Why I carry
When I was young, I was indestructible, I took chances and walked away mostly unscathed.
As I got older, slower and more established, I realized that there are people out there that have nothing better to do than cause others harm.
I've personally known four carjacking victims, two stabbing victims and many many more that had the shit kicked out of them for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've had two defenseless friends murdered in cold blood.
Since I adopted my kids, I found out running from trouble isn't as viable an option as it used to be and what if my kids are in the car and someone wants to carjack me?
I've had a knife pulled on me and I've been attacked by multiple assailants. I luckily was able to get away with just bruises. None of these attacks were provoked and were just random people wanting something to beat on or kill.
I've been attacked by large vicious dogs and have been fortunate to only puncture wound scars to show for it.
I don't feel indestructible anymore.
I also feel a responsibility to protect my family when we go out places.
Carrying a gun is a huge pain in the ass. Literally. The gun digs into my flesh, rubs me raw and is frigging awful in 110 degree heat. I would much rather not have to deal with the discomfort.
The licensing process sucks and the red tape is onerous.
I have many more legal responsibilities as a lawful carrier than someone who is not.
I still still carry a gun, not because I am an "NRA brainwashed coward" like some have accused me of, but for the same reason someone has a fire extinguisher in their home or a spare tire in their car.
Being prepared doesn't make me a frothing at the mouth gun nutter but it does allow me to provide for my own safety and the safety of others if need be.
.
I'll be damned if I'm going to allow myself and others to be helplessly slaughtered by some deranged maniac without putting up some kind of fight.
.
I hope I can go the rest of my life and not use a handgun against another human but if you put hope in one hand and shit in the other guess which one will fill up first...
I already know the negative feelings some have on this issue and I don't need to hear it rehashed. These are my personal reasons for being armed. Your mileage may vary.
Labels: Guns, Personal interest
posted by Bill Rowland @ April 19, 2007
37 Comments
37 Comments:
well all I can say is ya gotta do what ya gotta do to protect your kids. I have never touched a gun and the thought if it kinda scares me. But I can get out my claws pretty quick when someone tries to mess with one of my cubs...so I can see where you are coming from..
I see nothing wrong with carrying a gun if it is done legally and responsibly. My hubby has them.
I also believe that there are people out there that should not carry guns. Just because they are stupid and immature or just plain crazy.
I liked how you added in about NRA brainwashed cowards... i have never been for the NRA. In theory it sounds good.... but there are some physcos in the NRA.
It feels like sometimes that you can't count on the cops to protect you so you pretty much have to do it.
Good reasons and thanks for explaination. Very interesting.
The only one that is interesting in protecting you and your family ... is YOU ... So do what it takes, Hammer.
You know my stands on this Hammer, from our comments back and forth. Coming from a military, law enforcement and hunting family. All members of my family will know how to use a gun responsibly. They are great for recreation, but we also know how to use them responsibly for other issues.
I commend you for being responsible also.
Hammer you are a great person from what I have read here. I think you also comment on Dirtcarshrs blog and you more than likely have read my views on guns but if you havent here we go.
I wont hash you about carrying one. That is your choice and you are just protecting your family and friends in your vechile or where ever you may be at the time.
I am scared shitless of guns.I dont know why but I am. Hubby wants to get one and I am always afraid that the girls or one of there friends would find it and get shot by accident.
But after reading this I dont see the harm of having one gun in the house as long as he has the right locks for it and makes sure that the girls understand that its not a toy. Its hard to explain to a three year old what a gun is for though. Well nice post. Thanks.
Good post. I agree that carrying a gun is like having a spare tire in your car; no paranoia, no lookin'-for-trouble-badass. For myself, tho, I don't have a proper holster for my handgun, nor do I have a CHL yet, so my pistol rides in my daypack in the truck in a small locking case (the Life Jacket brand). Good thing Texas clarified that anytime one is in a vehicle, one is "travelling" for purposes of the old law.
Amen. It's your blog, it's your opinion. The two should go hand in hand. That keeps the other hand free for totin' heat.
I agree. As a single parent, I am the protector of my child and my household. Three chihuahuas who weigh a combined total of 17.3 pounds will not do the trick, should an intruder sneak in. However I do believe my Benelli 12ga. will. Just call me Bitch with a Benelli.
