One of the most common is also a myth: “weapons will not help”.
In a more extended version, the idea is imposed that only professionals will be able to use firearms effectively, but the weapon will never help an ordinary citizen. This is largely untrue and here is why.
Usually, the one who voices this myth, consciously or unconsciously, reduces all possible variants of a criminal attack on you to the most unfavorable course of events: you were attacked by surprise, from behind, in a dark alley, by a group of armed men, each of whom is much stronger than you, and they planned this attack in advance.
Well, if you find yourself in such a situation – indeed, you have few chances for effective self-defense. If the attack has already begun and the metal pipe has already touched the back of your head, then it does not matter whether you are a professional or an amateur in handling weapons.
But are there other situations in which an attack occurs? Of course, there are! It can be:
– intruders breaking into an apartment or a country house;
– attempt to take possession of the vehicle with your child in it;
– an unexpected meeting of a group of tourists in the forest with a group of unfriendly thugs;
– criminal assault on a passerby, which you witnessed, etc.
In fact, there are many situations when the attackers are clearly visible, the moment of the beginning of illegal actions containing danger is predictable, the owner of the weapon is still capable and there is still a minimum time to make decisions and use weapons.
And although firearms are only one component of self-defense, along with no less important attentiveness and caution, its importance should not be underestimated.
The presence of a weapon in all these cases will not guarantee you the development of events according to your plan, but its absence in such moments will definitely leave you in a helpless state.
To really confidently count on the protection of yourself with the help of firearms, you need to learn how to use it. But it is also important to understand that the effort and time required to master a short-barreled firearm at a sufficient level for effective self-defense is insignificant compared to the time and effort required to master a martial art or knife fight.
It is impossible to ignore the fact that sports or martial arts are not physically accessible to everyone, but pulling the trigger requires minimal effort, which does not depend on the gender, age and weight category of the weapon owner. In fact, it does not matter if this person has a not very developed body structure or even a disability.
That is, everyone who has a weapon and has devoted even minimal time to obtaining skills in handling it will be able to use it to some extent.
Periodic training with weapons, of course, significantly increases your chances of success, but the attacker can only make assumptions about your level of training. And given that the rules of safe handling of weapons are much simpler than, for example, the rules of the road, and acquiring shooting skills sufficient for self-defense is not more difficult than driving a car, the attacker understands that his assumption can easily be wrong.
So, this myth is destroyed.
Everything else, with the exception of firearms, with unknown input parameters of a potential attack is a very harmful compromise that can cost you and your loved ones their lives.