What's Your Opinion? Firearms or Not?

[sv_makai]

You are absolutely correct. It can be dangerous, but it is also dangerous for the untrained to get a gun. I would not recommend it, but many have found it as a way around gun laws of various contries.

We saw Panda fire his off. His actually fits in an aluminum frame flare gun. It shoots like a blunder buss. Good for only a few feet before the pattern is large that you could proabablly stand in front of the barrel an not get hit. It does make a frightening noise and flash.

[CaptainK]

Why not have a gun made.

Have it made and that it's designed to be broken down into simple pieces. That can be quickly assembled.

Have it placed near eachother. And when you actually need it. You can quickly assemble it. And start firing away?

The only problem the owner would have to worry about is how you're going to hide the ammo?

Kevin has an interesting point. If you are using an insert, or have designed your flare gun to fire shells, and you have appropriate ammo on board, I would think it would be easy for officials to determine that you had an undeclared weapon on board. At that point, it would make just as much sense to have a functional weapon.

[CaptainK]

Probably the only suggestion about hiding the ammo. Is to hide it in some sort of food packaging. Or inside coffee cans, with the coffee grounds.

At least that's a starting point for hiding ammo.

[GordMay]

I don’t recommend anyone criminalize themselves by hiding weapons and/or ammunition from the authorities. Most jurisdictions take this sort of thing very seriously, and don’t consider importing concealed (illegal or undeclared) firearms to be a mere technical infraction.

[sv_makai]

I agree with Gord. Hiding a weapon onboard can get you arrested. I wrote in another post about a boarding by the Policia here in Venezuela. They boarded the wrong boat looking for drugs. The owner had an undeclared gun and he was hauled off to jail and lost the weapon.

2nd is if you hide a weapon well enough for the Police not to find it what are the odds that you will be able to retrieve it in an emergency situtaion...(they tore aprt Claudio's boat looking for the drugs)

One can't say I will only bring it out when the Guardia is not around. In Venezuela the GuardiaCostal use the same pirogues to patrol as the fisherman and the criminals. The reason is that not trying to trick you but it is the only thing you have. They are almost impossible to seprate from the fisherman until the announce themselves. I would hate to accidentaly point a gun at one of those guys.

[ssullivan]

GordMay once whispered in the wind:
I don’t recommend anyone criminalize themselves by hiding weapons and/or ammunition from the authorities. Most jurisdictions take this sort of thing very seriously, and don’t consider importing concealed (illegal or undeclared) firearms to be a mere technical infraction.

True. And what's a worse fate? Being killed or spending years in a prision in a 3rd world country? Real tough choice... neither sounds like any fun to me.

Has anyone given any thought to using steering techniques to at least give potential boarders (when underway) a hard time?

I had always thought that my first line of defense would be to engage full throttle and spin the boat around in circles, at full rudder, making a boarding difficult at least. Maybe alternate from a clockwise circle to a counter clockwise, etc...

There's got to be some better way to keep unwanted people off the boat in the first place. Another defense I am a big fan of is looking poor. The worse your boat looks externally, and the less you spend on shore, the less attention you will attract.

Just general stuff that might be a start toward a gun-free defense theory.

[sv_makai]

Sterring may help, but.

Mant of the boardings we heard of have been at night while anchored.

Our almost pirate encounter coming from Trinidad to Grenada showed us that if the are in a speed boat with 50 or more horse aginst our manuevering sailboat with 54 horses and fulls sails showed us they can easily get in front or alongs side. We almost rammed them as we turned and they came across our bows.

This incident woiuld have also a bad time to have a gun. The wildy waving, yelling, and run down boat was actually a local fishing boat It woudl have been tempting to use a gun to warn them off and could have gone very bad.

They were trying to warn us of thier nets. They had no radio and we couldn't determine if they were friend or foe with thier manuevering.

The Trinidad coast guard was good as they responded but of course everyone was to far away and it all ended well.

Didn't need coffee for the rest of the night. The excitement kept the heart beating until the next morning.

[CaptainK]

Instead of having guns on board. Why not have razor wire surrounding the outer edges of the boat. That way no one gets on board?

Rig it before going to bed. Take it down after breakfast in the morning. It would definately make it difficult for people who you do not want to come aboard legally or illegally?

[Alan Wheeler]

I remember reading about some dipstick that had the firpower to shoot almost over the horizon at some possible threat. How on earth do you substantiate that some boat several miles away, indicated by a radar blip, is a possible threat or not. Most likely it is one of those poor fisherman trying to save a net or sell fish and some gunho yobbo blow's them out of the water while they are still a dot on the horizon.

[CaptainK]

Probably some poor old bastard. Who is so paranoid, that he was probably a pethetic loser, and was picked on during his school years, maybe?

[merman365]

Joshua Slocome use to pepper his decks with tacks before he slept ,to keep away unwanted types walking the decks while he caught a few winks.
O K if the boarders are bare foot,they will let you know they are there!

If nothing else, that certainly made for a good story.

[CaptainK]

Someone could lay out some bear traps. When someone steps in one of them. They'd wake up the entire coastline, with their screaming in pain!

[Lodesman]

I think it's been said before, but booby-traps are indiscriminate. Seems one of the common concerns about firearms is the possibility that an innocent person will be shot. With proper training and a measured application of force (what the military calls ROE - Rules of Engagement), the chance of an errant shot is minimal. But with an unmanned trap, you could injure or kill the tipsy neighbour who mistakes your boat for his, or local kids up to hijinks, or police/customs doing inspections. The legal repercussions could be severe. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for using intrusion alarms, motion-activated floodlights and what-have-you, but when it comes to applying force, it should be done by a competent person only after a reasonable determination that it is required.

Not to mention - security devices are only useful when they are employed - how many people really think they are going to spread tacks or string razor-wire every night before bed and de-rig it in the morning. I can just imagine the damage someone could do to themself staggering around the deck in the dark, maybe after consuming a couple of wobbly-pops, with 60 feet of razor wire.

Kevin