"Rick Cortese" wrote...

While I don't agree with Hal's reaction to your going armed, you might want
to think about it since there is a presumed guilty against you by a large
segment of the population if you are armed. Yes there are Yahoos that would
think it funny to try and swamp you with their wake or otherwise ruin your
boating experience. Thing is they succeed in drowning you, the presence of a
gun on your carcase would just make people think "He was probably a crack
dealer" or something equivalent.

There are laws against brandishing a gun so the ability to do what you think
you can do is dubious. That is, jail time for you vs. a ticket for the person
who precipitated the incident. Unless you are in your own home, you may have
the "duty to retreat" in your state. This means if someone is harassing you,
you have to leave the area. I'm as serious as a broken leg about this, you
have to leave or you will be charged with a crime.

In context, there is a serious flaw in your "duty to retreat" argument: A
kayaker is ABSOLUTELY UNABLE to "retreat" from a powerboat! All he can do is
insignificantly reduce the closure speed by turning away, at a significant
disadvantage in visibility and collision aspect.

OTOH, you are correct that in many people's pea-brains, there WILL be a
presumption of "guilt" or "criminal intent" regarding a person who dares to be
armed. Further, "brandishing" or actually firing a firearm is indeed a "no-no"
unless the user is in fear of loss of life or limb (and, in some cases,
property). I would submit, then, that firing a .38 INTO THE AIR in order to
get the attention of a speedboat operator who is in the process of preparing to
ram your kayak, may well be a valid reaction to a valid fear of imminent,
lethal danger.


Carry a camera, flare gun, and pepper spray. If you are in an area that
doesn't allow excessive wakes or speed, the sight of a camera taking their
picture should be enough to deter knucleheads. If you do carry a gun, don't
bring it out unless someone is threatening you with deadly force.

If a boater doesn't see a kayak, [s]he will be oblivious to any camera aboard
the kayak. Pepper spray is useless unless you are being boarded AND the
boarder is downwind. A LOUD whistle MAY be heard over the wind and roar of an
engine and/or through the bulkheads of an enclosed cockpit...

A flare gun is certainly a good idea. However, if the flare does not erupt
until it is at some altitude, will it further distract the attention of the
doughhead powerboat operator from the kayak that initiated it? In this
scenario a parachute flare will be almost useless, though a short-lived pencil
flare may be useful. OTOH, how long will it take to get the flare out of
storage, and will it be useless in the future once "prepped" for immediate use?

A .38 or .410 or 12-ga with an appropriate flare round in the chamber may well
be a reasonable substitute for a dedicated flare gun where local laws allow it.
A .38 or .410 with a blank or "snakeshot" round, or a 12-ga blank/starter round
may be a reasonable second choice, in order to minimize danger from the "what
goes up must come down" law of physics.

Personally, I have yet to encounter a situation in my kayak where I needed
anything more than a whistle, though I have considered adding a signal mirror
to attract the attention of landing seaplane pilots. I do carry flares on the
kayak, but I don't think it is worth the hassle of carrying a firearm (though I
have carried one on my sailboat in the past). I have occasionally wished for a
movie camera to get the numbers from a jetskier who's being a complete idiot,
but there is little chance of any law enforcement agency doing anything with
even a movie, until the idiot actually hurts somebody...