I've had my concealed carry permit in NY since 1981. Unfortunately I've been in situations where I would have been fully justified shooting if I had a gun with me. My deliberate actions combined with ***** luck let me get away unscathed... I was robbed while bicycling on an isolated stretch of road by three guys with long histories (before and after me) of robbery, kidnapping, assault, attempted murder and other charges. I was repeatedly attacked by beer bottle throwing red necks on A1A in FL while bicycling. Another time, while carrying, I let an attacker know that if he continued he would be shot... he quickly retreated. Not long afterwards he was arrested on multiple counts of raping a female minor over a long period of time. On one of my bicycle trips I had two separate instances down south where letter carriers approached me and said "you shouldn't be here" and "you need to get out of here." Hell, I was just following my maps (paper ones)! For several years I did street light inventories at night, on my bicycle, including in crime ridden areas of my city... areas where I attracted the attention of gang bangers due to my flashing tail light and headlight and my stops at seemingly random places (utility poles). I carried a pew pew and had a Sure Fire flashlight and a cell phone with me. I reported over 360 outages myself. The city ended up replacing a bit over 2,000 fixtures with LEDs for reliability and energy savings.
Granted, I've been "out and about" on foot and by bicycle a lot over the past 50+ years. In that time the damned two-legged varmints have been far more troubling than any bear, deer, elk, coyote, bob cat, alligator, water moccasin, dog etc., that I've encountered. Now that I'm over twice the age where I can be trusted (like aged guys know what I'm talking about
) I may appear more vulnerable than I did in my 20s and 30s so the risks haven't declined while I'm out and about.
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