I don't think it's the quick draw argument as much as its the logic behind the Use it or Lose it stance.

People envision a lot of things they'll do if X occurs. The problem is, at least in my experience, that most people do not react the same way they think they will.

This is why we teach female journalists going into Mexico to do stories specifically not to carry a weapon, even if they legally can. If a homeless guy is hungry enough to mug you, and you pull out a gun to threaten him with - what makes you sure he won't just smack the gun out of your hand and now you've escalated the situation from a mugging into armed robbery.

I know, I know, everybody's ****ing Clint Eastwood and nobody's tougher than them.

Bottom line, the theory is never carry something you have no intention of actually using.

I always step in. Protect yourself though - no sense in having two victims.

Ayup. That's why I keep saying, "Don't carry a weapon that you're not trained to use." Trained and practiced, a lot.

A NY state trooper once told me, "Don't carry if you're not prepared to use it, don't use it if you're not prepared to kill." Too many people have watched too many movies and think that the sight of a weapon makes a bad guy evaporate.

The Ax attack was in the 90's, I can't remember exactly when, and I think it was on a northwest suburban trail but I am not sure. The same nut also attacked someone with the ax off the mup, I think, it took a few days to catch him. The beat to death incident was in Naperville several years ago. The rapes, sexual assaults, robberies and assaults are sporadicly reported - I think they occur more frequently but the information is not disseminated efficiently.

But to answer your question, I live in the outer western suburbs. I have travelled the Illinois Prairie Path, Fox River Trail, and Great Western Trail extensively without incident. The only sections that gave me reason to be concerned were the sections of the IPP east of 294. Those sections of the IPP are paved asphalt, and just strewn with broken beer and liqour bottles when I was on it. I feared a puncutre, and especially feared a puncture in the kind of neighborhoods that are littered with broken alcohol containers.

edit: double posted. see below.

Not meant to convince you to carry a weapon, meant to refute the notion that your weapon is really a danger to yourself and will be taken away from you and used against you. I do understand why someone who thinks their own weapon would be ineffective or used to harm themselves would not want to have one. If you are saying that such a person speaks out against weapons because they are expressing their own fear, and not trying to limit or remove another persons rights and abilities, then I suppose it is my "filter" that perceives such views as a threat to my rights. The basis for that view is that the "you don't need one and it won't do you any good anyway" premise IS used by groups that are threatening my rights, and I can not tell the difference between someone who is expressing a personal fear and someone who has a political agenda, merely based upon the statement.

I do like the angle from which you have viewed this issue - I can honestly say I have not given much thought to that perspective. I appreciate the insight.

And I do agree with your comments on being physically and mentally prepared. While the physical skills are not difficult, this is something not to be taken lightly.

Thanks for the info. I've got plans for riding along the Prairie Path, fox River Trail and Great Western Trail this summer, and wasn't too worried about those sections. My Gf's got family in Oak Park and Berkely, and I haven't been able to come up with a way to ride over there that didn't make me nervous for the reasons you mentioned.

Out of boredome, I tried to find a reference of the axe attack. Google came up with nothing, but I thought perhaps it was in the early to mid 90's, before everything got put on the internet. I used my local libraries online Tribune search feature, and I came up with a September 2000 incident where a crazy dude from Elgin stabbed a guy in the forest preserve parking lot near the bike path, and then 3 days later smashed a woman in the head with a hatchet while she was walking her dog down the street. He also broke into a neighbors house and disemboweled some cats.

This didn't fit my recollection of there being warnings about this nut job possibly stalking victims on the bike paths and such, but TV news and printed articles might have been saying different things. My spirits are lifted by also learning that if this was the case I was thinking of, the victims survived (except for one cat).

See you on the trails - once things dry out around here I will be all over them.

edit: If you do go to Oak Park on the IPP - prepare against flats, go during daylight, and don't go alone. I found that riding into the sun made the glass shards glisten enough so that you could avoid the worst spots. Not so lucky when the sun was at my back.

I have heard there are more crazies in the country than the city because they can't take the stress of the city.