A question of self-defence - Fire extinguishers & self defence

[Ray Dillinger]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001 jamesd at echeque.com wrote:

>    --
>
>The rear window had been smashed in when they whacked the cop with the four inch steel pipe, or when they whacked the cop with the two by four timber. so there was no problem with chucking it underhand and sideways.  Plenty of room.  One is naturally inclined to chuck large heary objects in this 
>fashion, because it is difficult to sling them overhand.  In order to sling it in frontwards, he would have had to chuck it in one handed, and it was too heavy for that.  In order to chuck it, he needed both hands, and in order to chuck it with both hands, he needed to chuck it sideways.
>
>You try chucking a great big fire extinguisher.  Unless you are Arnold, you will chuck it in the same fashion.


I have two brothers.  Early in their college career, one of them got 
drunk, and for the sheer hell of it started bowling overhand.  The 
manager of the lanes at the student union was disinclined to try 
kicking him out personally, so he called my other brother to come 
get him out...  

This was possible because at that time all three of us had a lot of 
experience chucking large heavy objects (and the arms/shoulders to 
prove it) because we had been operating a firewood business to pay for 
tuition.

If you can get a grip on a large, heavy object which is long (like a 
chunk of a log, or a fire extinguisher) You can often throw it further 
and harder one-handed and underhand than you can two-handed and 
sideways, because the swing gets the far end going a lot faster and 
that translates into a lot of power for the throw.  You can also 
throw the sucker overhand, but you have to start by lifting it high 
in front of you, then swinging it down, turning sideways, bringing 
it up behind you, and releasing it over your head - as my brother 
discovered he could do with bowling balls. 

This guy holding up the fire extinguisher two handed, on the other 
hand, looks like he was intent on using it for a battering ram -- 
to push in someone's face with it or something. He didn't have room 
for the big underhand swing, nor the full-circle followed by overhand 
release, nor even really for the sideways chuck. 

One thing that his arms and posture suggest to me is that it's 
actually lighter than you've been guessing -- if it were heavy 
I'd expect to see a little more tension.  Perhaps it was already 
discharged, thus only about 5-7 pounds? 

				Bear