We recently attended the Overland Expo East event in Asheville, NC. While we enjoyed the seminars and visiting the exhibitors, we were disappointed to hear that the event organizers consciously choose not to offer any "self-defense" or "self-protection" classes. We were told this by no less than four (4) instructors who previously submitted self-defense related course suggestions and class offerings and were denied. I have no reason to doubt these instructors' comments as they are very well-trained and respectable instructors that have taught classes at the Expo events over the past four to five years.
I completed the participant surveys after the events and did indeed make suggestions to offer these types of courses, but I'm curious as to why the organizers would purposefully not want any courses of this nature to be taught. According to the instructors and many of the event attendees we spoke with, we know for sure that the interest for self-defense courses is there.
I don't expect the European and international overlanding community to embrace our American spirit of self-reliance, independence, and our desire to protect ourselves in whatever way we see fit. I don't know the exact breakdown of the Expo attendees as far as country of origin, but to me it looked as though the majority of the attendees were US citizens. We met a few Danish, American, and English couples, much older, who are retired and have been and are still traveling the world. The topic of self-defense came up several times while waiting in drink and food lines and waiting for classes to start, and their attitude on self-defense is completely passive and they tended to look down at, shake their heads, and snicker with our idea of wanting to have and carry a firearm or other weapons for self defense. "Oh... you don't need a gun while traveling the world... how silly...". I've heard the same comments here in the States for years, and I still find this amusing considering the crazy events and weird-beard towel head muslim attacks that we hear about every few weeks, unfortunately.
You also have to look at the areas and length of time traveled by the "overlanding" attendees. I would posit that most vehicle-based extended campers attending the Overland Expo events travel in the mainland USA first for one to four weeks, and the next group travel longer periods to Canada, Alaska, and perhaps South and Central Americas. Two-year and continual around the world trips don't comprise the majority of "overlanders" and event attendees, so I will hope that in the future the event organizers will accept reality and let these types of classes be taught. I see political correctness and anti-gun sentiment creeping into the overlanding community, at least from the international and extended-trip multiple country types.
Wouldn't it be great to hear from those who have taken firearms and other weapons into areas that prohibit them? I was hoping to hear about some of the different countries' laws, work-arounds, and how best to hide and carry weapons abroad. For the forum moderators, I'm not advocating breaking any laws as self defense is one of our inalienable rights that we cherish and choose to uphold. If you're reading this, you've probably already thought about this issue, and I'm sure most of you carry concealed and or have appropriate weapons in your vehicles. Maybe we should include in this thread or start a new one on the different ways that folks pack and carry their guns in their vehicles and campers?
