NerblyBear wrote:Minotaur029 wrote: Read his original post again, and you'll see that that's NOT what he's saying at all.
Jam Into Life wrote:You're missing the point. It's not the idea of carrying a weapon that's ludacris, but rather the idea of carrying and intending to use a weapon that you have no business either carrying or using. If you're, say, the great great great grandson of Wild Bill Hickock or something and have somehow inherited his gunslinging prowess, by all means feel free to swagger through the projects with your pistol at the ready.
Is he just being flippant, then?
While it's always nice to see people get what they deserve, i.e. a mugger experiencing an unexpected and flawlessly effective anti-mugging, the wild westish comment was largely intended as a dramatic exaggeration. Allow me to be clearer.
In my opinion, one should:
-Avoid being mugged at all costs. Need I say more on this?
-Accept the logical conclusion that muggers are called muggers because they "mug" or "steal" or, as it is called in an episode of the children's animated television show Arthur, "gleep". If they were out to kill, or even seriously injure, it would probably be bad for business. Maybe I'm making assumptions here, but isn't keeping a rather low profile an important part of crime?
-Not engage in any activity that is likely to escalate the potential for a bad situation to turn into a lethal one. That said, remember that general rules often disintigrate when applied to a real world scenario. I can't imagine a case where I wouldn't act submissively and unmemorably if I was being mugged. If I felt as though my life was in danger, however, I would be forced into some split-second decision making that could understandably result in a bad end for either myself or the bad guy. I understand the desire to defend onesself, but I think it's important to keep a cool head when the price difference might mean thousands of dollars in the form of hospital bills or your LIFE as opposed to a wallet and a cuff on the head. Allow me to paint a foresty illustration to make my point. It should fit well in this thread following the flattering but maybe slightly overstated comments by my good friend Minotaur.
If you were in the woods and found yourself in an intimate encounter with a bear, what would the appropriate response be? Well, considering that the bear's lifestyle involves a good deal more ass-kickery than yours or mine, wise people would say that the appropriate response would be to lie down and play dead since bears are curious creatures but usually don't consider humans prey. Isn't living to hike another day worth a few bites or scratches? On the other hand, if you had a gun or a knife, chances are you'd only end up pissing the bear off to a point where it would kill you just for the hell of it.
My final judgement, after weighing the potential "good" outcomes to the act of carrying and attempting to use weapons against muggers against the potential "bad" outcomes, is that it is a bad idea.
...However...
If you are living in or frequenting locations where crime is common, I do not think it is a bad idea to learn how to handle yourself in a fight (or how to handle weapons/defend against weapons). Nerbly, you would have done better to be more specific. I might have supported you if you had said something like "it's a good idea to carry a knife in case of an emergency where someone is ALMOST CERTAINLY GOING TO KILL YOU unless you find some way to prevent the person from doing so." I know, I know, it's hard to be sure when that state of emergency has arrived, so it's kind of a fucked up tricky puzzle.