Just a few excerpts from this article: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article14086308.ece

"Mumbai photographer: I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back" - Posted in the Belfast Telegraph, of all places.

"I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera." - Photographer Sebastian D'Souza.

Sounds like the police could use a little training, as well.

Imagine what it would have been like in that train station if only 5% of the people there were armed with concealed firearms - and trained to use them!

QuickSabre wrote:
Just a few excerpts from this article: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article14086308.ece

"Mumbai photographer: I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back" - Posted in the Belfast Telegraph, of all places.

"I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera." - Photographer Sebastian D'Souza.

Sounds like the police could use a little training, as well.

Imagine what it would have been like in that train station if only 5% of the people there were armed with concealed firearms - and trained to use them!

WooHoooo!

Guns for everyone!

Sorry QuickSabre, but I have to say that having read quite a few of your Posts elsewhere in the forums I DO think that you're a little bit too obsessed with guns. Being armed to KILL SOMEONE isn't the Be-All-And-End-All you know...

Just my opinion.

Being a martial artist is supposed to give you advantages against using a gun or weapon even a slim chance of defending yourself against these weapons of destruction, although its best not to put yourself in this type of situation if at all avoidable. My grandmother had to sayings 1 you needn't go looking for trouble, 2 the dead can't harm you, its the living you've gotta watch out for

Sorry QuickSabre, but I have to say that having read quite a few of your Posts elsewhere in the forums I DO think that you're a little bit too obsessed with guns. You say that like it's a bad thing! But anyway, Guilty as charged! But if I might be allowed to clarify, I'm obsessed with self-defense, not just guns. I have trained with lots of weapons, but a knife and gun are the only legal ones to carry (in this great nation anyway) so I carry both.

My martial arts training has always been geared towards self-defense first, physical fitness second, and every other benefit MA gives is somewhere beyond by a good distance. Hence the Krav Maga flavoring added to my Tae Kwon Do and Daito-Ryu Aiki Jutsu. If, much earlier in life, I had happened on Krav Maga first, that probably would have been my only style, certainly my main one. As it is, non-sport TKD is my main style, and the rest are supplements. I usually spend 3 nights a week teaching TKD (well, two nights and one Saturday morning), one night on Aiki-jutsu (training, not teaching), and one on Krav Maga (also training, not teaching).

Saturday and/or Sunday afternoons are generally my shooting range days (primarily handguns, but I am also quite fond of shotguns and rifles - it all depends on the range).

Obsessed or not, having a weapon gives you options, just the same way that having empty-hand skills gives options to someone with a gun.

It's all part of the whole self-defense package.

Being armed to KILL SOMEONE isn't the Be-All-And-End-All you know... It is if that someone is trying to kill you! And as I pointed out earlier, 'armed' includes trained empty hands (and feet) as well as weapons of all sorts. Guns are just one of the most efficient weapons. Note I didn't say THE most efficient - that I would reserve for a blade of some sort in the hands of a skilled operator. But given the choice, I 'd rather bring a gun to a knife fight. Or an empty-hands fight, whatever. And where I live, I have all 3 options with me most of the time.

Being a martial artist is supposed to give you advantages against using a gun or weapon even a slim chance of defending yourself against these weapons of destruction, although its best not to put yourself in this type of situation if at all avoidable.Well, clearly. But the point is you don't know when or if it's going to happen, that's why you prepare! You can of course greatly reduce the possibility by, say, not going to drinking establishments, but you just never know for sure when you may have to fight for your life. Isn't that the core principle behind most martial arts? Preparedness for the worst? If it's not, it should be!

I'd agree, being a martial artist CAN give you advantages against weapons, depending on how you have trained your reflexes (not just talking about the occasional 'weapons seminar' here), but being a martial artist and having a gun or knife or some other weapon gives you even more advantages - and responsibilities.

My grandmother had to sayings 1 you needn't go looking for trouble, 2 the dead can't harm you, its the living you've gotta watch out forWise words.

My grandmother used to say 'Boy, don't be caught dead without your gun!" No wait, that was my NRA instructor. Oh Well...