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[jough]

I would [buy a firearm and keep it handy]

Would you also recommend a gun to someone who has a history of depression and lives in a place where it is dark for 16 hours of the day most of the year?

I'm just saying - firearms work for me but they are not for everyone.

[AlohaDawg]

I would not pretend to know better than that person. I believe that adult people are inherently able to make adult decisions and that those who are not should be supervised appropriately.

Would you recommend access to alcohol for that person? An automobile? Sleeping pills? Kitchen knives and bathtubs? Household cleaners and solvents? It sounds like you're inferring that a gun would be too convenient for suicide. There are plenty of convenient methods available in the average home.

The truth is that a truly suicidal person will find a means to carry out their suicide in the absence of a firearm. Many tragically do and outside of institutionalizing someone, it is almost impossible to stop someone who truly wants to end their own life from doing so. Even in institutions, suicides still occur.

You can't defend yourself against an agenda-driven, mentally disturbed person if you are armed with a noosed rope, some sleeping pills, or the exhaust fumes from your car. I would rather someone have the wherewithal to defend themselves with extreme prejudice if there is a known threat. If Somebody nice were my sister, I would want her to have the best possible survival odds. I think a firearm

I could argue against people with vision problems using firearms more easily than against those you may categorize as potentially suicidal...the possibility of suicide vs the possibility of poor aim or misidentification of a target leading to a homicide to me raises a different issue with a totally different personal and social cost.

I'm not trying to make this personal; I'm just pointing out that we can assume things about other people but outside of their shoes, we probably should just appreciate that they, as we, have the right and the choice.

[Ben-San]

Not to say anything about anyone else, but while a gun may not be more dangerous than a typical house full of crap for the truly dedicated suicidal, I personally do not own a gun for the reason Jough has described. I am not a dedicated suicidal and I do not want to die 99% of the time, and at the moments I contemplate it, I do not generally do so for long enough to carry it out by any means to which I have access. If I owned a gun and kept it 'safe but ready to use' for home defense purposes, it would drastically cut down on the preparation time that would be required to kill myself or at least fuck myself up severely, and thus proportionally increase the chance that I would do something in a stupid moment which could not later be undone in a saner one.

So, anyway, I guess my point is that "there are lots of ways to commit suicide" does not immediately equate to "guns are not a bad idea for an occasionally suicidal person to keep around". I'm not making this as a general statement about the larger discussion about Somebody nice and her maybe-stalker, just as a statement of the fallacy in the Dawg's argument being applied generally.

[AlohaDawg]

I don't think there is a fallacy there. A difference of opinion, to be sure.

There is a world of difference between your ideations of killing yourself and being suicidal. Generally suicidal people plan their suicide. The plan will involve methods available to them. If a gun is in the house, maybe a gun. If not, a myriad of other methods are available, like electricity, suffocation, poison. If you are suicidal (and no need to confess that here) I hope that you are getting all the help you want and need to live the life you want to live.

A suicidal person doesn't need a gun to carry out the suicide. They will do what they need to do to accomplish their suicide.

A depressed person is not necessarily a suicidal person, also. Nor does that diagnosis abrogate their right to self-defense through legal means. The gun in the house is not an invitation to or a cause of suicide. There would be a lot more gun suicides if that were the case.

Ben, you shouldn't have a gun. Because you don't feel like it's a good idea for you. You made a choice, and a good one for you, and you can change your mind.

Other people also can and will make that choice wherever that choice is a legal one. Even if it's a bad idea for them.

Cigarrettes are still legal. You want to watch a slow suicide?

[CortJstr]

Man, how did a thread about stalking get so serious and depressing? Remeber the good times we had? Like when Zart wrote that FAQ and a good laugh was had by all. Those were the days.

[AlohaDawg]

Good point. I call for a split and then a lock on the split thread. I recant all my statements and am now a liberal who wants all guns melted down into spoons which should be distributed to the homeless.

[V-Adore]

Let's get back to the Grand Theft Auto: Elbonia, shall we?

It reminds me of a guy I knew from Eagle River (more towards the central part of AK, but in Alaska the crazy never stops) who used to blow up cars. You know, recreationally. I assume most of them were junked, but who knows?

[St_Zartan]

It reminds me of a guy I knew from Eagle River (more towards the central part of AK, but in Alaska the crazy never stops) who used to blow up cars. You know, recreationally. I assume most of them were junked, but who knows?

In 7th grade, I had a science teacher who once spent an entire class period showing us a video of the time he burned down an old shed on his ranch. I swear to God; it was called "Towering Inferno '86!" (title from cassette label) and it was surprisingly dull. I realize those two sentences raise a lot of questions, all beginning with the word "why" - and I don't know.

I don't know anything about anything, really.

[V-Adore]

It reminds me of a guy I knew from Eagle River (more towards the central part of AK, but in Alaska the crazy never stops) who used to blow up cars. You know, recreationally. I assume most of them were junked, but who knows?

In 7th grade, I had a science teacher who once spent an entire class period showing us a video of the time he burned down an old shed on his ranch. I swear to God; it was called "Towering Inferno '86!" (title from cassette label) and it was surprisingly dull. I realize those two sentences raise a lot of questions, all beginning with the word "why" - and I don't know.

I don't know anything about anything, really.

The combination of "Towering Inferno '86!" and "surprisingly dull" makes this anecdote win. I suspect that fire may just be one of those many things in life that is magical to experience in person but loses its luster when preserved on videotape and rewatched.

I am reminded of the Paper Inferno from the end of this last academic year, though, in which a few of us got together and burned copious quantities of papers, topped off by no less than three copies of one poor bastard's often-edited thesis. Cathartastic!

[Bozack]

How towering can a shed be?

[St_Zartan]

How towering can a shed be?

Yeah, see, exactly.

The most engaging thing I remember from the video is a voice off-camera saying "Steve, my beer's getting warm"; at that age, the Very Idea of Beer was grown-up and edgy, so you had better believe that got a big laugh.

Still, you'd be surprised - or, maybe not - at just how high the flames can climb from even a puny structure when the fire's been set by someone truly dedicated to the craft of controlled arson. I mean, I guess.

[arkabee]

if the dude was breaking into your work email,
and if i recall you work for a municipality,
then your superiors need to be alerted ASAP
as i know of no municipality that does not have
a computer/netowork use policy.

unless you gave him your password.

you need to express the situation to your boss/superior,
as not only are you at risk but your coworkers are at
risk from the behaviors you have described.

i disagree with the other sentiments inre: let him ride
on other charges and hope that conviction on them
follows.

if you were wronged, prosecute that wrong or let it go,
as hoping for justice from your wrong on the conviction
of some other wrong is just setting yourself up
for severe distress if those other wrongs to others
do not lead to conviction.

[Ben-San]

Ark, as always your line breaks and lack of capitalization have turned sound advice into modern verse. I know this is basically a noise post (as opposed to signal) but it just really struck me this time. Mainly the first "stanza" (up to the word password.)

EDIT: Not to get back into the depressing stuff, but a clarification: Dawg, my statement was not "(the fallacy in the Dawg's argument) being applied generally" but "the fallacy in (the Dawg's argument being applied generally)". That is, that your statement about whether folks who got Depression should have guns is something that, like mine, cannot be applied universally but should rather be examined case by case. This sounds obvious but at the time I wrote it some of what you were saying about what suicidal people Are Like seemed to be applied uncomfortably broadly.

[V-Adore]

The first "stanza" and the sudden break for the "password" sentence really is gold, yeah. It creates beautiful emphasis.

[AlohaDawg]

Spoons for the homeless!

Spoon a homeless man (or woman) today!