What weapon should I get for self-defense?

[Bugfatty300]

The part about the military was a joke. I don't know what else to tell you.

The rest of my post, however, was serious. It's hypocritical to give students weapons permits but not allow them by law to carry them on campus.

 

[MobBoss]

Again, I say....just get a friggin dog and your problem will be solved.

 

[general_kill]

The part about the military was a joke. I don't know what else to tell you.

The rest of my post, however, was serious. It's hypocritical to give students weapons permits but not allow them by law to carry them on campus.

Bugfatty I think we can all agree that it's extremely rewarding to see guns used effectively in self-defense and I would really like to see the faces of those muggers when they stare down the barrel of a gun.

That said, I don't think most college students come from backgrounds where people around them are all carrying concealed weapons. It is a huge cultural shock for people from urban and even suburban areas to confront a peer who carries such a weapon. The weapons probably won't be used against you but it still creates a barrier and a level of unneeded tension. I'm friends with pretty much every security guard on my campus but I'm extremely reluctant about getting close with police officers who carry guns because it just creates a psychological barrier.

 

[Bugfatty300]

It is a huge cultural shock for people from urban and even suburban areas to confront a peer who carries such a weapon.

Good. Let them be shocked. College is a place to study different ideas and ways of doing things. Often through first hand experience.

The weapons probably won't be used against you but it still creates a barrier and a level of unneeded tension. I'm friends with pretty much every security guard on my campus but I'm extremely reluctant about getting close with police officers who carry guns because it just creates a psychological barrier.

It's a psychological barrier that has been created by media and other stereotypes and can be over come through mutual understanding and education.

Do you think it's good that you cannot connect or interact with police officers simply because of a hunk of metal and plastic on their belt? Isn't that YOUR problem and not theirs?

Do you think it's good that a law-abiding person would be ostracized like that? For doing something that the state says they have a right to do?

 

[LesCanadiens]

If there's three of them attacking you, carrying and attempting to use a weapon is just about the last thing you want to do. Unless you're professionally trained, you're just going to be increasing the chances of yourself getting seriously hurt or killed. If all you suffer is a mild concussion and the loss of a few dollars (what moron carries valuables around with them alone at 2 am?), that's a lot better than winding up with a punctured lung or dead. There's no weapon you can use that will equip you to defend yourself against three big attackers, even if they're unarmed.

What are you doing walking around at those hours anyways? If you simply must be out and about at 2-3am, take a taxi. If you can't, take a friend with you. There is absolutely no reason why you should be walking around alone at 2-3am, and doing so makes you a moron.

 

[general_kill]

Good. Let them be shocked. College is a place to study different ideas and ways of doing things. Often through first hand experience.



It's a psychological barrier that has been created by media and other stereotypes and can be over come through mutual understanding and education.

Do you think it's good that you cannot connect or interact with police officers simply because of a hunk of metal and plastic on their belt? Isn't that YOUR problem and not theirs?

Do you think it's good that a law-abiding person would be ostracized like that? For doing something that the state says they have a right to do?

As if college is the end-all-be-all of experiences. Look, college at its core is an academic institution where guns should be left to the authorities. If you disagree, tell me at what point would you draw the line and ban people from carrying guns into a location? Would you allow it in a courthouse? Allow emotional murder victim family members carry guns into trials and meet face to face with the killer? Would you allow licensed guns to be carried to political rallies? Would you allow guns to be carried places of worship? Guns to be carried onto airplanes?

If you are telling kids from cities, especially NYC that college is a good place to experience people carrying around guns, you are a couple of years too late. And no disrespect to you or any other gun-loving people out there, but guns, high population density, and large income discrepancy is a recipe for big problems, and the people who experience guns in the safety of what ever environment they come from are the ones who need to be educated and cultured on the DANGERS of legal guns.

And no, it is not my problem that guns pose a barrier, it's a psychological effect built into all of us. When someone has a weapon and you do not, you immediately feel inferior and insecure. It's this psychological effect that caused the arms build up of WWI, nuclear arms build up of the cold war, the space race, and the proliferation of WMDs today. If guns were allowed, people without guns will instant suffer from the same psychological effect.

