In most cases there is not enough threat to feel the need to carry a
weapon but there is always a threat out there. Example, if you ride the
train to and from work every day the odds are you'll never face a life
threatening situation. But there is always that chance the car on your
train is the one that some mentally ill person decides that the voices in
his head is coming from and if he kills every one in that car with a
machete.

Sure. Talk to him first. Even totally deranged people are not usually
beyond communication. Why,its even possible to have a primitive sort opf
dialogue with GW Bush, apparently.

Never dealt with some having a psychotic episode have you. You'd have
better luck trying to talk a charging brahma bull into stopping.


Even if you are in that car the odds are that you will not be
one of the first people attacked, meaning you will have a chance to run.
For most people these odds are enough, for others they like having even
more odds on their side and they carry a weapon. That weapon may be in
the form of themselves via martial arts training, pepper spray, a stun
gun or a firearm.


Or simply a judo hold. Disarming a knife wielding attacker was about te
only thing I learned in my first few and only judo classes..

You watch to many movies. Someone REALLY skilled and practiced in martial
arts might be able to disarm someone like that in an open setting but NO ONE
could do it bare handed while sitting in a train seat.


I don't know a person who has needed to use any concealed weapon to
protect themselves. But I know many who carry them.

As I have said before just having a weapon saved my sister from being, at
the least, raped. I don't consider the weapon being used because no
shots were fired.

May other things could have saved her from being raped. A steel chastity
belt, for one fairly ridiculous example. Lessons in self defense, a sharp
wit.

Sure, a satellite could have fallen out of orbit and hit the guy on the head
but, personally, I think the handgun was the surest option.


Why a GUN? because you LIKE GUNS. You LIKE the feeling of POWER and
SECURITY

I admit I like firearms. I also like cooking, reading (currently on a
science fiction binge, ever read any Larry Niven?), working on cars and many
other things.


But why do you feel powerless and insecure without a gun?

But I don't. FYI, I haven't carried a firearm for self defense in probably
15 years. I keep firearms in my home for many reasons; to kill the various
varmints who cause problems around the farm, to put a little free meat on
the dinner table and yes just in case some criminal picks my home for his
criminal actions.

I have no problem walking into places that you probably would never think of
going without an armed escort. Places where I'm the just about the only
person of my color, places where violent crimes are a regular occurrence,
places where known violent mentally ill people are known to be. I'm fat,
old and in bad shape yet I have no fear in these places with or without a
firearm because I'm prepared. As I have stated your only weapon is your
brain, everything else is just a tool.


Because you are a septic! And its drummed into you from the day that you
are born, by the BRA and the gun manufacturers, that having a gun is cool,
sexy, nacho, and makes you safe.

Shows just how much you know about me. There are times when I would feel
unsafe without a firearm. Just like there are times when I would feel safe
riding a motorcycle w/o a helmet but those times are few and far between.