Just got asked "The Question" yesterday

[Sage of Seattle]

Hello,

I've read a lot on THR about how to respond when someone asks you why you carry and/or related questions.

Yesterday, I was talking with an attorney on a somewhat unrelated topic when the subject of having a CPL came up.

Attorney: So why do you need to have a CPL, anyway?
Me: Uh, what?
Attorney: Why do you even need one of those things?
Me: You mean why do I need a concealed pistol permit? Well, I believe very strongly in the concepts of self-defense, and I...
Attorney: *snorts in laughter* So how old are you anyway?
Me: I'm 35. I've had a CPL for fourteen years and...
Attorney: Ah. Well, sorry, I can't help you out... blah blah

As you can see, I was caught completely off guard by the question. But I must say, now that I was actually confronted by a stranger on this, I was quite insulted. I started thinking that it's the same thing as being questioned on any other of my civil rights. "Why do you need privacy? What do you have to hide" and other BS like that.

Ah, well. I just had to vent a bit, so thanks for reading.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Why do you need to wear that seatbelt? Expecting an accident?

I was asked nearly the same thing one afternoon at my shop. It was near closing time, hot and muggy, so I took off my cover shirt and went to wash my hands before locking up. A well known customer came in and saw my sidearm, and asked "Why do you have that on? Do you feel threatened?"

I responded: "I wear it for the same reason I wear my seatbelt", and left it at that. I think I saw a lightbulb come on, but you can't ever be sure.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Attorney?

Why?

That's so you'll have a live client.

I can't very well pay for an attorney's services if I'm dead, now, can I?

 

[obxned]

So I guess if you use your seat belt and pay for fire insurance on your home you are an arsonist who will probably crash his car on the way to set a fire.

 

[skinnyguy]

I have life insurance, but I don't plan on dying. I carry this to make sure that some creep doesn't change my plans. What do you carry?

 

[Valkman]

Someone asked me that in Vegas one time when my friend's wife outed me - she was drunk. I said "Why would you NOT carry", echoed by my friend. The list of beatings, rape and murder is unbelieveable every day! Yesterday someone did a home invasion in a apartment, help the people all night and made them go to the bank in the am. I'm not going down like that.

 

[10 Ring Tao]

Don't answer 'the question'. That implies a defensive posture.

Just ask a question right back.

Without flinching, I always ask why they wear their seatbelt, and why there is a fire extinguisher in their house or office.

 

[Zundfolge]

Attorney: So why do you need to have a CPL, anyway?

My response: Because if I carry my pistol without it that would be illegal

Attorney: Ah. Well, sorry, I can't help you out... blah blah

So is he refusing to do business with you because you have a CHL?

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Insurance

After some thought, it occurs to me that this attorney probably carries insurance on his car, his home, and his practice.

I wonder why he would insure his practice?

What's up with that?

Is he PLANNING to do something wrong?

I mean, if you're any good as an attorney, why do you neeeeed insurance, anyway?

 

[TheFringe]

Sage, (assuming you and lawyer are both in Seattle)
did this ignoramus of an attorney conveniently forget the following incident which transpired last October on a downtown street ??
Please forward this Times article which will provide an answer to his/her question:

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsour...?slug=shooting10m&date=20061010&query=Culotti

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Man killed at Westlake had set fire at mom's home in '01

By Sara Jean Green

Seattle Times staff reporter

Related

Archive | Assault victim fatally shoots assailant outside Westlake Center

A 25-year-old man who was fatally shot while attacking a stranger Saturday at Westlake Plaza had previously served time in prison for setting fire to a day-care center his mother operated out of her Phinney Ridge home.

Daniel Culotti was shot shortly after 11 a.m. by a 52-year-old man he was assaulting in an unprovoked attack, according to Seattle police. The victim of the assault was carrying a handgun and had a concealed-weapons permit, police said.

In July 2001, Culotti had attacked his mother, Melinda Culotti, inside the family's former residence on Palatine Avenue North near Woodland Park Zoo. He later returned and doused the floors inside the house with gasoline, setting the house on fire.

Culotti's mother, several child-care providers and seven children escaped unharmed.