I don't want to drag this any further because we are arguing from two different backgrounds. How bout this, you can keep your guns in your low population density areas and I can keep my gun regulations in high population density areas. And civilians do not need to carry guns in certain places such as airplanes, schools, etc. Violent crime rate on college campuses are still extraordinarily low compared to almost anywhere else in the country and security and police generally do a good job of keeping students safe. I really don't want to see a school shooting happen where the initial shooter gets into a fire fight with other students and in the ensuing battle, police join in the fray and get confused over all the gun carrying students. God forbid the police shoot dead a student who was shooting at the real shooter.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Again, I say....just get a friggin dog and your problem will be solved.

On campus ?

 

[Bugfatty300]

Look, college at its core is an academic institution where guns should be left to the authorities.

If your position is that guns should not be carried at all then would make sense to me.

But I'm having trouble understanding what makes a college different than any other place that one can carry legally.

If you disagree, tell me at what point would you draw the line and ban people from carrying guns into a location? Would you allow it in a courthouse? Allow emotional murder victim family members carry guns into trials and meet face to face with the killer? Would you allow licensed guns to be carried to political rallies? Would you allow guns to be carried places of worship? Guns to be carried onto airplanes?

To answer your question I would allow it everywhere except with in prisons.

If you are telling kids from cities, especially NYC that college is a good place to experience people carrying around guns, you are a couple of years too late.

Why is it too late? There is always another generation entering schools every year. And we're not talking about kids from cities but colleges in general.

There are colleges outside of major cities, you know, and not everyone who goes to college is from a major city.

And no disrespect to you or any other gun-loving people out there, but guns, high population density, and large income discrepancy is a recipe for big problems, and the people who experience guns in the safety of what ever environment they come from are the ones who need to be educated and cultured on the DANGERS of legal guns.

I have owned a crap load of "legal" guns and have since I was 15. I know how to use them and I know what they can do. I educate my self on them all the time. No need to educate me on the DANGERS of guns.

If you mean to tell me that I need to be educated on the thugs and criminals that permeate intercity society then cool. I've never lived in a city.

Unfortunately we're not talking about intercity slums. We're talking about colleges.

And no, it is not my problem that guns pose a barrier, it's a psychological effect built into all of us. When someone has a weapon and you do not, you immediately feel inferior and insecure.

I don't have it and I don't know a single person who is afraid of the sight of a gun. While it is built in to us to fear scary things there is nothing built into to humans that tell us to fear weapons.

It isn't your fault strictly speaking but still something that isn't the fault of the one's with the weapons.

Just like if I bought and owned guns just to feel powerful and emotionally secure. That would be MY problem wouldn't you say?

It's this psychological effect that caused the arms build up of WWI, nuclear arms build up of the cold war, the space race, and the proliferation of WMDs today.

It is not the same effect. It's a cute analogy, comparing something as complex as world geopolitical phenomena to an general individual basis but it just doesn't hold.

How bout this, you can keep your guns in your low population density areas and I can keep my gun regulations in high population density areas.

I thought we were talking about colleges? Why have you shifted this to rural vs urban?

Anyway to answer your question when I visit the areas around Charlotte and Winston-Salem those are the areas I want to be armed the most. Much more than when I'm strolling through the country side. So no. I'll be carrying in those with even more conviction.

 

[LesCanadiens]

If you can't understand why guns should not be permitted on college campuses, you have no business being in this discussion. College is supposed to be a safe academic environment for the exchange of ideas. People at college should be safe from guns, not confronted by them. When you arm students, you create an environment of fear. This is not difficult to understand.

Besides, what kind of college do you go to where you have to worry about people shooting you? No college I've ever heard of has serious enough issues that people are stupid enough to think that arming students is a good idea.

 

[lovett]

Gotta agree with Bug... if there are 3 strong attackers what good exactly will the pepper spray be? Plus it is only useful if you hit the eye, with a knife you can stab the bastard anywhere...

Right. So you stab one guy in the leg/belly/arm. What happens then?
The other two jump up on you and suddenly your crushed into the ground. Furthermore, you have two guys who are very pissed off about you just having stabbed their mate. Said mate probably also has some thoughts on the issue.
It's unlikely that they'll actually stab you with your own knife at this juncture, but your almost certainly in for a good kicking. If your lucky, you'll wake up in hospital.

