Quote:
Posted by Cooter Brown:
Does anyone else here find this interesting?
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Not really. You can’t draw any conclusions from that. In a forum, people usually speak up about things that are interesting to them and what they want to talk about at the time.
I purposefully picked two stories that I believe are out of the ordinary and where both sides ended up "winning" (out of the ordinary in itself, imo).
I like out of the ordinary stories. They’re more fun than the normal stuff that is expected, and I suspect most people share this trait. So … that’s why I posted them. Plus, I remember them best because they’ve been thought about more and told more times because I really like it when everybody wins.
Most of my stories would be "bad guy threatens", and ones that I don’t care to dwell on or recount because they seem more ordinary. Also, some remind me of bad times that I don’t particularly care to relive. I kinda hate to admit it, but offhand, I have no idea of how many weapons have been pulled on me by bad guys intending harm to me (or others).
Anyway, anecdotes don’t justify, they illustrate. If you want to justify carrying a weapon, look to the hazards you might possibly encounter, weigh the possibilities of you being able to protect yourself with and without a weapon against your desire to exercise your right to protect yourself, responsibilities incurred by carrying, and decide if carrying is right for you. In the end , it’s just a personal choice that you have the right and responsibility to correctly make. The choice is justified by your percieved need and your right to do so, nothing more. Nothing more is necessary, imo.
To me personally, its usually too much of a PITA to carry. Several people that know the areas I work in think I’m crazy not to. Fine, they can lug around a heavy thing that snags on stuff at every turn and ends up covered in sweat in the 100 degree heat … if they want to. I’m taking the chances I prefer, and they take theirs.
This is not to say that I am unprepared, nor that others choose to carry unnecessarily in the areas that I frequent. I simply prepare differently, and in a way that might not be right for them.
just to get back on topic, another "out of the ordinary" one with a bad guy about to do harm (a 2-for 1 really.) ... from 1986. I quit working in bars a long time ago
A coworker was backing away and yelling my name, his name, and "it’s me" after he pulled a gun on me. … I came to my senses (it only took a second or so but that can be a long time). He would have been fully justified in shooting, no doubt in my mind at all about that. Recognizing his voice "brought me back" after his pistol caught my attention. I don’t think either voice or gun would have done the trick alone, but there’s no way to know, and I had him cornered. Me being "out of it" wasn’t due to alcohol or drugs, if that’s what you’re thinking. I was "on" adrenaline and whatever other natural juices were dumped into my bloodstream after getting mad … He came up immediately after I had been attacked by a few bad guys in the parking lot of a bar where I was spinning records. (The only reason they had given for the attack was that they didn’t like the music I was playing. I was unarmed to begin with, only one of them had a pistol. I also remember a tire iron and a knife, but not much else. I think the other two were unarmed but I've never known for sure. Memory of the actual fight is sketchy because I blacked-out during it.)