Culotti later pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and was sentenced to just under two years in prison.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Culotti served approximately nine months in prison before he was released in Oct. 2002 with time off for good behavior. But jail records show that he was arrested three times this year for violating the conditions of his release into the community.

Melinda Culotti said she only learned of her son's death Monday and declined to comment when reached at her home in upstate New York.

Seattle police continue to investigate Saturday's shooting, and their findings will be turned over the prosecutor's office to decide whether charges are warranted. While police would not speculate on whether the shooting of Culotti was self-defense - saying the term is a legal finding that will be determined by prosecutors - the account offered by a police spokeswoman supports that possibility.

According to Seattle police, a woman called 911 at 11:08 a.m. Saturday to report that a man was acting erratically, yelling at passers-by and randomly assaulting strangers near Boren Avenue and Pine Street. Officers sent to the scene couldn't find the caller, the man or any victims, police spokeswoman Debra Brown said.

Twenty-three minutes later, police dispatchers radioed that shots had been fired at Fifth Avenue and Pine Street, she said. Moments earlier, witnesses told police, a man in his 20s apparently attacked the 52-year-old man, punching and kicking him until he fell to the sidewalk. The older man pulled out a .357-caliber Ruger revolver and fired one round, striking the man in the abdomen.


The older man "was not winning the fight" - the other man "just starts attacking him, he's on the ground and a shot is fired," Brown said, describing witnesses' accounts.

"It happened pretty fast. Probably by the time anybody thought to intervene, it was already over."

The 52-year-old had a concealed-weapons license and was in legal possession of the handgun, Brown said. Police have not released the man's name because he was not booked into jail.

"He was very cooperative," she said, noting the man waited for officers to arrive and turned over his weapon; he was interviewed by police and later released.

According to a police report on the incident, officers took into evidence the handgun, one spent shell casing and five live rounds of ammunition.

The names of the 52-year-old man and three witnesses were redacted from the report.

Culotti, who was not carrying identification, later died at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. He was identified through fingerprint records.

His death has been ruled a homicide, according to James Apa, a spokesman for Public Health - Seattle & King County.

Though it will be up to King County prosecutors to decide, one local author who has written about Washington state's gun laws said the shooting appears to be a "textbook case of self-defense."

"This 52-year-old fellow was minding his own business, going through Westlake [Plaza] and this other guy jumps him, whacks him pretty good, gets him down on the ground and starts kicking him," said Dave Workman, author and senior editor for Gun Week, a national publication that reports on gun laws, regulatory changes and news from the firearms industry.

"Under those circumstances, the man on the ground was in fear of being severely beaten or beaten to death and so was justified in defending himself, including using lethal force."

According to state law, anyone who can legally possess a firearm also can apply for a concealed-weapons license. The law, however, typically restricts citizens from carrying guns onto school property and into jails and courthouses, bars or other places where alcohol is served, restricted areas in airports, and mental-health facilities.

State law not only allows people to defend themselves and their property from intruders in their homes but also from anyone who poses a threat of imminent bodily harm to themselves or others in any place they're legally allowed to be - whether it is a shopping mall, a grocery store or a city street.

Workman said that in determining whether a case fits the legal definition of self-defense, one must consider "the reasonable man doctrine" - that is, what any reasonable person would do under similar circumstances with the same amount of information.

In the past year or so, King County prosecutors have declined to file homicide charges in three cases in which self-defense was claimed, spokesman Dan Donohoe said.

He explained that from a legal standpoint, prosecutors must disprove a claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt for a jury to convict someone in such a case.

 

[CajunBass]

Attorney: So why do you need to have a CPL, anyway?

Why do you need to know?

 

[physics]

Attorney: So why do you need to have a CPL, anyway?

Why do you need to know?

Ummm... I think you should probably tell your lawyer this, but I could be wrong...

I say you ask him if he has a cell phone, and when he says yes tell him that you have more of a right to carry your gun than he his cell phone. There is no amendment to the constitution concerning mobile phones.

