Okay, apart from getting out of traffic tickets (there was an earlier thread on that...), who has actually had occasion to put their concealed weapon to good use? What were the circumstances, and how did it come out? I guess current LEOs don't really count on this one, since they have their own set of requirements.
Just contemplating the pros and cons myself, and curious about how many folks have really had a time when they needed to be packing heat. For myself, the list of problems which I'd want to solve with a handgun is fairly short, and not your everyday kinda events either... those of you who carry on a regular basis, is it a 'just in case' thing, or something you seriously expect to use (and maybe even more than once) in your lifetime?
I live/work in a major city not in the wilds of Alaska on horseback, needing to be concerned with bears, horses breaking their legs, etc; I'm rarely far from a police dispatcher, have a cellphone, and there are few things I could shoot that I wouldn't later have to worry about being arrested and/or sued over- so the stakes would have to be pretty darned high. I live in a small apartment in a fairly safe area, with neighbors on several sides, so if it came to defending myself against an intruder I'd rather use one of the many melee weapons around the house than start firing rounds into the walls; I've studied a number of martial arts, and run a prop weapons business, so in my small apartment it's hard to be more than three steps away from a sword, stick, or something along those lines.
Thanks for any input.
Okay, back to lurking for me now...
Just contemplating the pros and cons myself, and curious about how many folks have really had a time when they needed to be packing heat. For myself, the list of problems which I'd want to solve with a handgun is fairly short, and not your everyday kinda events either... those of you who carry on a regular basis, is it a 'just in case' thing, or something you seriously expect to use (and maybe even more than once) in your lifetime?
I live/work in a major city not in the wilds of Alaska on horseback, needing to be concerned with bears, horses breaking their legs, etc; I'm rarely far from a police dispatcher, have a cellphone, and there are few things I could shoot that I wouldn't later have to worry about being arrested and/or sued over- so the stakes would have to be pretty darned high. I live in a small apartment in a fairly safe area, with neighbors on several sides, so if it came to defending myself against an intruder I'd rather use one of the many melee weapons around the house than start firing rounds into the walls; I've studied a number of martial arts, and run a prop weapons business, so in my small apartment it's hard to be more than three steps away from a sword, stick, or something along those lines.
Thanks for any input.
Okay, back to lurking for me now...
However, you might want to consider how your melee weapons will fare against an intruder with even a single shot .22. But again, if you're not comfortable, then you shouldn't. IF you should decide to use a firearm for self defense, you should adequately practice and train yourself until you're confident that you won't just be putting rounds into the walls (rounds are much more effective when they hit the target), and you should have done ammunition research to make sure that you're using ammo that will not likely travel through the walls should you happen to miss your attacker.
