This New Mexico writer needs to hear from you. He is a self-proclaimed black conservative who doesn't-much like guns or gun-carry laws (CCW or otherwise). He writes for the Albuquerque Tribune but he slams Arizona, as well as Tucson's Rick Batori who built "Desert Trails Gun Club" from the ground up out of a patch of tumbleweeds.
He says that hand to hand combat techniques (karate, judo) would work better, then notes (without irony) that Arizona's old folk are disproportionally more likely to have CCW permits. He makes other mistakes as well.
Be nice to him... but have at 'im.
Rick
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/opinions04/011504_opinions_gene.shtml
Albuquerque Tribune
Hidden gun just means your fear's out in open
Gene Grant
[email protected]
One of my more interesting touch points, as a member of the conservative persuasion, is the gun ownership issue - who has the right to bear arms and how the dogged determination to own a gun can affect so many other aspects of life.
I'm not a gun person - never have been, never will be - which obviously puts me at odds with some of my brethren. It's just a personal choice. But if you want to go out on the Rio Puerco and take pops at grape soda cans with your buddies or run around the woods in fatigues and play militia, it's all fine by me.
What I do have issues with is our state concealed-carry law. Big issues, in fact.
The net result of concealed-carry is that some innocent person will be smoked by someone because of fear, mistaken intent or whatever reason at some point. It's a lock. You can call, e-mail and scream all you want, but in every single concealed-carry community in this country, it's happened.
Why? Concealed-carry laws unleash the deadliest of all social ills - irrational fear and the opportunists who peddle it.
I have some bad news for anyone who thinks carrying a loaded shooter is a guarantee of keeping yourself in one piece. You've been watching too much television.
Ask anyone in the business of self-defense, and he or she will tell you the simple premise for keeping yourself alive. It's this: You have a much better chance of success in a bad situation with a basic knowledge of hand-to-hand combat training and no gun than you would with a gun and no training. This is completely counter, of course, to what concealed-carry fear-peddlers have successfully argued.
Yes, bad things sometimes happen. If you've never had your breath choked off, you should know you will freak in about 1,000 unexpected ways, and I'm telling you right now that shiny .45 in your purse or glove box might as well be a rock.
Whatever it is you've been led to believe about street crime, I assure you these criminals do not announce their intent from 50 yards away. You'll never get to release the safety - a tragic reality learned the hard way by too many concealed-carriers. I pray for everyone on both sides of that gun if the worst happens.
Perceptions about crime continue to lag behind what crime experts have long figured out about our society. Simply put, criminals pretty much jack other criminals, usually over drugs, and violent crimes against innocent people have been dropping for more than a decade. But not for the concealed-carry knee-knockers, for whom life is a perpetual state of siege.
To concealed-carriers, it's us vs. them, even if they can't tell you who "they" are. Well, I can tell you. In too many circumstances it's anyone who looks similar to me or anyone with a heritage not from the European continent.
I'm not expecting understanding here. I'm just telling you that, from my point of view, the likelihood of me taking one in the forehead from some freaked-out homemaker in a parking garage is a lot bigger than yours.
Oh, and did I mention that concealed-carriers who make a "boo-boo" usually walk?
I recently caught Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," a movie that set me straight back in my seat, mainly because of his dead-on take on race-based fear and how it colors, if you will, the nation's gun ownership lust. He got it exactly right. It's brilliant.
In yet another interesting wrinkle, gun industry watchers now report that seniors are more likely than any other age group to carry a weapon. In Arizona, statistics show more than 31,000 concealed-carriers between the ages of 50 and 69.
In Tucson, Desert Trails Gun Club owner Richard Batory says older people are "tired of being picked on by savages." Oh, how lovely. Never mind that crime on seniors has steadily dropped to low single-digits during the past 20 years.
People in some towns have given up. They have allowed concealed-carry advocates and their outrageous cousins who press for "must carry" laws to have their way. They've allowed a minority of people who have lost their sense of proportion to gain the political upper hand.
