A Coming of Age Story

[GaTechGal]

All the more reason to make sure that she has ample experience with guns long before that day comes. I fully intend to have her shooting big guns at an early age. Oh, yes. All the boys will think she is hotter for it, but they will also know that she respects herself, because Daddy has been training her that way since she had ears.

My daughter was the captain of the riflery team in high school. This year in college she's going to try archery. :D:

[hobie16]

Rifle, pistol, and archery training is all very good but when it comes to drawing down on a human being reality has a funny way of making people freeze.

I started out in the Army as an MP. Because of what I did in civilian life I was transferred to Signal but I was occasionally pulled back for MP duty.

During my Reserve time I was asked to be the senior NCO for an MP detachment supplying security for an engineering battalion. One area we covered was a small airport where their air platoon had set up to support their helicopters. During the first weekend one of their crew chief's was left behind to watch their helicopters and ground equipment while everyone else went home.

My partner and I went by the airport mid afternoon on Sunday. There was no one there. We got on the radio with the battalion headquarters to determine what was going on when we heard a jeep approaching at high speed down the runway. It was our missing crew chief, drunk, who had been out bow hunting.

He staggered out of the jeep and started screaming about how we were trespassing. He then reached into the jeep, pulled out his bow, and started to notch an arrow. I drew my .45 and told him to think about what would happen if he pulled back on the arrow. Apparently he wasn't that drunk as he dropped the bow. He probably never knew he came about four ounces of pressure from being blown out of his socks.

Our detachment captain came out to pick him up and lodge him in the local jail. He tracked me down after all was said and done and asked me how I felt. I told him I was pissed that that asshole had put me into that position and that I'd like to go by the jail, drag him out, and beat the dog shit out of him. The captain said that was a normal reaction and we'd go into town later and smooth out over a few beers.

My point is, if you, or your kid, is going to come up with a weapon to defend yourself you'd better be ready to use it. Otherwise, you may have it taken away and used against you. As for me, I'm not afraid of anything I can out run.

[Main Streeter]

I started out in the Army as an MP.

Sage advice and a cool story. I love your life stories. hobie, you MUST tell Ernie you were an MP in the Army. He was an MP at Pendleton & maybe El Toro while in USMC. The stories you two could swap!!

[hobie16]

Sage advice and a cool story. I love your life stories. hobie, you MUST tell Ernie you were an MP in the Army. He was an MP at Pendleton & maybe El Toro while in USMC. The stories you two could swap!!

Most of my MP time was spent in rear area protection. Basically, we were infantry but didn't qualify for the CIB. White hat duty was just a dream.

[Goofyernmost]

My point is, if you, or your kid, is going to come up with a weapon to defend yourself you'd better be ready to use it. Otherwise, you may have it taken away and used against you. As for me, I'm not afraid of anything I can out run.

Sadly, there is nothing left I can outrun except a turtle and some snails. I'm at everyone's mercy! :(

[TiggerHappy]

I'm a big advocate of the buddy system when traveling. If you come across something you can't outrun, you'll have either a distraction or a meat shield.

[Goofyernmost]

I'm a big advocate of the buddy system when traveling. If you come across something you can't outrun, you'll have either a distraction or a meat shield.

They used to say that when escaping from a hungry bear you don't have to be faster then the bear, you just have to be faster then the person you are with! :twisted:

[BRWombat]

Sadly, there is nothing left I can outrun except a turtle and some snails. I'm at everyone's mercy! :(

As a friend of mine so aptly put it, I never run with scissors. And the last two words of that sentence are unnecessary.

[Big Wallaby]

My point is, if you, or your kid, is going to come up with a weapon to defend yourself you'd better be ready to use it. Otherwise, you may have it taken away and used against you.

That's where extensive combat, preferably martial arts, comes in. I would rather the kids I will one day have be around to feel awful about shooting that guy who was coming after them. That's why we have psychologists.

[shilohmm]

My point is, if you, or your kid, is going to come up with a weapon to defend yourself you'd better be ready to use it. Otherwise, you may have it taken away and used against you.

In my experience, at least most situations most women are likely to be in, a weapon just complicates things. For women, at least, just being willing and able to fight means you can avoid a lot of trouble. I used to try to convince my brother that, if he'd just stand up to bullies, they wouldn't push him around so much. But what I never really got back then is that I could stand up to bullies because, in my heart of hearts, I was willing to fight them if it came to it. I'd get into a cold rage where I didn't care if they hurt me, as long as I got to hurt them, and I think they knew it, because I was rarely bullied, and when I was assigned to protect my brother against a gang of bullies (or a bully and his gang, I suppose), they eventually backed off, even though I was alone and they came at me in a pack.

I did admittedly ridicule the leader for needing his gang to "fight a girl," so he really didn't have much choice but to go one-on-one with me, which is when he decided the whole thing wasn't worth doing. :p:

OTOH, I'm not willing to fight my friends and, since I had a rep of being tough, when one of my long-time sorta friends (our dads were buddies and we usually got along okay) wanted to impress someone once, she went after me. Only time I ever ran from a fight. Unfortunately, women are more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone they know than by a stranger, and I'm not alone in that inability to get physically defensive with people I like, which makes life complicated. Plus if a guy is threatening to hit you and you punch him, that's okay, but if he keeps grabbing bits of your anatomy despite your protests and you punch him, you're "overreacting." I thought that situation might have improved since I was a kid (on the theory that people were maybe recognizing that getting grabbed can be just as painful as some other assaults), but the reading I've been doing on bullies makes it sound like girls who defend themselves get even more grief than I used to.