Why did you start carrying?

[Page3]

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed".

From the time I was a young lad I've always loved guns, revolvers more than anything. Got my first 6 shot .22LR/MAG when I was a teenager. Carried it pretty much everywhere I went, then got a Ruger Blackhawk .357Mag, didn't carry the .22 much anymore. I've carried that Blackhawk so much had to re-blue the barrel twice. Then in the early 80's Got the Super Blackhawk. Don't carry the .357 much anymore - but that .44 is never far away. Got me that Browning 92B in .44Mag (with gold trigger) as a big brother to my Super Blackhawk. They make a good team. Both being close at all times.

I guess I carry cause 1st I like guns, and 2nd I CAN. We've always carried here even before there was such a thing as a permit. Here in Tenn my carry permit covers any firearm I want to carry, and it don't have to be concealed!

[malachi]

Habit. I've been a cop since April of 76, and I don't leave home without one.

[gfen]

Why did you start carrying?

For the halibut.

[mar450lin]

It is my duty to protect myself and family. A realist understands that there are low life predators out there.

Years ago I was traveling in VA and stopped at a rest area. I didn't normally carry concealed at the time. I tucked my pistol in the back of my waist, under my jacket, as I left my truck to go to the restroom. I saw two guys and a girl near the building and I got that funny "radar" feeling inside. I proceeded to the building and took care of my intended business while looking over my back.

When I exited the building I no longer saw them, but as I got to my truck the two guys came out of nowhere and were headed straight towards me from behind.

Before they got close to me, I slightly raised the back of my jacket and they did a 180 and I got in my truck. Close call!!

[X-RAY]

1) Always lover six-shooters.(Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger was "the man")
2)A good friend of mine was assulted one night at a 7-11 buy 3 perps. Spent the night in the E.R. with him while they patched and stiched him up. All a case of mistaken identity
3) And ,to quote one of our forum friends "A GUN IN THE HAND BEATS A COP ON THE PHONE.

[TheGunShack]

Never really gave it much thought before. Around here it just seems to be the thing to do. A firearm is a tool. It's like any other tool I carry. It has it's function just like say a hammer. Too, I guess I carry cause I like revolvers (SA Most) so much and because I CAN. We've always carried around here, even before the carry permits, but that's a good way for our state to make a few extra dollars & keep everything on an even keil. It wasn't to many years ago you saw more pickups with a firearm in the back window than you did without. We have so many people from "up North" moving in, that's not the case anymore.

[swmike]

I have been carrying (legally) since 1964. I was working in Seattle and was on the streets all night and into the early morning. Felt good to have something more effective than a stern look to defend myself with.

As time passed, I was asked by Uncle Sam to carry a weapon for him. When finished with that job, I just continued carrying. After 40+ years, my right index finger is always pointing like it is outside the trigger guard of my pistol even when just sitting and watching TV. (How many others find their trigger finger like this when the hand is relaxed?)

[Playboypenguin]

I carry for reasons just like the one my sister and I experience the other day. She wanted me to take her to one of thos GenX stores to buy some clothes. It is in a pretty seedy part of Portland (Powell and 82nd). While we were in the store three hispanic men went over, lowered my tailgate and sat on it. they then proceded to start drinking right there. i did the right thing and tried to call portland police but after 15 minutes on hold with the non-emergency line one of then proceded to get into the bed of my truck and sit down. I then had to go out and chase them off. I am not a small guy and I grew up fighting. I was sure I could take one of them man to man, maybe even two. However, fighting is not like in the movies where one guy takes on ten or so. In real life they do not wait their turn and a strong man will usually fall to superior numbers. I saw one of the toughest guys I ever knew in the ARMY get his clock cleaned by two much smaller guys simply because they outnumbered him. Luckily the fact I was bigger than them was enough to make them move on without any thing more than a few "lighten up holmes" remarks. But just in case I was glad I had a firearm on me (had my Tomcat in a breast pocket of my jacket since I have not been able to find a holster for my SP101).

[qwik]

nc state said i could, i always wondered why not carry

[GlocksRfun]

I don't because I can't...

[Ichiro]

I don't want to be robbed, car-jacked, or otherwise victimized.

