...just a loaf of bread...

OH MY GOD! You mean to tell me that in this day and age you can go to the store at night and not get mugged? You were truly lucky to have left there with your life. :rolleyes:
I do think that you should always try and be prepared but if you forget your firearm from time to time, the chances are still highly in your favor that you will still make it home alive. So you forgot your weapon? Big deal.
 
restlessnomad said:
I'm guessing you don't CC, but how have you pulled off OC, especially in the Madison area!
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Most of my carries are off-body, just like everyone else's.

However, I do not live in Madison, I only work in Madison, and then not fully 100% of the time.

I live in the suburbs where I know and do business with most of the LEOs. (Well, at least enough to make jokes when I get a speeding ticket!)

I will be the first to admonish you about behavior and guns. You don't do anything carrying a gun that you wouldn't do unarmed. I live quietly and don't cause problems--like blasting off my Screaming Eagles at zero-dark-thirty. I get to know the problems of my area beat cops by being a good citizen and neighborhood watch person. My wife is a teacher and similarly involved.

Most of all, I am a citizen of the community for over +20 years and I have a thick prominent thatch of gray hair.

Sounds boring, heh? Well, Monday is my day off and I just came back from long ride on my Harley. In fact, Interstate S39 was chocked full of Harleys headed south.

I drove at my own spirited pace (yeah, you can't teach an old dog new tricks), I waved to law enforcement, I didn't cut in and out of traffic (much) and my Dyna is in perfect shape, not belching oil or pushing bald tires.

I've found that most of the civilized world treats you as you treat them. Yes, I find kooks and self-appointed monarchs who still hate bikes as bad as they did in 1964, but it has eased. Even kids wave.

I got home so relaxed I almost took a nap.
 
I am a bit alarmed, and saddened at some of the comments by members here. Stupid comments that have nothing to do with the thread, like tinfoil hats, and the like. And you forgot your gun, so what, ect.

There is a difference between being overly paranoid, and being properly prepaired.

It is just silly for a grown person with any common sense to sit here and say that the world is like mayberry, and nothing ever happens, so anyone carrying a gun, or being as alert as possible is paranoid, and wearing tinfoil, ect.

Its like saying that people who believe it will never happen to them, and walk around oblivious to the danger, with their blinders on, are sheep. It is not always that case, just like not everyone who carries and is alert is paranoid.

You just go ahead and stick you heads back in the sand and wait for the bad guys to go away, and say a prayer for those of us who are alert, and will do our best to save your lives while you dream of butterflies and rainbows....
 
Wild is right on!! The paranoid commando with a carry permit scares me more than the bad guys. The whole condition white, yellow, red or purple is pure nonsense! Some of you are making a great case for more stringent gun laws because it demonstrates the extreme fringe of gun owners.
 
Derius_T, well stated. I agree.

Some of you are making a great case for more stringent gun laws because it demonstrates the extreme fringe of gun owners.
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That is exactly right...the second amendment should only apply to those that who agree with JunyTuck!

The whole condition white, yellow, red or purple is pure nonsense!
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I really cannot believe what I read sometimes.

Stick your head in the sand, and ignore the advice of professionals if you wish. I have personally been involved in violent crime twice, because I was armed I was not a victim!

Again I reiterate.

It makes me sad when people make blanket statements based upon their own limited experience and assume their experience is a reality for the rest of the world.
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Derius,
What I wrote had everything to do with the original post. The dude left his house one night without his pistol and he felt it worthy to post because some gang-banger wannabes were playing music loudly? RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
:eek:
As far as sticking my head in the sand...I am not sure how many times have you been through a shooting or have gotten shot at however I have been in a couple shootings and many more tense situations where I had a gun but if I would have pulled it, I would be dead today. And yet, although I have been through grand juries and trials for shootings, I do not fear for my life if I happen to forget my firearm and I don't feel it worthy to post here if I did.
 
03Shadowbob said:
I do not fear for my life
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That wasn't my intention, and I think you know that.

For example, this week was Sturgis. I did not go, however you can bet that before I left I would have washed the bike checking for leaks, had the oil changed, checked air pressure, brake fluid levels, etc.

