We have several prominent members that host informational booths.
As they put so well, "Citizenship is a verb."
That may be. I am often at a variety of Seattle fairs, festivals and parades, with a few additional ones from the Eastside, in any given summer. Sometimes none on the Eastside, sometimes a few.
I am at the Solstice parade every year or nearly every year. I am at Folklife every year. I am at the u-district street fair about half the years, but more often more recently. At least at the fairs, festivals and parades I visit, which would include the Kirkland auto show once in a while, and a Bellevue event once in a while, I don't remember having come across anyone doing any informational sharing re carry.
Also, since I just did the study on the aftereffects of various self-protective actions during a rape, and I have not seen anyone distributing that information or anything equivalent, I can tell you I would surely have remembered the completed rape statistics of such a study . . . and no one seems to be distributing that information--at least, not out in public at any fairs, festivals or parades.
The spd has an account called the spd blotter which puts some videos on youtube. One of them is of a man who is being menaced by one or two African Americans. It is entitled, simply, Assault. The man is at first backing away from one of them and then he is just standing with his hands at his sides while the menacing AA gets within arms distance of the man and seems to bump him without response. The AA then moves to a slightly different position and smashes the guy with a punch and the man falls over and to the side about 8 feet. The other AA then approaches and picks him up and throws and guides and smashes the guy into a wall or post.
(The spd has another video out of some persons fighting and the person who has knocked the other to the ground stomps on the head of the one on the ground. That is two women fighting.)
From where we first see the guy to the first punch is about 20 seconds of the man 1) moving about for no strong seeming reason; 2) not drawing any weapons; 3) having his hands sometimes up and sometimes down; 4) after the 20 seconds of interaction by retreating, while his hands are down, being punched and then smashed into a wall or post.
Now, like the several rape situations in which if a woman has drawn a firearm or a "non-gun weapon," the aggressors have a strong incentive to not continue after the likely victim has drawn a weapon.
For some reason, spd blotter puts up this video and no one talks about the fact that the man has 20 seconds in which he could either have been drawing a weapon or at least have held his arm up and somewhat extended to make it slightly more difficult for the attacker to reach him with a blow.
Oh, and by the way, during the 20-some seconds that this is going on, there is another fellow who is watching and who seems to be on the phone with someone who I presume is 911.
The people of Seattle or at least certain neighborhoods are pretty badly complaining about increased assaults, increased hate crimes and increased rapes. There is allegedly a crime wave or a crime increase and maybe it is because Seattle is having summers that are warmer than usual and so more people are out after dark or because some more people have recently been released from prison and they have converged on downtown and/or Capitol hill.
Here we have an assault with 20 seconds advance notice of the significant likelihood of danger. The man thinks he will defuse two AAs who are menacing him by standing in the same place with arms at his sides and nearly without moving and then being sent flying from a punch and sent flying or smashed into a wall or post.
Apparently neither he nor the fellow with the cell phone had any weapons at all . . . and presumably no pepper spray . . . and little or no visits to any self-defense classes. The man perhaps could have used items in his pockets as weapons if needed . . . but he was out of it once he was hit.
So, in the dark of night while somewhat lighted by the light of a storefront, how is it that "we" give a guy 20 seconds notice he is serious danger and he gets smashed?
It seems that Daniel Goodman and his friends and/or James Ritter and/or Sean Whitcomb could offer some helpful thoughts and that fraction of Seattle assaults which are preceded by 20 seconds warning of danger might be prevent with the attackers retreating at the sign or drawing of a weapon.
but, at the Fremont Fair and at the u-district fair and at every other parade, fair and festival from St. Patricks day in March to the Thanksgiving or Black Friday parade of Macy's in November . . . in either Seattle or in Bellevue or Kirkland . . . or in Mercer Island, no one who thinks that this was a good self-defense idea encourages weapons possession or weapons use . . . even to the point of pepper spray or a pencil or pen or the use of one's car keys.
It can cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to have a booth at these things . . . I am not in a position to be paying for one.