Queer female and well…
Like Matt I live in Canada.
Like Even Sven I’m a pacifist.
I refuse to live in fear.
I live in a big city, in a neighbourhood that has it’s share of “unsavory” characters. I have never felt threatened by my environment or the people who inhabit it, and I refuse to be afraid of living my life.
By the way, I have shot a gun. I’m a pretty good shot. I hate guns, and would never, ever raise such a weapon against another human being.
cite?
And not one fromn a site whose whole purpose is to make guns seem as evil as possible.
You guys make me feel so lucky to live in a country/area where I have never been assaulted and I don’t know anyone who has ever been attacked. I can’t imagine living in fear of someone pulling a knife or a gun on me. Although of late, parts of Auckland and other cities in NZ are becoming more violent.
You sound like people from Johannesburg - I believe it is currently the most violent city in the world?
This disturbs me. . .
It’s not the point that the police arriving on scene would do their duty to investigate the facts behind a drawn and fired weapon, but that people have the instinctive fear of the system before the fact.
I think it’s a sad state of affairs in a nation when a person has to fear the reprocussions of defending their lives.
FWIW, I’m a straight male, and carry in the field often, mostly for animals (like bobkitty).
Tripler
If you are afraid enough to draw, the situation should constitute a “clear and present danger” to your life, limb, or eyesight.
Female, don’t have a gun.
I took a self-defense class to learn what to do if attacked. I don’t think carrying a gun would help in most situations. Usually an attacker gets you by surprise, jumps you or grabs you. We learned how to fight back, but I don’t think it would be easy to get to a gun to draw it, even if I had it on me. I would be afraid the attacker would get to it before me. I just want to give him a good kick or punch so I can run away.
If someone just wants money I wouldn’t shoot anyone over it, anyway. I guess it mainly comes down to I just wouldn’t feel safer with a gun, and I would just worry about someone else getting ahold of it. I do think it is a good idea to know how to defend yourself, though. My instructer taught us the first thing on your mind should be getting away, not getting into a further confrontation with a weapon or trying to catch the person.
I simply don’t feel like I’m in much danger. Even at night, and even on the occasions when I’m out alone. (I’m female, btw). I think a big part of it is how you carry yourself, and I always feel confident.
I’ve never as a gay male felt the need to consistently go around armed, although I have in the past “armed” myself with my keys or my backpack because of various threats that were made against gay people in general when I was in college. I’m a large person and I don’t think many individuals would think I was someone they’d want to take on one on one in a physical confrontation. I’ve never been in a situation where a group of people has made any overtly threatening move toward me but I think my size would give even small groups pause (would it be worth taking the damage I look like I could inflict?) Like others in this thread, I am a pacifist but unlike some others I have pondered purchasing a small handgun because I have lived in some rather dicey neighborhoods. Ultimately I’ve decided that a gun is not a good investment for me either monetarily or cosmicly.
I am not gay, nor am I a woman. However, I do possess physical handicapps. This does make me vulneerable to attack/robbery. I protect myself. I have learned to use my crutches in a defensive (as well as an offensive) manner. (I have broken facial bones on two individuals who thought it would be appropriate to harass me.)
I do not walk around armed however. I do own several guns, and am a pretty good shot. I do not carry for the simple reason that because of my handicapps I would be unable to quickly draw said weapon.
I support the right of the individual to keep and BEAR arms. I support concealed carry laws. These make me feel safer.
Female heterosexual checking in here.
Unlike most of the posters in this thread, I have had the need to physically defend myself. In the past, I have experienced
One attempted rape. Result: I have a scrape on my neck and a couple of bruises. The would-be rapist had broken bones.
Two knife attacks. Result: I disarmed my opponent and beat the living shit out of them.
One assault-from-behind. Result: I had a broken rib and spent a few minutes unconcious My opponet required about 150 stitches to put their face back together.
I have never felt a need to walk around with gun, knife, pepper spray, or other weapon. I’m quite dangerous even when “unarmed”. (My oldest sister used to teach self-defense. A good kind of big sis to have.)
I have lived in Detroit, Chicago, and Gary, Indiana, all of which have been declared "murder captial of the world at one time or another. I have found that avoiding trouble, followed by a high-speed run, is the best defensive option.
Currently, about the only place I feel a need to watch my back is Chicago, where I work - but handguns are outlawed, and with the heightened security in buildings over the past year carrying anything that could be a potential weapon is problematic. So it’s just as well I don’t feel a pressing need to carry one.
