I don’t carry a gun anymore.

[Crazy Dane]

I also think the good “lions” or whatever out there you may or may not see it coming. Once you see it coming and that pack of lions decides it’s your time. Will you be ready? A quote I look at from Tom Givens I believe is “We need a 2-3 bad guy gun now” is also why in my frame and stature I carry a full-size handgun and reload for this reason.

.

Trying to fulfill this requirement all the time almost made me quit carrying. It also made me buy and sell 3 or 4 G19s, an M&P and a P320. The P365 changed all of that and now is my go-to, It's actually a 365x, 12 +1 and a spare 15 round mag. I have also learned that I don't need that much gun all the time either. Its not like I am going to be assaulted by Iranian spec-ops or going to the wrong hood wearing the wrong colors when I need to run to the feed store. Most of those trips I will only have a 5 or 6 shot revolver and a speed strip. The feed store is not a HVT.

I think a lot of statements like above need to come with a caveat or 2. Mine is "I live in a rural community and will most likely have to shoot a 4-legged animal than a 2-legged animal" We may get a Bonnie and Clyde one day but I don't see the James gang riding through. You may live in Memphis or Chicago and have a completely different caveat.

[BWT]

Trying to fulfill this requirement all the time almost made me quit carrying. It also made me buy and sell 3 or 4 G19s, an M&P and a P320. The P365 changed all of that and now is my go-to, It's actually a 365x, 12 +1 and a spare 15 round mag. I have also learned that I don't need that much gun all the time either. Its not like I am going to be assaulted by Iranian spec-ops or going to the wrong hood wearing the wrong colors when I need to run to the feed store. Most of those trips I will only have a 5 or 6 shot revolver and a speed strip. The feed store is not a HVT.

I think a lot of statements like above need to come with a caveat or 2. Mine is "I live in a rural community and will most likely have to shoot a 4-legged animal than a 2-legged animal" We may get a Bonnie and Clyde one day but I don't see the James gang riding through. You may live in Memphis or Chicago and have a completely different caveat.

I do think you honestly have to play the odds. I’m not trying to scare monger anyone into anything, but just realize it is what it is. I look at it like this Severity High Likelihood Low.

The P365 series honestly is the better mouse trap here lately.

My Dad bought a Macro yesterday and said “this is everything a Glock 17 should’ve been”.

I am interested to handle one. He also bought a P365xl. I might try to do a side by side with them at some point.

One of my personal anecdotes was a guy at a gas station when I was 19-20 approached me and asked me about selling some tools in the trunk of his car. At 11:30-1:00 in the morning (I was working inventory and unloading trucks). I was pumping gas and he wanted me to come over behind the back of the gas station. I told him I was good. I think I recall he had a friend way back and I was like “I’ve got a pocket knife and if I follow this guy behind this building the convenience store clerk won’t see me.” I said no and he attempted to persuade a few more times and that was that. He walked away - I drove off.

Just an example of what kind of situation came to my door step based on how I appear I believe. Two guys (or more) with whatever kind of weapons they had thought I was a good opportunity based on what they had ready for me.

I’m assuming it was going to go south, but I never went to find out. Could’ve just had some stolen goods to sell. I just knew I wasn’t going back there without a fight, etc. lol.

[Thy.Will.Be.Done]

Funnily enough, you’re more likely to get in a car accident than a gunfight, so…

Absolutely, I think this happens often enough that most people have learned to just accept the inconvenience of wearing seatbelts. As gun violence becomes less of a random rarity, more people are willing to tolerate the burden of carrying a gun to have a say in the outcome of drawing the short stick in life.

[Duke]

Soon the OP will tell us that he no longer wears a seatbelt because he's never been in a car accident and doesn't expect that to change ....

Yea.. listen the whole gun = seatbelt thing is just, ridiculous.



There are something like 6 million car accidents in the US yearly.... are we really trying to say there are this many civilian gunfights to be found?

[Duke]

Similar here.

We moved out of Ft Lauderdale to a sub-rural area a few years back, and I haven’t daily-carried since. For some reason, this offends many people.

Gun geeks love stats to bolster their claims about a “need” to carry. Once you start to break down the stats to your own demographic, “violent crime” becomes statistically insignificant for the majority of gun owners (white, middle class, males).

Also like you, I kinda find myself not able to identify with a lot of the “gun culture” anymore. When I do get to attend matches I try very hard to just stay to myself, as the range warriors and pontificators are just too much. I’m considering trading in my Sordins for non-electronic hearing protection, and have flat turned them off when it gets to be too much. I’ve reached a point of not wanting anyone at work or in other social circles to know I own guns, used to shoot, used to teach, made a Chart, etc. I can’t take the conversation in most cases. Same reason I don’t follow, or discuss, politics I suppose.

