If you plan to ski or snowboard in the USA then be prepared, guns are real and they’re at a ski resort near you.
Forget the double black diamond runs, the off piste couloirs and the backcountry avalanches, the deadliest thing at a ski resort could be sitting next to you on a chairlift.
As an Australian (a country of intelligent gun management, not control, management) in the USA I constantly have to remind myself “don’t mention guns.” Clearly I have the memory of Dory in Finding Nemo and find myself after one too many drinks bringing up the “gun issue” and winning no friends for it. You would be surprised how many people talk about peace, love and powder but have no issue with semi automatics.
At my rate there is surely going to come a day when I mention guns and the person I am talking to is holding and decides to shut me up with a single shot (and I’m not talking Jaegermeister).
Concealed weapons are legal in many states of America and some of those states don’t even require a licence for that weapon. So next time you get into the confined space of a gondola just nod and smile at all around you. For god’s sake don’t have a deeper conversation or debate because there are guns all around you.
You may think I am being dramatic but there’s already trouble in powder paradise where the only guns being fired should be snow guns adding more powder (not fire arms powder) to the slopes. Earlier this year gun shots were fired in a parking lot at Snow Valley Mountain Resort in California, not once, not twice but four times.
The woman with the hand gun thought shooting it into the air would stop the brawl her husband was in with some other not so bright individuals in the car park.
Now some guy who was skiing with a gun holster and a loaded gun at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming apparently ‘lost’ his loaded 9mm on the hill and it was handed in to Lost & Found. Really, America? Do I need to even point out what would have happened if a child found it in the snow or or or or? Did I already mention a child?
Here’s the thing. Carrying that gun under his ski jacket is NOT illegal. Carrying it loaded is NOT illegal. Losing it on the mountain is NOT illegal and finding it at lost and found is NOT illegal.
But what on earth do you need a gun at a ski resort for? Please, please tell me because I just…don’t….get….it. He would probably say he was going to hunt deer and do it humanely with respect and kindness and that’s why he needed his gun.
Trust me no deer that is shot is appreciating the supposed ‘respect’ you have for it’s carcass at the point of death. And yes, I eat meat and yes, I have touched a gun in the backcountry (long and disturbing story that just reinforces the fear of guns in America).
Or maybe he was just fulfilling his god given right to bare arms. I would like to think it is my international and humane right to ride a chairlift without fear of being shot.
Or it was for protection. Protection from what? Snowboarders? Beginners on the bunny slopes? Long lift lines? That snow bank that tried to kill him?
I know, I know, don’t mention the gun issue.
PS. If you want a terrifying insight into the minds of those that carry guns while skiing then just read the comments section of this Facebook post from Teton Gravity Research.
PPS. If you really want to freak yourself out before hitting a USA ski resort then put in the places you intend to visit into this ‘Gun Deaths Map’ and find out how many shootings there have been within a certain mile radius.
