“A deadly threat encounter is not initiated on a range and with the words “shooter ready?”, but by someone saying, “what’s up, homie?” in front of a circle K.”

“You already know where you’re susceptible. If you park your car some place, do you look under the car as you walk up to it? Do you walk up from the back side and press the trunk to make sure that the trunk isn’t popped? Do you look in the backseat or do you just jump in the car and then go ‘oh s___, someone’s in the car with me!’ And people go ‘well I’m not going to live my life like that!’, Well then don’t. But then don’t be a whinin’ b____, ok, when something happens and your family gets murdered. I’m telling you it will probably never happen to you, but you  can’t guarantee it won’t. So it’s like insurance… People are not going to give you a break. So you have to be careful about it.” – Clint Smith

“The rationale of carrying a second weapon? Pretty much like the same reason we have a spare tire in our automobile, the same reason most of us carry more than one credit card, same reason none of us get up in the morning and figure exactly how much cash we’re gonna spend and put just that much in the wallet. You have to allow for emergencies.” – Massad Ayoob.

“It doesn’t matter to the Anti-Gun Biggots what gun you carry.  They have never said “Oh, its okay, he only has a .380.”   In fact, they have tried specifically to ban small guns because they are more concealable.  Remember they made a run against Saturday Night Specials?  They don’t care.  That being the case, if you are going to get wet, you might as well go swimming.   Should you have to use your weapon, and you end up in a court of Law, they will make no distinctions regarding the size or type.  Or if you are in a store and lift your arm up to reach a top shelf item and someone sees the grip of your pistol. They call the cops no matter what it is and when The Bronze approaches you they don’t make any distinction either.  You are either legal to carry, or you are not.”

Small concealable firearms have always had a place in the overall scheme of things .  Your thinking is sound even if your back-up weapon isn't a firearm.  I carry a folding knife that I can open quickly with one hand because if it comes down to it and I no longer have my primary defense weapon somebody is either going to back off or get cut.   I have considered a pocket gun just because it carries more fight stopping potential than the knife in most cases.

1.   I never want to be without the ability to defend myself. If the assailant is robbing an establishment and pats down customers, I would rather have something to back up my primary. Assuming they rob me of my primary and take the items/money they want and leave, then no harm and no foul. Stuff can be replaced.

Once more I'm going to risk causing Kaso to have a cardiac arrest.   
I full concur with his statement above.


"Property is the fruit of your labor; the product of your time, energy, and talents." *

When you steal my property you are stealing that period of time which I used to acquire that property, be it that I acquired the property by  building or otherwise making it myself or if I acquired it by working to earn money with which in turn  I purchased the property.

If you try to take my time from me now, in the present, through the use of force you are committing kidnapping and I can ethically (as well as legally) use lethal force to prevent this.

If you to take my remaining time in the future, by ending my life, you are attempting murder and I can ethically (as well as legally) use lethal force to prevent this.

So why is it that you attempting to take my time, that spent in the past in exchange for my property,  doesn't legally justify my using the same level of force to protect it that is legally justified to protect my time in the present and future?   

The legal arguments based on the idea that loss of property can be remedied through the courts and the legal system whereas it can not remedy your unlawful imprisonment or death is flawed.   Any LEO's out there care to tell me how often they've seen stolen property returned to the lawful owner in a timely fashion in comparison to how often the property is never recovered or recovered damaged beyond use?   

Don't want to end up dead?
Don't assault people and don't steal from people.
If you can't grasp that we don't need you in the gene pool and your death will be an overall improvement to society and our species.


*Bonus points to anyone who recognizes where this quote originates.

"Property is the fruit of your labor; the product of your time, energy, and talents." *



*Bonus points to anyone who recognizes where this quote originates.

Now that I think about it, I carry quite a few implements. I have a victorinox farmer which has alwas been my camp, work, package opening, and cook knife. Lately it has been helping me mince a lot of garlic in the kitchen  .

I also carry a Cold Steel AK-47, a small canister of Sabre red pepper spray, and then my Sig P228 and S&W 642 for all of my daily travels.