Inevitably someone will ask “then why are you still on this forum”. Well, because I do still like, own, and (sometimes even get to) shoot guns. Even if I don’t carry all the time, I do still carry sometimes (during hurricane evacs, for example) and I also refer back to the “mission statement” of the site which is in the logo at the top left: “for Teachers and Students of the Pistol”. Doesn’t say anything there about regular carry, gunfights, etc.

I'm with you 100%

Its funny that when monday morning qb'ing takes place the first thing folks pontificate with is "well he shoudn'tna been in stupid places with stupid people and that wouldnt have happnt"

But we buy a nice house by the lake and arrange our day where we only need to put on pants and leave the house about 8 total hours a week and folks act like we're going "OUTSIDE THE WIRE"

related ... the civilian comparison to military units and adopted LE jargon is so tiresome. Im 100% a nobody... I don't have a command center, and assaulters pack nor comms with my team.

[Duke]

@Duke, I'll tell you what, I won't carry a gun any less, so that should even things out and and help quell the disturbance in the force that occurred when you first posted this.

Beautiful thing about choices, they're yours to make, and sometimes yours to own. I say with all sincerity, I hope your plan works out for you, I wish you nothing but the best.

I'm curious though, with you cutting back on training, how much degradation of your uber skills will occur. I mean, you shot at such a high level, I wonder how long to degrade to "normalcy".

Sooo, does this mean the winner of the PF raffle gets a "mad-minute" to grab anything they want out of your safe, You won't need all that stuff anymore, right?

kind words..

but im far from elite as a shooter.


I got a 4" M&P new out of the box today.. sighted the RMR and ran a 2.05 bill drill from a sidecar rig. Not exactly stellar. great gun though.

but ive shot maybe 1,000 rounds total this calendar year so, I'll take it i guess.

[Duke]

Good thread.

@Duke, that's cool man. What watch has you excited though?

Im thinking of a white grape dial 116000, 36mm

its got a 70's vibe to it thats right up my alley.

[Thy.Will.Be.Done]

Yea.. listen the whole gun = seatbelt thing is just, ridiculous.



There are something like 6 million car accidents in the US yearly.... are we really trying to say there are this many civilian gunfights to be found?

I agree that your argument is ridiculous and my point was to take your logic and extend it to the extreme to show the flaws with it. If your logic were sound it would make just as much sense, there are both serious threats to your body and can have devastating results. I'm sure skydiving is perfectly safe too, if you're going by the numbers, and yet it's something thats forbidden by most if/not all life insurance companies. They've identified excess mortality there and decide not to insure those activities. The only reason driving is not the same is because the vast majority have no choice but to drive, whereas most anyone can choose not to skydive.

It's the same argument, in fact, the reason we even have seatbelt and safety features in cars was thanks to the founder of Volvo after he lost someone very dear to him in a car accident. I'm sure he was perfectly illogical to have not just chosen to believe the odds just didn't favor taking precautions. Engaging in life is an inherently dangerous activity no matter where you find yourself and living in a good neighborhood is no guarantee, hell as we all know just having a gun is no guarantee, but the same can be said of car safety features... they don't always work the best either.

What we're talking about is playing russian roulette with an exceedinly large chamber, the car crash chamber is much smaller than the violent crime chamber but the odds are still there.

[WobblyPossum]

I’m with @Duke here when it comes to comparing the chances of getting into a deadly car wreck with the chances of getting into a deadly violent encounter. Unless you’re a young, inner city male involved in the drug trade, your odds of needing a gun to defend yourself are much lower than whatever the “average” is because those folks skew the numbers. I say this as someone who carries a gun almost every waking moment, even inside my own house. I think comparing the two things is silly and doesn’t make a good argument because of the sheer difference in numbers. The FBI UCR reports indicate substantially less than half a million annual instances of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault combined. Granted those numbers are underreported because only 15k of 18k agencies provide data to the FBI, but even if you double them you aren’t even close to the number of serious car accidents.

[paherne]

I’m with @Duke here when it comes to comparing the chances of getting into a deadly car wreck with the chances of getting into a deadly violent encounter. Unless you’re a young, inner city male involved in the drug trade, your odds of needing a gun to defend yourself are much lower than whatever the “average” is because those folks skew the numbers. I say this as someone who carries a gun almost every waking moment, even inside my own house. I think comparing the two things is silly and doesn’t make a good argument because of the sheer difference in numbers. The FBI UCR reports indicate substantially less than half a million annual instances of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault combined. Granted those numbers are underreported because only 15k of 18k agencies provide data to the FBI, but even if you double them you aren’t even close to the number of serious car accidents.

The estimates of crimes actually reported to the police are actually WAY low. Lott, I know, I know, came up with 3 million defensive gun uses per year. I'd bet that's low.