After going multiple years with no aggressive dog encounters I just had two in the last month. The first incident I wasn't carrying, the second I was because of the potential need the first time. In both incidents I had two large dogs that I would have needed to defend against simultaneously. Lesson learned.Originally Posted by JHC
Don’t just sit there – do something short sighted and stupid!
Alertness, avoidance and de-escalation are all excellent options but they only work when others feel like it.
ONE of my personal experiences..... luckily nothing happened but I'm not so sure it would have ended so good for me had I stepped out of my house 30 seconds sooner.
I live in an excellent area. McMansions grow like weeds here. At times it feels like you don't have a house if it doesn't have its own zip code. A family of 3 or 4 can hardly get by on 7000sq ft... No homeless issues, no vagrants, no one hanging out at gas stations unless they're getting gas... hell, we don't even have public transportation here. No one takes the bus or train. Trying to decide which car to take to work on Wednesday....the Tesla, the 911 or the G-Wagon. Even have some Hollywood types in the general area. My point is it's a very good, very safe area. I've been here since 96 and the general area has had 3 or 4 murders, and all but one has been family related.
So, about 2010 in late July I take my dog out at midnight. I cross the street and start walking up towards the intersection in my development. I take my time as my dog is doing his business. As we get to the intersection there's a loud pop and my dog turns and bolts towards home. He's afraid of loud noises. I'm now pissed, cursing at whomever is setting off fireworks this late. Next morning that intersection is closed off with police tape all over. Come to find out the owner of 2nd house at the intersection was shot in the head outside his home. That's what I heard, the gun shot. It was some sort of a love triangle. Some chick sleeping with two dudes and stringing both along. One came to talk to the other and ended up killing him. I was going to be walking down that road because there was more grassy areas for my dog and the house was 30 second walk from the intersection where I was at the time of the shooting. I'm pretty sure if I was close enough avoidance and de-escalation wouldn't have been enough.
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I don't want to derail this thread, but I wanted to throw this out there since it's been mentioned a few times; Cooper's Color Code.
I'm guessing this stems from not hearing it from the horses' mouth, but the Code wasn't developed by Cooper to give structure one's level of "Awareness", it's about "Readiness" as a state of mind. Let's be clear, Alertness is undeniably important, after all it was Principle One in Cooper's little book, "Principles of Personal Defense". But, context is king and the Color Code is most useful when it's understood that readiness is a state of mind.
People often fail in gunfights (and other stressful situations) because they haven't developed the right state of mind - not because they didn't see it coming. The Code provides a useful framework to describe what level your "Go Button" needs to be in when certain stimuli are present. It's difficult for the body to perform tasks the brain has not made some allowance for, so one's state of mind is the most critical factor in predicting a good outcome. Being able doesn't necessarily equate to being willing.
As a footnote, me and my LE pals have played "GOTCHA" games with the Code for decades (as an exercise in addressing awareness) but that's not what the Color Code is all about. You CANNOT maintain high levels of alertness/awareness for extended periods of time; it will burn you out and you can actually end up being complacent as a result. No Bueno!! But, you CAN develop and maintain a high state of "mental readiness to act", even if you don't see it coming until the last moment.
The path of least resistance will seldom get you where you need to be.
Perhaps revisiting the why behind carrying is in order.
Are you loyal to the constitution or the “institution”?
When I first retired from LEO-ing, I was miffed that the PD did not want me to carry, under the provisions of the LEOSA, until the PD “processed my application,” which was a matter of weeks. By the letter of the LEOSA, I had what I needed to be LEOSA-legal, an “honorably retired” ID, and a sufficiently-recent qual card, but the PD wanted me to wait until I had fired a retiree-specific qual. Sure, I could just carry, anyway, but, my “honorably retired” card could/can be revoked, for cause, and there did not seem to be any provision for being issued another one, after revocation. Retirement did not mean freedom from PD policies.
Texas law allowed me to carry, within specific limitations, as a private citizen, and those limitations became painfully noticeable. So, I shifted my “primary” weapon, which is my brain, to be more blade-oriented, and tended to leave handguns secured at home, much of the time, until I finally got the text message to contact the PD, to arrange a retiree qual, and then went to the range, to fire that qual. Notably, I did not get kilt in the streets, during that time that handgun carry was curtailed.
