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From: mathnews2@watdcsu.UUCP (mathNOOS [editors])
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.legal
Subject: Re: Personal Defense
Message-ID: <1243@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 14-Apr-85 17:04:06 EST
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1243
Posted: Sun Apr 14 17:04:06 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Apr-85 01:16:03 EST
References: <350@idis.UUCP>
Reply-To: mathnews2@watdcsu.UUCP (mathNOOS [editors])
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 66
Xref: watmath net.politics:8510 net.legal:1554
Summary: 

In article <350@idis.UUCP> trio@idis.UUCP writes:
>After an incident with some punks, er, troubled youth last week,  I became
>curious as to what types of items people carry for personal defense.  I
>have decided that it may be time to change my strategy.
>
>My question:  what do YOU carry for personal defense?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Nick Trio                         -If you don't like the answer,
>Grad Student - Sociology            don't ask the question-
>U. of Pittsburgh
> ...decvax!mcnc!idis!trio

(Well, you asked for it:)

I grew up about a kilometre (three-quarters of a mile) down the road
from what was supposed to be Canada's highest security penitentiary.
In a fifty mile radius, twenty per cent of Canada's prisons can be
found.  What do I CARRY for personal defense?

Nothing.

Well, that's not quite right, but I don't think that you were
interested in a contraceptive.  I know that you are saying that all of
these people were behind the prison walls, but when the local
television station spends five to ten minutes each night (and I do
mean EACH night; I can only remember two or three nights over ten
years when they didn't (which was in itself a major news story!))
saying who walked away from where, who was stabbed where, who had
broken out from where, who was being held hostage where (I know a few
people who have been held hostage in some institute, one of them six
times now!) things aren't quite as safe as they seem, are they?  I've
seen many inmates being chased down the street in my hometown of one
thousand.  Two or three times a year, roadblocks are erected to try
and capture someone who got out who was quite dangerous.  It has
become part of the normal way of life for me.

That doesn't mean that I don't have a gun.  My father gave me his old
shotgun when I was eight.  I'm reasonably accurate with it, and I will
use it to defend my home, but I don't carry it with me everywhere I
go (you aren't really allowed to here in Canada, though).

I am just glad that I am not somewhere like the Big Apple (or the Big
Commodore, or the Big Atari, or ...), where it is just as safe on the
street as it is inside the penitentiary!

BTW, I have had to deal with the inmates inside the "super-"maximum
security penitentiary down the road from home.  Even more important,
my father, who is a volunteer fireman, got a call one day at the
penitentiary.  When the trucks got there, there wasn't a fire; the
guards were afraid the inmates were going to riot and wanted someone
to turn the hoses on them (the inmates).  There are many guards that
just happen to be on the fire department, and so they looked after the
matter.

				-- Dirty Scooter!

A Smith and Wesson beats five aces any day!

-- 
mathNEWS--the math student newspaper at the University of Waterloo

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