But they've profoundly missed the bigger point: Once fear takes root that deeply in your community, the bad guys have already won.
Grant is an Albuquerque business advocate and telecommunications consultant. His column runs on Thursdays.
He says that hand to hand combat techniques (karate, judo) would work better, then notes (without irony) that Arizona's old folk are disproportionally more likely to have CCW permits. He makes other mistakes as well.
Be nice to him... but have at 'im.
Rick
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/opinions04/011504_opinions_gene.shtml
Albuquerque Tribune
Hidden gun just means your fear's out in open
Gene Grant
[email protected]
One of my more interesting touch points, as a member of the conservative persuasion, is the gun ownership issue - who has the right to bear arms and how the dogged determination to own a gun can affect so many other aspects of life.
I'm not a gun person - never have been, never will be - which obviously puts me at odds with some of my brethren. It's just a personal choice. But if you want to go out on the Rio Puerco and take pops at grape soda cans with your buddies or run around the woods in fatigues and play militia, it's all fine by me.
What I do have issues with is our state concealed-carry law. Big issues, in fact.
The net result of concealed-carry is that some innocent person will be smoked by someone because of fear, mistaken intent or whatever reason at some point. It's a lock. You can call, e-mail and scream all you want, but in every single concealed-carry community in this country, it's happened.
Why? Concealed-carry laws unleash the deadliest of all social ills - irrational fear and the opportunists who peddle it.
I have some bad news for anyone who thinks carrying a loaded shooter is a guarantee of keeping yourself in one piece. You've been watching too much television.
Ask anyone in the business of self-defense, and he or she will tell you the simple premise for keeping yourself alive. It's this: You have a much better chance of success in a bad situation with a basic knowledge of hand-to-hand combat training and no gun than you would with a gun and no training. This is completely counter, of course, to what concealed-carry fear-peddlers have successfully argued.
Yes, bad things sometimes happen. If you've never had your breath choked off, you should know you will freak in about 1,000 unexpected ways, and I'm telling you right now that shiny .45 in your purse or glove box might as well be a rock.
Whatever it is you've been led to believe about street crime, I assure you these criminals do not announce their intent from 50 yards away. You'll never get to release the safety - a tragic reality learned the hard way by too many concealed-carriers. I pray for everyone on both sides of that gun if the worst happens.
Perceptions about crime continue to lag behind what crime experts have long figured out about our society. Simply put, criminals pretty much jack other criminals, usually over drugs, and violent crimes against innocent people have been dropping for more than a decade. But not for the concealed-carry knee-knockers, for whom life is a perpetual state of siege.
To concealed-carriers, it's us vs. them, even if they can't tell you who "they" are. Well, I can tell you. In too many circumstances it's anyone who looks similar to me or anyone with a heritage not from the European continent.
I'm not expecting understanding here. I'm just telling you that, from my point of view, the likelihood of me taking one in the forehead from some freaked-out homemaker in a parking garage is a lot bigger than yours.
Oh, and did I mention that concealed-carriers who make a "boo-boo" usually walk?
I recently caught Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," a movie that set me straight back in my seat, mainly because of his dead-on take on race-based fear and how it colors, if you will, the nation's gun ownership lust. He got it exactly right. It's brilliant.
In yet another interesting wrinkle, gun industry watchers now report that seniors are more likely than any other age group to carry a weapon. In Arizona, statistics show more than 31,000 concealed-carriers between the ages of 50 and 69.
In Tucson, Desert Trails Gun Club owner Richard Batory says older people are "tired of being picked on by savages." Oh, how lovely. Never mind that crime on seniors has steadily dropped to low single-digits during the past 20 years.
People in some towns have given up. They have allowed concealed-carry advocates and their outrageous cousins who press for "must carry" laws to have their way. They've allowed a minority of people who have lost their sense of proportion to gain the political upper hand.
But they've profoundly missed the bigger point: Once fear takes root that deeply in your community, the bad guys have already won.
Grant is an Albuquerque business advocate and telecommunications consultant. His column runs on Thursdays.
