It is the fear of the unknown. go to class,learn how to shoot it,clean it and carry it. talk to and meet fellow gun users at the range and maybe even social events. find a gun that fits you and carry it around on you at home. get used to it. Knowledge will replace the fear and all will be well.
How does one start carrying a gun and not succumb to fear?
- Thread starter AKMtnRunner
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ArchAngelCD
Member.
I'm sure you parents would like it even less if parts of you were found after a large brown creature made dinner of you. As for what your friends think, really? I will be nice and only say what your friends think is meaningless to your survival. I would only care if they were willing to take your place if attacked. If the only change you make is to carry a handgun and that leads your friends think you are crazy, you really don't have friends.
Dog Soldier
member
You are far more likely to kill or harm someone driving a car or truck. Does anyone have "Ford Phobia" "Chevy Fear" or "Chrysler Crisis"?
RetiredUSNChief
Member
OK, this thread is going on three pages now and I'm not seeing any responses from AKMtnRunner yet. Perhaps it's because it's 1:30 am and I'm just missing them.
I'm confused, even after having read the posting several times. Exactly what are you living in fear of, AKMtnRunner? And what does your carrying of a firearm have to do with that fear?
If you are living in fear of being preyed upon, that fear would exist whether you're armed or not. What you need to do is come to grips with the realities behind that fear and then affect mitigating changes in order to cope with it.
For example one reality is that you have grown up in a relatively safe envirnment and have not been a victim of a violent attack. This indicates the risk level to be relatively low with respect to violent crime. Presumably, you didn't live in fear growing up, so why now?
Self defense of any kind is a multi-level concept. If you choose to carry a firearm, you should be doing so AS PART of your self defense not AS your self defense. If you don't quite get what I just said, read it a few more times before going on with my post.
Self defense encompasses situational awareness, first and foremost. Simply put, be aware of what's going on around you.
The level of situational awareness varies, based on your perceived understanding of the threat level at any given time. Your situational awareness cannot be 100% for 100% of the time.
For example, if you are out with your buddies in broad daylight, walking down the sidewalks in front of rows of busy shops, your perceived threat level would probably be pretty low. Why? You're not alone (you have buddies), it's daylight, plenty of other people around, in a good neighborhood, etc.
So your level of situational awareness is probably a bit relaxed based on your threat assessment.
Now, if you were working the late shift, closed up your place of business long after dark, and were getting ready to walk to your car in the deserted parking lot with a drop bag for the night deposit box at the nearby bank, your level of situational awareness is probably going to be somewhat heightened.
Planning your runs should be part of your self defense tactics. You don't deliberately take your exercise runs through the "bad" end of town, for example.
Learning how to avoid trouble, de-escallate aggressive encounters, retreating, etc...all are parts of a multi-tiered self defense strategy. And your gun? It's at the end of all these, when you have no other choice left based on circumstances.
If your gun is contributing to your fear, then you need to take a step back and figure out what, exactly, this fear is all about. If it's simply a heightened anxiety due to carrying something you were raised to have nothing to do with, that's OK. This is generally resolved by familiarity and understanding.
By this, I mean get out there and learn how to shoot your gun. Learn how to clean it, how it's designed to function, how it feels. Get a good belt and holster. Find fun firearms activities to get involved in. Look up your jurisdictional laws on firearms and learn what they say and mean. Take some training classes.
The more you know and understand, the more respect and comfort you gain.
AKMtnRunner, for me what I felt was not fear, but responsibility. Responsibility for proper carry and storage, for safety of those around me, for the duty I assumed. Responsibility for becoming comfortable and competent with my tools.
Although I became an NRA sharpshooter with a .22 rifle as a yound teen, and a concealed carry permit holder as soon as I was old enough, I never did handle guns again until, as a senior citizen, my father died bequeathing me his father’s guns.
Since then I have discovered three new hobbies I wouldn’t have thought to try. To become comfortable with carry I tried IDPA and found shared interests and friendly competition. After joining the club, I learned to shoot skeet. Now I have learned to reload pistol, rifle, and shotgun. My son, his wife, and friends are learning the hobbies.
In short, AKMtnRunner, fear became opportunity.
RUT
Member
>>Almost 40 responses and not a single reply from the fearful OP???<<
Yeah, what's that all about? I'm having a hard time believing somebody (supposedly) from Alaska has this kind of mentality.(sounds more like Berkley) Doesn't make sense.
