Do you ever find it strange how much thought is put into self defense, yet .......

[Bigmike79]

Do you ever find it strange how much thought some people put into self defense, yet they neglect the biggest and most controllable threats to their lives.

I was just thinking about this the other day after listening to a buddy of mine talk about how he generally doesn't feel safe anymore without carrying a firearm. In a lot of ways a totally get it because I sorta feel naked leaving the house without at least a little pocket gun anymore too. All this thought and concentration in regards to a situation that is extremely unlikely to ever happen.

A lot of carrying has to do with exercising one's personal freedom to do so as much as it does to do with actually defending one's self. I totally get that, but what I don't get is how some people are so prepared for a defense situation, but they neglect a lot of very controllable dangers in their life. The very guy I speak of is scared to leave his house without a gun, but he left my house driving in the snow in a 20 year old vehicle with no studs or even snow tires. The guy is also over 100lbs overweight and drinks half a bottle every night.

I'm not really trying to bad mouth the guy, but he's probably thousands of times more likely to get in a major auto accident, have a heart attack or develop a cancer than he is to get in a gun fight. I'm sure there are tones of things in my life that are far greater dangers to me than armed attackers such as drowning in the river or wrecking my mountain bike, yet I have spent way more time and money on defense ammo in my life than I have on life jackets or bike helmets.

Do you ever have a moment of clarity with this type of stuff?

 

[BigBore44]

Yes. But the BigMac and bottle kill slowly.

 

[ontarget]

I kind of see your point but have a different take on it. Of course most of us know there is a one in a million chance we will ever use our firearm for a defensive purpose. But that is to defend against something that may be very much out of our control. Yes I know we can do our best to stay away from the wrong side of town and all that stuff, but you never know. Stuff happens even in the better areas too. That being said, your friend, like many others probably neglects and/or takes for granted the things he feels like he IS in control of, such as driving in snow or what he weighs and how much he drinks.
To me, carrying a concealed weapon is about insurance against things I don't have any control over.

 

[WestKentucky]

It’s all about fear. We fear what we don’t know. We fear even more what we do know but can’t control. We understand that a Big Mac is bad but we subconsciously give it a green light because we CAN eat a salad tomorrow to make up for it...we control it...then we choose to eat another Big Mac because one of these days a salad will happen. We don’t know, and can’t control when we will be rammed by a car so fear led us to control part of the scenario with seat belts, airbags, and impact absorption zones. We don’t know if we will ever be in a gun fight but we do know that it’s possible, so we try to control part of the scenario.

Fear death? How many religions address an afterlife? Fear bears, how many products are on the market? Fear identity theft there’s lifelock.Fear being alone...pets, spouses, groups, retirement homes...

We like to think that we control our lives but we are gripped by and caught up in a life of fear, so we use our lives to minimize those fears, and sometimes that comes at great expense.

 

[PegLegPeat]

I am amazed how many people own a gun, but not a fire extinguisher.

 

[WestKentucky]

I am amazed how many people own a gun, but not a fire extinguisher.

I’m amazed that it hasn’t been mandated by law that a person own a serviceable extinguisher. We are required by law to have insurance for when incidents happen, boaters are required to keep an extinguisher on the vessel... boats to cars is not a huge gap to bridge.

And just for the record while on this topic, it is required that you own one and have it readily available if you are a licensed foster parent.

 

[E.D.P]

In las Vegas we get a lot of "out of no where, " shootings, a couple years ago a husband and wife gunned down 2 police officers at a Cc's pizza, then they went across the street to a wal mart, a bystander with a CCW tried to shoot the husband but neglected to see his wife and she shot him. They ended up dying in that Wal mart when the police got to them. I'm all for being over prepared

 

[Hokie_PhD]

After the campus shooting I survived, one of my coworkers wanted to learn self defense. I had her come to one of my martial arts classes to learn basic skills. From the beginning I emphasize situational awareness.