Some time later, the PD range being closed, due to the panic-demic, caused a lapse in my LEOSA qual status. So, I resumed, for a time, having to carry only when and where state law allowed, and sometimes not carrying when it would have been legal. I did not get kilt in the streets, while gun-less.
After my father passed away, there were days, perhaps even some entire individual weeks, when I simply did not care to carry a firearm, or did not feel up to the task. Defensive carry of a firearm is a tremendous responsibility, and I was not always in the right frame of mind. I have, mostly, recovered, but now and then, I have one of those days.
Sometimes, when having “one of those days,” which may or may not be related to my father’s passing, I have noticed that, well, my fuse has been alarmingly short. During those times, I have sometimes chosen to leave the guns at home. Carrying a weapon, that can extend my will over some distance, requires great strength of character.
Another factor is that attending a couple of ECQC classes will make one painfully aware that it is not all about having a gun. I also attended a few blade-oriented seminars, which helped reinforce this awareness. I took enough police reports, over 33+ years, to notice that most robberies happen within touching distance. Empty-hand skills are more important than shooting skills, at contact distance, and contact weapon skills can be vital, too. (Of course, once distance has been “created,” a firearm become very handy, perhaps necessary, especially if there are additional suspects.) Street policing does help familiarize one with the concept of stepping-in, to contact distance.
To be clear, it is normal for me to carry a handgun, or two, when and where legal.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
I always carry when I'm out with my family. Depending on the circumstance, that could mean a G43 and a spare mag lose in my pocket. It could mean a G17 with a 17+2 mag in the pistol and another mag on my belt. I always have a folding knife and small flashlight on me. Gear selection is a wide spectrum, and getting just above the "have a gun" threshold isn't much of an inconvenience to me.
My range trips are extremely biased toward maintaining my skill at getting the gun out and getting a couple of quick hits at 7 yards. I rarely practice reloads or shooting at 25 yards. Maybe this makes me a bad person, but at some point the spectrum of probable events begins to outweigh the spectrum of possible events.
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The most recent moment for me...
Just a couple of weeks ago we were walking the dog on a favorite trail right at dawn. Ran into a homeless dude on the trail carrying a samurai sword. Got the dog in close and gave the dude a very wide berth. Everybody went about their own business.
Did I have to draw my gun? Nope.
Did I actually need a gun? Nope.
Was I very glad I had a gun? Oh hell yeah.
Shit can happen anywhere.
I almost always burn a pistol mag or two at the 100 yard steel if I’m shooting rifles and as far as I can in a pistol bay. But when it comes down to it it’s not because I’m preparing for a left handed albino nazi Eskimo midget active shooter. It’s because hitting steel at distance makes me giggle on the inside like a 7yo kid playing in a sprinkler. If it wasn’t still fun I wouldn’t do it, like practicing lots of reloads.
Maybe like 10-15 years ago in my city we had a homeless guy with a dollar store samurai sword behead a woman on the street. Just a random passerby.
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You’re missing the point. If you live in Pleasantville, you might go 3,000 or 5,000 days before you’re a victim of a crime. And that crime might be a teen vandalizing your mailbox. In a reasonable area in SF that would be like 1/30 days for a small, annoying crime, and 1/500 or 1000 days for a felony (car burglary, residential burglary, or assault).
The fact that you spent 10 trouble free days in SF does not impart the stress of actually living there, dealing with the bullshit day after day. Your number WILL come up.
I have a rental house that I rent to a cop buddy. I was hanging out there last year when he heard gun shots. I thought it was fireworks, so he turned on the police radio he had (came home from an off duty job) to see who was right. We heard the dispatch and how the call progressed. Double murder drive by shooting; death declared on scene by responding officers upon arrival in 3 minutes. That’s very rare; must’ve been visible brain matter or decapitation on both victims to have been declared that quick.
At the time my house was worth $1.7M on Zillow (I paid a small fraction of that). So it’s not a crappy area. This is in a suburb nowhere near SF. That’s life in the Bay Area.
Can you imagine being an Apple/Facebook/Google engineer putting down $340k and paying $7500/month plus $20k/year in property tax for this shit? I should mention the house is tiny, on a postage stamp lot, and built in the 1950s. No wonder everyone’s moving to Tennessee or Texas.
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