Is Armed Your Default Setting?

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Usually not. I work at a private university and they’re no carry. Locked in a vehicle is okay, but that makes me worry about break-ins too. Last summer we had a lot of catalytic converters cut out in broadcast daylight.

At home, we have young kids around, so carrying at home is hard when they’re home (playing with and carrying them don’t mix well with safe carry and they’re really distracting). We rarely go places and times where there is more than a minimal threat either. The big concern here are dogs, so I’ll often carry on walks.

It’s also about being in the right frame of mind. I carry most to really low threat places, mostly to get comfortable with it (read: quit picking at my holster and re-adjusting my shirt). I won’t carry if I’m too tired or rushed (note the young children mentioned above) because I know my decision making is impaired. It’s a trade-off, but everyone knows themselves and their situation better than the internet does.
 
I don’t really know how to answer. If I’m at work or working (as in manual labor) around the house I’m not armed. Working is how I spend most of my time, as a result, most of the time I don’t have a firearm on my person. If I am in public, I am armed but I try to avoid the public, to be honest I generally prefer the cows.
 
CapnMac said:
So, in terms of mindset, I am always armed. I may not always have a firearm. But, I'm armed.
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Exactly. Situational awareness is more important than the firearm. In fact, carrying a firearm could lead to false confidence, and a general letting down of one's guard.
 
AlexanderA said:
Exactly. Situational awareness is more important than the firearm. In fact, carrying a firearm could lead to false confidence, and a general letting down of one's guard.
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I agree that situational awareness is critical and try to practice it all the time. Perhaps your second statement is true for some, not for me. Someone smarter than me said that if there are places you wouldn't go unarmed, you probably shouldn't go there armed.
 
AlexanderA said:
If everybody is carrying, then carrying, yourself, offers no competitive advantage.
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Every construction trade has access to power tools. It could be argued that no contractor has a competitive advantage, because they all have tools.

So if you were a contractor, you would stick to hand tools, because power tools wouldn't give you a competitive advantage?
 
I carry every single day. I am fortunate to work at a job that doesn't have a no weapons policy, and live in a state where "Gun Free Zone" signs don't hold the power of law. I don't even have to worry about unarming if I happen to be eating somewhere that serves alcohol. It's strange how some states insist your life has less value if people around you are drinking.
 
Night Rider said:
Before I ask my question I want to clarify that I understand that such a thing as an NPE or a Gun-Free Zone exists. I understand that not everybody can be armed at all times and in all situations. I'm asking in general.

I was reading a discussion on another forum tonight and one of the posters stated that if he was out in public with his wife and she wanted to know if he was armed she would ask him "Is everything okay?" and that was their code.

I find that to be a very odd question.

This August I will have been married to my wife for 25 years. We dated for a year and a half, really we dated for 6 months and we were engaged for a year, before we were married. I was carrying a gun on our first date and she knew it.

In all the time that we've been together it has never occurred in my wife to ask me if I was armed. It has never occurred to my wife to think that I wouldn't be armed.

She knows the rules. She knows that unless I'm going someplace where I can't even legally secure a gun in my car. I don't leave my house unarmed Period.

So the question is as the title says is being armed your default setting? Is it normal for you to be armed? or is it abnormal for you to he armed. Is it enough out of the ordinary for your wife or significant other to ask because they don't know whether or not your armed in public?
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24/7 or 365 period.!.

IF it should happen that I must not CCW [ hospital treatment etc,then ] at the very least a real blade & Mace.
 
I carry when and where legal from the time I get dressed until it goes on the nightstand when I go to bed.

The doctor's nurse asked if I had a gun at home. I answered, no. What I didn't tell her was my wife was armed in the waiting room and I don't have a gun at home, I have lots of guns at home.
 