I have a friend who teaches the concealed handgun courses in our fine state. He has been asking me to take his class for years. I'm just a terrible procrastinator.
You big chicken...A gun, pffffft. Be a man like me and carry a ball and chain mace...Chicks dig it. Cheers!!
We live in rural MN, where I'd estimate that 90% of the households have a gun. We have virtually no gun crimes here.
If we lived in a city, we'd probably carry.
canadian: One always has to be alert and mindful when handling firearms. There are lots of rules that wise gun owners follow for safe handling and storage. a little bit of fear doesn't hurt.
snowmanpoop: Sadly the ones who shouldn't carry do so without a license and the whackos who want to get a license won't be able to pass the screening.
carrie: you are correct. there is a 20 year old supreme court ruling that states that police have no obligation to protect you. That's pretty sobering.
kirsten: Yeah, we both know there is no one else who will protect us except ourselves.
burfica: thanks, responsibility and safety are indeed the biggest issues.
tweety: Worrying about guns getting into the wrong hands is natural, I keep mine locked up or on my person. I have also educated my kids where if they ever find a gun while playing with friends to not touch it and get an adult. Parents who do not teach their children gun safety are inviting disaster becuase of their natural curiosity.
mattexian: I'm glad the car law changed too. I used to have to do the locking case too.
marianne: a shotgun is supposed to be the best home defense.
mstt-man: My nephew isn't comfortable around guns so I bought him a mace like you described. He heeps it next to his bed.
Thanks for the reassurances here. Guns are cold and mean looking. But after this post I think I will reavaluate my position for Hubby. Maybe hes right. But its ok to still be deathly afraid of them.
tshsmom: that's they way it normally is. Criminals don't like to prey on armed people they don't make good victims.
I'm guessing that if I'd been thru what you've been through, I'd be the same.
I think in comparison, I must live in Nirvana here. We just don't seem to get the violence you do down there. I feel very safe walking around late at night by myself.
I watched City Confidential a couple years back - it was on Nashville or Memphis - there were more murders in that one city in a year than in all of Canada. That stuns me.
Guns are for girlie men.
A big thing many people don't understand is that most places require background checks and enough red tape to discourage a potential criminal from obtaining a handgun legally. Those of us who go through the trouble of legally acquiring the permits for ownership are not likely to hold up a liquor store or carjack someone at a red light. Tightening the laws doesn't stop the criminals.
jeannie: there is a completely different culture down here, lots of safe places but also areas that are breed gangs, drug addicts and sociopaths. Sometimes it's hard not to cross paths with the dangerous sort.
paul f. Your comment seems to be lacking substantiation and is kind of insulting. Not sure what your goal is. Your other comments seemed fine.
I had to delete some really horrible comments--actually verbal assaults--from my blog today on this topic.
For anyone who is afraid of guns: I recommend simply taking a lesson or two. Allow someone who is thoroughly familiar with them to take you to a range and show you how to use them. And you don't have to learn everything at once. At least just allow yourself to be introduced to a firearm and shoot a target for a while.
jp: exactly, most people think criminals obey laws...exactly opposite of the definition of criminal. Statistics show license holders are 8 times less likely to commit a violent crime than a police officer.
Alan: I agree. Just a quick cheap or free safety course with a certified instructor will help someone be able to handle a gun safely and possibly save their life later on.
As someone who hails from a "no carry" state, and whose efforts to find a range to practice on have been frustrated (and frustrating), I have no idea what you luckier guys and gals go through to get a license for concealed carry. I wish we could, but apparently Chicago means the rest of us down south can't be trusted.
That said, I do have a brain, nails, teeth, and fury. Half of it comes from some jerk who thinks it's fun to scare the life out of girls. The other half comes from that ruling about the police not being liable if they don't protect you. I'd just like to back it up with something the critters understand before we get into close quarters. They don't understand laws or other peoples' rights. They understand force and being able to beat someone's ass to a pulp.
