How many of you carry a gun as part of your cycling equipment?



It depends on the city, there are cities that have a stronger biking tradition then others. In the bigger cities such as Lisbon and Porto they don't have a very strong biking tradition, but Aveiro does. They used to have bikes available to anyone that could put a coin into a slot to release a chain. When they finished using the bike all you had to do was tie it up at another station and retrieve a coin to same value that you had placed in the first place.
Unfortunately, it couldn't last long before they started disappearing, they even found some bikes in Spain and as far off as France.

That seems to be a great solution, I mean, picking up a bike when we need it and parking it at our location seems ideal, but hard to accomplish at the same time.
 
That seems to be a great solution, I mean, picking up a bike when we need it and parking it at our location seems ideal, but hard to accomplish at the same time.
It was great while it lasted. This is what they looked like.
IM000014.JPG

This one has a kiddie seat.
 
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It is surreal to me that of the three times someone attempted to mug me with a knife that two of these crimes happened in Europe. I am a US citizen and live in the USA.

The acceptability of carrying a firearm in the US is highly dependent upon local norms. Probably half the populace in Florida is carrying whereas nobody in the People's Republic on Neue Gersey can carry a gun other than all the criminals.

yes, I understand. So in the US there are also separate opinions about carrying?

I know that Europe is dangerous, I can totally see what are you saying. It's just not that natural to talk about guns for us, I guess.
 
In my State (Ohio) a free man, a citizen in good standing, can wear a handgun openly or concealed/with a concealed carry permit. The permit requires some training in the law and a demonstrated skillful use of the firearm.

We can also legally carry any long gun (rifle or shotgun) up to and including legally owned select-fire weapons (commonly known as machineguns and submachineguns).

We can legally own sound suppressors (commonly known as 'silencers, although they only reduce the sound signature of a weapon being fired, not silence it).

We have a castle law and a stand your ground law. Our State Constitution has defined our God-given rights of self-defense and rights to carry firearms to defend ourselves since our state was first formed.

NO man can take away our rights to defend ourselves from evil and criminal intent.
 
In my State (Ohio) a free man, a citizen in good standing, can wear a handgun openly or concealed/with a concealed carry permit. The permit requires some training in the law and a demonstrated skillful use of the firearm.

We can also legally carry any long gun (rifle or shotgun) up to and including legally owned select-fire weapons (commonly known as machineguns and submachineguns).

We can legally own sound suppressors (commonly known as 'silencers, although they only reduce the sound signature of a weapon being fired, not silence it).

We have a castle law and a stand your ground law. Our State Constitution has defined our God-given rights of self-defense and rights to carry firearms to defend ourselves since our state was first formed.

NO man can take away our rights to defend ourselves from evil and criminal intent.

I can't do any of that in PRNJ but most egregious is our requirement to run away first, even in your own home.

I had to do a demonstration for one of my out of state CCW permits. The off Duty Police Officer witnessing and signing off watched me do center mass (on paper) and then tells me to aim higher (orbits) and I missed one of the five. I thought I was toast. He tells me that was just extra, I had already demonstrated proficiency although I had stupidly brought my new Walther. I was like....oh, let's take the new bike out for a spin. The Instructor and off duty police officers seemed more interested in safe handling over marksmanship because the old, old guy next to me was a poor shot although he was using a high end ancient target 22 LR pistol. This guy had to be in his 80's and he took forever to load it. Some gun owners object to all these tests and background checks. I don't mind at all and in fact, we need to open mental health records up and dump them into the NICs system to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
 
I don't, but one of my friends does carry around a small pocket pistol just in case if things go for the worst. It is a good idea to arm yourself with something to defend yourself if you are alone...
 
This seems crazy to me as a foreigner but is the gun for the safety of camping (as in killing animals if they come to close) or killing/disabling people if they attack you? Are attacks on cyclists all that common?
 
Both. Wild animals and wild people bent on doing us harm.

I would not describe violent attacks by animals or criminals upon cyclists as 'common', but neither are they by any means 'rare'.

Besides, frequency of attacks is not the point. It only takes one to put you in a morgue.

Neither am I required by law to suffer the abuses of those attacks. God gave me the right to defend myself, my family and any other person from such attacks. Is the concept of self-defense lost on most people these days?
 
I have never carried one on my bike-ride. If it's for safety especially bikepacking travels the I bring my safety tools such as bear spray, lighter and etc. instead of a gun.
 
I own a gun but I don't carry it when I'm cycling, it's a bit dangerous to do so, here in my country. If you get flagged here by the police with a gun in your possession, licensed or not the offense is unbailable. You get jail time asap.
 
Carrying a gun in our country is strictly prohibited. The government here not allowed us to bring gun even not biking, and I think it's not necessary to bring gun specially if you will just go for biking.
 
I don't think carrying a gun when biking is necessary, and you might look very suspicious if you do so, leading to various interruptions by the police.
 
I don't think carrying a gun when biking is necessary, and you might look very suspicious if you do so, leading to various interruptions by the police.
It's unnecessary until the day you're in a situation where you could use one. Impossible to know ahead of time. It might never happen. As with anything better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

You don't look suspicious to police if your gun isn't visible. In many places you're required to not have it be visible. Even if it's legal open carry seems like a bad idea tactically. You give away the element of surprise and make yourself a target.
 
Oh boy, what a can of worms this topic is. No wonder this thread has been so active for this long.

I personally don't carry a gun, but only because concealed carry isn't legal in the country I'm currently living in. Needless to say I've had situations where it would have proven useful.

I like to spend a lot of time in the outdoors, but the region I currently live in is particularly notorious for its stray dog population. It's one thing to get chased down by a yappy little dachshund, and another to have two roided looking Staffordshire terriers looking to take a bite out of your butt.

As much as I love dogs, I'm not about to let one tear me up just so he doesn't go hungry.
 
I don't really think this is a necessary thing to bring or even just for self defense... this is totally not good thing to bring during cycling.
 
It depends on the neighborhoods you're riding in. I ride all over our county, and having lived here for only five years, I still ride into areas I've not been in, before. Some of the places are questionable. I've been stared down by a group of rough-looking people. I mostly ride on the sidewalks, and once came to a bus stop where a group of rough-looking people were blocking the sidewalk. They stared at me and had no intention of letting me get by. I wasn't going to force the issue so I dropped down into the road among the high speed traffic, then got back on the sidewalk after I had gotten by them.

I have a concealed carry permit and I carry a Ruger LCP 9mm. I do hope and pray I never have to use it because when you shoot someone, they may have friends who will hunt you down and take revenge. In the majority of cases where people pulled guns for self-defense, just the sight of the weapon was enough to defuse the situation. It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
 
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I really think that carrying a gun while cycling is too much, I mean I don't want to kill someone or figure out in a shootout just for a bike...in my opinion an all purpose utility knife or a hardened stick or a stun gun is much logical.
 

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