To all of those who say that guns are no good for self-defense, or at least self-defense in close quarters combat, I beg to differ.

I used a concealed revolver to save my life earlier this year. A street thug grabbed my collar, pushed a gun in my abdomen, and demanded that I empty my pockets, I said "you got it," reached into my pockets as if to comply with his demand, and pulled out my revolver and shot him in the abdomen. It was quite apparent that he would have shot me if I had complied with his demand, so that there would be no witnesses to his crime. He survived and is now in prison. I have no military experiece, though I do like guns a lot and practice with them. I have no doubt that he would have shot me if I emptied my pockets for him, and that I would be DEAD if not for my legally owned revolver.

Granted, this was an urban situation, but I fail to see why one can claim, a priori, that a gun will NEVER do any good in a backpacking situation. Guns are life savers for law abiding citizens. Granted, guns are not a panacea that will save an innocent person's life in EVERY situation, but why limit one's odds of survival by refusing to carry one? Just because there are scenarios whereby one will not prevail, it still makes sense to carry a gun because there are plenty of situations where a gun will save even a novice's life. The only requirement is that the individual know basic gun safety, something that anyone non-mentally retarded person above the age of 10 or so should be able to manage. As long as one knows basic gun safety, then the positives of carrying a gun while backpacking will always outweigh the negatives of doing so.

Even if a gun would allow a given novice to save his/her life in only 1% of life-threatening backpacking situations, carrying a gun is worth it, because human life is precious; it's not as if the danger of the novice accidentally shooting himself/herself is SO great that it actually outweighs the benefit from the aforementioned 1% of situations (or however much it actually is). Whatever the probability of accidentally shooting one's self or one's companion is, it is much, much lower than the probability that the gun could successfully save lives during the trip.

There are so many situations where you're essentially a goner if you don't have a gun on you, and in my humble opinion, that is tragic. Why walk into a death trap? I do not think that people with an anti-gun political bias should tell someone not to bring a gun while backpacking, because human life is more important than political agendas.

I may come off as very opinionated on this issue, especially for my first post here, but as a law-abiding citizen who would be dead right now if not for a legally-owned gun, I feel very strongly about this issue, especially when people tell other people not to carry a gun to protect their lives.