I was told that I needed a picture. So here it is. I am actually working... luckily it was doorguarding and ID checking at a halloween party with lots of frosty cold beverages. I was requested to wear a real costume for the job. Most of the gear is real... most of it. Yes, its a shitty picture. Yes, I'd rather have a better one. Perhaps one from the range. I call that my intimidating "SWAT-Deer In a Headlight" look. No, I am not a cop, so you cannot threaten to tell my department head and get me fired if I gave you a ticket.

Why do I have real tactical gear? Maybe I am a wannabe. Maybe I just dug through the gear closet at work because I was too cheap to go out and buy a craptastic roman legionaire comstume and have ppl checking under my "skirt" all night long...

Congrats to the young lady who recognized me while I was on the job in RL, and then politely contacted me here, saying she was afraid of guns and wanted to learn about them to overcome her fear.

She got to watch us on the range and then do some shooting of the following:

-AR-15 (Stag M8) with EOtech and Magpul furnature (w/ .22LR conversion)
-Glock23 (.40 S&W)
-Ruger SR-22
-S&W .38 Snub/Bodyguard
-Ruger LCP (.380)
-Tactical Ruger 10/22 w/ Tapco furnature and RedDot

She did decline the Tactical AK-47 w/ Sig RedDot and the Mossberg SPX 12g, but we don't blame her as both weapons are big dogs, and maybe next time she'll explore those as well.

But her marksmanship was excellent once she stopped being afraid of the weapons or the other shooters on site. Nobody was laughing when she averaged 9/10 hits and zero flyers.

Statistically, women are better shooters than men, right out of the box. Most women however are simply afraid of the big scary guns and guys in tactical gear.

Seems that I have been BLOCKED for the first time ever to my knowledge by a woman who says "if you are interested in survival living you wouldnt be found in a tux, suite, or slacks."

Apparently such women think that they know all about "survival living" and think that such people live in bunkers deep in the woods, look like grizzly adams and wear plaid shirts and cammo 24/7. Well, since I state in my profile that I am interested in self-sufficiency and in my journal, I clarify "preparedness", apparently she knows best about what I need to wear while doing my job... 

Oddly I think my profile states that I enjoy intellectual discussions with open minded and genuine women... clearly children shouldn't be allowed here. Especially those who have opinions about things they know nothing about.

I met a young good looking woman the other day who told me that she can protect herself, that she has a can of mace/pepperspray to ward off rapists....

I asked her if she knew what to do with it if said rapist attacked her in some dark place at night, and she told me she'd pull it out and squirt him... as simple as that. I couldn't help but tell her that she had no clue what to do with it. Of course she asked me what *I* would do with it, if not squirt him. So I told her frankly that she needed to squirt HERSELF with it, not try to hit him. She didn't believe me.

There are a reasons to squirt yourself in a rape situation.

1) You don't need to SEE yourself to hit your target. Darkness, fear and suprise make HIM a difficult target. But you can ALWAYS hit yourself.

2) A rapist would have to get close to YOU (now covered with perpper spray) to achieve his objective. This itself would might prove to be a moodbreaker.

3) He would have to pull off your mace soaked cloths to rape you. This would get papperspray on his hands. His hands would then transfer that pepperspray to his "manhood". A DEFINATE mood breaker.

Is it better to wash or replace your cloths than to get raped?

Is it worth some pain and discomfort to increase the odds of you NOT being raped?


If you still don't believe me, then squirt him AFTER squirting yourself with it. Most cans have enough to squirt a steady stream for several seconds, use half on you, and half on him... depending on the order your chose for your can of pepperspray, make sure that he cannot close the distance to you before you spray yourself with it.

Understand this little fact: An assailant can close a 30' distance in under 2 seconds. What are the odds of him taking away your little squirty can if hold it out hoping to squirt him before he gets to you? How long will it take to squirt yourself by comparison if you KNOW hes not there to sell you girlscout cookies?

The morale to this story: Little Red Riding Hood wouldnt get eaten by The Big Bad Wolf if she was covered in pepperspray. (unless she wanted to get eaten)

I've had a number of people recently point out that Hummers and Suits/Tuxedos don't fit the "survival-type profile" and I thought that I would clarify...

I am not a Grizzly Adams type. I am more of a Preparedness type. My profession required that I maintain a "ready for anything mentality". Not to mention a great deal of time in the military running around the woods even in the winter. That coupled with the "boyscout" background keeps me interested in being ready for hard times and self-sufficiency, despite the existance of creature comforts in my life.

This isn't intended as a slight against the women who have asked, but I want to just make clear that I am not a gun toting, wilderness hermit. I am professional with a practical outlook, with an interest in keeping the people I care about safe.

...and yes, I do have guns, and have been known teach gun safety and skills to break people's fear of "horrible evil dangerous guns". People can be scary and dangerous, some of them have guns, but guns themselves are merely tools. More people get hurt or killed by cars, despite there being more guns than cars in this country. If parinoid people fear guns, then they should also fear cars 10x more, and never leave the house.

Be responsible, and educate yourself about gun safety and use. If you never have cause to use those skills and knowledge, good. If you do have cause, and know nothing... shame on you.

Guns don't kill people. PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE,  if you don't have a gun and the skills to use one, those bad people may just kill you. Watch the news if you don't think anything can happen to you. Keep a notebook and mark down everytime you hear about an unarmed person being killed or hurt or robbed by an attacker with a weapon of any kind. It won't take you long to discover that the odds of you needing to protect yourself get greater every day.

I was just asked why I chose the name ErrantKnight, and I figured I'd answer it here for anybody else who might ask.

Simply, I protect people for a living. My job requires that I am frequently armed, and that I travel a lot to do so...  Historically Errant Knights would travel around on quests to protect people from badguys, rescue damsels in destress (andn if lucky, molest them), So, yes, its a rather "romantic" thought, but those who have known me and my protective nature consider it fitting.

I also train people to shoot and hopefully to get over any irrational frear of guns, that they might have. I've trained quite a number of female shooters, who were once afraid of guns, have learned to master them, and to be frank, frequently become better shooters than men.

I believe, and strongly so, that women, nomatter their size or age, need to overcome any fear of guns, and learn to be safe and competant with them. If they chose not to carry one, they will atleast have a safe working knowledge of them, should they ever need to have that skill in the future.