Night Rider said:
This August I will have been married to my wife for 25 years. We dated for a year and a half, really we dated for 6 months and we were engaged for a year, before we were married. I was carrying a gun on our first date and she knew it.
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Night Rider said:
Is it normal for you to be armed? or is it abnormal for you to he armed. Is it enough out of the ordinary for your wife or significant other to ask because they don't know whether or not your armed in public?
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Not only is it normal for both my wife and I to be armed in public, we obviously have a few years on you and your wife. For that matter, we've been married for going on 52 years, and we've each been carrying in public since the mid-90s (about 25 years).
The flip side is, at my wife's and my respective ages, visits to doctors' offices, medical clinics and hospitals are more frequent for us than they were 25 years ago. The fact is, I have an appointment with my Dermatologist tomorrow morning (just an annual checkup) and I know full well he's going to want me to pull my shirt off so that he can check me over for any new "suspicious looking" spots on my shoulders and back. So, when we get to the clinic tomorrow morning, my wife is probably going to remind me to remove my gun before we go inside. However, she'll go inside with me, and she'll still be carrying.
It was the same thing in reverse last week - my wife had an appointment with her Cardiologist, and we knew she would run an EKG on my wife. So, I reminded my wife to take her gun off before we went into the hospital - where the Cardiologist's office is located. I was still wearing my gun though.
At any rate, I hope the above information doesn't cause this thread to drift off in some argument about whether or not to leave a firearm in a motor vehicle, or where or where not "No Weapons" signs carry the force of law, or some other weird argument that won't make a darned bit of difference as to whether or not my wife and I are "normally armed" in public. We are, and we've been armed in public for so long it has become "normal" for us. So, we "normally" remind one another to remove our guns before we go into a place where carrying a firearm is either "not allowed" or illegal. :thumbup:
 
JohnKSa said:
There's a meme floating around out there somewhere. It shows a guy sitting on the exam table at the doctor's office and the doctor is filling out a form and asking him questions.

"Do you have a gun at home?"​

To which the guy replies:

"I have a gun in your office."​

I thought it sounded like...well, like something I would say. :D
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My response is, "Why? Are you setting me up for a burglary?"

Fallback: "What's your training and expertise in firearms? Isn't this malpractice on your part?"
 
My wife and kid had asked a few times when, despite their whispers, I was genuinely concerned our conversation could be overheard. In a private setting I relayed my concerns and informed both:
"If I have clothes on, there's a 99% likelihood I have a gun on me. If I'm outside the house, it's 100%. Never ask me again." Niether of them have.

Of course there are those very few occasions when I'm in a location that carrying is illegal (not to be confused with "frowned upon" or "we'd appreciate if you didn't")
I don't carry where it's illegal.
 
I was a teacher for many years so I was unarmed at work by legal proscription. That meant I had to leave my gun in my vehicle so I was only armed after work or on the weekends. Now that I’m retired my default is to be armed whenever I leave the house, which is increasingly less frequent post-Covid.

Even if I’m flying somewhere I usually carry on the way to the airport.
 
Don't carry around the house but available. No kids.
Always when out. She doesn't ask, she knows.
Retired so no workplace problem.
My doctors know I carry. I occasionally have to pull the sidearm and place on the counter top for an examination. No problems but they do ask questions sometimes out of curiosity. Maybe they figure I'm an Old Fart and fairly harmless :)
 
Yes and yes.

Wallet, phone, keys, knife, pistol. And each has a designated spot.

Wallet-R cargo, phone-L cargo, keys-L pocket, knife-R pocket. Pistol- iwb, strong side 3.
 
There are two reasons to carry --

1. Because of genuine need (in which case it may be time to re-examine one's lifestyle), and
2. Because of paranoia (in which case it may be time to seek therapy).
 
Night Rider said:
So the question is as the title says is being armed your default setting? Is it normal for you to be armed? or is it abnormal for you to he armed. Is it enough out of the ordinary for your wife or significant other to ask because they don't know whether or not your armed in public?
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Yes, going armed is my default setting.

I rarely go to places where I'm not allowed to carry by law. That said, if it's not flat out illegal then I'm carrying.

I say that because there are plenty of places which post "No Guns" signs, but if they're either not enforceable because they aren't posted in accordance with the state statutes OR if they don't carry the force of law in the first place, then I'm carrying.

On some occasions, my wife and I go places where firearms are not allowed though. Can't go to a school graduation for the kids armed, for example.

And if my wife asks me if I'm carrying, it's a rhetorical question.
 
AlexanderA said:
1. Because of genuine need (in which case it may be time to re-examine one's lifestyle)
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I typically enjoy your posts and agree more times than not, but I can't get on board with this. My lifestyle involves very little if any risky behavior. It does, however, require my being in public places amongst the public. If your belief is that public places are as safe as they've ever been, that's fine. I don't believe that to be true at all and would counter that there's only one reason not to carry-- because you fail to realize that this world is not an inherently safe space.
 
AlexanderA said:
There are two reasons to carry --

1. Because of genuine need (in which case it may be time to re-examine one's lifestyle), and
2. Because of paranoia (in which case it may be time to seek therapy).
Click to expand...

You don't keep any defensive firearms at all? Not in your car or home?
 
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