HomePosts Tagged "why you should carry concealed"

The news offers two more examples of how trained civilians with firearms could have prevented bad things from happening. In Woolwich, London yesterday two insane individuals ran over a man and crushed him between their car and a sign. After that they jumped out of the car and started hacking and chopping him with meat cleavers and knives. This resulted in death and near decapitation for the wounded soldier.

I am struck by the thought that this could have been prevented if someone had been able to engage these two wackos before they were able to finish the job they started. It is also incredibly fortunate that these two psychopaths did not injure anyone else because the police did not appear for 20 minutes. Instead of doing anything about it a crowd of people gathered to watch these killers rant about Allah and record video on their cell phones. Pathetic.

The two were stopped when finally a police officer with a firearm appeared on the scene. The two men had an old “rusty” firearm of their own which they did shoot at the police officer which malfunctioned and blew the thumb off one of their hands.

killertimeline

Image courtesy of Daily Mail

What would you have done had this unfolded in the US where we can still carry firearms? Even though the potential of us loosing that right guaranteed by our Second Amendment is under threat everyday, good guys can and do prevent crimes like this all of the time. Had there been someone near these two men when the crime initially occurred that would have been able and willing to step up to the moment, this soldier may still be alive right now. Obviously, the wouldn’t have stopped a car, but the ensuing carnage that happened next may have been prevented.

The second reason comes from somewhere closer to home, but never the less still in an area where firearms are not allowed freely for the average citizen. In Queens, New York last month a man was apparently kidnapped right off the street by three men who pretended to be police officers. They flashed a badge and threw him into a van and drove him to a warehouse where they kept him for over a month. During this month, he was burned with acid, beaten, threatened with mutilation and death. For this month he was bound at the hands and masked.

This one is more complicated because the assailants were acting like police officers so your average person on the street would be less likely to step into that situation; however it is telling that we as society have become so accustomed to police driving up and throwing someone into the back of a car and speeding away, that nobody cares.

In an earlier post I established my belief that law abiding citizens have a duty to carry concealed weapons if they have any desire to stop bad things like this from happening. If more good people carried guns I believe incidents like this would decline. Statistics from the FBI show that violent crime rates have dropped for at least 5 years which runs counter to the argument that more guns equals more murders. The sales of firearm purchases have exploded in recent years so there may be some link that may be drawn between these two facts. The more people it seems to me that have guns, the less violent crime we see.

I do feel sorry for the families of these two tragedies and we hope for their peace and healing in the case of the soldier in London. We should use these two examples as yet another illustration where

  1. The police can’t protect you from bad things.
  2. Taking guns away from people doesn’t prevent murder.
  3. There are still plenty of evil people in the world.
  4. There is something that we can all do about it.

The police took twenty minutes to get to the scene with firearms to stop these two men. How horrific would it have needed to get for the crowd to attack them and bring them down? What if they had gone into a school heaven forbid?

These two didn’t have assault weapons or pressure cookers, yet they were able to kill a man and hold a crowd of sheep at bay for twenty minutes.

If you have been considering carrying a concealed weapon or even purchasing your own firearm for the first time here is my advice. First, consider if this is a responsibility that you will accept. Taking another’s life is not something that can be erased. You should weigh these options with a significant gravity. Carrying a gun isn’t like Jack Bauer on 24 and if you have to use it, you could die in the process or accidentally kill an innocent. If you believe you need a weapon for self-protection and are willing to use it then I would suggest you get trained, become very proficient with your firearm choice and carry concealed. You could be the person standing between a killer and an innocent life.

If you are already a concealed carry permit holder I hope this reinforces your resolve and determination to not only carry every where you can legally but mentally prepares you for a situation like this. I personally hope I am never faced with a choice like this but I do believe that if I were, I would do what I could to save a life. I hope if I were on the receiving end of an attack like this, one of you would too.


Other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

Healthy Soil + Healthy Plants = Healthy You

The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us

Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation

Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns

Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need

4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis

Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps

The news offers two more examples of how trained civilians with firearms could have prevented bad things from happening. In Woolwich, London yesterday two insane individuals ran over a man

To the concealed carry permit holder, you have a very important responsibility. The responsibility to carry a handgun is not one that you should take lightly, it is a key factor in deciding whether or not you or your family will be safe and at the same time whether or not you will take a life. Guarding your family and ending the life of a bad guy is not a choice you should make with the same amount of thought as to what you are going to watch on TV tonight. This should be something that you are clear in your mind of the reasons why, and the possible ramifications of your choices.

Why Carry Concealed?

There are a lot of reasons why an individual would choose to carry a concealed handgun but they almost all boil down to personal security or protection. Why else would you carry a firearm that is capable of killing someone unless you were prepared to use that amount of force to do just that? If you weren’t willing or able to pull the trigger, there would be no need to carry would there?

