2 campers shot in their sleep

Not to offend but I think that expensive electronic stuff isn't worth the money. I agree with the firearm and dog suggestion as well as having a perimiter set up. Heck, just a some extra fishing line and some tin cans would work for me. Put it up about knee height. I might be just talking out of my a$$, but I guess it's just my 2 cents. You have some military buddies just get a trip flare or two. ;)

Very very sad.
 
i don't understand how this could have happened. doesn't california have some kind of law against shooting someone in the head while they're sleeping on the beach? if not, they should pass one soon so that this kind of thing doesn't happen again. :eek:
 
Several years ago my wife and I went to camp along the American River near Mt. Raineer. We were going to go on a hike the next day and decided to camp nearby as to get an early start. Left after work on a Friday and by the time we got there every campground around was full. Driving along the river I spotted a small dirt road that led to some abandonded cabins that were right next to the river and decided it would be a good place to spend the night. I found a spot about 50 yards from the nearest cabin, set up the tent and after a quick meal we hit the sack. Sometime shortly after midnight I woke up and heard footsteps. Someone was walking right toward our tent! Now it was pitch black, we were under trees on a moonless night and whoever it was was not carrying a flashlite. About 15 feet or so from the tent the sound of footsteps stopped. Now my heart is pounding hard as all I have is a goddamned Swiss army knife - somewhere, and I don't know who the hell is out there or what they're up to. After a few moments I hear footsteps going back toward the cabin. I waited a bit listening then found my flashlight and went outside and looked around trying to decide what to do. I sure as hell didn't have a warm fuzzy about staying there any longer so I went back into the tent and woke my wife up and told her we were getting out of there after explaining what had just transpired. I had her get into the car, lock the doors and turn the headlights on so I could break down the tent and get everything loaded. Damn that was nerve wracking! Every grade- B horror movie I had ever seen was flashing through my mind. I got in the car and we drove to the trailhead where we planned on hiking and spent the rest of the night there near where a couple with a horse trailer had parked. I don't mind saying I was scared and the worst was the feeling of being defenseless. The next morning on our hike we talked about it and decided it might be a good idea to purchase a handgun.
I actually didn't do it untill about a year later but I now own a 9mm, a .45, and a shortbarrel shotgun, as well as some knives that will do more than clean my fingernails. (The only gun I actually take camping or hiking is the .45).
These kind of stories are not unusual. Ther are more and more transients living out in the wilderness and I'm guessing that the seemingly abandonded cabins may have been home to at least one. I can understand why people don't like the thought of carrying a gun while out camping, I used to be one of them. Not anymore, though.
 
TALOS - "(The only gun I actually take camping or hiking is the .45)."
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Wise choice, Talos, whether semi-auto .45ACP, or .45 Colt revolver. There are very, very few imaginable scenarios where that good ol' .45 would not handle your problem... so long as you know how to use it.

Good camping. L.W.
 
Talos,I dont know if you have ever seen a friday the thirteenth movie or not but that sounds just like one of those movies!Hell you coulda been speared through while makin love or something :D (just kidding),but you are indeed wise to carry a .45 especially when having your wife along.As a matter of fact I am more likely to carry when I have the wife and baby than when I'm by myself.I dont worry about somethin happening to me as much,but I will be damned if my wife and child were to be hurt when I could prevent it.Man I indeed thought your story to be scary :eek:
 
The one part I left out of the story 'cause it's a little embarassing is that we were driving my wife's Corolla, which I'm not used to, and when I finally had everything loaded and I got in I couldn't find the @#%! ignition, so I'm kinda fumbling a bit, then after I do finally get it started I can't get it into reverse! I think her linkage needs to be adjusted because to this day I have a tough time getting the damned thing to shift into reverse, which isn't a big thing normally except when you're expecting the guy with the hockey mask to suddenly appear from nowhere and start trying to stab his way through the windshield! I was really having a hard time remaining calm and my wife told me the next day when we were talking about it that she was ready to start screaming she was getting so freaked out. It really did feel like we were trapped in a grade-B horror movie. We laughed about it the next day, and wondered if we didn't overreact a bit, but I'm telling you at the time it was very scary.
The .45 is a Ruger P97 DC and the clip is always loaded with Speer Gold Dot hollow points.
 
I am glad quite a few people here advocate carrying a gun in the wilderness. I happen to live in California and Hike quite a bit and you know what, I pack a gun ALWAYS.