That's not 'paranoid,' that's maintenance.

I simply used myself in a humorous example of 'knowing better' and doing things wrong.

Look, one morning I couldn't find my keys. I found them still in the front door.

No body died, the house wasn't looted, my wife wasn't sold into white slavery, but it was a dumb thing to do. Believe me, it taught me a lesson and now I check things like that as I shut the house down for the night.

As for terms like 'condition white,' most people here know the term because they read things by Col. Jeff Cooper. It's a polite, shorthand phrase in describing a human state of mind, that's all.

As for shorthand, let's say I describe my pistol as in "condition one." We know that means a cocked and locked hammer in primarily 1911 pattern pistols where a live round is chambered into battery and the hammer set to fire with the safety lever engaged.

Most of us don't mean 'white' as any mysterious super ninja secret Asian dark-of-the-moon sacrifice mind meld. It simply means "asleep at the switch."

We know what I did. We know why I wrote it. Don't try to make it into something it is not.
 
You just go ahead and stick you heads back in the sand and wait for the bad guys to go away, and say a prayer for those of us who are alert, and will do our best to save your lives while you dream of butterflies and rainbows....
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Great just what we need...rambos to the rescue :)

WildilikebutterliesandrainbowsAlaska TM
 
Interesting the views expressed. Do I like to be aware of my surrounding and able to protect myself if need be, certainly. Does that mean that I am unable to relax, seeing attackers at every corner, not the least. I walk every day with my iPod on unconcerned but aware. In Baltimore does that mean that I may be murder number 205? Perhaps but unlikely. I don't frequent those areas. At night I am more vigilant as the risks are higher.

It's a balance. Aware but not paranoid or fearful.

Best,

B
 
Oh Wild, its not like that and you know it. I was just annoyed at all the nonsense some people keep spouting. (granted, I am by no means immune to doing it myself)

Just every time some person talks about things like this, the words tinfoil and paranoid fly around like ninja stars at a shopping mall. It just gets a little frustrating. Anyone with common sense knows what the poster is trying to convey with this thread.

03Shadowbob wrote:

Derius,
What I wrote had everything to do with the original post. The dude left his house one night without his pistol and he felt it worthy to post because some gang-banger wannabes were playing music loudly? RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
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Thats so rediculous, and you know it. Its just things people train and condition themselves to do to make the lives, and the lives of those who depend on them to be safer. I carry everywhere I go, and there have been a few times, where certain things have dictated that I go unarmed, and it ALWAYS makes me uneasy. You just never know WHEN, not if, it will happen to you, thats all.

And I have been in more life and death moments in my life than I care to relay here. I don't plan to be in any more if I can help it. That is while I am prepaired, not paranoid. I KNOW what can happen. It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

Same reasons I carry a small knife, a lighter (though I no longer smoke), and a small led flashlight, or jumper cables in my truck. Does that mke me paranoid, or prepaired?
 
Derius_T said:
tinfoil and paranoid fly around like ninja stars at a shopping mall
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I once debated a liberal guy on personal self defense. I proposed a scenario where we both went uptown to the Monona Terrace in my town for a bit of culture.

I further opined that as we left, we would now have to enter a dark parking ramp to retrieve his car. At that moment an armed mugger would appear.

I described how this friend might be threatened with death, but could not respond. I painted a picture on how he might ask me for help, and I proffered,

"No, friend, not me. You think guns are evil and I would insult your core beliefs to save one life."

I then described how a deperate drug-juiced attacker might start cutting him to emphasize his point.

I told him, trust me, at some point of the slashing you're going to yell, "Tourist, shoot him...!"

Mr. Wild might actually believe what he is saying--in the quiet confines of a forum exchanging ideas. But that is not what this is about. This is a debate on how foolishness and the simple act of not being prepared can develope into a serious attack.

So what if nothing happened? That's a crap-shoot of dumb luck where I trust my attacker to save my life.

Like anyone else, if this thread of was actually an exchange on a dark street, Mr. Wild would be screaming, "Derius, shoot him!"
 
