Have You Changed Anything Relating To Self Defense Recently?

The 6906 is a nice carry gun. Wish they would keep making them.

 

We do not visit Baltimore anymore, at all.
I added a Surefire X400 Ultra to my Sig 516.
https://www.surefire.com/illumination/weaponlights/handgun/x400u-a-ultra-red-led-weaponlight.html

 

I shoot MORE and practice drills MORE and MORE OFTEN.

 

Started taking spatial awareness trainings to better recognize surroundings and flag issues faster

 

Added a KelTec p32 hot weather shorts / sweats CCW option

Switched to a p365 for IWB

 

Well I am always looking for ways to improve my equipment, ammunition and firearms. Every since a nearby mass shooting on February 25, 2016 I have been working on improving my shooting skills along with my equipment, ammunition and guns so the recent events are not causing me to make changes. They are reinforcing my decision to continue to do what I have been.

However in the spirit of your question I made two changes in July to my Beretta 92 which is my edc.

The most important change was changing my 92 from FS to G. I carry it with the safety off and only use it to decock the gun. Then one day I looked in the mirror and saw the safety was on. I realized this was a real problem for me. Therefore I converted it to G (decocker).

While I was at it I also installed a oversized magazine release assembly made by Beretta. This was something I had been intending to do for all long time but never seemed to get around to it.

 

No change in the hardware. I still carry either my J frame .357 or my L frame
.44. With a speedloader in the weak side front pocket . But I am working to improve my situational awareness, and scanning for exit routes for myself and other civilians.

 

Violent crime in general peaked in 1990 or 1991, IIRC (the crack cocaine thing) and has been generally dropping ever since. Mass shootings get a lot of media coverage, but are statistically not very significant.

Carrying to protect yourself against mugging, car-jacking, sexual assault, etc. makes perfect sense. Those things unfortunately happen fairly often. Probably everyone knows someone who has been a victim of that sort of crime (whether you know it or not). Very few people know someone who was killed in a mass shooting.

So... I drive a worthless looking vehicle, pay attention when I am loading groceries or gasoline into it, pay a lot of attention in parking lots and other places I may be walking, and prefer to dress and appear like someone who probably doesn't have much money on them. But I do have an easy-to-carry handgun that is quick to draw and that I'm accurate with. Since they are generally useful, I prefer to have a knife, too.

EDC by Tallball posted Feb 10, 2019 at 1:35 PM

 

I went a step further and my car is manual transmission with wind up windows and no auto door locks and no cruise control or rear camera or electric mirrors or mag wheels or ...

 

No. I carry for the same basic reasons as Tallball has mentioned and to give myself more of a fighting chance if I'm faced with one of those situations he mentioned. I don't train for every conceivable threat. It's worked for my first 69 years so I can probably get through the last of the fourth quarter of the game.

 

No changes. Still a G19 with a G17 reload most days, and my flashlight, knife, and low-rent trauma kit (tourniquet, gloves, quick clot, Israeli bandage) still ride along in the bag I carry every day.

 

"I went a step further and my car is manual transmission with wind up windows and no .door locks and no cruise control or rear camera or electric mirrors or mag wheels or ..."


My truck was originally a "three on the tree". The shift linkage parts were made of unobtanium, and the conversion to a floor shifter kept breaking welds, so I finally had an automatic put in. It looks like Jed Clampett should be driving it. I figure my chances of getting carjacked or having it stolen are near zero, since it is one of the most easily recognizable vehicles in our area and probably not worth $500.

IMHO, looking like a crazed hillbilly without a cent to his name probably does more to protect me than the handgun in my pocket.

If you are wearing "rich people clothes", expensive watches/jewelry, driving an expensive vehicle, and not paying attention, you are making yourself an attractive target.

 

I get the logic of what you are saying, but poor people are victims of crime much more frequently than rich people. Criminals are perfectly happy to break into busted old vehicles to see if there's a gun in the glove box or an envelope of cash (cash is something poor people often use in greater amounts than the affluent).

The paying attention part - yes, very much that.

 

LoL. They will find no money or guns in the vehicle I usually drive; the doors don't even lock.

Admittedly, I also live and work in a low-crime area, and there is a full-time police officer (and cameras) at my job site. If someone wants to steal it from my driveway, so be it. It is worth practically nothing and sticks out like a sore thumb.

I dress "professionally" on official work days, but slacks and a polo shirt maybe don't override my ragged looking vehicles. (I also have an ancient coupe and an ancient sedan.)

Having your head on a swivel is extremely important in parking lots, when getting gas, and so forth. I squelched a mugging attempt a few years back just by turning unexpectedly and looking menacing. It helps to be a very large person, but being aware and decisive was maybe the larger part of it.

