It Was the Wolves

By Major Van Harl, USAF Ret.


I recently attended a forensic briefing where a member of a Crime Scene Investigation unit presented a twelve year old case where a dead body was found in the Black Forest area of Colorado Springs. The people in the audience had law enforcement and security backgrounds. The investigator presented a number of photos of a body found dead in a remote area and it was snowing. The photos started out with the photographer standing ten to fifteen feet away from the deceased. The photos moved closer to the body and the audience was asked to give their professional opinion about the alleged crime. Was it a man or a women laying there in the snow? Why was the body laying there in that particular position? Was it a sex crime? Was the person killed somewhere else and the body dumped in that remote location? Everyone had an idea who and why some evil person had killed this poor human being and left the body out in the winter cold.

We were all incorrect in our observations. One of the final photos was of the dead carcasses of two hybrid wolf-sheppard, mixed breed dogs. What everyone in the room was sure was a vicious killing committed by a human was nature in raw action. The person was killed and mauled by these two wolf-sheppard hybrids that were in fact being fed and taken care of by the deceased. Literally, the animals had turned on the hand that fed them.

Guns are selling off the chart in this country right now because of the recent Presidential election. It is widely believed that Obama is anti-gun and that the Democrat dominated Congress plans to enact new and more restrictive guns laws after he takes power. I personally believe that the new President and Congress will at least attempt to do this. The point is that it is time to make your long delayed firearms purchases.

If you go to a gun shop, you will find frightened people buying high capacity handguns and what we call in the industry “black rifles.” (What the press inaccurately calls "assault rifles.") Rifles that have magazines that hold 15, 20 or 30 rounds of ammunition and can put a bullet down range every time you pull the trigger. If you want to own those kinds of firearms, fine, it is your Constitutional right. (Not a privilege!)

For the family living out in the country with no guns in the home, it is time to get serious about your personal safety, with feral animals being a real concern. You need to own a 12 gauge shotgun. It does not have to be some high-end $700 model. You can get a good single shot 12 gauge at Wal-Mart for $120. Even better would be an inexpensive repeater, such as a Mossberg 500 pump gun. You also need a .22 caliber rimfire rifle and preferably a semi-auto one. These two will go a long way in the defense of your home from animals.

In time of large scale crisis (think Katrina), the first thing that happens is the family pets get loose. Dogs do very poorly on their own. Cats will hunt for their food, but dogs have rather lost that skill. Hunger and the pack mentality of dogs will bring that killing for food instinct back. Unlike wild animals who try to avoid humans, feral dogs are not afraid and will hunt people.

Coyotes in Colorado are now hunting deer in packs like wolves and they range into your front yard. Even if you cannot own a firearm because of personal or religious reasons about harming another human, you need to have these tools to permit you to defend yourself against nature.

Maybe the gun laws will not become more restrictive under Obama and the Democrats in Congress, but do you want to find out the hard way? I was in a couple of gun shops on Veteran’s Day and the parking lots were full. I did find it humorous when I observed Obama bumper stickers on cars in the gun shop parking lots. It would appear that even some of the folks who voted for the man have convictions about their right to own firearms. I have friends who own gun stores and in talking with them, I heard of daily sales five times the normal average. If you do not own a firearm, buy a couple and everyone (new gun owner or old) should buy extra ammunition. It is about the wolves, two and four legged.




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Copyright 2008 by Major Van Harl USAF Ret. All rights reserved.


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