I choose not to live my life in a paranoid condition X, in fear of some imaginary and highly improbable event! I don't see BG's lurking around every corner. I simply avoid crime prone areas. I own defensive weapons but the chance I will ever have to use one is right up there with winning the lottery.
By the way, I too like butterflies and rainbows and have no desire for Rambo to come to my rescue, thank you!
 
Wild you are so RIGHT alot of Rambo Wannabes who would piss thier pants in the first firefight they would get in. They all want to save the world and taste combat. Well i have drank from that cup and i would do it again in a minute but my hope is to never have to pull a trigger on a person again. My fire fights came in 91 in the desert. Shoot outs are nothing to look forward to and i sure can tell some of them want to. Well good luck. Alaska you hit it with paranoia. I gotta have my gun but to hell with the seat belt and by the way give me another drink and a smoke but i wont take a leak without a gun!
 
Tourist, well said. It makes some people feel empowered to make snide remarks, or to accuse someone of cowardice or what have oyu, from behind the safety of thier screens. I much doubt the same words would be used in person.

Junytuck wrote:

I choose not to live my life in a paranoid condition X, in fear of some imaginary and highly improbable event! I don't see BG's lurking around every corner. I simply avoid crime prone areas. I own defensive weapons but the chance I will ever have to use one is right up there with winning the lottery.
By the way, I too like butterflies and rainbows and have no desire for Rambo to come to my rescue, thank you!
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There is really nothing I can say to that. It is your life, and your choice to live your life that way. All I will say is that for your sake, I pray you are right, and that nothing bad happens in your sunny, fuzzy bunny filled world.

In fact, I wish the same for ALL of us. That none of us EVER faces tradgedy, or death. And that none of us EVER has to be forced to take a life.

I just choose to be a realist, and to be prepaired just in case. If that makes me paranoid, so be it. You can blame the life I have led, and the things I have suffered and seen for that.
 
JunyTuck said:
I don't see BG's lurking around every corner.
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Until recently, I might have agreed with you.

The problem in Madison is that the very area they are trying to develope as a theatre district replete with better restaurants, is on the same street (State Street) where there has been the biggest influx of assaults.

It is also an area of dark side streets and parking ramps with multi-level stair wells.

In other words, if I was a working thug, it would be exactly the place I would go. Tragically, a lot of real thugs are, in fact, headed there. Yikes, they darn near burn the place down every Halloween.

But I do not see this as a black/white, all/nothing situation. I am not saying there are only two sides, that being armed/disarmed.

You'll remember that I also added my condition of 'white' as a contributing factor. You can have the best super-slick 1911 in the world, but if your attention is somewhere else...

And Derius, thanks.
 
Mr. Wild might actually believe what he is saying--in the quiet confines of a forum exchanging ideas. But that is not what this is about. This is a debate on how foolishness and the simple act of not being prepared can develope into a serious attack.
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Mr Wild believes what he says. Mr. Wild will say it to anyones face too:D

Mr. Wild believes that some of you guys go way overboard on this stuff. But hey, you wanna live your life a certain way, go for it. Just dont get upset when your choices arent vindicated.

Wildicantevenfindmyseecamptocarryit:oAlaska TM
 
Tourist,
Seriously now..Madison is no LA, Miami, Philly. Hell it's not even a Charlotte NC when it comes to crime, etc. I live in WPB FL that ranks number 7 in the country with violent crimes and there aren't bad crimes on every corner and it is a lot smaller than Madison, IIRC.

I think some of where you are getting flak from is
After I bought the ice cream, I walked back to the SUV, and realized that a group of 'banger wannabees where shucking and jiving at the far end of the lot. While no threat to me at that distance,
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and
I screwed up big time. And the only possible saving grace to my plight was the loud music that shook me out of condition white.
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Were the guys across the parking lot a threat or not? If not, why was the loud music your "saving grace". That is almost as ridiculous as saying you were almost killed by someone who blew a red light a mile ahead of you but thank god for those brake lights up ahead were your saving grace.

Face it, the only bad thing that could have happened to you leaving the store was you stubbing your big toe on the curb. Your post comes off as paranoid and not "I wasn't prepared".

My .02. Now I am done with this one.
 
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