Where I live, however, guns (and other things) are legal.
That said - a lot of my decisions in this area are based on the fact that I have had defensive training and I am stronger than most women my size and age. If I were disabled, or when I become older and possibly frail, I may choose different options.
I don’t carry a gun because I realize my ignorance about them (never owned one, fired one, do not come from a gun-owning family) and I do not have the proper education and training to safely choose, maintain, or use such a weapon.
I don’t carry a knife because I have learned that it can be surprisingly easy to have it removed from your possession. Also, you do not need a knife to block a knife attack.
I don’t carry pepperspray because firing upwind or having it taken from you can result in YOU becoming disabled as opposed to your attacker - although if my neighbors don’t control their dogs better I might start carrying it on bike rides.
I am a strong supporter of 2nd ammendment rights, even if I have never owned or fired a gun of any sort. It’s an option. For some people guns are a good choice. For others they are not.
My husband, for instance, has a disability that makes it impossible for him to run away from trouble. He has, at times in his life, carried weapons. I’m cool with that - his options are different than mine and he decides accordingly.
By the way - the fear that defending yourself with force, even deadly force, automatically results in long-term legal complications is somewhat exaggerated. My husband was attacked in Chicago and defended himself with a car door and with a knife that unquestionably was beyond legal limits. However, the knife was a tool-type knife, not a hunting knife, which he had as part of his working toolkit (he could have just as easily used a screwdriver, for instance). In other words, it was clearly not primarially a weapon, but rather a tool that could be used as one. Also, he had clearly acted in self-defense, and was disabled, so was more vulnerable than an able-bodied person. Once the attacker fled, he did not pursue. The cops questioned him briefly on the spot, then let him go and there were no further complications.
The point being you DO have a RIGHT to defend yourself - even with deadly force should that be required. You can’t shoot someone in the back - but if an armed attacker is advancing on you and you physically can’t flee you certainly ARE permitted to defened yourself in a physical manner.
Could I kill someone? If it was a matter of life and death - yeah, I could. I wouldn’t enjoy it, and I’d much prefer an alternative, but if I HAD to, yeah, I could. But I want to avoid such a situation entirely.
A good self-defense education - not just a one-day seminar but an actual course of study - is the most beneficial in my opinion. Something that teaches what to look out for, what to avoid, and gives you multiple strategies. The key is to use appropriate force so you avoid excessive force. “Appropriate” is what gets you out of trouble with minimal danger to all involved. For example, when I was almost raped I did NOT stand around continuing to beat the crap out of the almost-rapist - when he hit the ground I ran. I used the necessary force to extricate myself from danger - I did not attempt revenge, retribution, or any of those other concepts that can cause you legal trouble. Now, if the person in question had held a knife to my throat or a gun to my head I might have opted to risk rape rather than death - but that’s not the situation I was faced with. If it had been… well, if fighting an armed attacker will likely get you killed, opting for a painful but non-deadly alternative might make more sense. Again, it’s better to avoid the need to make such choices in the first place. Most of all you need to learn to think quickly because each danger situation is different and you have to make the best choices you can at the time, based on the situation you are dealing with. You learn that by lots of role-playing and practicing various sceanarios.
Oh yeah, and a **pro-**gun site is going to have this information splashed all over their pages. :rolleyes:
Dunno why I should bother since you’ve made it clear you won’t buy it in any regard (but hey, it was only a 1-minute google search):
http://eiconline.org/violence/tipsheet2.html
If you don’t feel like believing the EIC, go grab yourself a copy of Kellerman’s article.
There’s more in-depth info here: http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/issuebriefs/gunhome.asp
but you’ve already decided not to give credence to sites like that. shrug
Ah, the wonderful Kellerman studies. Of course Kellerman only compares suicide/homicides to self defensive uses that involves the death of the criminal, ignoring the fact that in the vast majority of self defensive uses the gun is not fired.
From this site.
Probably less than 5% of US homicides are committed in the victim’s home by killers using guns kept in that home.[15] Further, the slight risk of such an event occurring is almost completely confined to unusually high-risk subsets of the population, since contrary to widespread belief, gun violence is largely confined to persons with a prior history of criminal behavior.[5]
Even within these high-risk groups, it is not known whether the net causal effect of gun ownership is to increase the risks of homicide victimization, given that the gun-homicide association found in the previous research on high-risk populations was at least partly spurious. High-risk groups have a higher-than-average probability of both violence-increasing offensive uses of guns and of violence-reducing defensive uses, but it cannot yet be firmly stated whether the net effect is to increase homicides.