I feel both the Cold Steel knife and the 642 would do very well up close, but then again why not Both? Options are good  . Besides, one must remember their limitations and I am a pretty small guy. If I was backed into a corner (and let's face it, the only reason I would ever stay and fight someone is if they cornered me or physically pinned me down. God gave me some pretty fast running legs and I intend to use them at the first sign of trouble  ), I am not sure how confident I feel trying to stab my way to safety, especially if it is against someone who is significantly larger than myself. I do know however that I feel pretty confident on stabbing my way to safety if the individual intending to do me harm has just eaten 5 rounds of .38 special  .

"Property is the fruit of your labor; the product of your time, energy, and talents." *

*Bonus points to anyone who recognizes where this quote originates.

I most certainly have  . I might not know much  , but I do know what makes the body go and what makes it stop.

There seems to be a debate about knife self defense,however.

I forget his name, but he teaches a muscle/tendon focus based training that relies on accuracy and the structural break down of specific body parts. Doug Marcaida also focuses some in this area too, but he studies Kali, which is just crazy  . He somehow manages to get in structural breakdown, massive haemorrhage, and manage to make it all look easy/"pretty" while doing it.

There seems to be two schools of thought in the debate:

Break the structure and the machine will break. Shot placement is key.

and then

Massive blood loss is key. two inches of penetration will beat 20 shallow slashes, always. The only realistic tactic in knife fighting is to sewing machine/piston stab.

And here in lies our debate. While I know what important things to cut, I don't know much about knife fighting in itself. Is it realistic to hit a small, specific target? What are the odds you could get to it in a deadly encounter? etc. These are the questions I'm not sure of  .

Similar to a handgun. I know if I shoot the assailant in the C6, they'll go down 100% every time, but am I really going to make that shot?

I most certainly have  . I might not know much  , but I do know what makes the body go and what makes it stop.

There seems to be a debate about knife self defense,however.

I forget his name, but he teaches a muscle/tendon focus based training that relies on accuracy and the structural break down of specific body parts. Doug Marcaida also focuses some in this area too, but he studies Kali, which is just crazy  . He somehow manages to get in structural breakdown, massive haemorrhage, and manage to make it all look easy/"pretty" while doing it.

There seems to be two schools of thought in the debate:

Break the structure and the machine will break. Shot placement is key.

and then

Massive blood loss is key. two inches of penetration will beat 20 shallow slashes, always. The only realistic tactic in knife fighting is to sewing machine/piston stab.

And here in lies our debate. While I know what important things to cut, I don't know much about knife fighting in itself. Is it realistic to hit a small, specific target? What are the odds you could get to it in a deadly encounter? etc. These are the questions I'm not sure of  .

Similar to a handgun. I know if I shoot the assailant in the C6, they'll go down 100% every time, but am I really going to make that shot?

Combining the two (and I admit to no real-life experience in knife fighting) would seem to work best.  My thought is that initially holding the knife such that the blade comes out the bottom of your fist, then angling it back against your forearm, serves several purposes.  1)  It allows you to have the knife in hand, without it necessarily being seen.  2) Having it in this position makes it harder to grab than if it's in a stabbing position out in front of you.  3) It prevents your wrist from being grabbed without the "grabber" getting seriously cut.  4)  If you do have to swing, the blade can be brought to bear in a rapid slicing motion, either in a crossing motion or an uppercut motion, either of which will draw serious blood from the assailant, hopefully allowing time for subsequent strikes, of either slicing or stabbing nature, as is deemed necessary.

Just my 1.5 cents, worth what you paid for them.

So I'm going to circle back to the original question since I don't have much input on knife fighting etc, if I'm in a knife fight it's an extra bad day because generally that means I've either run out of guns or they have been taken off me or I've got the knife in my teeth since both arms are disabled;)

None the less on backup guns, I've carried one allot though I will admit the last several years I didn't typically carry one. I almost always carry a large caliber gun and a couple mags, typically one of my 1911's and if it's a 1911 then it's two mags on the other hip. Not that I feel that's the end all, but the point is that it's not a mouse gun typically. There are times when I'll just carry my PF9 and a single spare mag, or the 44SPC snub with a single speed loader. But those days are very few and far between and seldom do I leave the woods with that sort of setup on.

