Colorado

[Seth]

Wear Kevlar.

It's okay, if Kevlar is needed I've got plenty to share. I can even supply Level IV Ceradyne plates if it comes to that. Probably won't, but I'll be there with my handgun just in case it does.

[Seth]

I guess I dodged a bullet when I went there.

Did you hear a sharp "crack" or "snap"?

If not it probably wasn't a bullet. Might have been a hummingbird though.

[Jason]

Considering you're very unlikely to come within range of anyone at all in Colorado.. you're probably safe. Unless they have bears, wolves, cougars, and other animals like that.

[Seth]

Considering you're very unlikely to come within range of anyone at all in Colorado.. you're probably safe. Unless they have bears, wolves, cougars, and other animals like that.

Oh, we do, we do. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Well, no tigers in the wild, though a captive one did kill a keeper a year or two ago.

We have dozens of cougar attacks here each year. Few fatalities, but there are at least four in the last 20 years. That's mostly luck because we have lots and lots of "attacks" that are never completed and there are no injuries. And hundreds of dead pets and livestock. The DOW kills about 350 "nuisance" cats per year, although trying to get that statistic from them took a FOIA threat.

Because the DOW doesn't want to admit the gravity of the problem they only classify as an "attack" an incident where someone was actually injured by biting or scratching. They put stalks and aborted end-game lunges as "encounters" to try and keep the reported numbers down so as not to frighten the public.

You want to read a book titled "Beast in the Garden," which is about cougar attacks in Boulder County and Colorado that culminates with the fatal mauling and eating of a high school student near Georgetown. Very interesting book.

The truth of cougars is that if you see one when you're outside hiking or something, and it's not running away from you, and is closer than 150 feet, you are being seriously considered for lunch and you are in immediate danger. My rule is that if the cat is standing still looking at me or approaching (rather than retreating from) me, and I'm close enough to shoot it with a handgun (say 25 yards or less) I'm going to kill it right then and there because I'm being stalked. A cougar can leap 40 feet horizontally and 25 feet vertically in one leap, and if you're 50 feet away from one you are less than two seconds away from being eaten. And that's an attack in progress, because the cat had to stalk you to get that close. That qualifies as dangerous enough to legally justify shooting the cat.

Which is another reason I ALWAYS carry a handgun when I'm in the woods.

Bears too, but they aren't quite so dangerous because they don't tend to stalk people, although black bears kill more people every year in the US than Grizzlies, mostly because of their proximity to people and their numbers (there's plenty of them).

If you're going to be hiking, particularly along the Front Range, in the "wildland/urban interface" where almost all cougar attacks happen, you're well advised to have some bear spray with you, which ought to, but hasn't been proven to work, if you can't carry a gun...or even if you can and do...I carry both.

The reason cat attacks are so frequent along the Front Range is because most of the mountains proximate to urban areas on the plains are heavily occupied and there is little to no deer hunting. Boulder has the distinction of being where most of the sightings and stalkings have happened in recent years because the mountains are city parks and they do not allow deer hunting, which leads to a massive overpopulation of deer, which draws the cats in...where they find easier to kill prey in domestic house pets and livestock...and where some of them move on up the food chain to Boulder Liberals in Spandex who like to infest the mountains like fleas. Cats have been seen perched on branches directly over popular hiking trails, and lion/human encounters are actually pretty commonplace.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Unless they have bears, wolves, cougars, and other animals like that.

They have drop cougars.

[Jason]

We've got those here too.. I never go hiking unarmed either. Even though the cougars mostly follow the California bighorn sheep on the mountain ranges about 15km south of where I live.

[Seth]

We've got those here too.. I never go hiking unarmed either. Even though the cougars mostly follow the California bighorn sheep on the mountain ranges about 15km south of where I live.

God help you if you actually have to shoot one in California. Its illegal to hunt them, so their numbers are exploding. And if you do shoot one, you practically have to have the same level of justification as you do to kill a human being, otherwise they prosecute the living shit out of you.

Numbnuts California liberals...they deserve to be eaten.

[Bella Fortuna]

I guess I dodged a bullet when I went there.

Did you hear a sharp "crack" or "snap"?

If not it probably wasn't a bullet. Might have been a hummingbird though.

Those pointy beaks....!

[JimC]

I love mountain scenery...

Will have to live with documentaries...

[rainbow]

...so is it true that dope is legal there?
Not that I partake, but jus' wonnerin'.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

...so is it true that dope is legal there?
Not that I partake, but jus' wonnerin'.

Yep, and Zonker Harris is on his way there to start a grow operation. If he can find Colorado. Last I heard he was in Zanesville, Ohio.

[Seth]

...so is it true that dope is legal there?
Not that I partake, but jus' wonnerin'.

Yes, it is legal for any adult (>21) to possess one ounce or less of marijuana in Colorado. It's still a federal crime though, and they don't have the rules for pot shops finished, so getting pot is still illegal unless you have a medical marijuana card.

[JimC]

...so is it true that dope is legal there?
Not that I partake, but jus' wonnerin'.

Yes, it is legal for any adult (>21) to possess one ounce or less of marijuana in Colorado. It's still a federal crime though, and they don't have the rules for pot shops finished, so getting pot is still illegal unless you have a medical marijuana card.

It's interesting that there seems to be a conflict between state and federal law in this case.

In Oz, I think it works that, if there is a conflict between a state law and a federal law affecting the same action, the federal law prevails...

There is always a degree of low level conflict between our states and the federal government over a range of issues, usually involving money...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

In Oz, I think it works that, if there is a conflict between a state law and a federal law affecting the same action, the federal law prevails...

Same here, but they are counting on the avalanche effect, make use so ubiquitous that the Feds can't cope.

I hope it works.

[Seth]

In Oz, I think it works that, if there is a conflict between a state law and a federal law affecting the same action, the federal law prevails...

Same here, but they are counting on the avalanche effect, make use so ubiquitous that the Feds can't cope.

I hope it works.

Me too. I don't smoke dope, but the War on Some Drugs costs us ten BILLION dollars a year and leads to a more authoritarian, militarized police, which is way worse than any harm ever caused by somebody smoking dope.

The cool thing about the law is that it completely prevents local cops from screwing around with people for having a joint on them. Since the vast majority of drug arrests are by local police looking for DEA asset-forfeiture dollars, this is a great thing for individual liberty. Of course, the new Colorado gun control laws suck big time....