Either you're sheep, wolf or sheepdog. Me? I'm a sheepdog. I choose to be so. It wasn't always thus, however. It took a serious shock to my system of personal security beliefs to change me. That happened quite early in my life, around age 13. These days, I ONLY HANG WITH SHEEPDOGS and find my company of friends to be quite delightful. As a sheepdog, I'm comfortable in nearly every environment where I can carry my gun. That's like breathing. In my current situation in my classroom where it's a potential VT "Gun Free Shooting Gallery" I have to be more alert which is also second nature but also very cognizant of "field expedient" weapons. This is what was lacking along with your "fight back" attitude.
If somebody enters my classroom right now with a weapon, my first impulse will be to sling first a student desk at them and follow that up with a fast closure to contact and I'll be striking with the intent to kill. But when I walk to the parking lot, no student desks are available. What do I use? A section of newspaper, rolled and under my arm can be swiftly folded in half to provide a suitable striking instrument. Properly used, it is lethal.
My former Aikido sensei once took on a whole pack of "wilding thugs" in New York's Central Park and laid waste to them. They had knives, he was carrying a copy of The Wall Street Journal, rolled up under his arm. When the cops arrived to pick up the "meat" all they found was a overweight, middle aged guy standing inside a heap of bleeding thugs, all prostrate. They failed to see the blood soaked newspaper in a nearby trash can. Blood soaked because when the paper is folded, the crease becomes the striking surface and when folded, little points are created in the paper and that causes some ripping of the skin when applied with force.
A fight back attitude is critical but so are the implements to execute. For most folks, especially as they age...that translates to firearms. Samuel Colt's invention was called it The "Equalizer" for valid reasons.
This attitude is actually advancing as we speak. It's the reason for the wave of laws calling for changes to the so called Castle Doctrine that previously required victims to retreat before using deadly force in self defense on the street and in some cases at home. These new laws (led by my home state of Florida) also usually prevent a liberal prosecutor from bringing charges in a justifiable homicide just for the deterrence effect on the general population in the future. Fear of the public excoriation and the expense of paying an attorney. ALSO, these laws usually prevent the family of a deceased attacker (or the attacker himself if he survives) from mounting a lawsuit. I think this type of law addresses your concerns.
I hear what you're saying about hanging only with sheepdogs, and generally I do, but in both my career and a hobby of mine, I find myself surrounded by scared, angry sheep. And the ideas on field expedients is very worthwhile; I remember one of my first impressions of the lack of student action in their own defense as "nobody could have hurled a chair at this psycho?"
I like to remind people of what kind of damage that can be done simply bare-handed; makes some of them turn white.
The mind is the weapon; the rest is merely tools.
Yes, exactly.
I think people should learn about these things and learn that just about anything can be made into a weapon. And there’s always the good old staple, clawing and eye-gouging, if no tool is handy.
I think this should be taught in schools and that kids should know from the time they’re very young how to defend themselves, with or without a gun. And everybody should be fully supported by the law in doing so.