So why a gun? I think it’s just been a natural progression. While traditional emtpy-hand martial arts are nice, I can’t dodge a bullet. I can’t reach more than 3 feet in front of me. I can’t throw a rock at 3000 feet-per-second. My hands and feet just aren’t much of an equalizer to someone armed with merely a stick. Weapons always give you an advantage, and without one you’re at a disadvantage. So, there’s nothing wrong with a little cross-training in modern martial arts. And so again we come back to some great things about Texas, having concealed carry and also Castle Doctrine.
It was just a couple years ago that I actually started off thinking just about home defense, shotguns and the like. You see, while we live in a good neighborhood and have good neighbors that look out for each other, things still happen (no neighborhood is immune). You’ll have people breaking into cars at night. A few homes get broken into. Thing is, those things tend to happen in the middle of the day! Makes sense. At night, people are home and a burglary will be more difficult than during the day when they’re away at work and most everyone else in the neighborhood is too. But the thing is, we’re home all day. Wife and kids are home, schooling. I’m at home, telecommuting. I know my house has been cased numerous times over the years we’ve lived here. We have our alarm system but well, I know it’s only a mild deterrent. Call the police, call an ambulance, call for a pizza; see which arrives first. I recall in our first house our friend was taking care of the house for us, we forgot to give her the alarm code, the alarm went off and she waited for 30 minutes and the police never arrived. So if we’re home and someone opts to break in — a real possibility no matter where you live and how nice your neighborhood is — there’s no way we’re going to be victim.
Let me touch on something I mentioned: the police. I have nothing against them, but I know they are not here for my protection. To a degree they offer deterrence, but only when they are around (yet a day doesn’t go by without fark.com posting a story of some genius committing a crime right in front of a cop). There just aren’t enough cops to be everywhere to deter everything (and I’m not sure I’d want such a police state either). Furthermore, countless court rulings have made it clear that the police are under no legal obligation to protect you (if you don’t believe that, the truth is just a Google away). You also put a lot of faith in the 911 system. Back when I originally wrote this “why I’m a gun owner” in May 2008 I had read two stories in the news. In one story a store owner in Columbus, Ohio found someone that broke into his store. The store owner, having a CHL, held the burglar at gunpoint and called 911. Not only did it take at least 5 minutes for the police to arrive (and then the first on the scene was a retired deputy that happened to live by the store and heard the local alarm), but the 911 dispatcher was treating the store owner like HE was the criminal. In another story a college student in Madison, Wisconsin died from 911’s lack of response. Apparently the victim of a random crime, someone broke into her apartment, stabbed and beat her, she called 911 for help but not only did 911 not respond they apparently didn’t believe a crime was being committed. If you really want to believe that help will come, we can always try an experiment. You pick your way of wanting to call for help. I’ll give you a head start and let you start calling for help (dial 911 and give them all the details, yelling to those around you, whatever). While you wait for help to arrive I will hit you repeatedly with my fists until help arrives. While help may arrive, consider the damage you will take while you wait. And consider that it’s just my fists — what if I had a club? knife? gun? Not that I would really undertake this experiment, but consider the situation in your head. So if there’s no one around to protect you and even if they are they don’t have to, and even if they want to how long will it take for them to arrive, who is going to protect you and your loved ones? Only you.
It’s disgusting to me how modern society believes you should not fight back. That if someone wants your wallet, you should just give it to them. Who is to say they won’t also take my life along with my money? And I’m to just take it? So, what if instead of wallet I put sexuality. That is, rape. Are you supposed to just give it to them? just lie back and take it? Oh, then it’s ok to fight back? So if there’s apparently some line somewhere where it’s ok to fight back and where it’s not, please tell me just where is that line and what justification you have for drawing it there. For me, if you try to take something of mine that I don’t want to give you, I’m not going to be happy with you and will somehow fight you for it. It might be a fight of words, or maybe using lawyers, or maybe my fists. But I fail to see why I should just lie back and take it. If that’s the way you want to be with things, then please just hand over all your money to me now. No I’m not mugging you, but if you see no reason to fight back then you might as well just give up now.
So coming back to the guns, it’s about fighting back. It’s about deterrence. DC v. Heller and Texas’s Castle Doctrine codifies in the law what God has granted to us: that we are able to defend ourselves when we have reason to believe our lives and property are in danger. If you know there’s a 12 gauge on the other side of that door, are you going to break it down? I would reason most criminals would move along looking for the easier target. So, I would say that I carry a gun not because I want to use it, but because I hope by carrying it I won’t be in a position where I’d have to (Syd sums it up well). Which brings me to concealed carry. While I still believe shotguns and rifles are good for home defense use, I believe that a concealed handgun will provide me with the most options. The main reason? I can always have it with me. What good is something if you don’t have it when you need it? What about the Boy Scout motto to “Be Prepared”? That’s what this all comes out of. I may not have earned my Eagle Scout (got to Life rank), but the teachings of Scouting are very much a part of me.
I also think that carrying a gun forces me to live to an even higher standard. To obtain a CHL in Texas there are a lot of strict laws to follow: you must be able to legally purchase a gun (and all the legal that brings to the table); can’t have felonies or even misdemeanors on your record, even pending criminal charges; no chemical or alcohol dependencies; must be of sound mind; no restraining orders; not default in your taxes or child support or student loans; must have a background check, fingerprints taken and checked against the FBI database. Furthermore you must attend a class that spends most of it’s time talking about ways to resolve issues without violence, ensures you are familiar with the law, and pass a shooting proficiency test. So to first obtain a license you’ve got to be a very well-behaved member of society. Now if you want to keep your CHL, not only do you have to renew every 5 years and thus must continue to adhere to the original guidelines, but if anything happens to you (e.g. you receive a DUI) your CHL is revoked and you won’t be eligible to reapply for many years. You’ve got a great incentive to carry yourself at a higher standard than the rest of the citizenry, if you want to keep your CHL. So basically, CHL holders are a cut above your average citizen, both originally and must continue to be to remain a CHL holder. So, personal responsibility gets taken even further.
The one thing that I didn’t intend to come out of this was something political.
Stuff From Hsoi 