Alternative weapons: How effective are they?

How about a bow and arrow ? With the correct gear and practice, the bow and arrow can travel 200 yards and accuracy is certainly amazing
May better than a pistol. That weapon was around for a long time. Thank you !!!

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@RocketPak what is that?

That would be the VERY illegal use of a drone to fire a “projectile” in this case fireworks.

Cheers,

Craig6

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Drone with two Roman candles tapped to it.

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Ah, OK then! And just to be clear… are they running through the snow there? In their skivies?

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Yep…

-ten characters

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I have a taser pulse plus it ran me $330 and came with 4 cartridges. I like it because it’s very small and lite. I carry that in addition to the pepper spray non gel formulation. gel takes longer to work and isnt as effective in my opinion

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Mmmmm. Bow and arrow??? Is there a subcompact version that will fit an ankle holster?

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That’s wild. One could set up the roman candles on a drone and have the drone hover at altitude. What a shock it would would be to any would-be muggers!!

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Shocking, yep, but I’m guessing not legal most places :face_with_monocle:

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If without a firearm, there are several options. Alternative weapons, or weapons of opportunity are plentiful
A ballpoint pen is always a good weapon that many have handy, and if it has certain types of metal ink well, it can be used as a safety for a military firing device.
Of course, any pen, book, magazine, umbrella, or most any everyday item can be employed as a means of self defense, and should always be considered and in your mind… just as we should look for the exits when we enter a room, look for obstacles that may block our movement, and alternative exit strategies, we should look at what is available for weapons. While we may carry a ballpoint pen, we also may carry a knife, but what is available around you…

Yes, Pepper Spray, and Tasers and Stun Guns are all options, but what if you do not have any of those… or your firearm… or a knife?

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I just hate the PC term “weapons of opportunity “. The term should be “weapons of desperation”. Anytime someone has to go up against an AK-47 with a only a potted petunia, it ain’t much of an opportunity.

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Not sure how ‘weapon of opportunity’ is a PC term. It goes along with ‘target of opportunity’.

Most any item, every day items we come across has the potential to be a weapon.

I would not recommend using a ‘Petunia’, however, the pot it is in might be of use.

Consider, you are somewhere that is ‘gun free’, perhaps your child’s school play and firearms were not allowed. If you attend, and are unarmed, what would you use? A ballpoint pen? A flower pot? A notebook? Anything within reach and that you can physically utilize?

Consider, you use all of the ammunition you had, the magazine in the firearm, the two or three or four spare magazines, and now you must use something… and yes, the empty firearm can be used also as a club, a blunt weapon to strike the attackers… but what other options do you have.

Still not sure how ‘weapon of opportunity’ is PC.

^^^^ YES! that’s exactly right. EXACTLY. :clap: :clap: :+1: :+1:

… and I’d suggest that you’d be using that out of desperation… because you weren’t armed correctly for the problem at hand.

I think because “opportunity” implies something very different than “desperation”.

Opportunity definition:
“A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.”
“A chance for employment or promotion.”

Possible definition (noun):
“A person or thing that has the potential to become or do something, especially a potential candidate for a job or membership on a team.”

Desperation definition:
“A state of despair, typically one which results in rash or extreme behavior.”

While technically correct that the weapon chosen is one of “opportunity”, opportunity implies something positive, something more related to choice, willful volitional choice, than desperation does. Using a potted plant to defend your family because you’ve been prohibited from having the proper tools certainly sounds like extreme behavior, not like being a candidate with the potential to be something.
Except maybe dead. :thinking:

Adding one more note here… Politically Correct has a lot to do with Spin. What light is a thing viewed in?

“Assault Weapons” are an excellent case, conveniently supported in the public’s memory by the “AR” in AR-15 (Assault Rifle anyone?) We know that the difference between many “Assault Weapons” and many “Hunting Rifles” is the material the stock is made of… wood or black plastic. The use of the term Assault Weapons is intended to provoke an emotion and set the stage for interpreting whatever words come with it.

In that sense, “weapons of opportunity” sounds a bit like “oh, look, there’s a fork laying there. I think I’ll pick it up and stab some people’s eyes out.” There was an opportunity, so I took it. :woman_shrugging: “weapons of desperation” sounds more like “things were going horribly wrong and that fork was all I had so I used it to save innocent people’s lives”.

That’s kind of the point I think. PC language is used to hide or subvert the truth behind the language. I’d rather we all spoke a bit more plainly.

I carry a :hocho: as an alternative weapon when I can’t carry my gun. If you can carry one get a lot of training in how to use it properly because this is one weapon that can be taken by your adversary and used against you. Keep it as sharp as you can get it because you might have to cut through heavy clothing during a defensive situation . I use a leather stropper after touching up my blade with a ceramic stone and kitchen steel. It gets sharp enough to shave with.