Is it possible that someone is psychologically more intimidating when they have an undetected firearm on them? I am not sure, but sometimes it seems like there is more "pep in my step" and people maybe give me a slightly wider berth when I am carrying. Perhaps that's a kind of "chicken and egg" thing...

Anyway, I've been trying to emphasize in a couple of posts here that there is a lot more to your overall self-defense strategy than what you carry, how, and what it's loaded with. For instance, my home is probably more secure because of the loaded weapons normally within arm's reach or a few steps away from me, but the two large and loud dogs who live inside probably do more to ensure its safety.

 

Estimating here, but 95% of the federally run civilian agency buildings and offices I’ve been in, and I’ve been in a lot, have NO security at all. There is someone sitting at the front desk to help visitors, and they have been given no training at all aside from how to answer the phone.

 

Agree totally with your thoughts.

Being situationally aware and keeping your head on the swivel are THE most important part of SD in my opinion. Avoid the threat when you can and detect it as quickly as possible when you can’t.

I actively avoid crowded places and limit my adventures into civilization to one day about every two weeks.

 

Since most of my close encounters in life have occurred in parking lots that’s where I focus my situational awareness sharply. And naturally that hones the other areas as well.

This summer I have made it a hard fast rule that I don’t touch my phone while in a parking lot. I don’t care if it is ringing, chiming, or vibrating. I wait until I get inside the store or locked truck before looking at it. I’m amazed how the majority of folks in parking lots are texting as they are walking and so oblivious to what’s going on.

The other thing I’ve been working on lately is not to be so focused and in such a hurry while loading groceries, it turns off the awareness switch. So I 360 scan before opening the door. I load a few bags, stop, scan 270 behind and beside me. Load a few more, scan 180 in front. Repeat and rinse until done.

These things still take cognitive effort and I have to remind myself to slow down and not worry about the next errand or appointment.

 

I think most people have changed something in their carry routine even if they won’t admit it. Myself I have become more aware of my surroundings and carrying a bit more gun. I lead a pretty quite life but you still have to be aware.

 

If “recently” is a reference to the mass shootings, in Texas and Ohio, causing me to change anything, well, no. I recently ordered a couple of lefty holsters, as a general change from my right hand being the “strong” hand, as my right thumb, hand, wrist, and shoulder are not aging as well as my corresponding left-side body parts.

I am actually left-handed, but “right-armed,” and functionally ambidextrous with most handguns. I decided to carry on my right hip, for several tactical and utilitarian reasons, when I started a police academy, in 1983, which was well before Texas had a license-to-carry system in place. I retired from the PD in early 2018, which freed my handgun choices from being something that was compatible with my somewhat limited duty pistol choices, and experimented with several types of handguns. This experimentation was hampered by a left rotator cuff injury, which did not really heal until relatively recently. So, personal factors have driven my schedule of changes in handguns.

I am still sorting-out which grips I want to use on my new-to-me Speed Six and S&W 64-2 snub-guns, but the ultimate “winner” of my experimentation appears to be that medium-frame and medium-large-frame .38 Special/.357 Magnum revolvers have, probably, returned to being my default choices for daily carry. If I have to face an active, mass-homicidal person, and I am going to engage with a handgun, well, I shoot a GP100, or comparable S&W DA revolver, especially if it has high-profile sights, more consistently* better than any other handgun, especially when I factor both of my hands into the equation. (Glocks are my “lefty” autos; the 1911 is my “righty” auto, and long-stroke DA is my “ambidextrous” preference, whether revolver or auto.)

DA revolvers were my mandated 24/7 handguns from March 1984 to March 1995, and then, my default “primary” handgun choice from late 1985 to 1991, 1993 to 1997, and remained my off-the-clock personal carry choice, much of the time, until 2017, when water damaged my favored S&W Model 19-5 during Harvey. That prompted a period of mostly carrying Glocks, during personal time.

So, my recent change, to mostly Ruger revolvers, is a return to normal, which is also a return to my best long-range accuracy potential, which I see as important to STOPPING a killer. The limited ammunition capacity is not a concern, because if I carry one gun, I usually carry another, and, because, “trading shots” with a killer is no way to win a fight, regardless of what handgun I am using.

The second gun is not only a “back-up” weapon, but also because I am accustomed to reflexively reaching for 0300, in an emergency, and I want something to be there, at 0300, even when “primary” is now left-side. The last time I routinely wore a revolver on each side was 2002-2006, when, during personal time, it was either a pair of SP101 fiveguns, or a 4” medium-sized revolver and a 2.25” or 3” SP101. (In 2006, I worked a non-railed P229 into the mix, nicely compatible with the bulkier, railed P229R I had adopted as a duty pistol in 2004.)

