oh yeah Korea is a much safer place. (note sarcasm)

 

Cotnball beat me to it, but his comments are absolutely correct. While the UK may have seen a decrease in gun deaths, your crime rate has skyrocketed. Why? Because criminals do not care about gun laws, or any laws for that fact. They prey on the people who can no longer defend themselves. The UK is not alone in this. Australia did the same thing and disarmed their population. They have seen the exact same explosion in crime rates. I was in Bristol and London late last year for work. At the time the big story in the news there was about how a female police officer woke up to find a robber in her house. She beat the robber senseless with a baseball bat. To me that is poetic justice. But in your country she was charged with using excessive force on the robber. That sends the absolute wrong message. What exactly are private law abiding citizens allowed to do to protect themselves there? I honestly think you'd see a revolution in this country again if lawmakers tried to outright ban gun ownership. They know that so they are taking the end around process by slowly taking away rights. Pro gun organizations though are aware and there are battles in our legislature that continue on this front. The pro gun movement though seems to be gaining the advantage. Now if I was a conspiracy theorist type, I'd look at the ATF's botched Fast and Furious program as an attempt to flood Mexico with American guns and then use that as a way to push their anti gun agenda. That is until a border patrol agent was unfortunately killed.

I'm new to this forum but in no way new to riding or gun ownership. I carry 100% of the time. Those that argue as to why anyone would need to carry or aren't you worried about the issues that surface after really haven't given enough thought to what may happen to them. Case in point. My wife and I left a restaurant in Boston's North End. We were having a great night until we went back to our car in a parking garage. The garage is underground and we came out of the elevator and headed to our car. That's when I noticed two guys come out from behind a parked car and started following us. My wife became very scared and I put my hand in my front pocket. I typically pocket carry a Kahr PM9. As we approached our car one of the guys yelled at us and we turned around. One guy pulled a knife as I pulled my Kahr at the same time. I have a laser grip on my Kahr so the red dot immediately lined up on the guy holding the knife. It only took a second for them to realize what was going on and they ran. I have absolutely no doubt that if we were unarmed we'd have been mugged, possible rape on my wife or even killed. Police never found the guys, so they are still out there. To each there own, but for me, I refuse to be a victim. If it leads to a lawsuit, so be it. As many have said, better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6.

As to the OP question on carrying I'd also have to suggest a different handgun for conceal carry while riding. Something a little smaller for better concealment. Some here have suggested iwb/owb carry, inside vest pocket carry, etc'. All good suggestions. Like I said above, I pocket carry most of the time. Only exception is on my motorcycle. Near impossible to draw a ccw from your pocket while sitting. The same thing holds true when I'm in my car. In the car though I take it out of my pocket to a holster on the side of my seat. Can't do that on a bike though. One thing to consider is your footwear. Do you wear high boots while riding? High enough that your pants don't ride up over the top? If so, you could also consider an ankle holster. One that goes higher up on your calf with part of it that tucks into the top of your boot. I wear harness boots and it works perfectly and with a little practice is fairly easy to draw from the sitting position when your strong side leg is up on the floorboard.

 

Some years ago (1994) Linda and I had a 93' anniversary edition Corvette and we were on a drive. It was late in the day and we needed fuel so I pulled in to a convenience store in the southern part of Wyoming. Wife didn't need anything so she stayed in the car and out of habit I locked the car when I got out. The windshield was bugged pretty good so I got the squeegee out of the bucket and was cleaning the windows when 3 guys who had been sitting on a bench started over toward the car. I had my P-89 Ruger in a shoulder rig on the left side. The three guys started commenting rather loudly how they would like to drive a Corvette and were still coming. I reached up and unzipped my jacket so they could see how this fight was gonna go as the holster and the butt end of that hi-cap became very visible. Without saying another word all three made a u turn and proceeded to just head down the street on the sidewalk and they didn't look back.

You don't always have to enter the fight but just look bigger to the would be perpetrator? Coincidentally this is what they suggest in the event of an encounter with a mountain lion.

Might bring up at this point that we are under an invasion from another country right now to the tune of 11,000,000 (yea that's million) undocumented illegal aliens. I live 400 miles from the Canadian border and they are flowing in here too.

Seems to me that one of the downsides of America being the country it is with freedom for one and all, is that people still want to come here in spite of the fact that our economy is having a tough time righting itself.

Here in Wyoming they changed the carry laws to where now anyone can carry without a CCW as long as they don't have a criminal record or are under medical care for mental issues. My wife and I renewed our CCW's recently so that we would still be able to "pack" in any state that has reciprocity with Wyoming.

Baggs

 

Advice for the situation, look both ways....blow the light, gain a lead, abruptly pull over, pull your weapon (even with gloves on), hold weapon with target in site from behind bike and have a leaping escape route in mind if he drives towards you as if to mow you down...at that point, decide....shoot or leap

 

Well well , that kind off action would require 3 things #1 fast thinking and no hesitation #2 a working set of ***** and some self confidence and #3 a man that is willing to pull the trigger and deal with the fall out .

Outside of the oblivious LEO in here and some combat vets , getting 2 of the the 3 in any one person in here would be a long shot and I'm doubting very few have all 3 . A gun on a bike for 95% of this place is ego support and that's about it .

 

Baggs, are you saying the Canadian's are flowing across the border into the U.S.?

 

If you have evaded the threat and are away what would be the point in re-engaging the enemy? Really doubt there would be much of a valid defense in court all things considered in that scenario?

Baggs

 

Twizted....
You are very correct in every sense of direction. There are some of us that have that state of mind to accomplish 2 out of the 3 steps, there are even fewer of us that can make the third mortal dicisions. When faced with human natures aspect of fight or flight, we have a state of mind that steps up.

myself...glock 17-17, ccw, slide laser, hunter, protector

 

Yea it's really crazy in the stores what with all the 'ehs' and the que pasa's ya can't tell who yer talking to cept fer the height and the skin tone.

Baggs

 

That's why I'm asking an actual armed American.



Well, at least it's peer-reviewed and widely accepted as a reliable source. Admittedly you can't quote it in a Thesis, but as internet-based sources go it's better than the two sources quoted originally, isn't it?



Crikey - I didn't know there were that many hunters! That is indeed a heckuva lot of guns. America should certainly be quite safe from invasion.

However, I think the likelihood of America ever being threatened with an invasion along WW2-type lines is so remote as to be easily discountable, isn't it? Unless either Canada or Mexico are secretly plotting something drastic.

And (fascinating as the numbers above are), the question remains - Why isn't America the safest place on Earth? Leaving aside hunting and focusing on home/personal defence - why the feeling that all this firepower is necessary? No other country feels the same way.

Surely the more people that have guns, the higher the risk of getting shot? Perhaps the idea is that if there is a higher risk of getting shot, you need even more guns to defend yourself? But that can only lead to an even higher risk of getting shot doesn't it? The issue become an ever-decreasing circle.

To illustrate what I mean - in the UK, no one has guns. And no one gets shot (at least statistically speaking. There are approximately 62 million people living in Britain and in 2008 for example, 42 people got killed with firearms - 0.000007% of the population). No one needs a concealed firearm. No one worries about getting shot. No one gets shot.

Someone here said that "an armed society is a polite society". I would be polite to someone who was armed too. But not out of a genuine regard for that person, but because I'd be afraid of them...[/quote]

I think if you check statistics you will find that the places in the US that have the highest per capita ownership of LEGAL firearms are also the safest. Granted, few people get shot in the United Kingdom, but look at the amount of knife assaults you have. Noone gets shot, but lots of people get cut and stabbed.