A conservative is a liberal who just got mugged.

Having a gun is great. But she needs to know for darn sure she can and will be able to use it if needed. For the first part, time spent shooting, including quick-drawing out of your holster (or purse), until it's second nature. For the second part, it's got to be accessible when she needs it. Which means not just having it in your purse, but walking with your hand on it when out. Not having it in her nightstand, but under a pillow.

Which might seem extreme except she can be virtually guaranteed this guy's going to escalate.

And, the most important rule-DON"T pull it if you're not going to shoot it. Holding the gun on them till the cops get there is so much hollywood crap.

And lather, rinse, repeat the standards:

1) Do not take anyone's word for what the law says. You can be permanently disarmed by and imprisoned for your own lawbreaking, even in innocent attempts to protect yourself. Get the law from the source.
2) Practice. Police are terrible shots. The reason for this is a lack of range time due to budget constraints. You will find this out, because current administration policies have driven the cost of ammunition to about $.30 per round. No, this is not riding a bicycle. You can forget how to shoot effectively.
3) Safe your house. Weapons of opportunity are everywhere in it, normally invisible to you because you use them for other things.

Fear of guns is irrational. It is the criminal which gives them evil purpose. They are merely machines, which propel a bit of metal when combustible tree bark is ignited. You do not want to be cut by the knife on your counter or broken by the baseball bat in your son's or nephew's closet, either.

Your best defender is you!

What Rad said, plus what my dad has been drilling into my head since childhood: you are never without a weapon. There is always the wall, the floor, your shoulders, elbows, feet, fists, teeth, and survival instinct. If it's your life on the line, it's time to throw down--no going easy on someone because the concept of violence abhors you. I came to terms years ago with the notion of doing serious damage to another human being if it ever came to that. It's a mental thing as much as a physical--all the weapons in the world won't make a lick of damn difference if you're going to be squeamish about using them.

This article x1,000,000. Practice, practice, practice. I train armed guards and close protection and I cannot emphasize this enough. You will fight the way you train.

Oh $4!+. She must not play chess, or even checkers for that matter. Her stalker reads her articles, and she PUBLISHES THIS?!?!? She's just raised the bar, and challenged him. He's been enjoying his little torments and manipulations, until now.

I'm glad she feels empowered; Yes, be armed. Always, armed and prepared (especially for that adrenal response that will make you fumble, waver or drop your firearm). But don't provoke. Never provoke the crazies. They don't think or react like you do.

...sweet Jesus...

My summer clothes used to be in a roll-away storage thing under the bed. I went to pull it out so I could put my summer stuff away until next season. Upon pulling out the plastic bin, I find that it's full of weapons. Dave switched the containers around. I complained at first b/c he made my clothes inaccessible w/o his help. But he pointed out it's a safety issue. Well if you put it THAT way...

So if anyone wants to break into our house, please note was have nun-chucks, a bow and arrows, Samurai sword and a pistol in the bedroom. (He knows his way around the weapons; all I'm good for is screaming).

I'm with Juliana on this one. This girl just spent the whole article telling the world how ambivalent she is about having the gun around and then expects to be able to use it in a highly fraught emotional state. This does seem a little like daring this crazy pereson to step it up a notch. I think in terms of her own personal safety, she would have been better off using her column to make the clear statement that she has a gun, knows how to use it and is fully prepared to use it when the need arises. Let the stalker draw his conclusions from there. Now, she just sounds like a frightened child trying to pose as an adult. I hope this article works and that she never has to use the gun.

My husband sleeps with a sword by his side of the bed, which helps if an intruder comes through the window, but I suspect I'm going to take a sword through the throat if an intruder comes through the bedroom door.

He told me a story once where it was probably a good thing that he didn't have a gun. He and his ex-wife were asleep when three men came into their apartment. Two of them walked into the bedroom carrying a third one. It turns out they were coming back from a bachelor party and entered the wrong apartment, and my husband and his ex had accidentally left the door unlocked. They saw my husband and his ex standing there and walked right back out.

Had he had a gun, that scenario could have ended in tragedy over a drunken mistake.

On one hand not sure you want to advertise what you use for self defense. On the other hand maybe you want the fucking nut to escalate. Get it done and over with rather than live in fear.

As far as your carry piece I'd recommend a properly calibrated laser dot. No aiming down the barrel in ugly situation. Most people won't (or can't not sure which) reach a proficiency that allows them to wake form a deep slumber then be able to draw aim and fire. Most defense situations are 7 feet or less, in the house it's not gone be more than 10 for most of us. At that range you pop the dot on the center of mass and pull. Even a sloppy trigger pull won't cause you to miss, unless you really yank it.

