Guns
There is a lot of good information in this thread as long as one does not let the advice make them paranoid, only suitably cautious.
Several of the replies mention carrying and using guns. The problem with guns is that when you carry one almost nothing good can come of it. The best you can hope for in an incident involving guns is to avoid the worst outcomes. I speak as a long time gun owner and former police officer. When you use a gun in an attempt at self defense the likely outcomes are one of the following:
1. You will kill your assailant and end up facing a long, very expensive and uncertain legal outcome. Dominican prisons reportedly make US prisons look like resorts.
2. Your assailant will be better armed and more skilled and will kill you.
3. You will discover how difficult it is to kill another human with the result that he takes away your gun and uses it on you.
4. You will kill an innocent person or a bystander. It is very difficult to shoot accurately when your adrenalin is raging.
5. You will accidently shoot yourself or someone else. Mitchner wrote that in the "Wild West" of the US 4 or 5 people were killed by accidental gunfire for every person killed by Indians or outlaws.
6. If your not a permitted resident you may be arrested for illegal possession, resulting in Dominican prison, hefty bribes and deportation.
Its much better to toss your money and run like hell, scream, beg etc. than rely on a gun for protection. I would say that the chances of needing to do any of the above are very slim if you are reasonably astute. Most Dominicans are very honest, friendly and helpful and you are safer almost anywhere in the DR than in a US city (except when driving!).
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