Being "a gun person" I couldn't help but wonder if the outcome would have been different if she'd been armed. At this point it is only speculation.
I'm very sorry to hear about this story. It is tragic any time, but particularly more so since you knew the victim in this case. My sincere condolences.
I can easily imagine that if she were armed and trained, she might have been able to save her own life, and she'd have certainly been justified in doing so. One would indeed hope she'd have sent that attacker to his doom with a quickness.
My points from the original post, however, are still salient, I think. I'm not against people going about armed. I'm against
morons going about armed. I mean people who think guns are magic wands that they wave around and then everything gets better. I mean people who can't or won't train. I mean people who don't bother to learn self-defense laws where they live, make sure they understand them, and don't feel they have the legal right (or even the obligation) to dispatch fleeing shoplifters or the person who gave them a very dirty look in a parking lot - all of which have happened.
I also think - and I still think - that
most people are booger-eatin' morons. I speak very bluntly. I believe overwhelming majority of people are dumb as stumps. Some are nice, some are not nice, but few of them have the IQ to pour urine out of a boot with the instructions printed on the bottom. I have a very dim view of humanity in general.
We self-select in this forum. By simply being serious and in most cases lifelong martial artists, we belong to a subset of people who are somewhat more closely associated with creative violence than most of society. We're not the average person; if I may glorify us with the appellation intellectual. I mean that; I don't think
we are morons here. But your average bubba buying butterfly knives at the local flea market, not so much.
We tend more towards this:
A newly-filed report by the Food and Drug Administration describes an incident in a Wisconsin hospital where a woman was shot in the buttocks after bringing a gun into a room with an MRI machine.
www.cbsnews.com
I also said that a major problem with going about armed is that it's a question of actually having the dedication to do it. Every day. Everywhere. I've talked to many legal carry people who readily admit they've forgotten their weapons at times, or it was too hot that day, or they were tired, etc. This leaves people without their firearm when they actually could have used it to defend themselves or others, and of course we've seen many tragic deaths caused by people leaving firearms in their vehicles where they were found and used by children.
I will stand by what I said.
Most people should not arm themselves. They're too stupid. Too lazy. Too unwilling to learn when they can and can't legally defend themselves with deadly force.
But. If you're not stupid, and you have the ability to carry legally and are willing ready and able to do it in a responsible manner, I have no issue with being armed in public. By all means. You may save your own or another's life someday. I am not your enemy.
My only other point was that carrying a weapon - any weapon - means if you have to defend that as well as yourself. That might or might not be a good thing. As much as I'd hate to be killed, I'd really hate it if I was killed with my own weapon after someone took it from me.
