Bear with me, this post is pretty long.
I was doing some thinking today about my CCW and how there is a blaring large and largely unfair gap in how it protects me from a violent situation.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my CCW is only legal to use to protect myself from imminent and grave bodily harm, and must be used in defense of lethal force only - by this, it means that I can't draw my handgun when I'm challenged by someone who is unarmed and not substantially larger than I am due to disparity of size.
I'm 25 years old, 6'3" and I weigh about 290 lbs. I'm not big in a bad way either; I'm in pretty good shape, built like an offensive lineman. The entire "disparity of size" thing isn't a excuse for me unless I'm being chased down by Arnold Schwarzenegger (back in his bodybuilding days) or Kimbo Slice.
Let's just say that I'd have a hard time in court justifying my use of my CCW if I was getting the snot kicked out of me by a guy that was average sized, which is about half my weight and 5 inches shorter than I am. This is not to say that this is completely impossible - a very well-motivated adult of any size could potentially threaten my life without the use of a weapon, despite my size advantage.
Anyone else see the blaring gap here? Most altercations are man on man, 1v1 and without the use of a weapon, and one person usually winds up very seriously hurt, while the other is virtually unharmed.
Because of this, I've been considering learning a martial art because frankly, I don't want to be lugging around any more gear on my belt than I have to. Hell, I'm already lugging around a Makarov PM IWB, spare mag, wallet, keys, cell phone, Spyderco Tenacious, mini-maglite (twisty-top variety), Swiss army knife, and a partridge in a pear tree. I don't want to add OC-spray or a tazer because I'm already lugging around several pounds of gear as it is, and being 25 years of age, I would feel awkward wearing suspenders.
Sorry about the rant, just thought I would share my thinking on this, maybe some of you might be in the same boat as me.
~Jon
I was doing some thinking today about my CCW and how there is a blaring large and largely unfair gap in how it protects me from a violent situation.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my CCW is only legal to use to protect myself from imminent and grave bodily harm, and must be used in defense of lethal force only - by this, it means that I can't draw my handgun when I'm challenged by someone who is unarmed and not substantially larger than I am due to disparity of size.
I'm 25 years old, 6'3" and I weigh about 290 lbs. I'm not big in a bad way either; I'm in pretty good shape, built like an offensive lineman. The entire "disparity of size" thing isn't a excuse for me unless I'm being chased down by Arnold Schwarzenegger (back in his bodybuilding days) or Kimbo Slice.
Let's just say that I'd have a hard time in court justifying my use of my CCW if I was getting the snot kicked out of me by a guy that was average sized, which is about half my weight and 5 inches shorter than I am. This is not to say that this is completely impossible - a very well-motivated adult of any size could potentially threaten my life without the use of a weapon, despite my size advantage.
Anyone else see the blaring gap here? Most altercations are man on man, 1v1 and without the use of a weapon, and one person usually winds up very seriously hurt, while the other is virtually unharmed.
Because of this, I've been considering learning a martial art because frankly, I don't want to be lugging around any more gear on my belt than I have to. Hell, I'm already lugging around a Makarov PM IWB, spare mag, wallet, keys, cell phone, Spyderco Tenacious, mini-maglite (twisty-top variety), Swiss army knife, and a partridge in a pear tree. I don't want to add OC-spray or a tazer because I'm already lugging around several pounds of gear as it is, and being 25 years of age, I would feel awkward wearing suspenders.
Sorry about the rant, just thought I would share my thinking on this, maybe some of you might be in the same boat as me.
~Jon