- ISU Tinkerer
I live in Australia where guns are strictly controlled. Only criminals carry handguns and they do a good job of killing each other. Carrying a gun here to protect myself is just overkill(pun not intended)What surprises me is that more people don't carry guns in America. I'm amazed that throughout the whole university in Virginia, only one deranged man carried a gun. Where were the security guards? Are they like Australia's security guards,unarmed and dangerous, "stop or I'll use my mobile phone".
If I was living in America, I would be just like you Hammer.
I got my carry permit so that I could buy rifles at gun shows without going through the tedious background check. When you have the card you're pre approved and don't have to put up with the wait. I don't really desire to carry a pistol with me all the time. I'm not really a pistol guy. But seeing the horror in Virginia, I think now that I need to start carrying regularly. Having the permit means that I'm now responsible to do something if I can. If there was ever and incident where I found myself in a position do something but didn't have my pistol, I don't think I could live with myself after. Having that card means that I have a huge responsibility, and I think that is something anti-gun folks don't realize. All they have to do is run. I just wish there'd been one person with a carry permit packin' in that building when that crazy fucker started shooting. A lot of those poor folks would be alive now.
And by the way, all the folks who think the cops should be the only ones with guns... Where were the cops at Columbine, and how long did it take the cops to get into the building to do something about this latest asswhipe? if you expect someone else to come to your aid, you'd better have your insurance premiums paid up.
OOOo about the safety courses. One of the best courses I put my kid in, and we took it with him, was the Hunter safety course. It covers much more on gun safety and responsibility than you think. And they have to pass a field day of gun safety and responsibility. Very much worth our 7 dollars and 2 evenings a week for 5 weeks. People should look into that also. You don't have to be a hunter to take it and benefit. I don't hunt, but I do shoot. hehehehe
There are times I wish I had a gun, if only for the feeling of security. You hope you never have to use it, but you like knowing it's there if you have to use it.
As you know the only people who carry guns here are Drug pushers, the army and sometimes the police. I understand your need to have a gun there hammer and your reasons why. I just dont know where I stand on the issue overall but this I do know if my child had been in a country that allowed guns to be carried about their person and was studying in the university and an evil nut job like him was shooting in her dorm I would hope she would have had the chance to finish him off before he even breathed the same air as she.
ISU: Precisely, the only thing they understand is a big stick.
lexcen: Here in the US police and security guards just fill out reports and maybe invstigate after the crime is committed and the people are dead. Not many lives saved. Even when they are on the scene.
FHB: I like my license for gun buying too. A gunshop told me when I made a deal for two pistols that they were going to have to report me to the BATF for buying more than one gun in a 5 day period...I told em to go ahead fuckers...
I hear you on not being armed when something goes down and people get hurt, that would be hard to live with.
burfica: that is an intense course. For me that would be entertainment :)
Janet: That's how I feel about it, it's there if you need it.
judith: I have a feeling if that univeristy was one of the ones that allowed concealed carry, that shooter would not have been able to run rampant like he did.
I had to qualify with a .38 when I was in the Air Force,luckily, just once. I have no problems with people being armed, it just won't be me because I'm not suited to firing a gun, I'd be a hazard to myself and others.
Holy cow dude, I just read this. I think we were on the same wavelength the past couple of days.
I don't carry, but I'm sure thinking about it.
All I know is, the morons better kill me quick, or they'll have a 300lb Tasmanian Devil in their face.
I recently took my first shooting lesson at an indoor range. Surprised me how comfortable I became by the end of the lesson.
I need to go back to get experience with several types before I think about buying.
What I hate is the apparent need to defend ourselves. Reality sucks.
Hmmmm...
Nothing wrong at all with going through rigorous screening and attaining a license to carry a gun. If you live in a violent area, you do what you can to protect yourself.
That said, THERE IS something wrong with carrying three guns for protection. I mean WTF? Who does that except the Cho's of the world?
One of my biggest issues with the gun verses no gun argument is that it is consistently binary.
If you are for reasonable gun laws you are automatically for "banning guns". Or conversely, if you are for self-protection, then you are automatically for unregulated gun ownership.
The dialogue should not be this polarized, and yet, consistently, this is the only argument you ever see being made.
America has the highest level of gun related deaths in the western world. The amount of death per capita runs in a reasonably direct correlation with gun availability.
