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…
