QKShooter

By Marc "Animal" MacYoung
Some "Adult" Language - If your ears are sensitive to strong language -Do Not Click Here

Also Please Note that it will take you a while to read it since the highlighted red active links in the text will keep you jumping around a bit but, they do need to be clicked on also as part of the total comprehension.

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stoneypete

good info. thanks for the link.

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The .45 acp. A safe place in an unsafe world.

ELCruisr

I've always liked his writing. While course, I think he is trying to ram home reality. An ugly reality, I learned that one myself too many years ago. I hope many will read his site!

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If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good. ~ Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

AzQkr

QKShooter,

I'll need to go read all the materials on his thought process' in the different subjects linked on that site. From what I read briefly this morning, he's spot on so far.

Thanks for the link

Brownie

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The mind is the limiting factor

http://www.threatfocused.com/forums/index.php

Tangle

Great stuff QK! It is indeed refreshing to see someone that speaks in terms of reality. After my edged weapons courses, I came away thinking that defending oneself bare-handed against a knife or kinfe to knife is not a good choice. If that's our only choice, our future is lookin' pretty bleak.

The issues he discusses is exactly why I believe that making and maintaining distance is almost without exception the best thing one can do.

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"Plans fail, things fail, people fail; but, fear never fails - it must be defeated." - by Tangle, a long time ago.

P95Carry

Couldn't agree more.

The reality break seems definitely a ''cut'' above other articles!!

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Chris - P95
NRA Certified Instructor & NRA Life Member.

"To own a gun and assume that you are armed
is like owning a piano and assuming that you are a musician!."

If a BG dies as the result of pointing a gun at me, then he has merely succumbed to an occupational hazard of being a thug

jahwarrior72

one of the best articles i've read on knife defense. thanks!

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I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. (J.R.R.Tolkien, The Two Towers)




http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=19644781

retsupt99

Great article to trek through...many threads to follow...lots of reality for a cruel world.

ret

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"That I cannot do."

"Give this to, uh, Clemenza. I want reliable people, people who aren't going to be carried away. After all we're not murderers in spite of what this undertaker thinks."


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NRA Life Member

limatunes

You weren't kidding when you said it would take a long time to read. It was a good read, however, and I think a lot of what he says about knife fighting and carrying a knife for self-defense can be directly translated into concealed carry of handguns for self-defense.

The talk about mindset and the aftermath of using deadly force on another human being... I think those are all things that too many people don't think about before they start carrying ANY kind of weapon for self-defense.

I used to be a moderator for a military spouse forum and I would get upset to see these gals who would come in complaining about how hard being married to a service member was and how they never expected it to be like what it was and how much they hated it and couldn't wait for their husbands to get out. It always left me screaming, "What the hell did you think it was going to be.. a picnic?" at the screen. Then, not six or seven months down the road, these women are back in the forums asking about divorce proceedings and the legalities of serving divorce papers to their husbands while they are overseas. That kind of uninformed, unprepared blundering into something they could have been prepared for, and then the pain and devastation that comes when they realize how stupid they were, and the mess of trying to undo an avoidable mistake, and trying to be a ray of hope in that situation, is one of the top reasons I could not continue to moderate, much less even stay, in that forum.

I think it's the same for people who decide to defend themselves without completely thinking through the kind of responsibility they are taking on.

I read a report by a forensic investigator that said the average criminal is really good at preparing everything up to the time they commit the crime, very rarely do they have a solid plan for afterward.

It's the same with silly, premature gals who think that nothing but love will make their marriage to a service member flourish, and the individual who picks up a weapon for self-defense. They think about everything up to the point of marriage or to the point of having to use that weapon in self-defense, but what about after? What about those months that a military spouse will spend alone, and the knowledge that the last time you said goodbye and hugged your spouse could literally be the last time you ever do that again? What about after you pull that trigger or make that last slice, then what?

Can you handle it, mentally, emotionally, even physically?

A lot of times people rush to say, "YES!" because they don't want to seem week or cowardly or they want to appear unusually strong.

When I was engaged to marry a Marine he was ambushed in Iraq and I had four days of not knowing whether he was dead or alive. Four days of hell. My mother asked me if I was ready to do this possibly over and over and over again, and finally, one day, to possibly get the most devastating news any military spouse could get.

I had to really think about it for another day. I had to really imagine what it would be like to stand next to a flag-draped coffin and say goodbye. I had to really think about what I would do afterward, where I would go, what kind of life I would have left for myself, mentally, emotionally, even physically.

I came back in 24 hours and said, "I'm ready," not with pride of a feeling of being macho and ready to prove that I'm better than anyone else, but because I'd weighed all of the consequences and accepted that even though I would hurt and I would suffer and I would be in more pain than I could probably conceivably imagine, I believed I could somehow find the strength, resources and reserve to come out of that situation. That I could still have a life after my wounds had healed enough to move on, and I believed I COULD move on.

It was hard to sit down with my husband and talk about what he would want for a funeral should he be KIA, and where I would go, and how I would divide our things and what I could sell, but it was all necessary in preparing for something I prayed would never happen, but I wasn't about to be unprepared for the worst.

It was the similar to what I had to consider when I was asked if I was ready to carry a handgun in my own defense. I wasn't going to stop at considering if I could kill in my own defense, but what I would have to deal with AFTER I killed for self-defense. What it would be like to have nightmares about it, what it would be like to second guess myself and doubt myself and wonder over and over again if I REALLY had to pull that trigger. If there was something, ANYTHING I could have done to keep from taking a life. I had to think about what it would be like to question whether my own life was worth his, and even to seek professional help if I needed it.

Was I ready for that? Sure that it is worse case scenario, but so is my husband being KIA in some firefight in Iraq, but it's something to consider before I jumped on that band wagon.

Sometimes people don't like thinking about those things because even thinking about those things becomes too painful (I still cringe when some young military girlfriend says, "I don't want to think about that. It's hurts too much.") If you can't handle it just by thinking about it, how in God's name are you going to handle it when it happens?

I have sobbed just THINKING about my husband dying in war. I have bawled my eyes out just imagining having to accept a folded flag. I have felt doubt when even thinking about killing in my own defense. I have cried just thinking about watching someone die that I just shot in defense of myself. I've had nightmares about life after the death of someone I either love or someone I dispatched. It has made me doubt, but I think that every reasonable person who has truly considered the weight of their responsibility experiences doubt.

It was something I needed to do to get myself to where I am today, the wife of a (now former) Marine and a concealed carrier.

I'm drawing a lot of parallels, but the message is the same--there is an aftermath that NEEDS to be considered in the actions you take and a decision needs to be made as to whether you think you could handle that aftermath or not.

God bless the strength of those who say, "I couldn't do it," and step out graciously. I applaud them for their honesty, not only with others, but with themselves.

And for those who say, "I could do it if I had to," I hope those words are said through a veil of humility, weaved from the respect of the consequences carefully weighed.

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Momma bear to Garrett.. born 11/25/2008
8 lbs 4 oz, 21" long

Limatunes' Range Diaries

Rob72

Spot on, lima. I would add (as I'm sure others here have), that I've seen enough folks who, through the law of Unintended Consequences, came into the ED with multiple stab wounds, crushed faces, ribs and spine, and permanently useless arms and legs as the result of "boot parties", to have no qualms about using any and all means necessary not to be one of the Poor Hapless ********.

Rule of the 3 Stupids(credit where credit is due,MD ): Avoid Stupid People, Do Not Perform Stupid Acts, Stay out of Places of Stupidity (where the first two most commonly intermix).