It’s so depressing to read of the need to carry a gun in some
jewelry stores. It makes me glad again that I work in base metal –
not that I’ve never had things stolen (perhaps twice in 25 years),
but people don’t use guns to steal brass jewelry.
This thread reminds me of a non-violent way of treating some
robbers, from the latest AARP Bulletin:
When a pair of would-be burglars knocked 93-year-old Soja
Popova to the floor of her home in Klaipeda, Lithuania, she
grabbed one of them by his family jewels and squeezed so hard
that his shrieks alerted neighbors, who called the cops.
Popova attributes her viselike grip to years of milking goats.
she grabbed one of them by his family jewels and squeezed so hard
that his shrieks alerted neighbors, who called the cops. Popova
attributes her viselike grip to years of milking goats.
given the baggy jeans favored by thugs in my neighborhood, i’m not
so sure this method would work for me. would probably have to lunge
for the navel ring or the lip piercing.
she grabbed one of them by his family jewels and squeezed so hard
that his shrieks alerted neighbors
Messing with the family jewels is anything but non-violent. With law
enforcement there are seven levels of force. Damaging those is at
level six. Level seven is killing the person.
If you have a gun, are you ready to kill, or be killed? Are material
possessions worth dieing or killing for?
If you can live with the idea of taking a life, sacrificing yours or
a family members for objects /materials, You better be well trained
and ready to use that piece or whatever you choose to use to get the
job done!
Don’t peg me as a bleeding heart liberal. I’m not. I’ve done my part
to protect myself and my family. It all starts with what’s between
you ears,and in your heart.
she grabbed one of them by his family jewels and squeezed so hard
that his shrieks alerted neighbors
Messing with the family jewels is anything but non-violent. With
law enforcement there are seven levels of force. Damaging those is
at level six. Level seven is killing the person.
It’s also not recommended by self defense instructors who specialize
in training women. Those groups recommend techniques that disable the
assailant and allow the woman to get away. Knowing how to break a
knee cap is an important skill, and it only takes 30 pounds of
pressure.
Going for the jewels with a kick is generally ineffective – because
women tend to be shorter than men, and, it’s the first area a man
will protect. Further, when he does recover, he’ll be even madder,
and still able to run.
If you have a gun, are you ready to kill, or be killed? Are
material possessions worth dieing or killing for? If you can live
with the idea of taking a life, sacrificing yours or a family
members for objects /materials, You better be well trained and
ready to use that piece or whatever you choose to use to get the
job done!
There needs to be a point when it’s no longer about the money, or
the goods. If someone is pointing a weapon at me, it’s me that they
are threatening, not my merchandise. I believe that if I have a gun
pointed at me, that it is the intention of the person holding it to
take my life. I don’t accept that. I would do anything within my
power to see that I can go back to my family that day. At least that
way, I would have a say in the outcome of the situation, instead of
leaving it up to someone that isn’t all there.
When I opened my shop I asked a friend, who was a detective with the
New York State Police, about what I should do for security. Regarding
armed robbery he said that in this rural part of Western NY State
there had not been an armed hold up of a jewelry store in decades. The
reason he gave for this was that it could reasonably be assumed that
there was a chance that the jewelers were armed, so the bad guys look
for softer targets. The softer targets would be the chain convenience
stores with a well known policy of offering no resistance to robbers.
He also pointed out that if you look down the street at any given
time, you are likely to see a rifle visible in the gun rack of at
least one of the many pickup trucks. This has the “halo effect” of
deterance.
There was a letter to the editor in the Rochester paper last week
titled “Poverty + guns = violence”. Rochester has had a lot of
trouble with gun violence lately. But the formula is a slur on the
poor. Around where I live there are plenty of well armed poor people.
Very little crime or violence.
My point was that if some low life has a gun already drawn, do you
have the training, and responsive skills to take out this pond scum?
How many days of the month do you go to your local range to practice
your shooting skills?
If you can honestly answer these questions in the affirmative, go
for it. However, real life doesn’t have a second takes. You will
either live or die by your actions in circumstances discussed above.
I wish you and your family a long life.
