I agree.Originally Posted by NH Shooter
But wearing a holstered pistol is neither of those things.
I agree.
But wearing a holstered pistol is neither of those things.
The knife is used for opening packages most of the time. It's most recent use was to poke a quarter down the slot of a vending machine for peanut M&Ms. You see clip knives all over the place in TX. I pointed out that only two people ever mentioned them.
About having two - that's because I can!
Here is a real usage! I was asked to give a talk to the Texas Bar CLE about the psychological factors in firearms usage. It was an all day seminar and I gave one talk. At lunch, I was supposed to speak. However, when I got my chicken plate - I didn't have a knife is my silverware package. If I went to get another, it would mess up the speaker schedule. Thus, the chicken fell to the Spyderco.
I find a small Surefire really useful as when the lights went out in the supermarket or the wife's car started spewing oil at night.
As far as probability, we can get by most of the time without most of the stuff. It is planning for the rare extreme event - you pick how extreme. Zombie load?
Handling =/= Carrying
When my circular saw is sitting inside it's case in the bed of the truck waiting to go to work, I don't handle it like I do when it's plugged in and spinning at 5800rpm.
When I'm driving the wide open expanses of west Texas with the cruise set and I haven't seen a car or critter in over an hour I'm much more relaxed than driving the Dallas Expressway at 6PM on a Friday.
The vigilance scale goes up and down.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
I've had to pull out the handgun before, a long time ago, but the knife and flashlight? Those get used all the time. The tiny LED flashlight has been one of the most useful inventions of the last decade for me; I'd love to go back in time and find the me that was stumbling around a campsite with a flickering 2 "C"-cell Everready about half as bright as a dead firefly and say "Hey, kid, in the future, you're going to carry a flashlight a jillion times brighter than that in your pocket everywhere you go. It's going to be the size of your pinkie and run for hours on a single AAA battery."
All the time - if we clock time of usage divided by the total time we exist, their usage is probabilistically small. However, it's like statistical decision theory, you pick a level in the tail of incidents to be ready.
Most of the day is spent without the knife, gun or light. However, when I need it - then I need it.
It's as rare as being hit by lightning. But I have. It's as rare as being in a plane crash. A friend survived a DC-8 crashing 30 miles from the airport. At a seminar, the speaker said that X was as rare as being hit by lightning or being a jetline crash. We both waved our hands.
It's not hard to have a small flashlight, knife and reasonable gun.
I have to respectfully disagree with this. Perhaps if you never had to use it and if it remained completely under your control that argument could be made. But to realistically embrace the view that simply carrying a concealed weapon is in no way dangerous, you have to assume that it will always remain 100% concealed and undetected by potential bad guys, that it will never be forcibly taken from you and that you'll never have to fire in a self defense situation.
Do you believe those are reasonable assumptions to make? Do you believe that if something was to go wrong resulting in injury or death of another person, that a jury of reasonably-minded people (who will probably not be "gun people") will subscribe to the view that carrying a concealed pistol in public is no more dangerous than carrying a cell phone?
I am most certainly a huge proponent of civilian concealed carry, but am under no illusion that doing so is not without a unique set of serious risks. Though these risks can be partially mitigated through training and mindset, they can never be completely eliminated.
Not to make this too long winded, but consider the recent news of the 18 year old store clerk who was badly beaten by a mob of rampaging teenagers in Memphis. He was caught by surprise with no escape and severely injured, but survived the attack and returned to work the following week. By all accounts, he was viewed as a victim and received universal sympathy.
Now, lets make a change to the scenario - he was legally carrying a concealed handgun at the time. What could have possibly gone wrong? :-/
Attempting to maintain hyper-vigilance for extended periods of time is actually detrimental due to the onset of mental fatigue.
Revisit this topic in 5 years (if you're still carrying by then) and you'll more than likely have a different take on things.
As a CCW instructor since 2003 I've seen many a metamorphosis.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
NH Shooter, when you ask what else could have gone wrong in that scenario you also have to ask what could have gone right.
It is statistically impossible to say what would or wouldn't have happened if a weapon was introduced into that scenario.
In all honesty looking at your posts you need to take a step back and relax. The, "level of risk" that you propose is no where near as high. Yes carrying a firearm introduces a level of risk but so does not carrying one. It is strictly a game of risk vs benefit. Just because you are carrying a firearm doesn't mean you will be ambushed, beaten and have it taken from you.
Training. Make that proper training and increasing ones skill set significantly reduces risk. If you are that amped I would highly recommend some more training perhaps something geared toward mindset or additional reading on the subject.
There is always a period of adjustment to concealed carry. How long that period is depends on a lot of variables, including how familiar one is to being armed, and where one is from. Being from NY is obviously a handicap, it's not too surprising that it is taking longer for you to adjust.
What Tam is referring to when she says that "a holstered firearm is safe" is that pretty much 100% of the negligent discharges you hear and read of involve somebody fiddling with their firearm.
STOP TOUCHING IT.
Leave it in the holster, and the odds of it going off are pretty close to nil. Especially, don't take it out to show somebody. You know, like a certain DEA agent who was the Only One in the Room...
I'm not sure I see the point of your hypothetical. Lost of things could have gone wrong.
If he'd been armed, AND if he'd been more situationally aware, maybe there would have been no beatdown at all. As Colonel Cooper used to say, having a gun no more makes you a gunfighter than owning a violin makes you a musician.
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
Jody, Mike and Drang - good stuff! Your points make sense and I very much concur with what you're saying. I've gained some good perspective in this discussion and I thank everyone participating in this thread for providing it.
Living is hazardous to your health. Being aware of the dangers and taking steps to minimize them is always a good thing.