When I first started carrying a backup it was my P3AT in my left hand pocket, the main reason initially was testing my pocket holster design back then though quickly I figured out is was an easy carry method. Only real problem was I needed to move my phone out of that pocket and run a belt clip. The other perk I found was while filling my gas tank or any other casual situation I got in the habit of getting a firing grip on the gun while in the holster. Which with my testing on a timer meant that I could draw and fire around a half to full second quicker than if I had to get in the pocket for the gun and draw. Which made it even faster than getting my primary on my hip into play. So I called it my gas station gun for a while but I always carried in the pocket. When we moved back home and stopped traveling the gas stations I encounter now are much much better than say north Houston. So the need for a gas station gun faded a touch unless I find myself traveling outside of the area. Also I switched phones several times, and with these new bigger smart phones I have a hard time carrying them on the belt. They just seem so huge when in a holster on the belt, that I much prefer throwing them in my pocket. My right pocket doesn't work because there are other things in there, and I prefer to use my phone with my weak hand in case I need my strong hand. But also my right ear is far worse than my left, so I never talk with my phone to my right ear anyhow. Either way that changed my carry routine and I never really got back in the habit of carrying a backup gun. Other than stretches where I carried another gun IWB or OWB in various configs which I still do from time to time but generally only if there is a reason to do so.

For those wondering why I'd need two rigs like that commonly I'll carry my 22lr 1911 cross draw for shooting squirrels outside the shop in the summer. I don't like just carrying the 22lr I feel unarmed, but it's super handy for plinking squirrels so I end up carrying both. Other times when there is a higher threat so to speak then I'll often carry two, but really I do my best to avoid those situations whenever possible. There has only been a very few of them over the years I couldn't avoid for one reason or another but in those cases I try to be as armed as possible.

Either way, this week actually I've started again carrying a backup. Though not as regular as I used to, mostly because the rig is too new to get into my brain to remember to put it on in the morning. But I started carrying the P3AT on my newest ankle holster prototype. And while I'm not an ankle holster fan for a primary, it can make for a very nice backup gun platform. I think another thing I'm going to test which I thought of way back around 2010 is making a weak side platform for the ankle for carrying backup mags and other things I'd like to offload off the belt. Since ankle carry makes the one ankle feel heavier I thought it might also make walking a little more even, but I'm also always looking for somewhere comfortable to be able to carry more stuff as needed. So I'll test that, but so far I think carrying a backup will become normal habit again for me with the ankle rig, and it makes for an easy way to carry another gun day to day and it generally stays out of my way.

As far as other guys carrying one, I always thought spare mags and even better a spare gun was a good idea. But first and foremost has to be mindset but having the right tools never hurts either;)

Luke

So the current version doesn't come with a calf strap and actually I think I've eliminated the need for it with this setup. Note likely I'll be building two versions one using neoprene and another using the more traditional leather/wool style. This prototype is a larger wider piece of neoprene with dual straps lacking a better term to tension the rig rather than the single on that Galco. No thumb break, but the rig rides such that the entire gun is in front of the neoprene where the galco the break etc rides above the line of the neoprene. So this design being wider almost incorporates the calf strap function but in a single piece, and it's got enough friction so far in testing that it stays put better than anything else I've tried.

Otherwise it's not too far off existing designs out there, though I didn't do nor plan on doing wool with this one. Just neoprene, and thus far I don't think I'll need anything more for cushion though I will need to build more of them to test with other guns to know for sure. But I'm doing my best to make it less hot than the other ones I've tried, and I may also try some other materials for the strapping method to the leg. But right now neoprene while not perfect works pretty dang well. So there may be additional versions down the road as I find other options, but I do think the neoprene version(with a leather holster of course, the neoprene is just the leg wrap), will likely come out pretty soon pending I don't run into issues scaling it up to larger guns.

G26 on the ankle may be a bit much, haven't tried it. But back in the day I did carry my PT145 on my ankle which is a bigger grip but otherwise very close. It was ALLOT of gun for ankle carry. I think myself probably if you can't pocket carry it, probably shouldn't ankle carry it, and the lighter the better;)

Luke