Since I started carrying a gun, I now make sure my cell phone is on me all the time and fully charged, and I carry a seriously bright flashlight and pepper spray as well. I also lock my car doors as soon as I get in the car, leave space in front of me at red lights, and am absolutely intolerant of people breaching my personal space. I am the first one to cross the street if the guy, guys, or unleashed dog ahead of me on the sidewalk seems a little odd.

Carrying a gun has made me a much more careful person. If I ever have to use it, I want to know that the perp has purposefully gone through several layers of protection and warning to get to me.

~Ichiro

[walt65]

Our carry rights in Michigan were eased a few years back. I always was bothered by the "good old boy" principal that allowed some to carry and others not to. I also doubted ex-police officers were better, more trust worthy citizens than I am. And I thought my life and my famlie's saftey were as important as a doctor's life. Additionaly, Macomb became a right to carry county where Oakland county was nearly impossible to get a concealed pistol permit. Violent crimes in Macomb County fell and it got too obvious to the citizens of Michigan that the false arguments anti-carry groups were espousing had as many holes in them as Swiss Cheese. Tennessee and Flordia became right to carry states and violent crime went down their too.

I was first in line at the Oakland County Sherrif"s office to apply for my concealed pistol permitt the first day it was possible. I've been carrying since, not every day, but when I feel the need, my mind is at rest because I'm prepared for any problem that could arise. My wife likes the fact I'm armed ,as well. Especially when we travel or go somewhere she feels uncomfortable going.

There are still a lot of rediculous restrictions put on us in Michigan, but it is better than it used to be. All we can do now is try to get these restrictions further reduced as it becomes evident an armed public isn't an invitation for the Old West to reoccure, but rather, violent crimes, espically against women, have fallen and continue to do so.

In short, I carry because I want to and I can.

[ppiglett]

For myself as a woman, I started to carry because I refuse to be a victim. It's like having an airbag in your vehicle. You may never need it, but in a crash, its sure nice to have and could very well save my life. Because it may tip the balance someday between life and death for some innocent person, myself or another. Because someday it might be you (not you, because ya'll here carry ha ha), or your loved one, who's being held up in a convenience store as I walk in...and if so, I need to be able to react to save my life and their's. Because I refuse to hand over my life to some bad guy who doesnt value my life as much as I do. Because the police cannot be everywhere at all times. And last but not least, I will carry for those who dont or wont.

[garryc]

Years ago I was traveling in VA and stopped at a rest area. I didn't normally carry concealed at the time. I tucked my pistol in the back of my waist, under my jacket

If you got caught doing that in ohio you would go to jail!!

[Smoke Screen]

Pretty much everyone else put the nail on the head. I will as soon as the class is over because

1) Dad was in undercover Enforcement

2) Step dad was attacked one time at a gas station, he had a gun and they all split, (it was unloaded but they didnt know that)

3) mom was spending the night alone, pregnant at a hotel on a big journey, and someone broke into her room at night. She didn't have a gun but screamed and the perp. ran back out the window. If she had a gun she said she would've shot him to the ground once he came in all the way through the window.

4) I have a family now, and I'll be damned if I let any harm befall them/me.

[Larry C.]

Howdy,

Here in Louisiana, where double-digit I.Q. thugs are distressingly common, I'm a seemingly popular target of opportunity while servicing my all-cash bulk vending route.
I'm a guy who's got a bag FULL of quarters and even MORE important I'm only being slightly tongue-in-cheek here!) I have lots of candy and gum! Don't under-estimate the appeal of candy/gum to dumb thugs! I've never been threatened, but armed robberies aren't uncommon in La! I've been carrying (legally of course) a Beretta 92FS for the last 6 months. I may soon get the new Beretta Storm in 9mm because it's lighter and has a shorter barrel.

Eggman

[chris in va]

Too much random crap going on. What, just the other day some older guy waltzed into a (Dennys?) and killed some people. The rest hid in the bathroom.

Or, how about the time my friend, her daughter and I were having ice cream outside a 7-Eleven on a balmy summer night, when two scurvy looking guys started talking to her while we were on the other side of the driveway. If they grabbed her, not much I could have done.

Scary stuff.

[Patriot45]

Because I have a wife and now two little boys...I'll be damned if I will let something happen to them that I could have prevented by having my pistol with me.

