Self Defense: Practical or Paranoid?

[Sharp Phil]

What is paranoia? It's generally believed to be a state of suspicion about your fellow human beings that is out of proportion to the actual threat they represent.

Is being prepared for an emergency even though that emergency is relatively unlikely a question of paranoia?

I have an article in the current issue of KnifeForums Magazine called Safer in Suburbia. It's all about the types of survival gear you can carry on you, in a briefcase, in your car, and stored at your home in case of natural emergency, civil unrest, crime, and so forth. There is every chance that most of this gear, which I haul around personally, will never see use.

But I'd rather be prepared than unprepared.

Self-defense -- and, more broadly, preparations for unnamed and unspecified emergencies -- is all a question of hedging your bets, gambling against chance. You can't win every bet, but you can cheat as much as possible.

[Sharp Phil]

I keep a 1" x 24' maple dowel

A 24 foot maple dowel?

[red5angel]

Yenhoi, I knew you were paranoid from the beginning man

Slayer, holy geeze!! You must live in a rough neighborhood or something!

[dezhen2001]

i dont have anything - tlak about peer pressure from you guys

i have a statue of a drunken monk on my window facing out so it protects it from intruders!

oh - but i do have 4 bricks by my bed that i use for hard qigong training so i guess they casn count as weapons lol

dawood

[DelicateSound]

I have f*ck all. Not really scared. If anyone broke in I'd let 'em have whatever, I'm insured. I really doubt anyone'd try to kill me over a TV, a PS2 and a 1990 Fender Stratocaster in Alpine White with a maple fretboard. That's all I really have in my room at Uni, save for empty beer bottles and a sick stain on the carpet.

If I lived in a rough area I might. Next year I'll probably be living in a crappy student house with a shotgun under my pillow and anti-personel mines under the floorboards.

F*cking hell.

[apoweyn]

don't worry about it dezhen. all i've got is a really large bottle of Tums. but they are extra strength, so...

[red5angel]

I have a Corgi who gets cranky when you wake him up and he often sleeps at the end of the bed so that I may not need the stick.

[Former castleva]

Yeah,corgi...
If you have NOT trained him too much,he might just happen to take a few shots at intruder´s calves...then dodge the incoming kick.
Traditional fashion.

[ewallace]

I'm pretty sure Xebs would kill DS for his PS2.

[apoweyn]

Originally posted by red5angel
I have a Corgi who gets cranky when you wake him up and he often sleeps at the end of the bed so that I may not need the stick.

okay, now you're just showing off. a corgi and a stick?!

[red5angel]

Yeah, that dog is so sturdy, I figure if I don't have the stick I can hit them with the Corgi. He might not even wake up!

[Laughing Cow]

Like dezhen I got nothing and don't plan on getting anything.

Most of my MA weapons are stored away, but than there are still plenty of other things to fight with.

I also normally never carry when I go outside, just not needed.
And if I do I follow my Sifu's advise:

"If you carry don't look as if you are doing so. And don't be overconfident and rely on what you carry."

[Cheese Dog]

Allright guys, I just had to go in my bedroom and check. I have within reach of my bed:


1. Two arnis sticks
2. a bokken
3. army knife
4. A foot long metal bar
5. two stacks of weights, one iron, one vinyl covered concrete. (good for throwing at pesky intruders)
6. enough dust bunnies under the bed to take out a small army

D a m n, I didn't know I was that paranoid!!!!

[yutyeesam]

YOu're all making me paranoid, now!! I just checked my bedroom, and all I got is a cat toy that could serve as a mini rope dart. That outta give 'em a good laugh before they splatter my brain against my bedrest with their gat.

Cody-
What is your response to what I said about fear?

123

[fightfan]

Originally posted by ewallace
Not paranoid, it's being prepared. Personally, I'd like to keep a surface-to-air missle launcher under my bed, but the ATF generally frowns on having such tools in the hands of folks like me.

LMAO! Im seriously thinking about trading in my 9mm for a AK-47. Thats close enough for me!
Check it out, E.
http://www.atlanticfirearms.com/rifles.htm#AK47