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First, to address the opportunity or desperation. If desperation is ‘a state of despair’, there are far more problems that should be dealt with. Not having a firearm at a school function, or in a courthouse, or somewhere you may find yourself where you are not allowed to have a weapon such as a firearm, and in the case of a courthouse, a knife, does not create a state of despair, nor does an attack at one of those locations. The weapon of opportunity, is one which you are able to grab and utilize. As I stated, a ball point pen is a great weapon, and if it has a metal ink well, may very well have the potential to be used as a safety for military firing devices (note: When a bomb is nearby, the best option is run… if on an airplane, you can not run, or a few other places, you might be able to make the device safe).

If at a courthouse, how exactly would you be armed correctly? If at a school function for your child, how would you be armed ‘correctly’? When in such situations, what is armed correctly for the problem at hand?

The issue is ‘weapons of opportunity’, which implies options that are available if your primary weapon is either not available or has become unserviceable or you ran out of ammo. Unless you plan on carrying a rather heavy loadout, and forever avoid your children’s plays and other school functions, and never enter a courthouse for any purpose, you may find there are options you should always consider.

It is something ‘positive’. You consider situational awareness to be important? When entering a building, room, restaurant, anything, do you scan and see the exits, potential exits, the path and what may physically block or delay your egress? We should all do that… but we should also look to see available options of weapons… weapons of opportunity.

If at a courthouse, what are the exits, what paths are there, what weapons are available… (I am old, I remember metal stand ashtrays, they worked good as clubs), are there lamps, books, pens, pencils, clip boards.

By ignoring the ‘weapons of opportunity’ you have the potential of being dead, as you ignore the very means that might keep you alive (Note: MIGHT). Which is better than simply cowering in the corner and hoping.

My background and experience has a lot to do with counter terrorism, and most anything can and will be a weapon, and perhaps I have a rather unusual way of looking at things and items that most simply overlook.

It is better to look at anything you have available… and while the potted plant was rather facetious, there is the real possibility that a terra cotta plant smashed over the head or into the face of an attacker may just save your life, and may gain you their weapon.

If I were armed correctly, I’d be carrying. Courthouse, school function, those are places where I’m restricted from doing what I believe is both correct and constitutional. The problem at hand is whatever *** is happening that makes me pick up the potted plant to defend my family.

So if I carry, say, a flashlight, because I am restricted from carrying my primary EDC firearm and knife, that’s not a weapon of opportunity. It’s my EDC… it’s my plan and my prepared tool. “Opportunity” means I’m using potted plants or whatever else is on hand.

I think there’s a big difference in how this is thought about inside the self defense community, and how it it portrayed outside it. Of course we train to be aware of what our options are and to be aware of what’s around us.

actually I don’t think I suggested either of those things… either ignoring or cowering. :wink: pretty sure I didn’t. :thinking: didn’t really suggest that once I’m out of bullets my next move would be to just give up either.

My comments were really about how the language is used, particularly when it is used about us, and what the language applies to those who see us as oh-so-dangerous and paranoid. That’s where my concern for “PC” lies.

ETA: yesterday I was having a conversation with a student of mine and her boyfriend. They’re both pretty liberal politically, and while she’s enthusiastic about 2-A issues and he’s owned guns and is quite comfortable with them, he generally things “people like y’all are pretty nuts”. He used the “weapons of opportunity” in exactly the sense I was discussing… as in you’d just pick up a weapon and randomly attack people. He says things like “anyone who carries self-defense insurance is the sort of person who would need it (insert eyeroll here) because they’re just that kind of trouble, and they are exactly the sort of people who shouldn’t be allowed to have guns.”

^^^ this is where the PC matters. its the talking points.

First, I was not the one who introduced ‘PC’ to this issue, it was the person I responded to who said ‘weapons of opportunity’ was PC. That actually does not make any sense, and I asked how it was PC.

What is an ‘assault weapon’?
Technically, it is made up… but any weapon could be an ‘assault’ weapon, or more correctly, we have battle rifles and we have assault rifles and we have hunting rifles and we the people are Constitutionally allowed and have a right to all of them.

If a fork is handy, and it is what is available, use it. Per the definition of, desperation is a state of despair… do you despair if the odds are high or against you or do you (you meaning anyone as in generally)…. adapt, overcome, and persevere. Obstacles are placed in front of you and you must overcome them, go over, under, around or through. Yes, resorting to a ‘fork’ as a weapon may mean things have gone horribly wrong, but that does not correlate to despair.

Definition of despair; the complete loss or absence of hope.

As long as you have breath, and a means to fight back and defend yourself, there is no absence of hope.