Weapons

[Emerald_Dragon]

It all depends on "feeling safe" I guess.

I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. twenty miles away is the 6500 population town where the husband works and we do our shopping.

I taught martial arts for years. I don't carry a weapon simply because it would be too easy for a big guy to take it away and use it on me. I worry less about violence on the street, you don't have a lot of control over. Random kidnapping and murder is another story. We have that in our area occasionally.

I know how to damage or kill someone, I know where to hit and people are more vulnerable than they know in many parts of the body. I know exactly how far I would go to defend myself.

Never let them take you alive, you will end up dead in a ditch discovered by some farmer.

 

[cantdog]

Re: that farmer

In the end, arranging for a better death is acceptable, I suppose, if you can't entirely avoid, deflect or defeat the threat.

The point of the laws and other arrangements being debated is that they change the terms of the choices you would face.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

ROXANNE et al

In the paper today.

Two youths robbed a man at gunpoint and shot him.

But the victim had a concealed pistol and killed one of the kids. He then died.

The kid's momma says her son was a good boy.

The other kid now gets tagged with both killings.

 

[Lisa Denton]

I think you missed the point. Or at least you didn't quite adress it.

First of all, let's not confuse things. You exercise your right to live and breathe, by living and breathing. You exercise your right to carry a weapon, by carrying a weapon. And that's that.

Like I said, I don't oppose your right to carry a gun. But what Intercontinental and I pointed at was something else, namely that just because you carry a gun, and know how to aim and hit somethnig with it, doesn't mean that it's nessecary a useful tool for you to defend yourself with against said rapist/murderer.

The question is not whether you carry a weapon or not, but wether you can use it correctly when the hoodlum is rushing at you and you have adrenaline spurting out your ears. Or if you know when other means of defense are more effective.

Unless you've been forced to use a gun, you have no idea whether or not you can actually use one, or if it just feels safe to have one in your purse.

I didn't miss the point Liar, I addressed it and made another. Armed idiots can be dangerous, whether they are law-abiding or murderers.

First of all, I didn't mean to confuse anyone. MY OPINION is that if a criminal wants me to stop living and breathing, and I have my gun, it gives me an option that I wouldn't have had if I was unarmed. I can then use my weapon ... and perhaps .... continue to live and breathe. It may interfere with his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but I THINK a criminal forfiets those rights at the moment he tries to ram a 12 inch butcher knife into my chest.

It is later, if he lives, that we have to assume he is innocent until proven guilty and make sure he doesn't suffer cruel and unusual punishment, and whether I am alive or dead is no longer important. At the moment he tries to kill me I can and will try to make sure he suffers cruel and unusual punishment.

It is not that I know how to use my weapon, practice fire it frequently at the firing range, and know when I can legally use my weapon, I also know not to use it unless I have to as a last resort.

Per your point, there are many instances where my gun would do me no good. If a criminal rushes up to me and shoots me in the head, a gun in my purse would be kinda useless.

Per my point, and since I don't carry my weapon in my purse but in a holster on my waist and have the right to have my hand on it if I see possible danger. If a criminal rushes up and pulls a knife and starts swinging, I have the right to fire a 2 to 3 round burst into his chest.

I never said I know that if in a life threatening situation I would react with total calm, pull my weapon and take a Dirty Harry stance and say "make my day."

My concealed carry permit gives me an option, and that option may, in some instances, give me the right to continue to live and breathe.

If a criminal beats and rapes me for minutes, hours, or days, and then misses when he attempts to sever the artery in my throat, merely living me paralized for life and able to testify against him in court, he will deserve every minute of the few years probation he will get.

And you could say that he did not use his weapon well in a deadly situation.

And as always, JMO.

 

[only_more_so]

"About 18,000 out of 31,000 people who commit suicide in the U.S. every year do so by gun." http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/09.28/firearms.html

Suicide 57 percent of gun deaths in 1991. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/frmdth.htm

The first cite includes the surprising info that there are not real good stats on characteristics of shooting deaths along the lines I described: "Business" and "associational" shootings, crimes of passion, innocent victims of shooting associated with another "predicate" crime like armed robbery. Of course those involved in the first category aren't the most forthcoming witnesses.

BTW, I do vaguely remember seeing some stats supporting my previous statement, but perhaps it just jives with decades of following the daily news: Most shooting death reports suggest gang or drug activity. A few are crimes of passion, or involve, er, highly dysfunctional relationships. Very few are "masked gunman shoots convenience store clerk," and even fewer are "mugger shoots pedestrian in robbery attempt gone bad."

There is actually a very good reason why there are relatively few masked gunman shoots, and mugger shoots, scenarios. Because robbing a person, even at gunpoint, is a much lesser level of crime than actually shooting a gun at another person. Also the doggedness of the police investigating a shooting is much higher than when investigating a mugging.

 

[rgraham666]

I will say it again.

I can't imagine living in a place where I am so frightened of my fellow citizens that a gun is a necessity.

 

[where]

I just carry my tongue with me