Was there one specific incident or just a long series of small things that made you start carrying? My first was a close encounter of the worst kind 35 years ago that made me get my first permit. I still rarely carried. The second was a particularly grissly murder in my town of a young father, mother and 3 and 4 year old children who returned home to a burglary in progress. That still didn't do it. The third and final was just several months ago when some mangy dudes drove into my pipe yard, most likely looking for scrap copper and steel and high-tailed it out fast when they realized someone was at work that early. I was a slow study but I've carried everywhere for the past two months. I figured if I didn't wake up after three incidents I deserved what I might get down the road.

When I was growing up in rural S. Georgia, I would guess about one of every five grown men I saw in town carried. Most just had the butt of a Colt or Smith visible in their hip pocket. A few carried openly in holsters. Probably 75% had a handgun in their vehicle. In other words, it was a cultural thing. My Daddy did not carry concealed that I know of, but he always had his Victory model in whatever vehicle he was in.

My Granddaddy told me the last threshing his Daddy gave him was when he leaned over to latch the gate one Sunday morning. His coat pulled over his hip pocket, exposing the revolver he had there. His Pop whipped him for taking his pistol to Church. That would have been sometime before 1910.

Even today, if you see a white male my age (59) or older in Butler, Georgia, there is a fair chance he has a pistol in his pocket, and almost a sure thing he has one in his vehicle. I think that would hold true for much of the rural South. It just came naturally to me, I guess.

Used to carry without permit on our property whenever irrigating in the wee hours of the morning. Had one particular incident that prompted me to make it official and get the ccw. Don't care to go into much more detail than that.

Upstate New York , 1994.... my small town had eight gruesome murders within two years. The first incident involved the rape/murder/torture of a family of four. The second incident involved two Cheerleaders being raped/tortured/butchered while waiting for the schoolbus. The last incindent was an angry kid confronting his girlfriend's father and killing him.... then commiting suicide.
Sales of shotguns, rifles and handguns went up dramatically.

I was at my best friends wedding a few years ago. My friend and his wife wanted a small wedding with just friends and family, so a friend of ours offered to host the reception at his house. A little after midnight a car drove by at high speed and started shooting. I was hit in the stomach with what appeared to be a .25 auto round. Luckily, it hit almost parallel to my stomach. It still went in but was right under the skin and didn't penetrate far enough to do any real damage. The police were called I went to the hospital and the whole 9 yards. Shortly, afterward the police contacted me and told me to be on the look out because they received a "tip" that the perps were looking for me because they thought I had seen them. I never saw anything since it was dark and had already had quite a few drinks. Needless to say that incident really rocked my world and got me thinking seriously about carrying. I never was confronted by anyone, thankfully. I few months later, the person who the police believed was the shooter was killed in a robbery gone bad. I never knew why the drive by occured.

bigt5150: Remain alert and stay safe. That's a nasty tale you told there.
Keep your friends and family close.

Part cultural, part bad experience... I'll try and explain.

I grew up in a small desert town. Just about most folks I knew carried openly or not.... with a permit (or not). My after school hobby was hunting jacks with my trusty Ruger 10/22.

FF about 10 years. Went off to college, and all I could afford was a $105/month room in a shared "tweaker" house (unbeknownst to me at the time I rented the place, mind you... dumb kid, never saw bad drugs / drugs that bad before, that kind of thing).

Stayed about one month.

I left and started carrying shortly after a stranger gained access to the main hallway via a skeleton screwdriver. This fella banged on my locked bedroom door at 4 in the morning (when else?) demanding the money "I owed" him. After informing him he is kindly mistaking my room for someone else's, I heard him rack a slide outside my door and make a second demand for cash.

F--K THAT!

(note to self, revolvers are quiet.)

To make a long story short, by pure luck, I was able to convince the guy I wasn't who he was looking for, that I didn't have any money. He left without further incident.

I went to the gun shop.

The third armed robbery in a year and a half. And being locked in my freshly emptied trailer the 3rd time, did it for me.
But that begs the auto VS. revolver carry question. Which was settled by how the very last incident unfolded. 35 years ago now.

Moving from NJ to VA and being able to get the carry permit. I would never again move anywhere I couldn't carry.

My father carried all my life. I grew up with guns. As soon as I was 18 I went and applied for my permit. It just came natural to me.

My family traditions..i.e rural VA and NC..

And 21+ yrs in Corrections and LE.

Enough arrests, and hearing about what they are going to do to me or my family ..will cement the need to keep and bear arms..

As a side note now my Wife has her CCW and ASAP so will my 2 kids..

Wally World's parking lots at night....

quote:

Originally posted by Spotteddog:
The third armed robbery in a year and a half. And being locked in my freshly emptied trailer the 3rd time, did it for me.
But that begs the auto VS. revolver carry question. Which was settled by how the very last incident unfolded. 35 years ago now.

Please explain the auto vs revolver decision.

The "last straw" for me was the murder of a good friend, a beautiful young woman who had the poor judgement to become briefly involved with a guy who turned out to be a nut. Over a year after she broke up with him he calmly walked into her office, shot her in the head, and then shot himself as her co-workers looked on in helpless horror.

The more I read the newspaper the more I figured it would be a good idea to carry.

That said, my first carry permit was only for "hunting and target shooting."
I wanted to be totally legal while hunting deer with a pistol.

A general concealed carry permit came along a few years later.