The best defense is deception, baring that, run away. Carry a decoy wallet or some other item like a small handbag or decoy purse. If someone tries to rob you, throw it away and make them run after it, while you run the other way to escape.
When you have your gear out, stay with the group and don't wander alone by yourself. If you have to, get a few people to walk with you.
snegron wrote: As far as self defense goes, I have trained in martial arts and the way I see it, it will only be benificial if someone is fighting with you. If that person has a weapon, even Chuck Norris can't get out of it without getting shot!
Bullets do not bounce off of Chuck Norris. They run and hide in fear of him.
kesava wrote:
please dear sir, that is inane and uncalled for. Blasphemer. spread your filth elsewhere. we know chuck norris has been shot 534,343,643 times. its impossible for him to have an MRI.
I actually am trained in disarming armed opponents, but really- if someone is going to shoot you and take your items then they are going to do so. and no gun/dog/redwhiteandred/taser will stop them. this situation is 90% planning and preparation. make yourself look less like pray.
-hold you cell phone to your ear even if your not on it
-hold your keys in a defensive and aggressive manner
-walk purposefully and direct
-dont look around alot
-avoid opportunistic areas
-- i could go on, if you want pm me and i can give you loads of easy tips to make yourself a hard target. i may even tell you about the wushi finger hold.
or the patented K. Anderson throat chop. ...Show more →
The exact number is 534,343,641 times; there is no documented evidence to substantiate the other two times!
tell me .... nut uhh.... you didn't do it did you? you brought The Norris into this...
and to speak of such nonsense!
Chuck Norris could still whoop up on someone with a gun and if he got shot it'd just kill the bullett and probably not even break skin ! Do you know the Norris ?
seriously....
- travis
I must expose his fakery! Everyone knows that the only true bulletproof Sensei is Jacki Chan!
i have no idea where you guys are living, but i would rather quit my job than carry a *supposedly not* lethal weapon...
Lord Fluff wrote:
+1
If my checklist for wedding gear included weaponry, I'd consider relocating....
Someone should inform Heckler & Koch, this is a whole new market for them.
To paraphrase the H&K MP5 K blurb "...The MP5K is a compact submachine gun designed for vehicle operators, air crew members, security details, wedding photographers and others who require a small, but powerful weapon."
Sorry but if anyone tries to steal my gear while I am walking to my car, pulls a knife or a gun, they can have the gear!
jprezant wrote:
o.k. I know that I may get shot down for this but...
THIS THREAD IS IDIOTIC!
It's just equipment. Your life is way more important.
I'm not sure what the exact numbers are, but I do remember hearing somewhere that even if you are the one with the weapon, merely taking it out during a fight will drastically increase the risk of you getting harmed (I could be wrong, but it makes sense in my head)
I mean really.
Scenario #1: Some guy runs up and grabs your bag, you see him do it, and pull a gun on him and he keeps running. Are you going to shoot him? I think not...
Scenario #2: Same as one, only this time when you pull the gun (without intention of shooting) the assailant feels threatened and pulls out a gun of his own, and you better believe he's more willing to shoot than you are.
If someone steals your equipment, it sucks, especially for the bride and groom, but man, it's not worth risking your life.
i think the tangents have taken a life of their own. please realize that the number of violent thefts are up.. way up. and so are violent crimes with gang and drug associations. burglary and and thefts are down. Home invasions are up too. what the OP is saying that is, they arent necessarily going to fight to the death over a 40D, but the likely hood that they the theft turns violent is real. then what do you do? lay there and get beaten to death? no. run so the assailant can shoot you in the back rather than leave a witness? there is no right answer to this situation. but i say get trained, get confident, avoid being a target.
That my dear Lord is because we don't have to face it like our cousins across the sea do. We don't shoot weddings in Moss Side or Toxteth but they are often shooting weddings in normal areas which so happen to have a lot of nasty armed people in them.
I'd vote for the large muscled assistant. By the way, have anyone recently seen the amount of folks loitering around Home Depot's parking lots looking for work? Big guys with serious looking hands. Ten bucks an hour could square you away nicely.
And by the way, it is generally ill advised to arm oneself with a weapon that you're not familiar and reasonably skilled with. Folks who do that usually are just introducing another unsourced weapon to a melee where there's about equal odds that it will be used upon them rather than their attacker. Pepper spray blows both ways when the wind is right and is never ever enjoyable when used indoors.
No, but as you have a murder rate by firearm per capita of 28 times that of the UK (figures for 1998 -2000 from the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends) we are probably still less likely to feel the need for a personal weapon than those in the States. I guess if the bad guys have easy access to a gun they don't bother with a knife.
But sure - we are not happy about the level of violent crime here either.
So, do you think we have 28 times as many guns per capita? I expect it's probably significantly higher, which would mean that it's more likely that a (an illegally possessed) firearm in the UK is more likely to be used in crimes.
No one argues that there are crime problems in the US but regardless of what some would suggest, taking away the tools doesn't take away the crime or the criminals. Simple "availability" is touted as the problem but when one looks to availability, there should be a direct relationship between availability and crime and there is not. There are areas in the US with high crime rates and strict firearms laws, others with low crime rates and almost no regulation at all of firearms ownership. Having a firearm "available" doesn't mean one is going to be a firearms criminal any more than having a car available means one will be a drunk driver or a camera available means one will be a pornographer.
I don't have particularly strong views or knowledge - except that cause and effect are not always simple to determine. And I am in no way attacking your culture. We had a silly over-reaction to a loony shooting here at Hungerford and a knee jerk media driven government response.
But I guess being murdered by a legally held firearm in the US does not make you feel any better about it than being murdered by an illegally held one in the UK.
I did read once that as a US citizen, you are 42 times more likely to shoot yourself or a member of your family than an 'assailant'. Make of that stat what you will......
"it's more likely that a (an illegally possessed) firearm in the UK is more likely to be used in crimes."
Erm yes. Since having a gun is illegal, and getting hold of one involves knowing the type of person who can get you one (eg I would have no idea how to get hold of one)...it figures you'd be a criminal to have one, and that your reason for having one would be to perpetrate crimes. People here don't tend to keep one in the house 'just in case' as you guys do.
That stat is superficial. It's the same logic that says you or a guest or a family member are X times more likely to die in a swimming pool accident if you have a swimming pool. It doesn't point out that there are about 2/3 as many bathtub drownings and twice as many drownings in "natural" water. Or what the rate is compared to other causes. It suggests that "accidents" are as likely as intentional assaults or intentional self-inflicted wounds.
The "accidental" injury and death rates from firearms are well behind a number of other causes. They've been falling for years, much of it due to demographic shifts from rural and suburban living to more of the population in cites and less participation in hunting, increased hunter safety education, etc. When you look to criminal uses of firearms and suicides, the numbers are substantially higher but all of those have a substantial personal behavior element, things like criminal associations, gang activity, drugs, alcohol, and a raft of others. If you don't incorporate all of the factors, you do get odd results.
Like doctors pushing for knife control. Does anybody really think that the average resident of the UK can't be trusted in the kitchen?