I once called a gun store and asked if they had a pouch big enough to store a glock 22 while hiking so that I do not startle any other hikers with my handgun holstered. Well, the clerk started telling me that I was not supposed to carry out in the Cali wilderness :eek: Told the guy thank You and hung up.

The other day my friend and I went into an REI and I asked the clerk if he was a hiker and he stated he was an avid hiker. My friend asked him if he carries a gun and the clerk looked at us as if we were aliens. That's California for you.

Anyhow, I know i run a risk carring sometimes, not all the time but it is a risk I am willing to take if I have to defend my girlfriend, friends and myself.

Anyhow, that's my say......
 
there's not much you can do if you you're asleep, even with a gun. Perimeter alarms would be a good thing, land mines even better, but I bet that's the last thing they were thinking about. A dog would have probably been their best defense.

That said, wouldn't you like to catch this guy/gal in the act and beat them down? I'd eat the would-be-killer. The same of a home intruder. I can't think of anything more fitting or terrifying to an assailant than to be beaten down and eaten piece by piece. Psychopath meets psychopath. Cook 'em, if germophobic.

Professor.
 
PROFESSOR -- "... A dog would have probably been their best defense."
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I certainly agree that a dog would have been a good defense, BUT, only if they had been armed. Given the obvious intent of the murderer, meaning to kill the campers anyway, he'd have shot the barking dog, and then proceeded to the campers. That barking dog, and then the shot(s) would have given the campers warning that someone meant them great harm, and it was time to unlimber their artillery against their attacker. Those few seconds of warning MIGHT have made the outcome of the attack, different.

WITHOUT a firearm, however, it would not have mattered if a dog had been present, or not. Dead dog and dead campers.

As with several other posters, I doubt very seriously that the two "very religious" campers ever had a thought whatsoever in their heads regarding "self defense."

What's that old saying?? "The good Lord helps those who help themselves."

L.W.
 
"As with several other posters, I doubt very seriously that the two "very religious" campers ever had a thought whatsoever in their heads regarding "self defense."

Don't be too quick to stereotype the "very religious" and "Christian" to be careless about or hostile to self-defense. I consider myself to be both, and I
have long ago reconciled my determination to defend me and mine with my religion. In fact, I cannot name even one of my Christian friends who would have any qualms about self-defense.

When you have strong convictions about what is right and what is wrong, then you don't torment yourself with personal questions about the righteousness of defending oneself and others.

I personally would never shoot someone solely to protect my possessions. However, he is the one who had better be worrying about whether, in attempting to take my possessions, he gives me any reason whatsoever to believe that he presents a threat to me and my family, because I am not going to waste a lot of time pondering moral dilemmas. I have already done all of the pondering, and so am fully prepared to act. Going out the door with my TV set, he will not be shot in the back. Coming in to take my TV set, he does not get any benefit of the doubt. Grabbing and opening my car door, he does not get any benefit of the doubt.
 
MIKEH- "Don't be too quick to stereotype the "very religious" and "Christian" to be careless about or hostile to self-defense. "
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No stereotyping there, MikeH. I know, and I'll bet you do too, Christians who would NEVER protect themselves against attack, based on various interpretations of phrases found in the New Testament.

As you said, you would, and so would I, but some other Christians would not. It's all in how one interprets certain sayings of Jesus in the New Testament.

As for these two victims, from what I've read of their background and religious beliefs, plus having seen their distraught parents interviewed on teeeveee speaking of the religious beliefs of the their children, I say again, I doubt that "self defense" ever entered their thinking. (If no other proof than where they were "camped" and without any way of self defense.)

By the way, I don't turn the other cheek.

Just my opinion. FWIW. L.W.
 
when your out and about start looking for Two camp sites first one for chow and rest then move to number 2 at dusk or dark .
 
I can't help but wonder if the killer would've kept walking if the two sleeping people were in a tent.
 
I just figured self-defense was the last thing on their mind because nookie might have been the first thing. I did my time at church-camp. Nothing unnatural or sacreligious about nookie, at least not in my religion.

Armed or not, dogs are still nice to have around. A lot of people have an innate fear of dogs. Not me, but a lot of people. May have increased their chances, that's all.

Professor.
 
Did you guys read about the two people who were also shot and killed while in their sleeping bags. They were in Tuscon,and the cops think their could be a connection.

If the cops were to find that the two in Tuscon who were killed had any affiliation to the organization these current victims worked for then they would have some interesting theorys to ponder.
 
I like the Chihuahua suggestion. Doesn't Galco make a concealment holster for those?

Scott
 
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