One Arm Steve said:
That is a very nice looking gun!
I can see the point of owning a hand gun if your in law enforcement or your a collector but what do the rest of people buy them for? I know someone is going to say protection. From what? Maybe if your a business owner who gets robbed a lot or a diamond broker of something like that I see the point. The reason I ask is because I have been carjacked and have had a gun shoved in my face. Even if I had a gun it wouldn't have done any good. When someone rolls up on you in a public place and you blink your eyes and now he's got a pistol stuck in your face and you can see its loaded and cocked what are you going to do? Are you going to reach. I doubt it. Because the minute you try your going to get one in the head. I'm not trying to rip on anyone or put you down I'm only giving you my experience with a hand gun. I didn't try to put up a fight or anything but the little weasel must have felt threatened by my size(Over 6ft. 225lbs) or maybe he just didn't want a witness. He shot me in the leg first (didn't even feel it, went right through) I freaked out and bent over to see if I had been shot and he put the gun to my back and shot again. That bullet missed my heart by less than a inch and put multiple holes in the rest of my organs. I still carry the bullet inside me to this day. The surgeons were to busy saving my life to go digging for it then. Moral of the is story shit can happen at any time any where and sometimes having a gun to defend yourself will do you no good. I've made a full recovery spent 21 days in the hospital and took a year to get my strength back but I'm fine now. This happened in Atlanta GA. in 96 around the time of the Olympics. The only permanent damage was to my mind. The fact that someone I never met before or wronged wold want to kill me for my belongings. Hope this story makes you think, that's why I shared it with you.
That is why the single most important factor in a "self-defensive" mindset is constant wargaming. "If someone does
this, I can do
that, that, or that.
The biggest problem people have is being caught flat-footed. When the fit does finally hit the shan, you end up wondering what to do, and your mind gets overridden by the shock of the incident - and you end up freezing.
The advantage to constant wargaming is simple - instead of having to come up with a plan from scratch; you are, instead, rejecting options. Typically, you'll end up with at least two in front of you when you're done, and it's far easier to reject options than it is to come up with them from nothing - faster, too.
Consider the "Three Colour Conditions" -
Condition Green - all calm, no threat or potential threat present. This is usually how people carry themselves.
Condition Yellow - You are scanning for threats and wargaming. Most people have to be somewhere known to be "dangerous" to enter this condition. Some of us are in "Condition Yellow" nearly all the time.
Condition Red - Threat located and identified, about to neutralise.
The pivotal difference between Condition Yellow and Condition Red is immediacy - think of Yellow as "I may have to kill someone to-day;" and Red as "I may have to kill
him -
right now."
Note that there is not "Condition Orange" or "Condition Black" - as I've heard bandied about from time to time. There is a reason this is so simple. Unfortunately, we're dealing with Homeland Insecurity on the goofy colours they're using - what is "Condition Fuscia," anyhow?
Have I had to deal with threats? Not tellin'. Have I had to do someone an injury so they wouldn't do one to me? Not tellin'.
Am I still kicking, even after people wanted to do me harm? Answer that one yourself - if you've read this far, it shouldn't be any trouble for you.
I will, however, say it is possible to deal with the average armed miscreant when you're empty-handed - it's been done before, and I'm sure it will be done again. The difference lies in mental preparation and how soon you can identify a threat - the sooner you can solidly identify a threat, the more options you have in either dealing with it, or avoiding it entirely.
Does a sidearm expand your options? Exponentially. Is it ever
not an option? Certainly.
I will, however, say that if you do decide to acquire a sidearm - bear in mind that marksmanship under stress is not the only skill you need to master. Anyone who was ever shot with their own sidearm deserved it. In the words of the Guru - "A day may come when someone will kill you with your own gun. They should have to beat you to death with it because you are out of ammunition." Simply put - a sidearm alone isn't enough - it's just a tool.