Yeah, what's that all about? I'm having a hard time believing somebody (supposedly) from Alaska has this kind of mentality.(sounds more like Berkley) Doesn't make sense.
cal44mag
Member
<Carrying goes against the culture I've grown up in. My parents were adverse to handguns and wouldn't let my brother and I have toy guns as kids. My friends have and still aren't the kind of people that would even consider carrying and I'd wager they would think I'm crazy and dangerous if they knew I have started.>
I think you would be surprised. I bet some of your anti-gun friends wouldn't disapprove and might even start carrying themselves.
Even anti-gun liberals read newpapers and watch TV news about assaults, riots, beheading, abductions etc. An no matter what your political leanings or views about guns, people don't want these things to happen to their loved ones or themselves.
I've had friends in Berkeley CA (or all places) tell me they were considering carrying -- even though they would have to do so illegally since the chances of being issued a CCW license in Berkeley is zero.
I think you would be surprised. I bet some of your anti-gun friends wouldn't disapprove and might even start carrying themselves.
Even anti-gun liberals read newpapers and watch TV news about assaults, riots, beheading, abductions etc. An no matter what your political leanings or views about guns, people don't want these things to happen to their loved ones or themselves.
I've had friends in Berkeley CA (or all places) tell me they were considering carrying -- even though they would have to do so illegally since the chances of being issued a CCW license in Berkeley is zero.
Creature
Member
When you were issued your driver's learning permit, my bet is you were just as fearful of being involved in an accident, were you not? Its why you purchased automobile accident insurance. Same difference. Carrying a gun is just insurance.
Creature
Member
They don't use ridiculous names for it, but plenty of people do not feel super safe driving, and will avoid driving on higher speed roads or will give up driving for other means. My grandmother did just that in her 80s.You are far more likely to kill or harm someone driving a car or truck. Does anyone have "Ford Phobia" "Chevy Fear" or "Chrysler Crisis"?
There is nothing shameful about admitting that handling and carrying a loaded weapon is an awesome responsibility. As we have seen with all the gunshow ND threads, gun people screw the pooch all the time. And many people have no idea what they do not know. And too many of the rest of the people have the Dunning Kruger Effect telling them their are God's gift to firearms safety.
I trust the nervous gun owners more than the confident ones.
Dog Soldier
member
I don't trust a nervous man with a nail clipper let alone a Hi-Cap 9MM.
I don't really trust anyone, but I trust people who think their amateur training constitutes infallibility the least.I don't trust a nervous man with a nail clipper let alone a Hi-Cap 9MM.
1911 guy
Member
I'll summarize my own journey and perhaps it will be of help to you. I also grew up in a "safe" environment. Farm-town USA. Experiences later in life showed me that not all people are decent. Most are, though. I carry, and have done so for a very long time, not because i go to dangerous places or associate with dangerous people. It is simply that i will not allow myself or my loved ones to be the victims of the one-in-a-million. Realizing that dangerous people exist must also be tempered by realizing that 99.9 percent of people will leave you alone if you leave them alone. You are not in any more danger, statistically, than yesterday. You are simply aware of the danger that always existed.
scaatylobo
Member
I found that to be very simple to grasp.
You did not EVER consider that FACT that you face threats each and every day = you were not able to do anything about it as a sheeple.
Dropping the 'head in the sand' manner of self preservation makes you see that a gun is there for a reason.
You now can face your fears AND have a solution to that fear.
I became a LEO 10 years after I got my CCW and it took me a bit of time [ a few months ] to feel comfortable with a gun on me at all times.
As has been stated by another,"a gun is supposed to be COMFORTING and not comfortable".
Relax and enjoy your freedom to protect you and your's.
My life experiences have shown me that going about unarmed is when I am more likely to be accosted by others intent on imposing their will. And I live with that daily working retail in a job where at least half of the customer base has no grasp of what they are doing or what we provide. I sell auto parts - I work at a car pharmacy. I'm not a mechanic, surgeon, gas station attendant, your dad, or Uncle Fred who loans his tools for you to tinker on your ride.