 

[RedRalph]

A tactical nuclear weapon

 

[Lillefix]

Don't go around with valuables and hope for the best. A knife is the last thing I would carry.

 

[Mise]

If three 6'2 guys with knives come up to you and ask for your wallet, you friggin give it to them. I carry like £10 max at any one time, so who the frick cares?! My phone is worth a fair bit though, like £100 or so, but I have free insurance with my contract anyway, so again, I don't care. I'm 5'8 -- knife or no knife I'm gonna get my ass handed to me one way or the other. I mean, you could spend 3 months in hospital, or 3 days on the phone to your insurance company. I know which I'd choose.

But yeah don't let me interrupt this uber-macho chest-thumping epeen contest. Just get the biggest knife you can hide down your pants, and make sure not to fall on it dick first whilst praying to as many of your gods as you can think of.

 

[IglooDame]

Agreed, and when a school shooting incident happens, how could the law-enforcement tell the difference between law-abiding citizens and the shooters during the crucial first-response moments?

Right, it's much better the way it is now: when the police show up they know the law-abiding citizens are the ones lying on the ground bleeding out.


But as to the OP, from what I know of New Jersey a carry-concealed license is pretty much unobtainable, and if you're living on campus and under 21 I'd imagine you can delete "pretty much". You don't want to be mugged, but you don't want to be Bernard Goetz either.

Carrying a knife for pedestrian self-defense while not being expert in its use is simply moronic.

You should check NJ law regarding pepper spray and mace - I know in Massachusetts you need a permit for it. As someone above said, at least get a whiff of it before you start carrying it - knowing the effect it has on someone is critical. And they frequently come with "practice shots" - use them; just because something has a simple point-and-click interface doesn't mean that you shouldn't practice with it prior to needing to use it in a high-stress situation.

Unarmed martial arts training is rarely a bad idea. And mindset training ditto (women's personal defensive classes cover mindset well, IMHO). And changing your personal habits wouldn't be a bad idea if you're that concerned with the danger. I may carry a gun, but I still don't go into bad neighborhoods if I can avoid it even at personal inconvenience.

 

[RoboPig]

Again, I say....just get a friggin dog and your problem will be solved.

I doubt that silver will be able to take his dog everywhere on campus. Of course if he's worried about his house being burgled, a dog would be a great solution. That or a cobra.

 

[philippe]

A tactical nuclear weapon

see link earlier in thread;

 

[luiz]

If most of the crime is commited by unarmed folks then just walking around with a baseball bat at night may help. The thugs may still be capable of beating you, but why should they go after someone who may seriously hurt them when there are much easier targets?

 

[GoodGame]

Mise, the thing is the OP isn't walking through some ghetto where has no business. He's walking through an area he already paid as 'his'. His freakin' school commons. There shouldn't be a pedestrian tax, regardless. It has very little to do with manhood.

I'd say with 1 on 3 odds, though, the best option is to run unless you have a firearm. Most people have agreed that a knife doesn't make you tough, just a little more likely to inflict some pain, and which could easily be used against you in bad odds.

If three 6'2 guys with knives come up to you and ask for your wallet, you friggin give it to them. I carry like £10 max at any one time, so who the frick cares?! My phone is worth a fair bit though, like £100 or so, but I have free insurance with my contract anyway, so again, I don't care. I'm 5'8 -- knife or no knife I'm gonna get my ass handed to me one way or the other. I mean, you could spend 3 months in hospital, or 3 days on the phone to your insurance company. I know which I'd choose.

But yeah don't let me interrupt this uber-macho chest-thumping epeen contest. Just get the biggest knife you can hide down your pants, and make sure not to fall on it dick first whilst praying to as many of your gods as you can think of.

 

[Mad Man]

Just carry a small knife wear ever you go and if some one tries to mug you start cutting small pieces of your face off while laughing hystericly. No one will ever bother you again.

 

[Dr.Mindbender]

Now I can easily see myself in such a situation. I live on campus so buying a gun is out of the question. But pepper spray, or a taser might be an option. What do you think?

Use your fists. Kick them if you have to. Bite or whatever you think you must do to protect yourself and your property. Most cases of home invasion is swift and unexpected, so you don't have time to grab the whatever weapon at your disposal.