My thinking is neither youthful or inexperienced.
No need to defend your point, just make it. Truth stands on it's own. It is self evident. No amount of age or experience is needed to prop it up.
Old grey bulls need not snort and claim to be old grey bulls. They already are.
Old salts need not get new tats to show they are old salts. They already are.
Second, they (the car club) had a right to be there, they were all just hanging out.
A
right to be there? On somebody else's property? I would object to that if I were that parking lot's owner. Nobody has a right to invite bloodshed onto my property, not even the Prezedant of Suth'rn Dreamz Car Club. Of course, I'm assuming the club president was not the parking lot owner, and I could be wrong........ Could we clarify that? Until that remote possibility is clarified, the percentages are against it. I dare say that if the parking lot owner had called the police to report these trespassers hanging out on his property inviting bloodshed, then the police would have responded. The car club members would have been removed, voluntarily or against their will. Of course the owner was not aware of this, was he?
Third thing is you never run out on a friend. You start that, and the next time your friends might run out on you. With a CCW permit comes responsibility. Friends stand together.
Friends don't place friends in precarious legal positions of life, limb and litigation. If they do, they are not friends. This was not a platoon of Marines in Tikrit. This was a bunch of young men in a car club, in a parking lot.
Did the car club had some sworn oath to each other as members to go back to back and defend each other to the death if trouble came calling? If that was the expectation of the club's president of his members, then perhaps the membership isn't worth it. A Toyota with a loud muffler, sick stereo and a stupid paint job is not worth that kind of loyalty. Neither are ten of these automobiles that travel to car shows together a few times each year. There are some things worth fighting for. The right to hang out on somebody else's property talking cars and women and trash because you have nothing better to do hardly qualifies. Yeah, I did that about thirty years ago. I thought it was worthwhile. I thought those buddies were worth it. Then I shipped overseas and when I returned years later I saw just how small it was. It damned sure wasn't worth my life. Maybe you think it's worth your life, who am I to argue that? Not everyone is going to agree when you say it is worth their life.
A CCW permit does come with responsibility. The first responsibility is to behave in a legal fashion. Do not invite trouble. Stay out of trouble. Avoid having to use your gun. This is not fear or cowardice. This is maturity and common sense. This is a CLUE; a Clear Lucid Understanding of Everything.
If you ever do have to use your gun, you can expect to lose it, and wait several months for a grand jury to convene and determine whether you will be prosecuted. The police on the scene do not determine that. The DA and a grand jury do. Meanwhile, you are raising money for a legal defense. Place your home in hock, sell off your souped up Toyota and get ready. If you can't afford your own attorney, you begin to wonder about the case load and ability the public defender who will represent you. You lose your job, since you can't split the time between Auto Zone and the jail you wait in. Your "friend" abandons you. He is protecting his own skin with testimony that may implicate you in something you did not participate in or could have avoided simply by leaving. So do your other friends. People talk about you behind your back in whispers. While you await the grand jury, the press runs you down publically. If it is a mixed race shooting, race baiters get involved, and your reputation is destroyed. You are never vindicated. At best, the DA and grand jury will simply find there is not sufficient evidence to prosecute. Gun forums anonymously celebrate your hollow victory while Ihop turns you down as a pancake flipper.
Meanwhile, all CCW holders have to take on the image that you have imposed on them. We are all seen as stubborn car club members who will simply not leave when trouble calls ahead by 20 minutes. Yeah, a CCW does carry responsibility. Responsibility to yourself, your family, and perhaps others who have chosen to take on the responsibility expected of a person given the legal right to carry concealed. I agree all of us should have that right, but it is regulated by the state. It will never be recognized as a right that should not be infringed in any way if people who are deemed responsible enough by the state to exercise it act in this fashion.
...or do you guys just love to argue about BS?
