve1

Wendy, I agree this is a factor, but there are a lot of bigger ones. Number one in my opinion is, that many children aren't being raised properly much of the time. They grow up to be angry adults, if they live that long. I think it is a disgrace the way many kids are brought up in the U.S. Many of them have no one in their life who gives them love and acceptance. This is a basic ingredient that everyone needs to turn out right. Without it they are going to grow up angry and violent. Our prison system is full of people who grew up in a home filled with neglect and abuse. I also think TV, movies, music, video games etc. are filled with way too much violence. The TV set is raising many kids when they get home from school. Is it any wonder kids are learning the wrong values. The courts are another factor. How many violent criminals are being released from prisons and put back on the streets, with little more than a slap on the wrist. I think anyone who commits a violent crime should receive a stiff penalty, rather than given one more chance. Many countries are less violent than the U.S. I think a lot of that has to do with the way kids grow up and the culture they live in. Sure we have a high standard of living here in the U.S., but many parents are really dropping the ball in how they are raising their kids. Don't get me wrong, I still love my country even though it isn't perfect. I feel fortunate to enjoy all the freedoms we have. Gun ownership is one I don't want to give up. Most of the gun laws on the books now are stealing that freedom away and are doing little to stop violent crime. There are probably many other factors that I haven't mentioned. I just think that violence in America stems from a lot more than the availability of guns. Steve1

I hope he makes a full recovery soon. I jumped with him a couple times, thirty years ago. He was one of the most respected skydivers around (even way back then). Steve1

Kallend, I agree the United States is a violent place. To blame it all on our right to own guns, is plain bull shit! There are many other factors that enter into that equasion. Steve1

Coho21, I think it's up to each state on these regulations. In Montana you don't have to take this course if you are over 18. There is a bowhunting course that everyone has to take now if you plan to bowhunt, no matter your age. Check with your states Fish & Game Dept. Steve1

Keith, Sometimes it's the cat. I went to school with a guy who always had a loaded pistol above his head board on his bed. When I say loaded I mean a round in the chamber. One day his cat nocked the gun off, it went off shooting him through the head. He died soon after. Now the theory is that the cat did this, others say his wife shot him. It must have been an older pistol though, in which the safety didn't block the firing pin. A lot of weapons will fire just by dropping them, even though the safety is on. I know cops carry a round in the chamber all the time. The nice thing about it is that the newer pistols have a safety that blocks the hammer from hitting the firing pin. Steve1

Coho21, Most people who take hunters safety hear these words over and over. It's the gun people think is unloaded that goes off and kills someone. It's easy to forget and leave a bullet in the chamber. Steve1

I don't think this is theory. I've read the same information, but I don't have it handy now. Maybe I can find it. The NRA quotes this information all the time. It may not have led directly to confiscation, but it sure made things a lot simpler for the government to find out who has the weapons to confiscate. Steve1

I knew a guy once who was hunting ducks. He stopped to rest and leaned his gun against a tree. His faithful dog bumped the gun and it fell over. When it hit the ground it went off shooting the guy in the chest. Luckily only part of the blast caught him and he survived. If you hunt or shoot long enough, we all make mistakes. Safeties aren't always fool proof and it's usually the unloaded gun that shoots someone. I almost shot my best friend once when I was in High School. We were packing out a deer on a pole and I had forgotten the bullet in the chamber of my gun. Somehow it got off safety. Somehow my thumb touched the trigger and the bullet went right over his head. Was this stupid? Of course? Gun safety is a lot like skydiving. Complacency can kill. Steve1

Kennedy, I'm sorry. I get so riled up over gun control issues that I didn't even look at the attachments. Maybe we all should quit arguing and get back to skydiving. Steve1

Kennedy, Gun Control doesn't work. And there are lot's of so called experts out there. Take Washington D.C. for example. They have some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Yet statistics show it to have one of the highest gun crime problems in our country. Steve1

Kallend, I agree that bogus statistics are used way too often and that they can be used to prove about anything. What I meant in this analogy is that (in my opinion) the chance of catching a few bad guys is not a good enough reason to put a complicated, expensive, plan into effect. I think ballistic fingerprinting is probably just another way the government is eroding an individuals right to own a gun. Steve1

Kallend, I'm not saying that you said that guns should be banned. I just think that the analogy I used was a good one. And maybe you should explain why this was not an honest reply. Every gun law that comes along is supposed to be quick and easy and not infringe on a gun owners right. But the truth is most of these gun laws are not at all quick and easy, and just don't do much to capture criminals either. Most gun owners are smart enough to realize that most of these great ideas to control gun crime are bullshit, and they do little more than take away the rights of honest gun owners. Steve1

