Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters So...how bout Charles Askins, Jr.?

� if ever in a poop-hits-the-fan situation such as a collapse of society......I'd want folks like Askins on my side. � I'd much prefer one who "enjoyed" killing than one who drove me up the wall with hand wringing and whimpering.

I understand your point Ken, but I'd feel very comfortable. Just as in the situation you mention....Askins didn't "pretend" to like the man and acted on that feeling.

As I stated earlier, I believe a man would know at all times where he stood with Askins and I like that. I have some of the same tendencies and although it is uncomfortable for some (that's why I tend to be a loner)....I don't "pretend" to like someone just because it is socially expected.

I feel that's the "problem" with Askins.....he never tried to be "politically correct" and said what he meant. Most can't handle raw honesty.

All of this strikes me as very "holier than thou".

� I suspect there were some he didn't write about.

The thing I've learned from this thread is that if ever in a poop-hits-the-fan situation such as a collapse of society......I'd want folks like Askins on my side. I already knew that as he was honest and didn't pretend to be something he wasn't.

The last time I saw Charlie (NRA or SCI convention hall � he and I were old friends by then), I was with a man whom Charlie didn't like. He snarled at us and abruptly turned away when I greeted him. I wouldn't dare to entrust my back to such a man in any sort of tense bullets-may-fly-any-second situation.

Askins sounds a lot like John Wesley Hardin. Same cloth. Some remember Hardin fondly.

When push comes to shove, homicide doesn't care which direction your enemy is facing.

Audie Murphy killed two Italian officers who were riding away. Shot them in the back. He writes about it. We hail Murphy. However, some would have called those killings murder.

I'm not defending Askins. But I'm simply not going to pass judgements from heresay.

It is quite possibly true that he was a sociopath. Perhaps he had a "taste" for it. Or, maybe it was all made up.

The account mentioned where he shot a German soldier in the kidney was a result of the German soldier sabotaging army vehicles. I'm wondering if the tampering ceased after that.

But one can't hail John W Hardin in one breath and condemn Askins in the other.

One can't call him a back-shooter as if it's purjorative and say Murphy was a saint.

One cannot truly vilify a man who shoots an enemy at arms length and laud the man who shoots one from ambush at 500 yards. Or the artilleryman who does the same enmass from 10,000 yards!

Killing, whether intimately or remotely, is what man is good at.

I get the same distasteful feeling when I see a goose hunter laughing like a schoolgirl when his goose plummets from the sky and bounces across the cornfield. I believe there are a lot of men who kill geese and enjoy it, who never truly faced another man who would have killed them given the chance.

Again, I'm not defending Askins. But sanctimony aside, he saw some things.

Dan

� A man like Charlie is exactly who I'd want by my side if the bullets started flying. A man with his ability and experience would increase my chances of survival by lowering the enemy numbers quickly.

Even if I could be sure that Charlie was "on my side," I couldn't trust him not to shoot me in the back for whatever "reason" might move him to action at the time.

Do you know more about Charlie than you have stated or is this a gut feeling?

� I expect if it was you and Charlie Askins in a lifeboat, it wouldn't be two of you for very long.