Courtesy of Oleg Volk
Most people who choose to carry a firearm for self defense will, sooner or later, have someone ask them the question, "why do you carry a gun?". Sometimes it will be asked accusingly by an anti-gun person seeking to ridicule them. Other times it will be by someone who has been lead to believe that guns are bad and the people who carry them are, but they're not really sure and are genuinely curious.
There are lots of reasons why someone would decide to carry a gun. For some, it is because of their job, like a police officer or bank guard. It could also be a person who regularly carries large sums of money for bank deposits. Those are obvious, of course, and not the ones that usually get questioned.
So why would an ordinary citizen want to carry a gun? The anti-gun crowd will tell you it is because of paranoia or that they want to feel big and powerful. I've never found either to be the case. For most, it is because they want to feel safe. But I'm not really talking about just the fact that a person who carries a gun thinks they can win any fight. Most of us know that criminals rarely strike with warning and the best you can hope for is a fighting chance. Though, that's a fighting chance you don't have if you're not armed.
The feeling safe argument does come into play, though, and is particularly relevant to outdoorsmen. It can be very comforting while fishing in bear country to be carrying a firearm. Similarly, a woman riding the bus alone at night is going to feel much safer with a .38 in her purse than a rape whistle.
More than that, though, it is a feeling of safety that is born out of confidence. Think about it this way. If a person doesn't know how to swim, they're likely to be more afraid of being out on a boat than a person who knows that if the boat does sink, they have the skills to survive. It's the same thing with a gun owner. They know that if something did happen, they have a tool and skill set available to them to up the odds for survival.
For others, it is a sense of responsibility. Here's another example. Let's say you're having dinner in a restaurant and the person at the table next to you starts choking. A skill like the Heimlich maneuver would save that person's life. Some folks feel they have a responsibility to their fellow man to learn lifesaving skills like that. For some gun owners, they do feel a responsibility to protect others, but for most it is more of a responsibility to protect themselves and their families. Taking accountable for your own safety and well being is something that used to be expected in this country. Now, it is more common for that obligation to be passed along to someone else, whether the police, the government, or a higher power. However, there are still plenty of people who still choose to be responsible for protecting themselves and their loved ones themselves.
We all know that, for most of us, the odds really are low that we'll have some violent criminal try to break down the front door at two o'clock in the morning. But if it does happen, wouldn't you feel safer if you had a tool and a skill that could stop the intruder from killing your, your spouse, or your children? I don't think it is paranoia to want to be prepared just in case. After all, isn't that what they teach Boy Scouts, to be prepared?
Getting back to the misconception about gun owners being paranoid, I think it is actually more likely that a non-gun owner is going to be paranoid. A person who legally carries a gun has the confidence that he or she can handle themselves and doesn't usually even think much about a criminal attack. They know that if it comes, they'll be ready. However, a person who has had half of the "fight or flight" responses taken away is much more likely to be distrustful and afraid of people they meet on the streets or jump at every bump in the night.
Those are just a couple of the reasons some people choose to carry a gun, but there are many more. I do know a few carry simply because they can. The Constitution says they have the right, Ohio law makes a concealed handgun license available, so they do it. There's nothing wrong with that. Rights are like muscles, if they're not regularly exercised they tend to atrophy.
READERSHIP INTERACTION
Uncle Lar: Ordinary folks need to understand that making it "harder" to obtain weapons of violence does absolutely nothing to make us safer. The crazies bent on some sick rampage or the career criminal carrying out his chosen profession will find a way, easy or hard, to get what they need to acomplish their goals. Laws restricting access to firearms have the greatest effect on honest citizens, the ones we have the least to fear from, and the most likely to be the intended victims of the bad guys who as stated will still always manage to be armed. So I submit for consideration the simple fact that gun control, whether well intended or part of some other hidden agenda, is actually counter productive to the maintenance of a safe society and damaging to our individual health and wellbeing.
I agree that gun control in counterproductive to creating a safe society, but that's not really the goal of gun control. Though some really believe that getting rid of the guns would make crime go away, the most fervent gun haters have a more sinister scheme: controlling the subjects. They want to stay in power, gain more, and keep you living your life they way they tell you to. But, in the back of their minds, they know that there is a line that if crossed, they can be pushed back to the other side by armed citizens. Tyranny hates personal freedom, and those who seek it view gun rights as the worst personal freedom of all.
Check out other Gun Rights Examiners:
- Atlanta: Court rules that legislator did not mean what he said
- Austin: DC gun control and ‘Governor’ Fenty
- Charlotte: Dial 9-1-1 and die ... again, and again, and again
- DC: DC City Council afflicted by pistolgriphobia
- Denver: Economics 101: guns and monkeymeat
- Los Angeles: Sovereignty in 2009
- Milwaukee: Help wanted- Pro-gun Wolves
- Minneapolis: 'From my cold dead hands' and gun-owner apathy
- National: DoD under Obama squeezes already tight ammo supply
- Seattle: Gun rights community should not cheer so loud over demise of Seattle P-I
- St. Louis: Gun rights--not a 'poison pill'
- Wisconsin: Everyone including the cops need to know the Wisconsin preemption law
Comments
People carry guns to remain healthy, prevent crimes. To protect themselves and family. The government takes the guns away, only crooks will have guns then. This country was born on those guns, and it is our right to carry them and own them. We lose that right, and our countries founders work was all in vain. Many said it before, but you ain't getting mine till you peal it out of my dead cold hands. I'll fight for the right period. It's our only hope against one of the most criminal governments on the face of the earth. Maybe if we got rid of the old-time politicians and forced our elected officials to do the job right, maybe we'd have a country that they built here today, allowing it's people to live happy, free, and legally. No we fear the crooks, the police, and the elected officials. They're all embedded with crooks.