I can't carry at work so i deal with it. Off the job on my day off, you bet - unlike the OP, NOT carrying creates a situation where I DO experience others in society being unmitigated jerks, Doesn't mean I could do anything about it, like, get cut off in traffic or have some soccer mom leave her cart in the aisle blocking the way. Those are just the normal things people ignorantly do to each other
But there is the rare situation where someone really does think they can ask for too much. And when that happens it's based on their overly aggressive attitude that exceeds common thresholds of politeness. They take one look at me and think they can get away with it. Armed, I know they can't. And with the notion that Sam Colt made men equal where some wouldn't accept the notion, they get treated in a way they likely wouldn't have tried had they seen me Open Carry.
There's the problem - a lot of people no longer let the Golden Rule guide their behavior, they don't plan to see you again in a busy Metro so they do whatever they like. Unarmed clerks and passersby are fodder for their ego and they use them however they want. They have no respect for their fellow man - unless their fellow man can back it up. And when there is a disparity of 6" in height and 30 years in age, they simply do not think the other person has the capability. So, they are rude and aggressive.
Armed, they get short polite answers which set the tone and settle the assumed disparity in physical ability.
No, going about in daily life - even in the wilderness - it's no walk in the park for some. It's trying to get thru the wild side of public life that some of us fear, because that is where the real threats exist. My fellow man is the biggest danger to life and limb - no different than any other natural predator, and equally deserving of being armed to handle them. They are the cause of all murders, beatings, road rage, drug induced assaults, and most importantly, the one source of danger I live and work with daily.
It's why I read so many posts here of tradesmen carrying weapons in their tools, of salesmen on the road with guns on them at all times, of people in office environments carrying contrary to company policy. And they pretty much agree - its the other humans they encounter in life - at a gas station, going to the theater, walking down the mall, shopping in Walmart, They are the threat to a safe and peaceful life - which should highlight the difference. While the OP may not consider them a problem at all, many of us recognize them as the major problem in life every day. Better to deal with them armed since they won't deal with most people decently at all.
I can't carry at work so i deal with it. Off the job on my day off, you bet - unlike the OP, NOT carrying creates a situation where I DO experience others in society being unmitigated jerks, Doesn't mean I could do anything about it, like, get cut off in traffic or have some soccer mom leave her cart in the aisle blocking the way. Those are just the normal things people ignorantly do to each other
But there is the rare situation where someone really does think they can ask for too much. And when that happens it's based on their overly aggressive attitude that exceeds common thresholds of politeness. They take one look at me and think they can get away with it. Armed, I know they can't. And with the notion that Sam Colt made men equal where some wouldn't accept the notion, they get treated in a way they likely wouldn't have tried had they seen me Open Carry.
There's the problem - a lot of people no longer let the Golden Rule guide their behavior, they don't plan to see you again in a busy Metro so they do whatever they like. Unarmed clerks and passersby are fodder for their ego and they use them however they want. They have no respect for their fellow man - unless their fellow man can back it up. And when there is a disparity of 6" in height and 30 years in age, they simply do not think the other person has the capability. So, they are rude and aggressive.
Armed, they get short polite answers which set the tone and settle the assumed disparity in physical ability.
No, going about in daily life - even in the wilderness - it's no walk in the park for some. It's trying to get thru the wild side of public life that some of us fear, because that is where the real threats exist. My fellow man is the biggest danger to life and limb - no different than any other natural predator, and equally deserving of being armed to handle them. They are the cause of all murders, beatings, road rage, drug induced assaults, and most importantly, the one source of danger I live and work with daily.
It's why I read so many posts here of tradesmen carrying weapons in their tools, of salesmen on the road with guns on them at all times, of people in office environments carrying contrary to company policy. And they pretty much agree - its the other humans they encounter in life - at a gas station, going to the theater, walking down the mall, shopping in Walmart, They are the threat to a safe and peaceful life - which should highlight the difference. While the OP may not consider them a problem at all, many of us recognize them as the major problem in life every day. Better to deal with them armed since they won't deal with most people decently at all.
OC-Trainer
Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2014
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- 567
That is some seriously flawed logic right there. To suggest that the OP can't possibly defend himself from "threats" without a firearm is ludicrous.
You sound like you are describing a Talisman.
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That is one serious inferiority complex you've got there.
Deanimator
Member
How would you recommend that someone defend himself from a firearm WITHOUT a firearm?
How about from a knife without a firearm? Should I be willing to get cut in order NOT to shoot someone threatening me with a knife?
What would you suggest to a 110b. woman faced by a 210lb. rapist, instead of a gun? Urinate on herself? What if he LIKES that?
Of do you just counsel meek submission?