*I shoot a 1911 as well as a GP100 or suitably-configured S&W sixgun, on a good day. Not all days are good, which favors the long-stroke DA revolver.

 

To add a bit to my above reply, mass shootings, and multi-suspect take-down robberies, have happened often enough, close enough, to keep me on my toes. The most recent was a lawyer, who started shooting at morning commuters with a rifle, on a side street very near Weslayan Plaza, in Houston, where we shop at a Randalls grocery store, Bering Hardware, Bike Barn, and Petco. The national and international press wrongly declared this to be a “mall shooting,” when, actually, the shopping center was the staging area, for first responders, NOT the true site of the shooting.

 

What have I changed? Not much, really. I have gone through my cyclical phase (again) of deciding not to be a slave to my carry piece. School is back in session, so that means taking my gun off me to walk my daughter to the door, driving to work, stuffing it back in the holster, dressing around it...bah.

I carry a pocket gun. Usually a .380 or a hammerless .38 that I can lock in the truck for the 5 minutes I am gone. I don't usually carry a reload. I am in no way a sheepdog who will take down an active shooter with my flint-hard constitution and unwavering shooting hand. Sorry. Personal protection for me is....well, personal. I didn't start carrying a gun to fix the ills of society. I carry a gun to get home to my wife and daughter. I'm not LEO or Military or even a student of hard-knock back alley fistfights. I buy and shoot guns for fun as well as to keep a working familiarity and accuracy in my groupings. That's my honest education.

I'm a regular guy. I dress casually. I am overly polite. I'm a solid 200lbs that doesn't look like he has anything on him worth trying to take. I keep my head on a swivel and have always had a good Spidey Sense for trouble. In a bad situation you don't want me trying to make spectacular headshots. What I do have is a level head to a clinical degree that I am nearly callus in my calculations, so in all honesty, short of being backed into a corner my firearm will be far down the list of tools I would rely on should things go sideways. Angles and avenues of escape and evasion would be my goal. Don't freak out. Avoid the herd. Keep low and stay out of the probable path. Most people that come in to a retail building head right first. It's how they are laid out. You are mostly programmed to head that way. A person that isn't just firing into a group of people (the herd I would be trying to avoid) will most likely start that direction if his targets are at random. Head left, hit the rear fire doors. Grab as many folks not freaking out that can keep up as you can and bust out of there.

Now for day to day protection I just play the odds. Foolish, I know. 5 rounds in my pocket is better than nothing. I'm not going to let the media scare me into fearing a mass shooting. I'm also not going to let those without an LEO background who choose to carry a duty size pistol with 120 rounds of ammunition and a back up on their ankle on their person persuade me into believing that their is a boogieman hiding in every shadow. If it ends up being the death of me, I promise I won't get mad if you say, "I told you so." The Universe will punch my ticket when it punches my ticket.

 

I have been relying on the same handgun for years. Recently I have switched ammo from Gold Dot and HST to Federal Syntech.

 

In short, kind of.

Guns aside, my "even in gym shorts, taking a nap on the couch" pocket knife I consider more of a literal tool instead of a weapon. Of late it has been a Gerber. It's fine, it cuts boxes and opens mail as well as any sharp chunk of metal.

But it's a large, serrated Tanto style. Which is three strikes against it for me. I prefer ~2&1/2" plain blades.

I finally got around to calling up Spyderco and ordered new pocket clips for my Endura Wave and Tenacious. Installed both this morning and sharpened them up to arm hair shaving sharp. The Endura took a little more work.

The Endura Wave is my all time favorite pocket knife. GREAT steel, good utilitarian blade shape, very light weight and the fastest to deploy of any knife I've ever handled short of a fixed blade. Great handling too, very secure in the hand.

The Tenacious is a great, cheaper, heavier, back-up. But it is what it is, my distant second favorite.

This is my second Endura Wave after I beat the holy heck out of my first to see what it could actually stand up to. I was very impressed with every facet of it. It's currently on its 3rd pocket clip. The first one went through two before the last 1/4" of the tip chipped off.

It's like having an old friend in your pocket for me.

 

No changes in my program. ...but you guys got me thinking. So, i'll probably I'll practice more with defense ammo (mainly, I am shooting reloads) and go with some changes to the carry rotation. (less pocket carry).

 

I love my Spyerdco knives also. I'm pretty sure one of them is an Endura. I can't take them to work, but if I go anywhere else, one of my Spyderco or Benchmade knives goes with me.