What Made You Decide To Carry?

First year crim law.

Well I live in Maryland and can only dream of have the right to carry.

Sheriff Warren Rupf, of Contra Costa County, CA. He only issues CCW to his buddies and contributors.
As soon as I left that state, I decided I would carry every day, just because I could.

My first real career job was selling cable TV when it first came to town in Ft. Wayne, Indiana in 1979. I was 26 at the time. Not a bad place but there were some pretty sketchy areas. I was carrying cash and it just made sense. I bought a brand-new Colt Combat Commander .45 in satin nickle. Shot several hundred out of it, replaced the grips with Pachmayer wrap-arounds and the flat mainspring housing. Bought a Jackass shoulder rig, and boy was that comfy. It did have to wear larger shirts in the summer when I carried the pancake. I still carry to this day, and thank God I've never had to use it. But, I am 6' tall and about 250.

A peculiar road rage incident spurred me to change. Although I had been an avid shooter for over four decades, I had not carried a weapon on my person in years. I got my CHL within a few weeks after the incident.
Jack

I was boxed in at a gas station when two guys decided to shoot it out. I used my body to shield my daughter. After that day I have carried, and legally done so since KS got CCW.

Bad dreams.

The birth of my first child. I realized that it was my responsibility to do everything in my power to protect him. Carrying a gun is only one of the ways I do that, but it is an important one.

I got married...

Pure and simple, I wanted to know that I had the ability to look out for my family in an unpredictable world, like any responsible husband/parent should.

It also helped that we moved into a part of town affectionately referred to as "felony flats". We also recently had a break-in in our apt. complex with an attempted sexual assault. Thankfully the woman managed to get away without any serious injury and the guy was arrested a couple hours later, but when our neighbor told us about the incident, my wife's first words to me were, "Alright, alright, you can get a gun." She had already said I could, she just wasn't completely convinced yet of the idea. Now she is.

ETA: I don't carry yet. Saving up for a j-frame, and will get the permit when I can afford something to carry. I've taken the class though. It's only a matter of time.

I started carrying at 18 (legal in SD) more as a hobby then as a need. I would only use a full size 1911 45 or a large revolver. I only really carried when it was convenient. In 2000 I started working for the DOC, and in 2001 I took a part time gig as a 911 dispatcher. Those to jobs showed two important truths. It takes less then 25 seconds to beat someone to death, and in an emergency most people who dial 911 can't even tell the operator were they are. I embraced some smaller guns and now carry whenever possible.

My g/f's dad had his ccw for a few years when I met him, but as soon as me and my g/f turned 21 we took the class. Mostly because we like to shoot at the range for sport, but a few months ago a guy was murdered right in front of my old apartment which I now live only a few hundred yards from. At that point I decided as long as I wasn't heading to school I would be armed and have kept that promise so far.

1. God said I could (no, seriously.)
2. I became a father and 30+ yrs later, a grandfather.
3. I became mostly crippled with arthritis in my hips and knees and can barely walk, so while all the martial arts I learned while younger help with my mental state, calmness, awareness, readiness and thought process, I still can't get out of my own way now, much less run or fight unarmed... but I care very deeply for my wife, children and grandchild
4. my state finally pulled it's head out of it's butt and passed a "shall issue" law. (so, now my carrying is statutorally (sp?) legal, thank you...)
5. bad guys keep getting badder. when I was a kid in high school, we fought with our fists, nothing else.
6. I want to.
7. some are sheep, some are sheepdogs - Confront the Wolf.
and finally, I believe the Constitution of the United States as written was perfect, meant what it said, and is not a changing, living document.

I started to carry because I have a Wife a Son and two Daughters that I want to protect. Now I also have a 3 month old Grandson to add to the list. I never leave the house without it. It's just like the old seat belt commerial. "It's not just a good ideal, it's the Law".

I've never been terribly strong, and as I am now in my late 50's, it's obvious I need to keep a weapon nearby for protection. My wife and I live in a very rural area with no available help if someone decides to cause us trouble.

You provide an excuse for me to re-submit my first post.

I am one of those frosty haired folks that you have seen in gun stores asking newbie type questions.

I am in my mid-60s. I carried a Walther PP in Thailand during my early 30s, but I had little practice and almost no training other than what I read in the gun mags and what a few friends passed on, -- both the good and the bad. Although I continued to like guns, I was not involved with them after leaving Southeast Asia. No particular event that I am aware of caused the renewal of my interest other than the fact that I realized that I was becoming increasingly aware that I was former martial artist rather than an active martial artist. Perhaps thoughts of 9-11 were percolating in the back of my head. I visited a few gun stores and left fliers advertising CCW classes lying around the house.

My wife was, until a couple of years ago, a hoplophobe; but I work in Detroit. After a particularly murderous weekend there, during a particularly murderous month, she decided that, despite her fear of guns, she wanted me to carry. She also decided to join me in the CCW class because she believes that we should do whatever we can together. The required range time almost totally stressed her out.

She will tell you that her change of mind was a result of 9-11, but I think something else was a significant factor. A couple of months later, in peaceful a suburban park near a police station, a maniac rushed at her with a club. Before he struck, he saw me coming to her defense and backed off. No one was hurt, but she then understood that danger can come at any time and anyplace.

