Reply To: THE PUZZLE OF MURDER-BY-GUN STATISTICS

[SteveInCO]

Unseen wrote:

I’m more of a knife person: I collect what most people would call pretty scary and dangerous knives. One of the rules of self-defense with a knife is to use it before the other guy knows you have it. I would think a similar rule would apply to self defense with a pistol. Why let the aggressor know your defense, allowing him to adjust his approach in light of it?

The hope, in carrying openly, is to make the guy “adjust his approach” in the direction of going somewhere else entirely. It’s a deterrent effect. (I am sure it doesn’t work a hundred percent of the time, but it’s also fairly clear based on what I’ve seen and heard (and yes I know the hazards in that) that far more often than not, a bad guy scurries away at the mere sight of a gun, even if he has already begun the attack.) They’d much rather pick a safe (defenseless) target. The best fight is one that’s entirely avoided.

The other advantage is it’s quicker to draw, possibly much quicker if the concealment mode is under a tucked-in shirt. That half second counts tremendously, an attacker can easily cover twenty feet in less than a second, from a standing start.

I’ve taken a small amount of knife training; that’s a huge and complex area as well.