How do you justify carrying?

[colt45er]

I have had several of these conversations with people. If they still don't get it I make it personal.

"If someone broke into your house tonight with a gun and started raping your wife, what are you going to do?" Usual answer is call the cops. "Say ok, good response time, figure 3 minutes....you wife is scared for life and your kids are dead" Leave it at that.

U can use any number of situations but make it personal and they will start to understand.

 

[sj kahr k40]

I ask them two questions

1. Would you kill someone to save a love ones life if you had to?

2. How?

 

[Chuck26287]

Thanks for sharing. Some really good thoughts/answers. It's long, but here's my personal experience. I've never been anti-gun, but I've never been convinced I truly need to carry a handgun. I just got the permit and started carrying less than a year ago. The story below happened about 14 years ago. With the frequency and nature of crime today, and the diminishing rights we have, I finally made a personal decision about carrying.

I justify carrying by sharing the one experience where I would have pulled a firearm had I been carrying.

I witnessed an abduction along a highway. Traveling on I-675 outside Dayton, OH, I passed a car pulled off on the shoulder. About 75 feet in front of the car was a huge man dragging a woman by the arm back to the car. While dragging her with his left hand, he was beating her with a belt of some sort wrapped around his right hand. The woman was trying to get away.

I drove past this scene. I was literally dumbfounded. I wanted to, but I couldn’t keep driving away. I flipped a u-turn in the median, all the time praying a cop would see me and try to ticket me, so I could lead him to the scene. I drove back past the scene, and flipped another u-turn to come back up on the scene. By this time the guy had her in the car and another car was stopped several car lengths behind this car. As I approached, the guy pulled back onto the highway and I slipped in behind him. The other car fell in behind me. I made a decision I wasn’t letting that car out of my sight, as that girl might not walk away from this. As we were running at 55 mph, the girl gets the door open and tries to get out. The guy pulls her back in and continues hitting her.

The guy takes an exit and turns onto a main street. He hits a stoplight, and I pulled into the intersection and cut his car off to prevent him from driving off, and the other car pulls up behind him. I didn’t get him entirely blocked, so I get out of the car and stand in front of his car and tell the girl she can get out now, it’s safe. The guy is not happy, but I try to just talk to her. She won’t get out of the car now. The lady in the rear car is on a cell phone calling the police. That’s when I started to think about what I have done, and where I will go if that guy leans toward the glovebox.

The girl finally gets out of the car, after practically begging her to, and without saying a word, she walks off into a local wooded area and disappears. The guy runs the car up onto the sidewalk and drives off. The lady in the rear car and myself are standing there looking at each other wondering what the heck just happened. Then, a policeman ON A BICYCLE arrives.

They took a report, but told us they knew the couple (they had already ran the plate) and she wouldn’t press charges. The officer then told me how dangerous a situation I had just placed myself in. Domestic dispute… every cop’s nightmare call.

I came away from this knowing I would put my life on the line for someone else if presented with the situation. I learned the hard way that the police need time to react to a call, and this time is sometimes longer than the entire confrontation takes. I also know I would have pointed a gun at this man to get the girl away from him if I had been carrying. I learned you carry to be prepared. No one goes to work today knowing they’ll drive by a violent abduction/crime.

When asked by a young lady how I justified carrying a handgun, I relayed this story. I explained I don’t have it in me to not do anything to help someone in a situation like this. I told her my family has a right to have me around. I then asked her how she would have felt if I had been killed because I tried to help a victim when I was unarmed. It was a very sobering question for the young lady. She realized that had I been killed, she would have been raised without a father.

So yes... make it personal, and they start to get it.

 

[aikidoka]

When my brother said, "Why are you carrying that!?" I asked him if he had a spare tire in the car or had insurance. Same principle. You don't want to have to use it but it is great when it is there.

