Why people carry guns

March 16, 6:16 AMCleveland Gun Rights ExaminerDaniel White

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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.