Her response was that she didn’t want to “live like that”. So she gave up. She claimed that it was living a paranoid life and that constantly scanning the area around her was too much work.

She now tell her students that I’d someone breaks into her classroom for everyone to throw objects at them. She doesn’t want to hear that the ensuing chaos would make a bad situation worse. As someone who travels a lot she’s the perfect victim and the kind of target criminals look for.

Studies show that those of us who train in martial arts are much more aware of our surroundings than those who aren’t. We tend to make ourselves less likely to be victims by scanning what’s around us, by walking more confidently and we tend to take better care of ourselves. Criminals will often pass on us and instead go after someone like my former coworker over us.

I guess my point is it all boils down to lifestyle, OP is right in that I can train in martial arts, be physically fit, practice with my firearms, have a secure home but if I neglect my trucks brakes, or don’t look both ways when crossing the street I’m more likely to be harmed in an accident than being attacked.

None of us is perfect and we all have areas that we can improve on. And we all make mistakes from time to time. The best we can do is to keep working to improve on our weaknesses and keep up our skills in the things we do well.

 

[Bfh_auto]

I am amazed how many people own a gun, but not a fire extinguisher.

I see your point, but flour, baking soda, a damp towel, and many other things can double as a fire extinguisher, nothing doubles as a firearm. I don't like the corrosion caused by them and only use it for extreme cases.

 

[Bigmike79]

I am amazed how many people own a gun, but not a fire extinguisher.

I have to be honest, I don't own a fire extinguisher.

While I don't engage in a lot of activities that are fire risks in my home outside of cooking, the odds of waking up to a a furnace or electrical fire in an older home like mine are probably still much greater than being robbed where I live.

I think I'll pick one up at Walmart or Home depot tomorrow when I'm in town. I would rep you twice if I could.

 

[Bigmike79]

I see your point, but flour, baking soda, a damp towel, and many other things can double as a fire extinguisher, nothing doubles as a firearm. I don't like the corrosion caused by them and only use it for extreme cases.

True, but none of those things are in the same universe in regards to the effectiveness of an actual fire extinguisher when something goes up in flames very quickly.

Comparing flour, baking soda, or a damp towel to a legitimate fire extinguisher is like comparing a baseball bat to a gun. There is no comparison.

 

[Bfh_auto]

True, but none of those things are in the same universe in regards to the effectiveness of an actual fire extinguisher when something goes up in flames very quickly.

Comparing flour, baking soda, or a damp towel to a legitimate fire extinguisher is like comparing a baseball bat to a gun. There is no comparison.

Good comparison.
I view it like a confrontation, start small and escalate as needed.
Not every fire needs an extinguisher, but that one time it does pray you will have one.
Not every confrontation needs a gun, but if it does...

 

[rskent]

I sort of blame the TV. Every time you sit down to relax with a little TV you get bombarded with violence. I can’t remember the last time
I sat through a cop show without seeing at least one of them shooting someone and/or crossing the line ethically. On the news, they’re
not going to miss a chance to show a nice juicy domestic shooting. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone done in by a Big Mac.
Just not good TV, I suppose.

Random thoughts:

The last time I ate a Big Mac I felt like crap for the rest of the day.

I do have a fire extinguisher in my workshop.

 

[Deus Machina]

I do make sure to keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and workshop, I always wear a seat belt, have never ridden a motorcycle without a helmet and armored jacket, I'm in a slow process to quit nicotine completely, and I'm 5 pounds below 'ideal' weight, let alone average, now that I've lost the muscle mass from riding a bike 8 miles either way between home and work.
Reasonable precautions.
You don't see many people watching out because Big Macs and the bottle don't cause sudden dramatic problems if you're otherwise responsible. Certain death or injury is one thing when someone kicks in your door and it happens in a matter of seconds, they're completely out of mind when they occur over a couple decades.

 

[Robert]

Healthy living and proper home safety equipment are not topics for THR.