CJ,
Grow anything else in that little garden of yours?

Indeed, Spanky - flowers are going berserk. Tulips, daffodils, irises, poppies etc etc popping up everywhere.

Spring has sprung! The flowers has riz!

CJ,

Don't ever have a go at a snake with a garden spade or you'll end up like all the good dogs that are adept at killing snakes: very sick or dead.
Most of our poisonous snakes can strike back further than a long handled shovel, so a spade puts you right in the middle danger zone.

It's rather unfortunate that all threads which seek to address violence end up as discussions on using firearms, which are the ultimate deterent in the hands of the law-abiding.

I lost two friends who had a sports store in Sydney, they sold some firearms as well as general sporting goods and back in those days they had their own licenced pistols.

The police advised them however not to resist if they were ever confronted by armed robbers. They were so confronted and took the advice of the police and offered no resistance.
The crims apparently told them to lie on the floor because that's the position that they were in when they were found. Both had been shot in the back of the head.
Now had they drawn their pistols they might have been killed or wounded but at least they would have had a chance, but they didn't and the rest is history.

I've had a mate seriously wounded near me while under fire and had to run for a medic because all other communication was out of opperation, I had Olympic potential as a sprinter that night ! ! !

We do have something in common; the garden, I'm not quite free of frost yet but have a few hardy plants coming on. Amazingly a chili from last year survived the winter.

I know a person who also grows "hardy plants" in his little garden!
One day he'll be arrested if caught.

First and best 'hardy plant' I ever saw growing was at Bathurst Police Station in the '70s, someone had thrown his stash out the window, or maybe cleaned his pockets out, and no one saw the plant until it put its head well up over the fence.
There was about a metre between the station and nextdoor's fence and it was closed by lattice at the front so it seems no one bothered to cut the grass often.

Caused a bit of mirth at the time.

Is Mise: "Nuances.

I said 'finds themselves on the side of the criminal'
not that they wished to be/were on the side of the criminal.

Should a farmer's wife, alone at home, the men away at the cattle sales (whatever) be denied a gun within easy reach?"

So you're saying that those who advocate gun control, regardless of intent, find themselves on the side of criminals.

I see. Though to my way of viewing it, this is an attempt to claim the moral high ground.

By employing the same tactics, I can say that regardless of intent, those focused on restricting gun laws are:

a) On the side of arms dealers. (Even if it's legal as opposed to illegal).
b) Attempting to increase gun violence.
c) On the side of criminals wanting easier access to firearms.

It's not a particularly productive debate, but it's one that cuts both ways.

As for the farmers wife being denied a gun - realistically, what situation is likely where she'll need a gun?

-Snakes? Most of them are more frightened of you than you are of them. In any case, you're better off leaving them alone.

-Intruders? Far less common than attention grabbing headlines would have you believe, especially in a farming area.

-Wild dogs? We've already said we're not against rifles for pest reasons in rural areas. It's the self defence argument and those pushing for handguns that we're against.

All in all, it seems far more likely that the gun would accidently shoot somebody friendly than some far-fetched action-movie style intruder incident.