"Don't they make the shell prefragmented bullets designed to effectively turn to dust once they hit something hard, like a wall?" The only trouble I can see with shooting such ammo is that it might not penetrate the perpetrator. I've loaded big game ammo that wouldn't penetrate even the shoulder blade on an antelope. The same principal could hold true on a bad guy. You don't want your bullet to blow up on the leather jacket he is wearing. Something to think about. Steve1

"Even if it captures only a handful of murderers, seems like a good bargain to me." Probably the biggest killer of children today is drowning. Maybe we should ban all swimming pools. It would undoubtedly save a few lives. I don't agree with that line of thinking. Steve1

Phillykev, I've heard that colt 1911's are a good weapon if they are tight and not shot out. In the army we would sometimes shoot the old 1911 45's and you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with them. It was mainly because they had like a million rounds shot through them and they were too loose to maintain good accuracy. Steve1

Ballistic Fingerprinting sounds to me like just another gun law which would restrict the rights of honest gun owners yet will do little or nothing to catch gun criminals. I'm sure it does make some people feel safer to have more of these laws in effect. I mean it's easy to convince people who know little or nothing about guns, that this is the right thing to do. I remember talking to someone a while back about cop killer bullets. I tried to convince them that this was no big deal. Most any high powered rifle will shoot through a bullet proof vest. They couldn't believe that this was actually the case. And then there is the fear many people have of fully automatic weapons. I really don't think they are all that more lethal than a semi-auto weapon or even a shotgun at close range. It seems like most of the gun control laws are based on peoples fear which is often based on ignorance. Steve1

We have a lot of us old farts at my home DZ, so most of us are RW fanatics. I have dabbled in some freeflying though, and hope to do more of it in the future. Steve1

I own about ten rifles, a few pistols, and a couple shot guns. I have used most of these for hunting. I used to be a hunting fanatic at one time, but all that really interests me now is skydiving. Two of the pistols are for self defense purposes. I gave one of them, a 9mm, to my daughters while they are away at college. They have both been shooting and hunting since they were about six. They want to backpack and ride their horses in the back country. They wanted something for protection against two legged predators as well as a bear gun. A 9mm is probably way too small for bear, but better than nothing if they had one chewing on their leg. When we packed in the mountains with horses, we always carried a gun. The main reason was for a horse that had a broken leg, and might have to be put down. About the only thing we used it on was for hunting purposes, and a porky pine once who wanted to chew our saddles up in the middle of the night. We once had our camp robbed by a wolverine and my Dad once had his camp robbed by a grizzly, but no shooting was involved in either case. I need to renew my membership to the NRA. Steve1

Hook, I've been taking all the slack out of my steering lines on my approach. This leaves my hands slightly above my head. On the initial part of my flare I bring the toggles down below my chin to level out and then slowly bring them down to finish my flare as the speed bleeds off. If I pull them all the way down my canopy won't stall. I've tried this a lot up high. There's too much slack in my lines for it to stall. This hasn't been a problem though. I can still get a good landing without having more flare. I'll try what you mentioned about watching the tail next time I make a front riser turn. Thanks, Steve

Hook, Thanks for all the input. I'm just wondering how far you usually pull your front riser down to make a turn. I imagine a fast turn would be further down. My steering lines on my new Hornet may have been manufactured too short, since I can't move my toggles down any further now. They are presently on the very ends of each steering lines, yet I'm still experiencing some bucking on riser turns. We do have a couple guys at our DZ who make swoop landings on small canopies, but I think they are doing this with a toggle turn. So neither of these guys are a good source of information about using front risers or adjusting toggles for front riser use. I know this opens up another subject area because from what I understand hook turns with toggles can be a real killer. I'm far from the point where I would ever try a hook turn, but I would like to mess around with front risers up high. I'd also like to use double fronts to get down out of crowded air space. Thanks, Steve1

I have dive loops and have been experimenting with front riser turns and double fronts for altitude loss. Every time I've tried this I have experienced bucking from my canopy. I knew this was because my toggles were set too short. I have let them out until now I have them at the very ends of the steering lines. There is at least six or seven inches of play on my steering lines. I can pull them down this far before a turn starts. My next thought was maybe I'm pulling my front risers down too far. I doubt if I'm pulling them down much more than 5 inches before the bucking starts. Anyone have any ideas? No one at my DZ seems to know much about front riser use. Thanks, Steve1

Freebird, That's one of the saddest stories I've ever heard. I don't think I'd be able to hold up well after that. Steve1

I used to skydive at a very liberal collage during the 70's. Most of the people in our club seemed to live on "wacky tobaccy". Being about the biggest red- neck in Montana, I didn't think I'd fit in well. But I wanted to jump. Everyone accepted me though simply because I was a brother skydiver and I had an open mind about what they did. Steve1