… if it’s handy when you need it.

If you need to hang a picture, you need a hammer for the nail. If that hammer is in your hand, things work out nicely. If you have to go to the toolbox, that’s not as handy, but hanging a picture isn’t that critical so it’s not a big deal to go and get the hammer. But if you have no hammer and have to go to the store to buy one, well… again, not critical but just growing inconvenience.

If you get a cut and start bleeding, if you have a first aid kit with you, you can get right to business of stopping the bleeding. If you have to go back to the car or rummage through the medicine chest, well… again it may not be horrible, but blood is flowing and time is a bit more critical. Certainly having no first aid kit and having to now go to the store to get one isn’t going to bode well. If it’s bad enough, you could dial 911 for an ambulance, but even that will take time for EMTs to arrive.

Then… there are the people that refuse to carry their gun. They feel it’s sufficient to just carry their gun in their car, or to just have the gun at home.

But what if you need it now, and you’re not immediately in one of those places?

For example, many violent crimes, like muggings, happen when people are going to or from their car. Like in the parking lot going to the store, or coming out of the store, on the sidewalk, to the parking garage, on the way to the car. Point being, if the gun is in the car — and you are not — what good is that gun going to do you?

Then you have cases like this: (h/t Fark)

In the incident Sunday night at 9051 Wooten Road, Raymond and Barbara Ewing said they arrived home to find a gold Chevrolet Blazer backed up in their front yard. Their front door was open and an air conditioner was missing from a bedroom window.

Mr. Ewing said he entered the front door and found two white males trying to leave out of the back door. He yelled that he had a gun and for them to get down on their knees. They complied.

Now, we can debate if it was wise to enter the house (is it worth dying for? it may have been for the Ewing’s), but that’s not my focus here. My point here is Raymond Ewing had his gun with him. If the gun was in the house, what would have happened? What could he have done? He needed a useful tool appropriate for the situation, and since it was readily available it was far more useful than if it was stored in the safe in the house.

To paraphrase Tom Givens: carry your damn gun, people!