"There is always the wall, the floor, your shoulders, elbows, feet, fists, teeth, and survival instinct." Even with a background in martial arts I own and carry. All your skills are for naught if the bastard is well armed or better trained. Which points to the need to go shooting regularly with your carry piece.

"Had he had a gun, that scenario could have ended in tragedy over a drunken mistake." That's why I train with a hesitation for shooting. I have my range buddy put 6 paper plates down range, 1 with a red dot 5 with a green dot. I start facing away from the targets (no chambered round) then spin and find the red dot, while working the action. Obviously this is done when we are there alone and he stands to my left while I turn right. If anyone can suggest a better training regime for that I'm all ears.

I do worry about some drunk/stoned college kid or Alzheimer patient breaking in. Don't really want to kill the sick or the stoner who ate my cookies and is now petting my cat. While killing an armed home invader will likely not bother me at all I'd be rack with guilt for the rest of my life for killing the harmless ones.

I keep thinking of getting a gun, and I'll probably get around to it eventually.

My pop the cop kept his in a dresser drawer. That's right, an unlocked dresser drawer in the bedroom where we weren't supposed to go. It was in a box under his t-shirts.

I think my brother must have known about it and passed the knowledge to my sister, who passed it to another sister, who passed it to me.

We would occasionally open the sacred drawer and look upon the weapon. I might have lifted it once, because I seem to recall the weight. But we were in awe of it. Nobody picked it up or pointed it at anybody. We didn't show it to friends.

We respected it, I guess. Or else our terror quota was met just by going into the Forbidden Room. Dad could be a little intimidating like that.

Ah, memories. I gotta get me a gun. Eventually.

I just moved to Texas, and everyone I know is after me to get a gun or at least going to the range so that I know what it's like to use one (I think I'll be taking them up on it). It's a funny change after living on the east coast, where admitting to owning a gun (or not being opposed to citizens owning guns) would silence an entire room at a party.

Even with a background in martial arts I own and carry. All your skills are for naught if the bastard is well armed or better trained. Which points to the need to go shooting regularly with your carry piece.

Truth. My boyfriend has a background in martial arts and still trains, and he was beaten nearly to death while walking to his car -- because his assailant was armed with a metal pole. Best part: Texas has public intoxication laws, so, when the cops found him, lying unconscious by the street, they assumed he was just drunk and threw him in the drunk tank while his brain bled all night. This occurrence is what made me think about seriously arming myself.

"Most defense situations are 7 feet or less, in the house it's not gone be more than 10 for most of us. At that range you pop the dot on the center of mass and pull. Even a sloppy trigger pull won't cause you to miss, unless you really yank it."

And pow - you just shot your kid in the head. WTG!

If you can't tell you kid from an assailant at 7 feet away you have no business carrying anything. I'm assuming that because I'm pro self defense you would have read that tidbit and stopped, missing the whole post about hesitation before firing. So by your logic no one should have any defensive weapons for fear of accidentally injuring or killing a family member. Wonder what that doctor from Connecticut would say. You know the one who's wife and daughters were raped and incinerated.

"We respected it, I guess. Or else our terror quota was met just by going into the Forbidden Room. Dad could be a little intimidating like that." Gun proofing the kids is much safer then childproofing the guns. This way they are safe even around careless gun owners. Which I'm very much aware do exist. Unless it's on my hip they are all locked in a safe with bore/breach locks.

Ultimately, it's a cost/benefit analysis. Do you need a gun for protection? Do you think you can train to use it effectively without harming yourself or innocent people?

My husband wants a gun, and I've told him I'm willing to be convinced on the matter. Right now, I don't think we can keep ourselves safe from our own weapon without making it worthless for self-defense.

And I don't feel any particular need for a gun. I'm not being stalked. I've lived in NYC for the better part of 32 years and have never been mugged. My home was broken into once, but no one was there when it happened, and the intruder was probably another family member looking for something. So in the end, it doesn't seem worth the admittedly small risk of blowing my own face off.

I bought a gun this past year, I'm single, live alone, etc. A mutual friend of mine and Amy's recommended ones for me to try and I found one I enjoy firing so practice is fun. I totally agree with those who point out you have to be ready and willing to use it though. No sense having one if you're going to miss, shoot something you weren't trying to, or freeze and have it become a weapon against you. Only buy one if you're willing to kill (or seriously maim) with it.

> And pow - you just shot your kid in
> the head. WTG!
>
> Posted by: sdfsd at October 27, 2010 10:48 AM

There's reason this comment was so entirely, reflexively, nay violently anonymous. (Left hand fingers on the home row.) Whoever put that sig on there was a regular commenter who didn't want to have to think about it too much. This horrible fantasy is as far as they wanted to carry it.

