by JZ Murdock

Created on: November 06, 2008

For years now, I have had an ongoing argument, a discussion really, with a friend. The arguement goes something like this:

"One should always have a weapon at hand in order to be ready for the unexpected."

I think he fears an attack coming on him when he least expects one. Perhaps sometime when he is out and about on the street, or when someone might accost him when he is relaxing in his home and he will suddenly find himself at a loss as to how to protect himself.

Valid concerns, all, because things like that do happen. People do get attacked at the most unexpected and inconvenient of times. After all, criminals lay in wait for those unsuspecting moments to happen. Or they do their best to create moments like that. I really don't think, generally speaking, that he is simply afraid of being attacked. I think the relevant issue with him here is in experiencing an attack and being unprepared for it. A big difference.

And that is where my argument in all this came in. When I said that his was certainly a valid concern, but for all that it was really useful only "in a perfect world" scenario.

And this is where it is relevant to all people, everywhere. Although I said it is indeed a true statement, there are however a few facts that seem to preclude this reasonably seeming assumption from being all that useful in this all too real world. That is to say, in this all too realistic world.

You see, typically in the "real world", whenever you will need that weapon to actually be at hand, it will then all too typically simply not be there and available to you. Mostly, this will be because, either:

1) you simply forgot it at home (or somewhere)
2) you lost it (somewhere)
3) you recently had it taken away from you (most probably by the assailant in question during that unexpected moment), or,
4) you will find that you are more than one inch away from being able to actually access it (in time, and to be of any actual use), or,
5) you will find that you have fallen into the single most annoying thing that the ubiquitous "Mr Murphy" ever does to us. Which is to have set you up so that you find, and at a time far too late in the moment to be able to do anything about it, that you have brought "a knife to a gun fight".

Now it may not be an actual knife that you brought; you may have even brought a gun with you. Yet in such a case, though it may even be a hefty .40 calbre Beretta automatic (and it could even be a fully automatic version), or a .45 1911, you will inevitably find that the

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