Good Column on Carrying

YOU'RE FOOLISH NOT TO CARRY A GUN

I'm probably like a lot of people with handgun permits.

When there's a big crime, I carry my gun. When there isn't, I don't.

When I'm reminded of the unconscionable evil that rules in the hearts of criminals, I'm more prone to take the gun out of the drawer and carry it with me. When it's been a while and the headlines have cooled, I get lazy and leave it home.

I think that's natural.

It's also stupid. Because crime is rarely expected -- at least against people like you and me -- it is almost always random. It strikes like lightning, in some unpredictable way in places unexpected and unforeseen.

Certainly, drug dealers on the corner have a higher chance of being victims of violence. But you and I aren't drug dealers on the corner. We are law-abiding people living in relatively safe parts of town minding our own business. That makes it less likely that we will be targeted, but it does make what targeting there is more random and unpredictable. That means that when there are reports of horrendous crime against innocent people and families, we are absolutely right when we say that it could just as easily have been us.

The point: It could be you next time.

The message: Be prepared.

I think that the inability of the government through the criminal justice system to protect us from the crimes of others is a consistent and convincing proof of the wisdom of arming yourself. I believe that men and women both should seriously consider carrying a concealed gun. Where permits and licenses are required to do this, those permits and licenses should be obtained. Where people don't own handguns suitable for such self-defense carry, they should save up and buy them.

This is not alarmist. This is not extreme. This is common sense.

This may be the key to the survival of yourself or your family.

Reject the view of those who think you are incompetent to defend yourself. Those who say criminals take guns away from good people and then use them against them have no data whatsoever to support their position. Real experience tells just the opposite story -- that defensive use of a firearm almost always leads to the bad guy running away and the good guy being unharmed and unvictimized.

Overwhelmingly, defensive uses of a firearm don't involve a shot being fired. When the victim threatens that he has a gun, or produces the gun, the perpetrator runs away. That is the situation in the vast majority of cases -- possibly as many as two million a year in this country.

That means that you don't have to be a firearms expert to carry a pistol. While being proficient with your gun, and taking regular target practice, are very good things, you don't have to be a pistolero to point it at somebody and tell them to leave you alone. Likewise, you don't have to be a very good shot to point it at somebody and pull the trigger. It is, literally, point-and-shoot technology.

Besides, if you've gone out to the range -- or the back 40 -- once or twice you've probably had more practice than the average bad guy.

Some will see this encouragement to carry a gun as a sign of cowardice and weakness. Some will make Freudian compensation jokes. Let them laugh. The simple fact is that society is better and safer when a larger percentage of its members are armed. In America now, the crooks already are armed. Each one of them -- in violation of the law -- is carrying a gun which they hope to use in the commission of a crime. If more people carry guns, they will unavoidably be overwhelmingly law-abiding people and their guns are not a threat of crime they are a disincentive to crime. There is a war being waged on America's streets and in America's homes and it is ridiculous for one side -- the innocent side -- to be unarmed.

I believe every man and woman should work toward being in a situation that they can always, at a moment's notice, put their hand on a gun. That is not fear, that is strength. That is not paranoia, that is preparation. That is a reasonable reaction to the daily parade of crime stories from across the country.

If crime can reach out and touch you at any moment, isn't it prudent to be able to reach out and touch it back?

If home invasion, carjacking and other types of crime are common occurences -- and they are -- shouldn't we be ever ready to successfully repel a violent attack against us?

If you come home at night and somebody's waiting in your garage, if somebody creeps into your house in the night, if somebody grabs you as you're out for a run, if somebody tries to strong arm you out of your car or your purse, what's your play? What is your play to make sure you survive?

How will you defend your family against a criminal attack, and how will you explain to your family when you do nothing?

I have read too many crime reports, seen too much crime tape on the evening news, heard too many victim statements, watched too many funerals.

It can happen to you. It is nothing more than hiding your head in the sand to pretend that it can't.

And when it does -- when lives hang in the balance -- you must fight for your life, or you must run the very real risk of dying.

Choose to fight. Choose to be prepared to fight.

Choose to carry a gun.


- by Bob Lonsberry © 2007

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