 

[xilch]

To quote Oleg, "Because carrying a whole Cop would be too heavy!"

http://www.olegvolk.net/gallery/technology/arms/whycarry3910.jpg.html

 

[Jim K]

I can hardly believe an attorney asked that. But one thing is sure, he wouldn't need to tell me he didn't want my business - I would tell him he wouldn't get it. And I would tell everyone I know that he asked me "inappropriate questions." Refuse to go into details and let them interpret that any way they want.

Jim

 

[The Unknown User]

Edit: Nevermind. That was kind of rude.

Don't worry about what people say. What the lawyer thinks is not important. I think you're overreacting a little bit.

 

[helpless]

Here

I love this answer. Thanks Oleg.

 

[Baba Louie]

Because I refuse to be a victim, I carry to protect my life should some ner-do-well illegally use lethal force or commit an act of criminal malfeasance against me or mine, which happens every day somewhere in America. Thank you for asking.
My question for you is: "As an attorney at law, how would you, using all the experience, knowledge and skills you have at hand, best prepare and present my defense should I need to do just that? Our relationship will be based on your response. So answer carefully and with great thought, please."

 

[roo_ster]

As I have a responsibility to provide for my wife and children, I take safety precautions such as seat belts, life insurance, and CCW very seriously.

 

[Titan6]

How about ''Are you crazy? Do you know how much gun crime there is out there on the streets? What kind of attorney are you anyway?''

When he starts in about the nonsesense about how your gun is 4 million times more likely to be used against you than to defend you ask him when was the last time he had heard of a CPL walking down the street having his own gun pulled on him.

 

[cambeul41]

This could be fun – but, as in everything, it is best to be prepared.

I have a document stored on my hard drive in which I play games with various answers to differently worded questions. For example:

Inquisitor: “Why do you need a gun.”

Gun owner: “I don’t need one.”

Inquisitor: “Why do you have a gun?”

Gun owner: “I like guns.”

Inquisitor: “Are you carrying a gun right now?”

Gun owner: “Are you wearing clean underwear?”

Inquisitor: “What are you? Some sort of Rambo?”

Gun owner: “Do you mean the book Rambo or the movie Rambo? You did read the book, didn’t you? Or are you one of the sort that just goes to movies rather than reads books? By the way, where is this line of questioning leading? Do you have a need to know or are you simply fantasizing about what you would do if you had a gun?”

And on and on.

 

[TennVOL]

My attorney expects me to have a gun on me and refuses to go out if I don't (not that I ever go out without one). Of course I'm married to my legal counsel

 

[JWarren]

He should talk to an attorney in the office that is next to my office in this sleepy little Southern town. About 2 months ago on a Sunday morning, he went to church, but left his wife home bacause she was not feeling well. He was gone a little over an hour.

He came back to see his front door ajar. Entering, he found his wife naked and tied his bed with blood running from her forehead. The would-be rapist fled out the back door when he heard someone pull up, and did not have a chance to rape his wife.

Investigations showed indication that the home had been cased, and the timing was planned. The would-be rapist has not been apprehended and there are no leads.

I suspect that BOTH of these persons are CCL holders now.


-- John

 

[PennsyPlinker]

I have been asked this question a few times, and the best answer I have (for initial shock value) is one my very young daughter gave to her younger sister when she asked why I was carrying a gun.

4 yr old: Why is daddy carrying a gun?

5 yr old: In case he needs to shoot someone!

This always works, because the obvious followup question is something along the lines of, "Why would you shoot someone?" Now the person is drawn into the discussion, rather than putting up a defense against any reasons I have been listing. Then I can go into the various aspects of crime, preparedness, etc. Seatbelts and fire extinguishers always come up, as do rape, robbery, etc.

That five year old just recently turned 21, recently obtained her own revolver, and will be packing as soon as she gets her permit.

 

[Srigs]

Sounds like you need a new attorney! And tell him so why you are dropping him.

Some very good replies by forum members. I like the reply about so you can have a live client!!!

Mine would be, "It is my responsibility to protect my family and this is one way I do so!"

 

[WeThePeople]

Don't do business with a lawyer who doesn't believe in the 2A; there are too many out there to choose from. Personally, I've used the "in case I need to shoot someone" and I usually get laughs and an end to the discussion. Of course, I don't know what impression they walk away with, but I know what impression I have of them!!!