Defensive uses of guns are both effective in preventing injury and more common than aggressive uses, in the home or outside it. The average American household is unlikely to experience a serious gun victimization or to use a gun defensively, but the latter is far more likely than the former. In light of the flaws and weak associations of case-control research, currently available data do not provide a sound empirical basis for recommending to the average American that he or she not keep a gun in the home.
Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun
I see many posters are willing to be assaulted rather than defend themselves. Fine. Are you willing to die or let a family member die? Remember I am talking about a lethal attack, not a fist fight. Just curious…
I’m a straight man, but the primary reason I carry a pocket knife is self-defense, not the fact that it’s a handy tool sometimes. I’ve only considered using it once, when I was accosted by a couple of guys who were obviously looking for a fight. I had the knife open in my coat pocket and was considering which one I was going to cut first when they backed down.
I’d rather carry a gun, but I can’t get a concealed carry permit because of a misdemeanor drug paraphenalia arrest many years ago.
I usually have a knife within reach… in the car, in my coat, whatever. But as I get older, and as the world turns to shit around me, I feel the need to have more.
I have carried a gun before (illegally, don’t do it, I shouldn’t have) and there are parts of town (and hell, one whole state) where I will always be armed if I go there.
As for the dealing with being responsible for the death of another human being… meh. I could shoot up a grade school and sleep well at night.
YEs, I know that’s a socio-pathic symptom. I could care less.
I will drown the world in blood to defend my children and loved ones.
Broomstick basically said what I wanted to, and better. The one time I was assaulted, it was in a situation where I could not have gotten to my gun if I had one. This was before I took any martial arts training, as well. I also live near Chicago and as such you have to be very careful to not violate any gun laws. I’m not willing to risk accidentally scaring other people if a gun of mine were to be seen in an inappropriate situation or to be charged with a gun violation just because of one past incident.
The presence of a gun (or other weapon) escalates the situation automatically. It would very likely get the other person to pull out their gun if they had one, or to try to get me to believe they were no threat and then suddenly attack violently. Having a weapon increases the chance of providing your attacker with another weapon if they disarm you. My husband works for the post office and no longer carries pepper spray due to its unreliability; he finds he’s better off just using his body, his mailbag, his smarts, and occasionally his martial arts training to deal with dog or human attacks.
Because I don’t perceive the world as all that dangerous for women. (Incidentally, most of the people I have met who do perceive the world as dangerous enough to justify carrying a weapon have been men.)
Because, even if I did perceive the world as dangerous, a weapon wouldn’t make me feel safer – I’d be worrying about whether I had enough practice to use it properly and whether it could be used against me.
I keep seeing this comment but does anyone actually have some evidence to support this?
For example, you could equal most police training after about 25 hours of instruction at the most.
Depends on what sort of learner you are. I have a hard time remembering how to do mechanical things unless I do them on a regular basis, and anyway, I have no interest in learning how to use a gun.
Obviously, if you have a gun or other weapon, the chances are greater that the attacker can gain another weapon by disarming you are greater than if you were unarmed. The real question is whether it’s more likely that you will disarm or repel the attacker or that the attacker will disarm you. A question that has a different answer for each person, depending in large part IMHO, on that person’s training and comfort with the weapon.
I can’t speak for all law enforcement agencies’ training policies, but I can give my own agency’s requirements :
New Hires
40 hours on a range - shooting,clearing jams and maintenance
40 hours of officer safety training- essentially cuffing, disarming and weapon retention techniques
Continuing training
15 hours per year on the range - 7.5 qualification and 7.5 tactical (shooting from behind cover, in a car etc)
15 hours in officer safety- cuffing, disarming and weapon retention again
25 hours is certainly enough time to learn to use a firearm.Having had 25 hours of firearms instruction two or five or ten years ago with no practice in between is likely to make that firearm more of a liability than anything else.
That’s cool. I just wanted to mention that as an FYI for anyone that was curious.
My point, though poorly worded initially; thank you for clarifying. I personally feel much more comfortable about trying to disarm an opponent or use something at hand, than to have a gun and be able to use it effectively without risking having it be taken away and used against me.
I also feel it’s far more likely that I would accidentally run afoul of the law in this area if I attempted to carry a gun, than that I would actually have cause to use one (again).