Carrying a concealed firearm should be done with the full intention that one day you may need to draw your weapon, point it at the threat and pull the trigger. If you don’t understand this basic fundamental and more importantly, are prepared to do just that, you should not be carrying concealed in the first place.

For me, the motivation behind carrying concealed was not because of a threat on me or my family. I had no out of the ordinary experiences in my past that made me fearful for my safety or the safety of my loved ones. I look at this from a practical standpoint. I think Wayne LaPierre summed it up nicely in response to the outcry over the Newton School shootings when he said, “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” I agree completely.

It wasn’t a school shooting that convinced me to carry either, but Wayne’s comment resonates perfectly with my own philosophy. As a legal carrier of firearms, it may come down to me standing in front of a “bad guy” with a gun. I don’t view this as a preordained destiny from God that I would be placed in any situation like this, but if I am, I want to make sure I am prepared. If I am in that situation, I will accept the responsibility of being the good guy who potentially stops the bad guy.

Obviously my family’s safety was first and foremost in my mind, but like school shootings, or church shootings or mall shootings, I believe that the more legal, responsible people we have with firearms, the safer everyone else would be if a bad guy got it in his head to harm people.

Never leave home without it.

I know a couple of people who have their concealed carry permits, but they never have their weapon on them. When I ask why, it is usually one of two responses. Either they laugh and say, “I don’t have to worry about anything here do I?” or that the firearm is bulky, doesn’t go with their outfit, not easily concealed, etc.

If you have a permit, you should carry your firearm everywhere you go. I have mine with me even sitting around the house in my sweatpants. Why? Because you will almost never foresee the time and place you will need it. Leave it at home one day and the church you are attending may be paid a visit by a lunatic who wants to meet God, really. Have that firearm in your bedroom and someone may kick down the door while you are watching American Idol. You never know, so it is your duty and obligation to carry your firearm with you at all times. How are you going to protect yourself or anyone else if your concealed carry is under the bed?

When should you use your weapon?

Carrying concealed, as I explained above, is not to be taken lightly. If you are carrying, you must think through the possibilities and potential threats, escalation and your actions.

Let’s say you are a woman and you are work evenings at a retail store. When you leave at night, you may have to go out into a dark parking lot or a dark alley. Maybe this isn’t in the best part of town, maybe it is. Regardless, there is a chance someone could approach you on your way to your car, but you are carrying a concealed handgun. Out of the corner of your eye you see a man walking towards you. He is mumbling something that you can’t quite make out and he is closing the distance between you and your car. As he gets closer he is still mumbling and you see a knife in his hand. What do you do?

Every situation that you could possibly face is different so there is no one size fits all answer to using lethal force. As we saw with the George Zimmerman case, there was much arguing and heated debate over the “Stand your Ground” law in Florida. First, you should know the laws of the state you are carrying in, but a general guideline is that your life must be in jeopardy before you can justifiably kill someone. You can’t kill someone who is being rude or talking too loudly in a movie theater, or who stole your parking spot. This is life and death we are talking about so there can’t be any grey area.

If you do have to use your firearm, the police will be involved and they will be scrutinizing you very carefully to ascertain whether or not the person you shot (just like George Zimmerman) was a real threat. If they decide that you killed someone who didn’t deserve to die, guess who goes to jail?

One fallback you have is that the simple fact you are carrying, may be a deterrent. Without shooting anyone you can let them know that you will, if need be. Drawing your firearm and having it pointed down at the ready position (down) is a first step. Forcefully warning your attacker that you have a gun and you will use it may defuse the situation. They leave, you are both alive and you don’t go to jail.

You must play out scenarios in your mind and make sure you understand what you will do in various situations. You want to clearly deal with the threat if you are ever forced into that reality.

Why does all of this matter?

In order to be prepared, we look at a lot of different aspects of our lives, possible threats that could impact us and make plans for how to mitigate the pain or suffering we would go through in the event that any of those threats come to pass. Carrying a concealed firearm, just like storing food for an emergency is one type of survival preparation. You carry survival kits for when your car breaks down in an emergency. You carry a Get Home Bag if something happens and you need to make it back home, right?

Carrying a concealed firearm is what you do if you are planning to survive a bad guy trying to kill you or someone else. If you have foresight to get your permit, carry a weapon and have thought through the ramifications of deadly force, you have a duty to yourself and the other good guys around you to have this with you and be prepared to use it.


On a different note, here’s some other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

To the concealed carry permit holder, you have a very important responsibility. The responsibility to carry a handgun is not one that you should take lightly, it is a key