I am a firm believer in concealed carry. If your state has a provision for carrying a weapon that is within your means to acquire you should do so. I am also a firm believer that if someone shoots you, they will have a gun 100% of the time. It’s science, like water and dinosaurs. If you don’t have the means to respond in kind, your survivability drops to somewhere in the range of a snowman in Florida.
I am fortunate to live in a state where permit to carry a weapon is easy to acquire for a law-abiding citizen. North Carolina has some restrictions on where you can carry, but I just avoid those places as much as possible. I love visiting Utah, because it is illegal for most places to prohibit you from carrying a gun. Many western states have similar laws, which is a major check for them in my relocation criteria when I leave NC. There is simply no way I would live somewhere I couldn’t carry. As we learned yet again this week, prohibiting carry is simply misdirected feel-good legislation. The harsh reality sets in for citizens of Chicago on a daily basis. In the only state with ZERO provision for carrying a weapon as a citizen, a 15-year old girl who had just performed at the Presidential Inauguration was shot on the streets by gang members. How could that be? Handgun carry is illegal! They must not have known. Allowing your citizens to be victimized and your population to be held hostage by crime is deplorable at best, and should be our most intolerable form of criminal negligence. Unfortunately, this is the norm for Chicago and countless other liberal strongholds in America. Knowing their intended victims are helpless empowers and emboldens criminals.
So you can’t carry. There are a number of reasons people who would otherwise love to be armed cannot. I understand the simple reality that people have to live in places like Illinois, Maryland, California, or DC. Not everyone can walk away from a career, or family obligations, or their own business to live somewhere that aligns with your personal beliefs on self defense. For these people, your answer here is not clearly defined. Carry a knife, a baton, mace, a rabbits foot…I dunno. For you I suggest a strict adherence to avoiding areas where crime is likely, and never letting your guard down. I also suggest doing everything in your power to support the repeal of laws that endanger you and your family.
So you can carry…then do it! I can’t count how many of my buddies are well trained Special Operations members, among the best gun fighters in the world, and for years have been saying “I really need to go get that carry permit…” Being too lazy to carry is also criminal in my mind. I bet the Saturday morning CHP class will not have seemed like such a burden in retrospect if you are figuring out how to treat your sucking chest wound in a Wal Mart parking lot, as some crackhead absconds with your groceries. Carry the biggest gun you can. If you can conceal a Glock 19 and you carry a J-Frame instead, get serious. Carry what’s easy to shoot, carry the most efficient gun you can. Carry everywhere you can, all the time. Don’t open carry if you can conceal. It’s not a statement, unless your statement is “shoot me first.” And practice, especially as you would carry. If you shoot one gun exclusively in training and carry another, you’re set up for failure when you can’t afford to fail. If you can’t draw from your AIWB holster of the month because you only shoot from a duty holster, I’m sure your funeral will be lovely.
I’m not going to give the advice to carry illegally. That would be illegal and I fully support adherence to the law. I’ll just leave this here…
Tags: Canipe
Right on. Common sense – bad guy has gun, citizen can’t carry one = empowering criminals to attack.
Personally I carry a good flashlight since I can’t carry anything else. It beats having nothing.
Hey, if you can’t carry a gun, then a good bright flashlight has a good chance of letting an attacker know that they might have fucked with the wrong person. If nothing else it can temporarily blind them and give you time to get off line and get away.
Great article.
Big boy rules.
Yup, time to move West and I don’t mean Valle Crucis. Thought it would be nice to find a ghost town out West and turn it into a tactical training center.
Time to get out of Dodge (the Triangle)!
if you really believed in “big boy rules” you would carry regardless of the law
“I’m not going to give the advice to carry illegally. That would be illegal and I fully support adherence to the law. I’ll just leave this here…”
you shouldn’t support adherence to the law. you should support people protecting themselves and their god-given rights regardless of what the law says.
That is so wrong on so many levels. Read again what Mr. Canipe wrote and think about it. If you carry illegaly, you do the same as a criminal you are trying to protect yourself from. If you don’t like the law, move elsewhere. Or try to legally change it – that’s what democracy is for.
I Don’t you will find People that are going to Openly admit that they carry illegally That would not be to bright
*********Doubt*************
OK, here are the relevant words “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” So if your local friendly Legislature has decided that your civil rights mean squat, change the Legislature to elected representatives that actually can read and understand what the U.S. Constitution states.
After all, would you put and keep the KKK in charge of things? At least they are open and honest about violating citizens’ civil rights.
I live in the DPRI [ Democratic Peoples Republic of Illinois], the extreme southern part of the state that is a different planet from the up north chicago area. I am a retired police officer and one of the few subjects who can carry. Receient developments with the federal courts has given the Illinois legislature 180 days to enact a carry law. Of course the democrat establishment is having a high speed come a part and looking to attempt to over turn the decision. IF all goes well the law abiding subjects [ and I use the word subjects intentionally] will have some legal means of carry.
Your sarcasm meter may need calibrating…
lol
I’m a gun owner and most of my weapons are of the “Black” kind. I’m also a “liberal “. Why do people try to group people as this vs that. Will I burst in flames because I am a gun supporter and a liberal. Your article may have a valid point but your pre-concevied idea that liberals cannot agree with the right to keep and bear arms ruined a decent post.
Can’t please em all…
As always Larry nails it.
Good article. I hate seeing people say they have a permit but they only carry once in a blue moon. They use their permit as a conversation item like a 15 year old that has their learners permit. I get in trouble with the gf because we rarely go anywhere that I cant carry my duty weapon. Recently she asked if I wanted to go to new york for her family reunion and then see Canada. I said hell no. I wouldnt spend a dime of my money in New York and Canada might crap their pants if I tried to bring an unloaded handgun into their country even as a cop. So I say invite the rest of the family to sunny FL.
Unfortunately there is a lot of paperwork and checks in the box in order for you to bring your pistol to Canada. We hate our laws too, but fortunately the current Canadian Government has slowly been eroding and getting rid of our gun control laws. First they got rid of the long-gun registry, and recently they killed excessive gun show laws. If it can happen in Canada, it can happen elsewhere. Don’t give up the fight.
-Alex from Alberta
I tell my wife the same, nope, ain’t going there if I can’t carry. She wanted to RV thru Canada to Alaska. We flew to AK and picked up the RV there. LOL
My boss authorized the flying armed for every leg of our air travel. Was covered under AK law, LEOSA and my Utah CCW.
She asks, where are we retiring to? Any place open or concealed carry is legal!