[PH/CIB]

I knew a Woman once she was in her thirties at the time, who had a Bachelors Degree in Agronomy and worked for an international company in the Midwest as a laboratory manager. She started a business with her live in boyfriend and the man turned into an alcoholic and drank away all the profits and one night came home and beat her severely.

The next morning she told her boyfriend that if he ever beat her up again, he should never go to sleep because he would never wake up again. I have no doubt that she meant it and so did he for he never beat her up again.

My Wife is a gentle loving soul who is extremely frightened of firearms and refuses to shoot with me or be trained in self defense. However like most Women she does not go looking for trouble is a great negotiator and uses subtle ways to accomplish her missions. Those are strongpoints not weaknesses. Most Women and a lot of Men go through life without ever having a violent ecounter except for seeing it on the 5 O Clock news and like Soldiers in Combat think to themselves that will just happen to the other guy and never will happen to me. I have carried a firearm since coming home from Viet Nam in 1969 about 40 years now and in those 40 years only once came close to shooting someone, so statistically people think it is a remote chance of happening to them.

Also I believe a lot of Women and Men in a violent encounter do not believe the criminal will actually kill them and no matter how badly they are beaten or raped or battered it is still not worth killing someone as they will survive the encounter. This may or not be the case and is a roll of the dice, the only way to make sure you survive is to stop or kill your attacker. I also believe that a lot of Women and Men believe that if they fight back that will only enrage their attacker to the point that they will kill them where they would not have otherwise. This again may or may not be the case and the only sure way to survive is to stop or kill your attacker.

You have to use all your skills to stay out of trouble and try to back away or get away or negotiate when trouble confronts you, but you also have to recognize the point at which deadly force is the only way left for you to survive. This is not an easy thing to do, as in combat you sometimes only have a split second to make a decision, shoot to fast and you have killed a friendly in combat, shoot to slow and you are dead. That is why combat and split second self defense situations are so error prone and that is why training and mindset are imperative.

Women and Men will happily buy home and car insurance you simply write a check throw the policy in a drawer or your glove box and forget about it. Self defense requires like soldiering to never be without a firearm in reach whether sleeping or eating or going to the bathroom or anything and carrying a gun all day long and into the night is a burden even with a comfortable holster. You also have to practice , practice, practice to be safe and proficient with a firearm. Also it is a heavy responsibility, where before you could argue with anyone over anything, now even if being thought a coward by friends or family or strangers you must always back down when ever possible.

Many Women and Men trust Law Enforcement and the Military and the Government to take care of them not realizing survival and self defense is an individual responsiblity.

So yes I wish ever law abiding non felon and non mentally incompetent adult whether female or male carried a firearm for protection if they wanted to, but I realize it is just not going to happen unless our Country and the World becomes and even more dangerous place than it already is and none of us wants that to happen.