But of course, horrible home invasions by definition have bad outcomes. Presumably our panicked commenter would prefer to imagine that the police will always protect us; or should be poised to do so.

> Only buy one if you're willing to kill
> (or seriously maim) with it.

Yes. I love it when women reject the "It's only a flesh wound!" fantasies of popular culture, and see the world as it is.

Practice, practice, practice...With that, practice the way you will do it. Get dummy rounds and practice chambering and firing...at the moment of truth when the puppy dog part of your brain has taken over he can do only what you've trained him. If you have only trained him to load a magazine and chamber a round and then eject the magazine and expel the round...that is what will happen in a high stress situation.

No one "rises to the occasion"; everyone sinks to the level of their training.

It's funny how a gun control stance melts away in the face of an actual threat.

A columnist for an alternative weekly in Jacksonville back in the day once opined, "We should concede that pacifism is always limited - anyone will shoot at hostiles who are carrying off his wife and daughters - and leave it at that."

Except that, with that statement, he (like too many gun control advocates) is reserving for himself the right to shoot at hostiles carrying off his wife and daughters, but arguing that everyone else should not have that right.

Either you're a pacifist or you're not. If you're shooting at hostiles carrying off your wife and daughters, you're not a pacifist.

And if you're not trained on whatever weapon it is you're shooting, you're as likely to hit your wife and daughters as you are to hit the hostiles.

"And pow - you just shot your kid in the head. WTG!"

"WTG!"???? OMG! WTF? SRSLY? Your mom's calling from upstairs. Your TV dinner is ready.

liberal gets mugged...

http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=3499

Part of this debate about self-defense is clouded by a denial of what violence is. Yes, being raped, shot or cut or beaten is horribly nasty. Your choice, once the perpetrator picks the scene, is merely whether you do the doing, or you get done to.

Fun: At DragonCon, I struck up a conversation with a professional dealer in authentic Japanese edged weapons. I stopped by his booth later to ask what I should be looking for in collectible katanas. He pulls out his "cheap" blade - $380 - and demonstrates to the small crowd how it is built. Then he says, "Most people like this part," and pulls out a business card. OK, I think, he's gonna cut the card - but he palms it and "filets" the card without holding it down. Yes, he cuts the thickness of the business card down!

The three of us closest to him take a step back as one.

Now, imagine you get cut with that!

Radwaste,

Look up Badger Blades. They do several renaissance festivals as well as online sales. While they don't quite fillet a card lengthwise as they come -- they are serious edged weapons. The demo with them at the ren fests is to chop up a cement brick with no damage to the blade. But still bend nicely without breaking.

That being said -- a Smith & Wesson beats four aces any day. The best bet for "amateurs" or those don't have regular practice time is a laser designator.

If you listen to HCI/Brady and or the rest of the lefty crowd -- if everyone owned guns we would have the Wild West again. I defy anyone to show me a greater than 5% percent of non-defensive gun violence by registered concealed carry owners. It is probably less than 1%.

> alternative weekly
> in Jacksonville back in the day once opined

Coney, do you live in Jax?

Coney, do you live in Jax?

Not any more. Left there in the early '90s.

Years ago, I used to vacillate back and forth on the gun question, until I got attacked by a couple of knife-wielding gangsters who half pinned me down, held a knife against my throat, and informed me quite convincingly that they were going to kill me. For some seconds, some crazed street thugs held my life in their hands, and were the arbiters of whether or not I lived or died. Being one of the "lucky" ones, as they say around my part of the world if robbers don't kill you, I was allowed to live. Afterwards, I played the events over and over in mind wondering 'what if this, what if that', and there was only one conclusion, that if they had decided to kill me that day, the one and only thing in the entire universe that would've given me at least a fighting chance of survival, was if I'd been 'packing and prepared'. Not the police, not bystanders, no cavalry around the corner, not the hand of God sweeping down from the sky. Just one thing, and one thing only - a firearm. Ultimately I then later reasoned through other angles, such as the basic and intrinsic human right to self defence, the core issue of liberty (nobody has the moral right to take away someone else's ability to defend their life and limb), and so on. Now you'll struggle to find a bigger fan of the second amendment than myself. I think everyone should get a firearm, learn to use it, and carry, and practice regularly to keep their training refreshed and reflexes alert. I think 'gun free zones' are a huge mistake.

"I keep thinking of getting a gun, and I'll probably get around to it eventually."

Waiting until the day you need it is unfortunately precisely the wrong thing to do.

"I hated guns and was against them, until I needed one!"

This reminds me of the "the only moral abortion was MY abortion" mentality.

Why does it have to be the Kuran? would it be ok with J.K rowling if I burnt one of her Harry potter books? I think The goblet of fire would be quite fitting for such a dilemma!