Do you carry or are considering carrying any self defense items?

[sully]

We are off to London in early August for my daughters 13th, meeting up with family in a restaurant for a surprise dinner and doing The London eye, Madame Tussaud's and The Shard.
It did cross my mind to carry some sort of protection yesterday.
But when we are queuing for The Eye, for example, I will be looking to see if there are any armed police around just for reassurance.

Spare a thought for those who go there every day!

Luckily, I only have to go to my office one day a week. I won't be changing anything about my days there and certainly wouldn't consider carrying anything extra for "protection".

I worked in Cavendish Square when there was an IRA bomb at the back entrance to John Lewis. It was a little inconvenient, but nobody really talked about it much. At that time, I recall several times being diverted on walks across the capital because of security alerts and everyone just took it in their stride. We're a resilient lot and not known for panic or knee-jerk reactions generally.

Just keep doing what you've always done. As others have said, the stats are very much in your favour. I, too, am a fatalist. If your time is up, there's not much you can do about it.

 

[El Sid]

My weapon is always primed.

 

[Diego Napier]

Was thinking about this today. Not wishing to slip into the mindset of a south london black tenager, but I am musing about a stiletto.

I walked across Westminster bridge today, on the way to work. I looked at the new barriers, and the flowers, and had a bit of a moment. I feel personally threatened, and, well. Its not a great time right now.

But, no. musing but not going for it.

Personally I'd rule out walking to work in high heels regardless of the bridge you use.

 

[The Birdman]

One of these in your handbag

 

[pearl]

..... apart from your natural wit of course....

My sister gets the train to London and walks across London Bridge daily for work. I also get the train to work and go to crowded events regularly (the Albion obs, Glastonbury etc).

When we met up after the London Bridge attack we inevitably spoke about it, and also referenced the recent attacks on trains in the US and Belgium. When we were at "code red" or whatever the highest level it was, the beeb showed numerous clips of armed police on trains. She seemed nervous in a way she hasn't before.

Now, yes, it's all good and fine to keep calm and carry on your usual business and not change anything at all (which we've all been doing) - and I'm not thinking of going all Sarah Connor here - but it did make us consider whether to carry something like:

- A tactical torch, that has an instant press strobe function, such as the Klarus XT11

- A Uk-legal dye spray, such as the FARB spray

There may be no time to use them of course but they could also give you and others the few extra seconds to get away from the (to quote the London pub-clip that Sky showed at least twice when I was watching Sat night) " ****ing Muslim ****s ". <I'm not condoning such language and have no ill feeling to the majority of Muslims but it did make me laugh, even at the time, that Sky kept showing the clip, apologising for the bad language at the end.... and then a few minutes later showing it again>

Part of me thinks this is paranoia getting the better of me, part of me thinks do the families of the victims wish they had bought them?

The torch particularly cannot be considered a weapon, and is small, the spray is advertised as legal but still may be a grey area in terms of assault if used.

?

Considered it, but weighing things up decided against, dealing with these maniacs it could go horribly wrong

 

[The Birdman]

This might be better

 

[Eric Potts]

My body is a weapon

 

[Mellotron]

Aren't you statistically more likely to be trampled to death by a donkey, or hit by lightning?

Surely we need to be safeguarding against greater risks first, then looking at more minor ones?

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

what i want to know is if your caught up in something, manage to down the crazy Muslim and get his knife off him, are you then allowed to go medieval on him with it and would you get shot if doing so?

 

[Alba Badger]

what i want to know is if your caught up in something, manage to down the crazy Muslim and get his knife off him, are you then allowed to go medieval on him with it and would you get shot if doing so?

Reasonable self defence is OK to down them but any more could be a bit iffy I think.

 

[BLOCK F]

A poison tipped umbrella, Peaky Blinders cap and the ability to emit a deadly fart on demand!

 

[deena_gold]

The pen is mightier than the sword - I wonder how that would work when confronting an attacker with a 12 inch blade??

 

[Doc Lynam]

Only carry pain and fury with me but keep them in my pockets most of the time, they only come out after they've had a bit to much to drink!

 

[perseus]

Cyclist use D-locks: it does not help much when run down by errant vehicles, but helps a bit when accosted by pedestrians.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Chainsaw in the back of the van ..fork ..broom ..hmmm 8 foot extendable pole ..I could go on

 

[pearl]

cheese cutter?

 

[skipper734]

 

[Da Man Clay]

Reasonable self defence is OK to down them but any more could be a bit iffy I think.

In most cases. I think unless you battered him to death then there would be no chance at all of finding yourself in a court for that. Would fail the public interest test.

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

In most cases. I think unless you battered him to death then there would be no chance at all of finding yourself in a court for that. Would fail the public interest test.

what about if the armed police came round the corner just as you were doing it, would they mistake you as the terrorist and shoot you?

 

[happypig]

An item of fruit should suffice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U90dnUbZMmM&list=RDU90dnUbZMmM#t=4