I live in Cincinnati and our Mayor is aganst guns but of corse he has a armed guard payed for by the tax payers with him all the times. He is like alot of other Politicians they dont want you to have a gun but they have ther gun. we dont have the convience of a police officer to be with us at all times like our mayor so we need to carry to pertect us and our familys. maby they feel the average person does not need to pertection.
Here's the reason I own a .45ACP
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the police have no obligation to protect the individual in society.
I often have several grandchildren with me, so although carrying my firearm with me doesn't guarantee I'll live, should someone try to do harm to my grandchildren, it increases the chances I'll be able to live with myself should evil appear. They trust me, there's a reason.
Enough Said " !
Another reason for carrying a gun is that a cop is just too darn heavy.
I learned long ago that anyone who asked me why i owned guns, or why I would carry a gun was only looking for an "in" to start an argument.
I've heard plenty of gunowners play coy, prevaricate, and assert that their guns are just for "sporting purposes", and they would NEVER EVER think of shooting anyone.
Anti-gun people never buy these responses, and it just convinces them that gun owners are delusional Walter Mittys with Rambo fantasies, and liars to boot.
I've been touched by crime, and by "touched", I mean I've been assaulted more than once, and have nearly been killed.
I carry a gun so that I can SHOOT someone, perhaps several someones. I'm not going to play cute about it in order to make pleasant conversation with an anti.
There is no firearms education in this country for military, police, or civilians which teaches students to "shoot to wound". An attacker may die from a wound in his arm, or he may take 3 .45s in the chest and still be feisty enough to kill you.
So while self defense classes teach "center-of-mass" shooting, I'm not going to pretend that a very likely result of shooting someone in the chest or head tends to result in death.
I hope that I never have to shoot anyone, but I have found that there are some real bad guys
out there, and when they get in a violent mood, a violent response is not just appropriate, it is legally and morally justified.
I think about that every time I leave my house.
I carry a gun because it's inconvenient to carry around policemen or bodyguards. Gun is much more convenient and easier on my aging vertebrae.
I LOVE talking to people about such things as guns, welfare, taxes, socialist health care and so on, because almost everyday I question and deeply contemplate these beliefs so I can explain "Why" very well.
I carry a gun for the SAME reason cops do.
Cops carry guns for ONE reason only, they are the most effective in immediately and justifiably (legally) stopping a violent criminal attack from a violent predatory criminal.
And since the violent criminals that cops need their guns for are the S A M E violent criminals that target and prey upon everybody else in society, unless you are a psychotic hypocrite you do NOT get to tell me I cant protect myself.
Good and fair Responce .
Carrying a concealed handgun is an uncomfortable inconvenience fraught with high liability. Yet more than six million citizens in this country feel a strong enough sense of duty to carry a concealed handgun because they know it provides a much stronger deterrent to violent crime than the one million peace officers that are rarely present. I have personally thwarted one potentially violent confrontation because I was armed. Based upon my experience I have to believe that there are countless thwarted encounters that go unreported. Because of reciprocity laws I can legally exercise this duty to provide deterrence in 34 States. Why am I prohibited in the other 16 States? It was reported that Los Angeles County with ten million people has 80,000 gang members and does not issue concealed carry licenses to allow its peaceful citizens to defend themselves. This is insane!
When you look at the history of asymmetric gun laws in New York City and in Chicago, what you see is gun prohibitions initiated by members of organized crime who wanted to disarm their opposition. These asymmetric laws only affect the law abiding and should have been rendered null and void under RICO. Asymmetric gun control is more related to corrupt political power than it is to public safety. Asymmetric gun control is abetted by people who are ignorant and fearful of firearms and who naively believe that passing laws to eliminate civilian access will reduce criminal violence perpetrated upon the innocent. The technology of making firearms will always exist along with a black market to arm the criminal element in this country. The U.K. is experiencing this now.
I carry a gun because my d!ck don't shoot bullets.
Hey KahrKarry
Grow up.
peope carry guns some need to be protecte by the people how are dnagerous roght that what i think
why not carry a bat instead,sometimes you can get stressed alot so you would feel like shooting :P
kahrkarry gud1
suck it :p
here is a reason dumb mufukas like lp cool j get shot... stupid dirtface
Good post.,
Why Do I Carry A Gun ?..... Like millions of other people feel they Have to protect them self`s .... Because I and my Wife" Have both been a victims of a vilent atack like a lot of other people have been at least one time in there life`s , and it is Quite Stressful on one let alone pretty scarry . Those that have not had that type of thing happen to you , my hat is off to you my friend , I Hope You Never Have To Experance That " . So with that being said , I and my wife both , have carryed consealed weapons for Quite a while , because we can not depend on the police to protect us , our family members , our Grand Children , and our persnol property . Thank God ! our fore father`s of the US 2nd. Amendment gave us that LEGAL" Right to protect our self`s as human being`s in this country . We pray every day we NEVER" have to use our weapons to stop a crimnal atack , but we both feel safer knowing we both have our weapons , If there needed . The Element of surprize is the crimnals worst night mare , and your Best Bet of stopping him / her .
How ironic that the vast majority of the posters can't even spell...
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