A weapon used for self defense should not be considered"just a way to level the playing field." A weapon is a force multiplier. What you want is something that gives you an advantage, if possible, not something that is equivalent.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I ment. Initally the odds are in your attackers favor, now they should be in yours.
"If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plann your mission properly" - Ken Hackworth
Carrying a weapon can help ensure the fight isn't fair and that the odds are in your favor.
What both you guys are describing sounds great on paper (well, a monitor) however that attitude can very quickly drive any situation from defense, which is what this thread is about, to assault or in extreme cases, manslaughter.
In a SD situation, a weapon or an object IMO should be picked up to act as an equalizer at it's base level and if it offers advantages, then great! Level the playing field as you put it Frank. If an attacker has a stick and you pick up a gun and use it, it's no longer appropriate force and therefore no longer within the realm of self defense. If the attacker is coming at you with a knife and you pick up a bat or a stick - either of which is a force multiplier and gives you a reach advantage - and break their arm with it or drop them to the ground and the fight ends there, then great. You acted to protect yourself and did what had to be done. If however, you disarm them and then keep hitting them or take them to ground and keep hitting them, you are now the one committing a felony. Yeah sure they instigated things but
you took it to a whole new level. Keep in mind, I'm not saying you as in you guys personally, just referring to anyone in that situation. There is a reason even though police officers are given guns, they don't draw them, let alone shoot them in every situation. Everything must be taken on it's own merits so to broadly advocate getting something bigger and more powerful than the other guy, as opposed to something that will raise your chances of getting out safe, I'd say, is based in fear rather than logic and reasoning.
Christian Soldier, sorry if this sounds preachy mate but I think you're missing the point of
defense entirely! I highlighted your quote and the next sentence because in a civilian self defense situation, there is no fight and there sure as hell is no mission. If you are on a mission on the streets, you are a vigilante and acting outside the law anyway so no advice given here is going to be good enough. As I mentioned before, everything must be taken in context. What applies to a solider or an LEO does not apply to the average citizen. Carrying a weapon (if you are legally allowed to) can possibly be a good thing and have it's advantages but overall you don't just tip the scales in your favor. You raise the stakes considerably across the board. I will say that when it comes to real world violence, there is no such thing as a
fair fight. The bad guys won't take turns attacking you, will generally have friends or backup with them so you are outnumbered, will generally have weapons of their own and won't worry about the correct way to use them or rationalize what the consequences could be. They will be attacking in a primal fashion driven either by the desire to hurt or the desire for your belongings. Telling yourself you can somehow make that into a fair fight is frankly going to be detrimental to any serious training you can do.
Australia have extremely strict laws as well. From a logical point of view I can see why they came into force and overall for the vast majority of the population the laws have made no difference. We simply don't live in a culture where having a weapon is necessary or even practical. What this does mean for us is that a lot of weapons - guns in particular - are limited to the criminal fraternities and most people in the day to day lives never come across them. On the other side of the coin, sadly it does mean a lot of us are lacking on the specifics of the weapons or their uses. For instance, if you put a gun in my hand and told me to flip off the safety or release the magazine, I'm more likely to shoot myself in the foot turning the gun over like a rubiks cube than I am to know how to work the damn thing. Cyriacus is based in Australia as well and whilst I don't know if he has any history of living in the US, it does mean our understanding of the specific laws with regards to firearms will be a touch hazy at best. 
....aim for the nose lol.
