Reply #185: There are better ways to protect yourself

[Verbalent]

Carrying a gun adds to your risk, not reduces it. See the repeated references in this thread to the 714 accidental firearms deaths every year compared to the 182 justifiable firearms homicides each year.

As far as having the ability to fight back, there are much safer ways to give you the ability to fight back, such as chemical spray. You can also improve your safety by carrying a loud alarm siren or whistle. A roll of nickels is legal, weighs less and is less bulky than a gun and won't accidentally go off and kill or wound you like concealed carry permit holder Plaxico Burress's gun did, and yet when held in the fist will turn an otherwise ineffectual punch into a powerful dissuader. Canes, walking sticks, Tasers and knives can all be defensive weapons that won't kill you.

By far the most popular ways to get out of trouble are to run, hide, yell or scream for help, beg for mercy and as a last resort, play dead. And they have worked, too, for survivors of all sorts of crimes, from robbery to mass shootings.

On the other hand, as far as I have been able to determine, never has a private citizen without law enforcement background used a legally concealed handgun to successfully intervene in a spree shooting involving three or more fatalities. Yet concealed carry permit holders themselves engage in multiple mass homicides annually, the latest just yesterday.