Fire4Effect
Member
For several months now I have scrolling through countless threads on this, as well as other gun enthusiast websites, and this particular forum, Strategies and Tactics, seems to be the best place to post my experiences. I have been in the military for alot of years now. I was in Desert Shield/ Storm. I went to Somalia and Bosnia. I've been to Afghanistan and 2 trips to Iraq, and undoubtedly will be making a third one later this year. For anyone interested, I am a helicopter door gunner/ Crew Chief. I've been in firefights, bar fights (I'm 6'-3", 220lbs. I'm the big guy in the bar that people full of liquid courage seem to have a point to prove with),and I've been jumped at ATM's and outside convenience stores. I have a CCW and I carry most all of the time. The point I want to make is this. The crap hits the fan in many different ways and when it does what you know and what you have with you is all you've got. The best investment I ever made was learning martial arts. A CCW does you no good if you don't have time to get it out, and many, if not most attacks, are going to be a suprise with little to no warning and will come from your blind side. Even if you manage to see it coming and get your weapon out an attacker will be on you before you can aim. At best you might get a lucky shot in, more than likely you're going to get knocked down and drop your weapon. Not to mention if you happen to be at a bar or establishment where alcohol is being consumed the CCW is illegal anyway regardless of who starts it. Only in two of the cases where I was jumped did I actually get my CCW out and that was after the initial attack that I used my martial arts training to disarm and disable them that I had time to draw my weapon. In the third instance, when a guy tried to rob me outside of a covenience store he ran off, but the police found him hidng in some nearby bushes since I had broken one of his arms and his knee. Even though he had served time for robbery and assault he still filed charges on me and I had to prove self defense (gotta love that one). So I guess the whole point is, it's the initial reaction that you always have to be prepared for whether it's in combat or at the store. I'm sure most LEO's and people who've been through similar situations and vouch, when it hits the fan it hits fast. A CCW will only work if it's already drawn, and if your idea of SHTF is the post-nuclear, apocolyptic, Mad Max world, then all of your preparations will do you no good unless you are already locked in your bunker when the bomb falls, and with the state of the world these days you never know when or where that may be coming from. My suggestion is learn some basic martial arts and self-defense training first, then learn and practice with your weapons, preferably unloaded. Knowledge, skill, and profiency will save you long before a big, fancy gun will. Thanks for letting me have this space.