Paranoia as a hobby

[beige_alert]

Wednesday night is apparently gun night on the Outdoor channel. I don't normally watch the shooting shows, but they are good for entertainment now and then. In particular, the self-defense guys are entertaining. The level of paranoia is amazing. Yesterday, one of them was showing us how to check for bad guys hiding in the bathtub behind the shower curtain. Is this all an act for TV, or do these guys really live their everyday lives like this? As peteralway said on #filkhaven last night, "It's time to recognize paranoia as a legitimate hobby." Some people play music or build model rockets, others, more like this xkcd, only they go to Arizona and actually practice with real guns.

Comments

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

People like that scare me.

I had a colleague in the old company who told me the very first day he was hired that a) he was in a hobby gunner club and did this running through a maze shooting cardboards that flip up as you run and b) he used to have a tattoo all over his arms and chest but had it lasered away for business purposes...
Personally I judged him so unstable that it scared me that such people could legally handle a gun (several guns) in Germany. It made me want one too, for sheer self defense.

I am a big fan of air rifles and shoot them at every fair available. I shoot at roses mind you. I guess I'd also do gotcha or real guns on stationary targets like the roses again if I got the chance. The people who claim to need them for self defense, well, 99% of those are probably bonkers, and that makes it so much the scarier.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Anyone who feels he needs to carry a backup gun with him who is not actively engaged in combat in a war zone is scary.

You say you shoot at roses and my first thought is you are gunning down innocent flowers! I've spent one afternoon shooting, two handguns and one machine gun, so that was interesting. The paper targets don't seem to complain about getting shot at, and they never shoot back!

You know, we do have "cowboy action shooting," where people dress up in wild west costume and fire replica (or maybe real antique) guns. Gun-LARP.

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

You say you shoot at roses and my first thought is you are gunning down innocent flowers!

Shooting away at mom's flower bed? *g* I was referring to those booths where you shoot at small white porcelain tubes and you win whatever is stuck in them. Usually ugly little plastic flowers, small screw drivers, or other junk.

Cowboy action shooting sounds like fun as long as they don't shoot at people accidentally. In LARP we really hit each other but the weapons are foam and rubber, so they don't really hurt. Much. *rubs arms* Anyway!

I guess I'm pretty militant for an average modern German woman. I'm glad though that people around here can't just own a gun if they want to. Nutter ex-colleagues excluded...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Ah, I haven't seen that particular setup.

Generally the recreational shooters make a real effort not to shoot each other. Most of the time. Depends. The ones who've been drinking, not so much. You'd want to join a careful group. (They guys at the place in Arizona where we rented the machine gun? They took it really seriously.)

Between you and aryana_filker's ax throwing, I figured German women were all into mayhem! ;)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

By the way: Single-Action Shooting Society, Germany branch (http://www.sass-germany.de/)

[legoline.livejournal.com]

I once saw a documentary on the telly about people in the US who offered seminars about how to behave in case you're stuck in a bank during a robbery and being held hostage.

Bad karma? :-)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt those people were featured in another episode of the show I watched. Other topics last night: How to properly draw your gun and shoot while seated in your car, and shooting through car windows.

Seriously, I know we have a reputation for violence and guns, but, really, these guys are paranoid nutters. You do not need to be checking for bad guys hiding behind the curtains in the USA, unless you have really gone out of your way to make some serious enemies.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

Especially since those people probably live somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Idaho or Iowa or some other suspicious neighborhood...

But you know what they say, just because you're paranoid that doesn't mean they're not out to get you :-)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, when you're that paranoid, you certainly can't live someplace dangerous enough to justify some paranoia!

The scary thing is how they come off as eager to get attacked, so they can try out their skills and firearms.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

The scary thing is how they come off as eager to get attacked, so they can try out their skills and firearms.

People like that scare me. A lot.

[madfilkentist]

McGath's Law: Paranoia is a virtue.

But I meant that to apply to programming, not everyday life.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

No, you look very silly cautiously opening the door and checking behind the curtains for someone with a possible buffer overflow!

[madfilkentist]

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"?