Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Time for a Rehash, past time

Yes, I am still alive.
Sorry I have been dark for so long, 
the fact that I lost "best airsoft blog" to some Hipster with a shaved rat masquerading 
as a dog put me in to a blue funk .
I drowned my sorrows in many a bottle of  Jim Beam premium bourbon, spent many hours walking the streets, chanting and slapping my head with a book of "The 10 Commandments of Aisoft by SCARR"  
(really, I have just been busy at work)

So, I am back and the 1st thing I am going to do is rehash something I wrote a few years ago.
I have seen this coming up again more and more on the various airsoft and RS forums I inhabit.
I think it's time to say it again

From March 25th 2010
   

Security for airsoft and other things in life

We all can't have a super hero hanging around the house, so we need to watch out for ourselves.


I have been perusing the internet the past few days, reading lots of forums for real steel guns and have noticed some things I wanted to talk about.

It seems like we all (airsoft and RS) love to show off our collections online.
Over the last couple days I have viewed some incredible collections of Firearms, High end collectible knives and airsoft guns. They are all on open forums, hooked to a screen name.
That screen name nine times out of ten has a profile connected to it with the hometown of the poster.
Sometimes even the persons real name is also available.
Now lets say you post up a collection of Vrosapale pistols, you are very proud that you have scoured the world to find all models of this unique piece.
A few weeks later you post that you are on your way to the Vrosapale collectors convention half way across the county and you will be off the forums for 5 days. You revel in your Twitter updates about you most recent find at the show, or what a jerk that last guy you dealt with was.
What have you just done?
Have you just told someone that you have valuable items and you will be gone from .to.?
What do you think?

I know you have a gun safe, but don't you think in two days time someone can't get into it, most of the time using tools from your own shop?
What about the other things showing in the pictures, computer systems, flat screens and all the cool movie collectibles in your "man room"?
Do you think bad people don't read Glocktalk, AR15.com or ASR?

I bring this up because years (way too many) ago I was doing the gun show circuit in FL, 51 weekends a year, driving from one end of the state to another, setting up on on Fri, break down and home Sun night.
We had a time when a small group would come to the show on Sunday, tag a dealer that had a nice display and then wait around till close down and loadout and follow him home. Sometimes they hit as soon as the dealer got home or to his shop, sometimes waiting till the next day if it was a collector who worked during the week.
One dealer got killed and a few got hurt and they didn't stop until they screwed up and  got caught.

Now it's 2012, we have Google maps, Google name search, find anyone for 8 dollars and tons of other neat ways to locate an address.
 (and since I wrote this the 1st time, wonderful Google and IPhone apps that can tell everyone exactly where you are , right to the minute.)

Am I too paranoid? (can you be today?)
I learned to keep every thing collectible or rare at an off-site storage location. That and insurance keeps it away from myself and loved ones
.
It does suck that we can no longer have the "Trophy" rooms of yesteryear.
(even if you never have posted a picture, how about the bug guy, meter reader, the guy who trims your trees.
Do you think they might have looked in the window and passed on how cool your cave was?)

From AOL article, 
 Some insurance companies are catching on. Legal & General Insurance in New England says Facebook and Twitter users could be hit with higher homeowner's insurance premiums. Why? All that blabbing about activities away from home means they face a higher risk of burglary.

The company thinks burglars are actually "shopping" for victims on social media sites, looking not only for an indication you're not at home, but also photos of your home and valuables. That cute picture of your son hugging the dog? A burglar is looking in the background, eyeing your big-screen TV and new stereo system.


And it's not just adults. Teenagers are even more likely to post personal information, so Legal & General has warned that parents who aren't even online themselves could face higher homeowner's insurance premiums if their children are online.


So, a month after I post, others catch on, welcome to the party, Pal


Even though I have a overlapping video system with my next door neighbors, a alarm system, Two big dogs and a neighbor on one side who's a Reserve police officer and has a home office where he works that overlooks my house and on the other side is a just retired Navy DEVGRP 20 year man who has nothing better to do than sit on his back porch and shoot guns most of the day (and night, for the past damn week!) I still want to keep the good stuff locked up.
I hate that when I want to review a gun or get ready to go to a gun match or a airsoft game that I have to lay in another 40 mins to go by and pick up what I need, but I would hate to have a shootout at my house or even worse  to come home and find what I had worked 40 years for ransacked and off at some pawn shop.
My stuff is pretty safe and yes, I have gone overboard but it gives me piece of mind that I have done all I can, if I get hit now, that's what insurance is for.

Just some random thoughts that came into my head and I wanted to share them, and because I am old and it's my Blog, I did, Nah nah neey po po

I am losing it
Please share your thoughts on this in the comments.
See you tomorrow
Till then, Check 6
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1 comment:

  1. Not sharing your whole life online is good advice in general for all aspects of our lives. In my case I have a really nice collection of classic airsoft guns (66 and counting) which a few people know I own. At one time back in the 70's when no one locked their doors my family lived in the mountains with only a few neighbors spread around; our house was broken into several times. Each time we lost our real steel guns, which unfortunately included an old 1800's S&W and a Luger with officers holster my late Uncle had brought back from the war. Now as an adult I keep my expensive collection of airsoft guns in a storage facility only I know of. At any given time I have one or two airsoft guns for plinking with and one cheap real shotgun I need in the house for whatever I may need it for. It's not much hassle to go to my shed and get what I want to swapout for target shooting, which is all I do. It would be near to impossible to replace many of the airsoft guns I have and I would not want to have to spend all that money again. Easier to just avoid the social networks and telling the world every minute of your day. I don't think you're being to paranoid, it's the world we live in today.

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