Also, until the government can put a cop on every street corner, the onus is on us to protect ourselves. That's the frustrating part...the Supreme Court has ruled time and time again that the police are NOT responsible to the INDIVIDUAL, they are responsible to the PUBLIC. They will come for a criminal insofar as that thug will affect the PUBLIC; but, if they don't come in time to save YOU, oh well...they are not liable! Yet, the government then puts limitations on HOW we can protect ourselves...will someone PLEASE tell me the logic???

-Patriot

[fiVe]

Two events that happened approximately 1 year apart--started me down the road to CCW.

1. Sept 11. Granted the Fla. panhandle is a long way from NYC, DC, & PA but it was a shocking and terrible day for the country, and I saw my own, personal vulnerability. That "seed" (as it was) germinated for approx. 1 year.

2. In the Fall of 2002, I came across the story of the Carr brothers and the Wichita Massacre. I can't begin to understand what the victims experienced. It was a senseless and gruesome tragedy. I mean no disrepect to the victims nor do I want to come across as insensitive (all I know about it is just what I read), but it seemed to me they were all too submissive to the thugs. Yes, the perps had guns while the victims did not. But, I have to think (and hope) that if I ever found myself in a similar situation, that I would put up some kind of fight or resistance. I don't mean to speak out of turn--their having no weapon(s) just compounded the tragedy. It was something the lone survivor said that caused me to "wake up" and do something. She said as she was lying on the floor while 1 of the brothers raped her, she turned her head and saw his pistol on the floor where he had placed it (right next to her head). She said it would've been so easy to just pick it up and shoot him, but she had no idea about how to do that. I thought that was beyond tragic and resolved right then to educate myself, my wife, and my boys, and to get my CWL and be as prepared as I can. I got the required training, had my fingerprints taken, paid the required fees, and received my Fla. CWL in April, 2003. I've haven't looked back or regretted doing it, particularly with the current world situation being what it is--porous borders, et al.

I work for the Federal Govt on a military base, so I cannot carry all the time, but when I can, I carry--for me and for my family. Stay safe.

Peace,
fiVe

[springmom]

...and the news reports are body counts. Home invasions, carjackings, murders, every single day. I got my Springfield XD-40 last summer, and took the CHL class the weekend before Katrina.

Since our, um, new neighbors have moved in after that, I have seen the crime in our area skyrocket (see the thread about Youngest Son's being attacked in January for one example). And I am glad every day that I got my CHL. I carry everywhere unless a business is posted with a 30.06 sign and it's a business I can't avoid going in.

I'd love to move back to an area where I don't feel like I need to be armed 24/7 but this is where we are, so this is what I do.

Springmom

[GSD]

Because it is more humane shooting them, than what I would do to them with my bare hands.

serious.

[Webleymkv]

How did you get so lucky? 18yrs. old, I wish

Move to Indiana.

[g_gunter]

I started carrying after a close family member got assaulted for a second time. The first time she fought off her attacker long enough until someone could come to her aide. The second time she and several others were rounded up in my parents store by Memphis thugs and robbed them at gunpoint. The thug put a pistol to the back of her head (execution style) by a convicted murderer. In both cases the bad guys were caught and no one was seriously hurt (a few cuts and bruises) but it could have easily gone bad, especially the second event.

After that and also after realizing at the time that home invasions were becoming a more & more popular form of violent crime I was determined that I was going to get my CCW and get trained in using my weapon, as well as, develop the skills and awareness needed to NOT be a victim. Ironically, I travel up to Memphis (Rangemaster) for my classes. I've got another one in June.

Finally, I began to realize that for most of my life I had taken the Second Amendment for granted and that if I did not do my part to fight for it then I would have only myself to blame if we were no longer allowed to defend ourselves (like has happened in other countries).

I will not be a sheep.

g_gunter

[ICE1210]

I carry because when I was a Rookie, my training officer was a former Marine who had seen combat in two wars. HE was a VERY large man, and a blunt one. When the subject of off duty carry came up, He told me that I'd rather explain to him why I had my gun when I was not supposed to than explain to him why I did not have it when I needed it. That was thirteen years ago, I've changed jobs and HE has long since retired..........I'm seldom without my gun even after all these years because HE may still be around!!!

[g_gunter]

Let me reword one of my sentences...

"The thug, a convicted murderer, put a pistol to the back of her head (execution style)."

g_gunter