From Guns to Active Intelligent Preventitive Techniques

[swami maximus]

So I posted earlier re: proper protocol for cruising with guns into various countries. Good responses. What I would like to do now is expand the conversation to include intelligent preventative measures to protect one's self and crew should they encounter problematic sorts. Possibly along the lines of the earlier post, maybe making a gun locker sufficient to satisfy keeping it aboard requirements for those types of countries. Creating a locking ports and hatch device to sleep with at night, should anyone sneak aboard, at least buying time. Flood lights, stuff like that. Again, I would ask to keep opinions at bay. Please no, "stupid Americans always anticipating conflict" rubbish like that. Let's just be helpful and courteous and share what we’ve come up with to keep us all safely sailing the world’s ends eh...
Thanks,
Swami

[cooper]

A huge quantity of posts on this subject (out of proportion for the risk in my opinion) do a search ....

[cat man do]

Guns are for one thing only............ KILLING

How can that be good?

Dave

[swami maximus]

cooper:
any suggested search words? locations?

Cat man: i suppose it depends on which side of the barrel one stands...

[Hud3]

The Caribbean Safety and Security Net has a long list of suggested security measures for cruisers at Security Precautions for Cruisers

It also has a database of incidents, by Caribbean region and by island at reports

My wife and I cruised all over the Lesser Antilles in 2004-06, and never had any security issues--no need for guns, Mace, Tasers, billy clubs, etc. We met so many kind and wonderful people in our travels that we decided to move here (Nevis) permanently.

We did encounter some cruisers along the way who seemed to attract trouble with their attitudes, though. Kinda like self-fullfilling expectations.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Guns are for one thing only............ KILLING

How can that be good?

Dave

Originally Posted by swami maximus

Cat man: i suppose it depends on which side of the barrel one stands...

I have a friend who is a 30+ year detective on a police department in a large American city. His home sits on ten acres well beyond the outskirts of the city, in a more rural county. The area is developed, but every home sits on a minimum of five acres.

One afternoon, he noticed an unfamiliar car stop along the gravel road into the area, adjacent to his land. Three people got out of the car and walked from road level down onto his property, one carrying a shovel.

He took his Glock 9mm, told his wife to keep an eye on the people, got into his truck and drove the half-mile or so to where they had pulled over.

He stopped a little way from their car, got out with his gun in his right hand, hanging down and concealed behind his right thigh. As he approached them, he could see the trio was a woman, a young man of about 18 (holding the shovel), and a little girl of about 8. They turned to look at him as he walked to the edge of the road, about six feet higher than the group.

"This is private property," he told them, "You're on my land." The young man didn't take this well, and started up the slope toward my friend, still carrying the shovel. My friend says that had the young man, clearly upset, gotten all the way up to the road level, the gun was coming out, and when a cop shows his weapon, he uses it.

Fortunately, before that happened, the woman spoke up, saying, "I'm sorry. We didn't know. We'll leave."

It was then that the little girl, sobbing, held up a shoe box, and said, "My hamster died."

"We just wanted to bury him in the mountains," the girl's mother said. "We'll look for another place."

Now that he understood the situation, my friend told them it would be OK to bury the hamster right there, but to bury it deeply because the coyotes would dig it up otherwise. He got back in his truck and drove home without the people ever having seen the gun.

When he first told me about this, I could see that it haunted him. His wife said it ruined his whole weekend. I can only imagine how everyone involved would have had their lives irrevocably shattered had that young man taken those last couple of steps up to the road.

Had that actually happened, one young man would be dead, and two entire families would have had to bear the overwhelming burden of his death, all because of a mistaken assumption.

So while it certainly matters which end of the gun a person is on in the split-second when it's fired, in the aftermath, it may not matter at all.

TaoJones

[Kanani]

Here's the problem with sealed lockers on a boat.

Boat burglaries are far more common when a boat is unattended than it is when the boat is attended. If someone breaks into the boat, opens the sealed locker and steals the contents, the boat owner is still liable for the contents of the locker.

For instance, you come into the country and have a lot of booze that you would rather keep on the boat. Customs will inventory the booze then seal the locker. If the locker is then broken into, the boat owner is liable for the tax on that booze. The consequenses for fire-arms are much more dire in most countries.

You must realize that the boat owner is totally liable for everything in that locker until the boat leaves the country. Filing a police report that the items were stolen will do little to satisfy customs and in some countries will end you up in jail if you have allowed fire-arms to be removed from your vessel. The boat owner has a real problem on his hands, if that occurs.

[AnchorageGuy]

We have never checked into a country that would allow the gun to be kept on board under any circumstances and it was removed by the authorities. You would have to lie about it being on board and you really, really, don't want to do that.

[Alan Wheeler]

We have already given enough Bandwidth to this subject. As Chuck has stated, countries outside the US will remove all Firearms. If you try to hide them and Authorities find them, you be in seriouse seriouse trouble. What you want to do within US waters is up to you and not a discussion we want to go into here.