After taking the class but before that attack, we had visited gun stores shopping around for what we wanted. We felt no sense of urgency. She still feared guns and I had to hold her wrist and insert each gun into her hand before she would even hold it. Of course, the male salesmen suggested revolvers and mouse guns. They all seemed to agree that she should not consider anything more powerful than 9 mm.

Finally, on a business trip to Tennessee, upon hearing that she was gun shopping, a contact took her to a private shooting range where he and some others let her try a variety of hand guns and long guns. She discovered that she was no longer afraid to shoot anything, and she fell in love with a .40 cal Glock 23. Now she has and carries her own.

A follow-up to this came early last year when she was interviewing for a new job. She was told the job was stressful and was asked what she did to relieve stress. She answered that she liked to walk the dog and read; but when she was severely stressed, she liked to go to the shooting range and practice. To her, now, the range is a place of Zen-like calm and tranquility. Yes she got the job, and now she manages to work lessons about guns and shooting into frequent business presentations.

I decided to carry when I showed up to school one day, and on every door there was basically a wanted poster. Some Ethiopian student had made a threat against the school, and also happened to have 2 AK's. I never expect to have to use it, but that helped to build my personal philosophy that more decent, capable people should carry, not for themselves, but for the general good. Now, I would say that 5% or more of the students carry.

Seems like we have some of the same reasons and maybe some different ones from the rest of you.

The wife carries much more stringently than I. She is always armed. Maybe even excessively at times. She is the one with a .44, rifle and 12 ga. on her side of the bed. She is the one I had to talk out of carrying a .44. She was the one who was raped and left naked to die in a Colorado blizzard. I'm very careful to make sure she knows its me when I come home late at night. After almost 30 years she still doesn't sleep well at times. One of the reasons I think rape is a capital crime.

I carry a scar on my chin from being cut with a balisong after a robbery in the Philippines while in the Navy. The scar was a reminder to carry more money next time. My buddy, who was more defiant than I, got the same scar in addition to being stripped of everything. Clothes, skivvies, socks, shoes, wallet, watch and wedding ring. I lost about 30 pesos and got six stitches. The exchange rate at the time was 35 pesos to the dollar. For some perspective, 30 pesos would buy you 30 bottles of San Miguel at the VP Alley bar on Gordon Avenue. Circa 1976.

I also had a robery attempt made on me in Inglewood, CA. I was leaving my work site at about 2AM when a local goblin stuck a starter pistol in my face and demanded money. I kicked him so hard it hurt my whole leg. I limped around for a week afterwards. It wasn't until he'd fled and I picked up the pistol I found out it was a starter pistol. When I rode my motorcycle across the street to the police station they weren't even interested in taking a report. They did confiscate the starter pistol and warn me about carrying a gun though.

I was raised that handguns are only for killing people and they were never allowed in the house. Handguns and carrying has never been an issue in our house. Not carrying sometimes can be a major issue.

cambeul41:
God Bless your wife, sir!

To go from hopolophobe to a 2A advocate who shoots for stress-relief is a real inspiration. If only I could get my wife to spend an afternoon with her.

my friend got stabbed 2 x and robbed of his paycheck

Because is is legal to do so, because I am too old to learn to fight a mall ninja. Because I respect life, mine and others. Because a rifle is too heavy to carry every place I go.

Regards, BSR

Bought my first handgun in 1960. Carried it open on the ranch, fishing, camping. Carried concealed illegally in some bad places (D.C. in the 1970's, what was I thinking?) Applied for a permit the day I could.

I got tired of throwing rocks at the bad guy's! By the way, a rock is what you call an un-loaded weapon!

The Dove

I was living in TX at the time. The first day TX would accept applications when they passed their concealed carry law, I turned mine in and was in the first class offered at the local range.

I was close to Manhattan when this happened and it was worse than what you saw on TV but I'm wondering, how would a gun protect you from what happened given the situation?

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9/11 was the main impetus behind me getting a CWP, although a bunch of other things would have eventually pushed me towards it later anyway like seeing the aftermath of Katrina, etc.

To answer your question, I would concede that a handgun isn't going to let me do much to prevent a 9/11 style attack. But after spending that day thinking for most it that one of my best friends from the Navy had been killed in the WTC (he got out in time thank God), I decided I was going to get the permit.

They won't do that kind of attack next time. And in any case, so what? I vowed the next day that just on the one in a gazillion chance that I'm driving to work and I see them getting ready to do something, I'm not going to just sit there and watch them do it, I'm going to do my best to stop it. It's a little tiny thing, but it is one concrete thing that I can do and that I will do. Just think of the difference it would make if only 1/4 of the population carried?! It wouldn't prevent every possible attack, no. But it would complicate the bad guy's planning terribly, and it would also I think put a real curb on criminal violence knowing there were a lot more privately armed citizens out there.

After I got the permit, I realized it was much more likely that if I ever used it, it would be to stop a criminal attack, not a terrorist attack. I got a lot more serious about carrying, and home defense, after seeing the chaos in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I carry now just in case I'll need it. I'm working on improving my situational awareness and I try to steer well clear of any trouble situations. But whether it's criminals or terrorists, I swore I wasn't going to just sit there helpless anymore if I could go about armed.

The question I'm asking is was there any one incident that made you decide to carry?

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I was robbed at work by two fellows while working graveyard shift in late winter '74.