Why I don’t carry.
I have worked hard all my life to make sure I had the right to carry. I contribue to pro 2a groups where I can, and I am very vocal about the basic human right I believe self defense to be.
Personally, though, i usually don’t carry. Here’s why.
I believe in a higher power. I believe when he wants me, he’s gonna get me. And when it’s not my time, he’s gonna see to it that I come out OK.
This has served me well. I’ve faced down guys with guns on multiple occasions and been shot at and even shot. I’m still here.
SOme of the people who accosted me are no longer here, though not through any action on my part. Some of them are in jail. At least one is living a pretty normal life now.
I have trusted the Creator and my wits to get me out of bad situations. I got into bad situations a lot because I hung out in rough places. I had my ass kicked a lot of times. A lot. Sometimes the Creator said to me “You got yourself into this. I’ll make sure you don’t outright die, but for the rest you’re on your own”. And I did. There were emergency room visits. There was time spent in hospital beds. There were court appearances.
I always considered the act of carrying the easy way out, and I never took the easy way. If it was tough, that was for me.
Times have changed, and I have hostages to my fortune. SO I do a couple things differently. I don’t go places where I’m highly likely to get shot,or be in other danger, and I certainly don’t take my family to those places. But as is proved over and over again, staying away from nominally dangerous places does not keep one from danger.
So I have become a lot more carry-conscious. I wear clothes that let me conceal. I keep my senses sharp and my eyes and ears peeled. I have the best situational awareness I can.
I have some help in this, because for many years I was voluntarily in situations where I might have to get myself out of trouble unarmed, and it helps to be one mental step ahead of the belligerent drunk at the end of the bar, the couple in the corner booth about to get in a fistfight over his/her infidelity, or the random asshole who wanted a piece of me just because he could. Sometimes I had to fight my way out, and as often as possible I absconded, discretion being the better part of valor. Not drinking has helped me immensely in this respect; a fat old man who is sober is a great match for a drunken ninja or a golden gloves boxer who is half in the bag.
Relying entirely on a weapon to protect you is bag-of-hammers dumb. You have to have all the skills to use the weapon, but you have to use the most powerful weapon of all, your brain. Your firearm is the tool you use when your brain fails you, or when the opponent(s)are immune to brains.
11 comments Og | Uncategorized
I wish that I could take my .45 to Alaska. Grizzlies are pretty much immune to logic.
I doubt that a flare gun will cause the desired bathrobe effect on a Grizzly.
See ya tomorrow.
Bone, I bet someone would lend you one there. You might also ship one ahead of you, or buy one there and ship it back to your home when you return.
I’ve considered all those options. Shipping a gun is somewhat of a hassle. The waiting period is going to foul up buying one. Kinda doubt that someone is going to let me borrow their .45 or .44 magnum, but who knows.
I wouldn’t rely on a .45 for grizzly anyway. .44 magnum at a minimum. S&W .500 mag if you can get your hands on one and can afford to feed the monster.
“Sometimes the Creator said to me “You got yourself into this. I’ll make sure you don’t outright die, but for the rest you’re on your ownâ€. ”
hehehe :
http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2008/6/16/633492573326483116-overconfidence.jpg
I have a half-written post about concealed carry that parallels this one so well you’d think I cribbed yours, so a big rewrite is in the works, but yeah, heavy is the head that wears the crown, as well as the hand that grabs the final option. In spite of the popular notion that gun carriers are like two bit gunslingers waiting for the real challenge to come on the next train to their dusty old town to spoil for a gunfight on the main dirt road, I’m sure there’s a good number who reluctantly carry. The least bad of a list of bad options, but damn it if we just lie there and be a willing victim, like so many who complied with a store robber’s demands and got shot nonetheless, the last memory being of lying on a cold tile floor looking up with pleading eyes and knowing that was all for nothing.
Nothing was as bad as coming home through Gary after midnight after a Croatian fest in Chicago (can’t take a gun up to Daley’s city) and coming down Broadway the night of the bad winds that put trees onto I-80/94 even, and knocked out all power. Dodging not only trees but groups of disadvantaged youths 10-20 strong just wandering around in clumps down the middle of the main street. There was this gas station that was not more than a pillbox, and it had 30 youths just gathered outside at the window slot, standing there, after midnight after a tornadic storm, just there. And I’m waiting for the driver to flood the car or hit a tree and strand us there, unarmed.
I only carry on long trips. Other than that, no need.
dick, thats because youre a weapon in your own right.
I agree with your thinking Og. I usually have one in my pickup, for the cripples I come across on the highways. Or if I need to protect someone else, or family. Not too worried about me. But there is that old saying that creeps into my mind, “The Lord helps them as helps themselves”. LOL
Have you heard the old joke about the river flooding? This guy tells the cop going door-to-door to evacuate people that he’s going to stay since God will take care of him- then he tells the Sheriff in the boat (the water is obviously rising) that he doesn’t need to be boated away since God will take care of him- then he tells the Coast Guard guy in the helicopter (as he sits on the top of his roof with water lapping at his feet) that he doesn’t need to be airlifted since God will take care of him.
Next he finds himself standing in front of God and he asks Him why He let him die. God says “I sent a cop, a boat, and a helicopter. What more did you want?”
I had a coworker go to Saudi Arabia for business. He told of harrowing rides in a taxi there where he had to ask the driver to be more careful. The typical response was “If it’s Allah’s will that we live, we’ll live, so don’t worry.”
His response to that was “How come Allah seems to want so many more risky drivers to die than careful ones?”
Just sayin’….
geek: it helps if you actually read the post, which you obviously did not.