This thread is very telling.
Most likely no one on here would have an issue being looked at through a spotting scope - heck, most of you have looked at folks through spotting scopes before and never thought twice about it.
Now, we mount that spotting scope in an old rifle stock-which is nothing more than a hunk of firewood when you get right down to it-and suddenly if we look at someone through that same spotting scope, we've done something worth being shot over.
Now why is this? Because that hunk of firewood makes it appear to be a rifle. But it isn't a rifle. There is no possible way on God's green earth that a spotting scope stuck in a rifle stock is ever going to fire a bullet and kill someone. It's no different than a spotting scope mounted on a tripod. The difference is that we percieve it to be some sort of threat.
But here's the fascinating thing-through this entire thread,we know that we're dealing with a spotting scope here. We know it's not a rifle. Yet people are still saying they would shoot someone if they pointed such a contraption at them. Folks that wouldn't blink if they were being looked at by a spotting scope on a tripod would suddenly kill a person simply because said spotting scope was stuck in a gun stock.
Brian.