Since that conversation, I've found out he keeps what he calls a "go bag" in his car. It has some extra clothing and a couple of tools because he drives a lot for work and want's to be prepared if the car breaks down, especially in bad weather. I wasn't carrying at the time (damn Illinois) but if I had I might have thought to point out how his thinking applies to defending oneself. As it is, when I told my fiance about the go bag she immediately said, "And he questions you carrying a gun?" Heh I love her

 

[aikidoka]

I ask them two questions

1. Would you kill someone to save a love ones life if you had to?

2. How?

I've had people say no to that first question.

I suppose one could then say, That's why I carry a gun, because I know you won't do what it takes to save my life.

 

[elaw555]

My safety is my personal responsibility. I do not transfer that responsibility to another party (cop, etc.) to take care of for me.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

I occasionally use a flippant remark, such as "because I can't carry a cop" or "when seconds count the police are only minutes away.

But usually I compare carrying to insurance, or fire extinguishers/ smoke detectors, first aid kits. All things that the majority of people have and hope to never use.

 

[emsdial911]

I spent 12 years in the Army and after 9-11 I refused to be without a way to protect myself, family, and even someone I don't know if it comes down to it. Over the past few years I have been losing movement in my fingers I can not make a fist to defend myself. It really sucks because some days if I had to draw my weapon I don't know if I could (but I would do my da**est). My brother in law who is a 3rd degree black belt asked my why I carried. I asked him if his martial arts would defend him and his family against someone and he said yes. I simply told him that my weapon was my martial arts.

 

[1032JBT]

I don't justify my carrying to anyone. Those that know I am carrying already know why I do.......those that don't know will never know unless the SHTF and then they will be glad I was.

 

[stilllearning09]

I don't want to be another crime statistic. My life, my property, my responsibility for my own protection.

 

[Dogman]

I don't justify my carrying to anyone. Those that know I am carrying already know why I do.......those that don't know will never know unless the SHTF and then they will be glad I was.

+1, Rep'd

 

[Jay]

I posted this before, but couldn't find it......

Why The Gun is Civilized

By Marko Kloos
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100 pound woman on equal footing with a 220 pound mugger, a 75 year old retiree on equal footing with a 19 year old gang banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a car load of drunken guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a (armed) mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed, either by choice or legislative fiat—it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV. There people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I’m looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation….. And that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin
“The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.” Thomas Jefferson

 

[wtfd661]

For any law abiding adult citizen, who has the necessary physical abilities, proper training, and meets all the legal requirements, IMHO, is negligent by not carrying a proper handgun.

For off duty Police Officers who don't carry I believe they are GROSSLY negligent, when they are not carrying off duty.

For me I'm a Police Officer and I carry 99.9% of the time off duty (and no I won't tell you when that .1% is ). I feel it is my duty to act no matter on the clock or not to protect myself, my family, and others if need be.

And for all citizens of this country it is their duty to do the same.

But what the heck, I'm usually wrong in my opinions.

 

[Delmar]

ever been to the southside of muncie or W38th St in indy?

I lived on the 2100 block of Delaware st in Indy for a while.

 

[femurphy77]

I say..watch the evening news. Nuf Said.

Ditto!

 

[Jay]

But what the heck, I'm usually wrong in my opinions.

Well sir, I'm on your side. On the other hand....95% of the time, I really don't care what other folks think of my opinions...... seein' as how my opinions are mine...... but I'll share 'em with ya. .... sometimes even when you don't ask for 'em.......

 

[Indecision]

My personal security is my responsibility and no others.

 

[seamusalaska]

Why? For all the reasons given so far and because rights that aren't exercised are too often lost. Ask 'them' why they don't exercise their rights?

 

[dburkhead]

"If a man neglect to enforce his rights he cannot complain if, after a while, the law follows his example." Oliver Wendall Holmes.

 

[youngda9]

.1%

For me I'm a Police Officer and I carry 99.9% of the time off duty (and no I won't tell you when that .1% is ).

Assuming that you work 40 hour work weeks, that .1% works out to 7.68 minutes/week.

Sound like either you need to:
A) get more
B) check your math