Reply #50: "Guns are for professionals and cowards."

[Irreverend IX]

I'm flattered. The real cowards are people who want to sacrifice Democratic political victory due to their fear of inanimate objects.

One of the biggest threats to the regular man on the street is getting shot by a nervous police officer; happens all the time. Your best defense against that is to stay sober and be invisible. Having a gun on your person changes your body language; you become a combatant whether you like it or not.

Maybe it changes your body language. Newbies to concealed carry sometimes fidget and adjust their weapons through their clothes, but as long as people avoid that behavior and treat their weapons like they there they should be all right.

The fact is that in a firefight the first one shooting has an enormous advantage; likewise the first person with the gun in hand wins.

Then draw first.

Urban shootings are mostly between people who know each other very well by name or by identifying markers. Stranger shootings or shootings of the customer class are highly frowned upon by gang leaders; they attract attention. These guys are businessmen and such attention is bad for business.

No kidding. But the mugger/burglar element make their living by preying on noncombatants. The social dynamics of San Francisco may not be conducive to mugging, but it happens in my area; I know a guy who was beaten severely by four random gangbanger types for no reason as he walked home from work one night. I make my living toting expensive and easily noticed items around, sometimes through dodgy areas, so this isn't a philosophical discussion for me.

Leave the hunting of criminals to the pros. It really does simplify things.

I've heard of people getting CCW permits and proceeding to strut through the bad parts of town like Columbo, but those are the moronic exceptions to the rule. The only criminals I'm interested in hunting are ones who attack me.