Deanimator
Member
Maybe he doesn't have any fantasies about being able to snatch guns out of assailant's hands like a Sinanju monk from a Remo Williams novel.
ares338
Member
This seems fairly easy to me. Having a gun means NOT having to live in fear. Fear and being aware of your surroundings are totally different things.
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
We use or are given access to safety features every day that do not put us into fear. So why should carrying a gun.
You wear a seat belt?
You have air bags in your vehicle?
Fire extinguisher in your home or work place?
Have a phone on which you can call 911?
Carry a pocket knife?
Wear a life preserver in a boat?
Notice the emergency exits in places of business?
So your whole self defense plan is a firearm? That is hardly a plan backed by a winning mindset.
Several mass shootings have been stopped by people without guns.
Several active shooters, robbers, etc. have been stopped by unarmed people.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/24/teacher-tackles-suspected-gunman-school-shooting/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurston_High_School
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/07/06/shooting-spree-sets-off-s_n_55255.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5463260&page=1
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/31/us/2-killed-in-shopping-mall-as-woman-fires-on-crowd.html
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/gunman-tackled-by-customers-at-limerick-city-pub-352516.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/03/kaleb-eulls-local-footbal_n_276388.html
http://nypost.com/2009/06/10/school-official-who-tackled-gunman-lauded/
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/article_628459b1-d0cb-5d51-ab3c-aa54db54d96f.html
http://edition.cnn.com/US/9510/sniper/am/index.html
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904045,00.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-baltimore-shooting-idUSBRE87S16D20120829
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130116/NEWS/301160322/-1/SITEMAP
A firearm is but a single tool you should have as part of your defense plans. Considering yourself defenseless without a firearm is the first administrative step to being a victim.
You wear a seat belt?
You have air bags in your vehicle?
Fire extinguisher in your home or work place?
Have a phone on which you can call 911?
Carry a pocket knife?
Wear a life preserver in a boat?
Notice the emergency exits in places of business?
So your whole self defense plan is a firearm? That is hardly a plan backed by a winning mindset.
Several mass shootings have been stopped by people without guns.
Several active shooters, robbers, etc. have been stopped by unarmed people.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/24/teacher-tackles-suspected-gunman-school-shooting/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurston_High_School
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/07/06/shooting-spree-sets-off-s_n_55255.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5463260&page=1
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/31/us/2-killed-in-shopping-mall-as-woman-fires-on-crowd.html
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/gunman-tackled-by-customers-at-limerick-city-pub-352516.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/03/kaleb-eulls-local-footbal_n_276388.html
http://nypost.com/2009/06/10/school-official-who-tackled-gunman-lauded/
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/article_628459b1-d0cb-5d51-ab3c-aa54db54d96f.html
http://edition.cnn.com/US/9510/sniper/am/index.html
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904045,00.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-baltimore-shooting-idUSBRE87S16D20120829
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130116/NEWS/301160322/-1/SITEMAP
A firearm is but a single tool you should have as part of your defense plans. Considering yourself defenseless without a firearm is the first administrative step to being a victim.
OC-Trainer
Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2014
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- 567
Edit: Nevermind, Double Naught Spy summed it up perfectly. See above.
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Deanimator
Member
The majority of my self-defense plans against deadly force either involve a firearm or doing things which would enable me to get to a firearm.
I'm an almost 60 year old, 5' 7 1/2" man. I have no illusions that I'm Sonny Chiba.
In Ohio because of preemption, it's legally safer to carry a registered machine pistol than a knife useful for self-defense. There's no firearm law here below the state level. Any little podunk town can have any knife laws it wants. And that's assuming that I plan to knife fight with people. That's pretty much a guarantee of getting cut.
Can I hurt somebody badly, barehanded? Sure. I wouldn't hesitate to give an assailant a shuto uchi to the windpipe or stick my thumbs into his eye sockets up to my elbows. Would that be my FIRST choice with somebody who's 6'2" and 250lb.s and a veteran of the prison weight room, or a mob of people trying to pull me out of my car when I'm blocked in? Nope.
I avoid stupid people, places and activities. If you attempt to harm me, it's because you WANT to and went way out of your way to do so.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Someone being rude isn't an "assailant".
Sam1911
Moderator Emeritus
Let's give the original poster some time to return and read all that's been posted. Then if he's still got questions or wants more analysis of his psychology, he can request this to be reopened.
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