There needs to be a point when it's no longer about the money, or
the goods. If someone is pointing a weapon at me, it's me that
they are threatening, not my merchandise. I believe that if I have
a gun pointed at me, that it is the intention of the person holding
it to take my life. I don't accept that. I would do anything within
my power to see that I can go back to my family that day. At least
that way, I would have a say in the outcome of the situation,
instead of leaving it up to someone that isn't all there
With all due respect Phillip, I don’t think you can possibly know
what you’ll do until you’re face to face with the barrel of a gun and
somebody got the “jump” on you. Maybe you’ve been in that situation
but my experience has been that most people who say the kinds of
things you have about an armed confrontation, have never actually
been in that position.
A few years ago I was carjacked at gunpoint. I had seen the guy
approaching me and assessed him. I decided he wasn’t a threat and I
turned my back for maybe 10 seconds. The next thing I knew he was
right behind me saying “Hey man.” I turned around to find a pistol
pointed right at my chest. I do have a fair amount of firearms
experience but was unarmed at the time. Something didn’t look right
and I somehow had the composure to realize he was holding the pistol
in his left hand. Maybe that made me think he wasn’t in position to
shoot. There must have been a hundred things that ran through my
mind in a couple of seconds. I have no idea what made me decide this
but I somehow concluded this guy wasn’t prepared to shoot me. I
yelled at him to get the f*** away from me, that I was going to kick
his f*in’ a if he didn’t turn around and move it fast. I was
screamin’ at this guy 3 feet away from me and he held that gun steady
on me and never blinked. Clearly, he was in charge and he knew it. He
was nice enough to give me the opportunity to figure that out. The
police got him a few days later. He had used the car to do a series
of gas station/convenience store robberies and was on parole after
serving nine years on a murder conviction.
I spent the next 2 years of my life never going anywhere without a
loaded pistol. I was fully prepared to meet any threat with deadly
force. But you know, even cops go off duty. I was never “off duty”
and it eventually fried me, burned me out. I realized I couldn’t live
like that. Maybe you can but I can’t. Maybe you think you can but
you’ll never know until you’re right there will you?
Guns, like religion, abortion, and politics is a much debated
subject. No one is going to win this debate and no one is going to
change anyone’s mind. Can we get back to jewelry? Please!
A small note about shooting someone who is threatening your life.
Although the law would most likely condone your right to use a
firearm to defend your life, all of the jewelers I’ve spoken to over
the years who carry guns routinely in their businesses (and there are
LOTS of them that do, believe me) all of them will tell you that if
it comes down to having to actually shoot someone, you have to be
sure that they are shot INSIDE your business (not outside the door)
and that you will need to make sure they are DEAD, not just wounded.
Most jewelers I know have the belief that a wounded thief will likely
try to sue you for shooting them, whereas it is much more difficult
if they are dead. I have heard jewelers tell me that they would drag
a dead thief back into their store for their legal protection.
So, not only are you faced with the awful decision of whether you
would be able to shoot a crook, but are you willing to empty your gun
into that person to assure they won’t come back and sue you? Yikes!
Anyone who has spent any time in the jewelry business realizes that
anyone dealing in high value items like gold, platinum, and precious
gems has a potential target painted on them. It is a grim reality,
I’m afraid, and I don’t have good answers.
You can consider having a handgun to protect yourself, but almost
every jeweler I know that has been robbed at gunpoint had a gun aimed
at their face before they could even blink. One jeweler I know was
working with a well dressed business man, who had returned to the
store that day to buy a pendant for his daughter. As my jeweler
friend was helping him at the counter, he was suddenly looking into
the barrel of a gun. It happens so incredibly fast, and you just
don’t know who it will be…
if it comes down to having to actually shoot someone, you have to
be sure that they are shot INSIDE your business... So, not only are
you faced with the awful decision of whether you would be able to
shoot a crook, but...
… but you also have to immediately calculate the crook’s height
and weight to decide if you’re strong enough to drag him/her back
inside your business!
ive -
who suggests keeping a mechanic’s ‘creepy-crawly’ (thingy that a
mechanic lies on to slide beneath a car for repairs) under a counter
for such emergencies.