More guns. More deaths.
And society is continually suffering from this phenomenon. The question then becomes, how best to reduce this phenomenon? More concealed weapons? Or more resonable guns laws? Or banishment?
Tough call.
One of the interesting thing about certain issues like guns laws, or abortion or "going to war", is that when society splits on the issue you can be sure the issue is morally or practically ambiguous. In other words, people can't come to a consensus because there really is no concensus.
The strategy of the NRA is to stop "government" from limiting gun ownership in any way. To this end, they incorporate tactics that to me are disingenious and egocentric and downright dishonest. The problem with those who follow along this path set out for them by the NRA, is that they too, become egocentric, disingenious, and dishonest.
The very first tactic is to assume and promote the idea that someone in favor of reasonable and rational gun regulations wants to "take away your guns". This makes the business of solving the "Cho scenario" impossible. It does, however, make for some pretty absurd discourse.
The next tactic is disingenious statistics- Compare Texas to D.C. for example. One can only assume the obvious differences in environment can be seen by even the obtuse amongst us.
And then the outright dishonesty is evident and absolutley apppalling. Why would anybody want someone who readily lie to walk around armed?
On the flip side, those who want guns bannished rely on emotionalism and sensationalism to make their point. Their screeching stands up nice to the gun extremists, and it all makes for a very unpleasant song and dance.
American society should be smarter than this issue, and yet, once again, the issue has become binary and polarized to the point where rationality has long since flown out the window.
If I ever needed to explain to someone why I am armed, I think I would refer them to this post.
I've found lately I'm more prone to not give any reason, other than I want to, and that's reason enough for me.
Scott: If you look at gun control advocates worldwide, you'll see that their reasonable laws gradually became "turn em in or face jail" This has happened in Canada, Australia and Great britain. They never had many gun crimes to begin with and many gun bans later they seem to have just as many if not more gun crimes.
I think more armed decent people will counter balance the bad people that carry a gat in their waistband no matter what the law is.
The NRA isn't that dishonest, we have 7 major legislators in DC right now at the forefront of the gun control issue who have bluntly stated, "If I could get enough votes to ban em all I would do it in an instant.
Ted Kennedy put up a bill to ban all Rifle ammunition in 2004 It was the only Vote John Kerry made that campaign year.
Granted, the NRA likes to scare it's membership for donation, money. I see it a lot.
46 states now have shall issue carry laws up from a small handfull 20 years ago. Millions of Americans walk around armed every day, there has been no blood in the streets OK corral or the other nonsense that the talking heads claim is going to happen each time a state relaxes their laws.
Reasonable gun control. Really no such thing, Criminals don't obey laws, if there is a market for crime guns they will pour across our borders like illegal drugs do now.
Cho broke the law when he bought those handguns, the state didn't do their job and report his stay in the crazy house to the department that runs backround checks. The gun shop made a good faith effort but the Virginia mental health records office dropped the ball.
What good are laws when the government is inept and doesn't even follow their own rules.
I can't decide whether I'd feel safer with a gun or without one.
I hate the fact that you have to feel 'unsafe' enough to carry one. I wish it wasn't like that for you.
I think I'd rather suffer the consequences of an attack than the guilt from killing someone. But thinking about an attack on my daughter......maybe then I would want it the other way around.
Obviously I haven't made up my mind on this topic!
I loves ya many different ways and from what I've read here, you're no trigger happy freako. You sound like you're responsible enough to carry a gun that I'm totally with you on that.
Most of society however are not responsible - and yet anyone can buy a gun. I really don't think they/guns should be out there and I personally couldn't have a gun in the house if a kid was in the house. Even if it was unloaded and locked away and all that. That, for me would not be right.
That VT shooter was derranged, had been seen by a professional and had even written stories detailing death and destruction. He was still able to purchase a gun and that's just wrong. I can't even fathom a society that allows anyone to buy a gun. In my eyes, it's not right at all.
gee
i thought the last word post was in response to an amalgamation of comments, not just one long diatribe.
yeesh.
when the shit goes down, I want to be standing next to you.
nuff sed.
Yeah, what you said. Brilliant post on why you carry, Hammer.
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