Why Won’t People Carry?

I just got my carry permit last December.

Why didn't I get it earlier?

The consequences of defending yourself are quite severe. I think people make light of what will happen to them, even if 100% justified. The chances of being victim of crime that is worse than going through the legal aftermath of a defensive shooting is very very remote.

I also wasn't really interested in lugging around a pistol everyplace. I have since found that a 642 conceals very easily.

In the past, I always felt it to be more sensible to just not go into sketchy areas. Why go into a bad area, especially when there is no need to be there? But after the festivities of the last 2 years, it seems like everyplace has increased potential for crime. My brother lives in Chicago, in what used to be a quiet safe neighborhood. Now carjackings and muggings are a regular occurrence.

MN requires purchase permits. The carry permit qualifies as your purchase permit, so that alone makes it worth having. Privacy laws here are very strict - the carry database is NOT linked to your driver license, and that information is not considered public record and can't be released. There are very few prohibited locations, 'No Guns' signs do not have the force of law.

Overall, MN is a carry friendly place.
 
The match director at my cas match Saturday related a very sad horrible incident that I believe occurred in Va where a retired officer was murdered along with his wife by thugs during a home invasion. He was shot after he didn't open the door so they kicked it in, his wife shot when she responded to the shots. The theory was that since he was a retired cop there would be firearms there. I carry every day even in my home. I want a fighting chance. Stay frosty when you're out or at home.
 
KSDeputy said:
I am a retired peace officer, I served 30 years. I carry whenever I am off of my farm. I should carry there, but I get busy doing work outside and my dog is with me. That is no excuse, I know I should carry there as well. I know better, I have seen what can happen is a split second.
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I live on 5.5 acres not far out of town. I never bothered to carry on my own property. 25 years ago, I planted a couple thousand trees, so that now, in the summer, it is difficult to see my house from the highway. Three summers ago, I was mowing my yard on my rider. Two guys in one of those ubiquitous older silver Buicks drove up my driveway, and when they saw me, they immediately did a big sweeping U turn over my lawn and took off. (I see elderly people mistaking my drive for a road maybe once a year, but they don't make U turns over my lawn.) It occurred to me if those guys had gotten out of the car for ill intent, the gun in my house wouldn't be doing me much good, and nobody would have seen what was happening.

Since then, I carry even to walk out to the highway to get the mail. The Bodyguard slips right into my pocket, and it's always there when I'm mowing, trimming trees, whatever.
 
6string said:
There are a lot of irresponsible or air-headed people out there that, despite lacking a criminal record, I would hate to be anywhere near if they were in possession of a firearm.
Even if they receive training, it just doesn't sink in. Maybe it's a lack of common sense? Maybe some of them are just aware enough to know they shouldn't be handling/owning a firearm?

I quit a gun club where, after starting a weekly defensive pistol league, bullet holes started appearing in the roof and walls. Some members, despite years of experience and "training", couldn't get through a match without muzzle sweeping other members. There was more than one accidental discharge, too.
Would you feel safer knowing one or more of these guys lived in your town?

There's a lot of responsibility involved in just handling a firearm in a controlled environment such as a organized shooting range, let alone out in the general public while under duress.
I just hope that the people who do carry have very carefully considered the responsibility they have assumed and the consequences of a bad decision on their part.

It's not all "Big hero shoots the bad guy and saves the day"!
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Similar experience. Couldn't agree more.
There was a story not long ago of an officer shooting a bad guy. She thought she was drawing and firing her taser. It's impossible to know how you might react given a stressful situation, even with training. You'll never know until the time comes. It's a responsibility with consequences.
I've been shooting and handloading handguns since the '70's.
I've lived in a non carry State my whole life, so I've never experienced the right. If it was legal though, I would and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mistake my genitalia for a handgun.
 
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Believe it or not, some people do not have the mind set to be able to take another person's life for reasons I can never understand.
You would think that the desire for self-preservation would be innate in all of us, but it is not.
 
one of best threads i've seen on this forum. alot of legitimate concerns regarding consequences of using firearm to defend one self. i've paid enough legal bills and spent way too much time dealing with lawyers to dismiss the issue as trivial [all Civil issues]. knowing the potential cost and time of defending myself with a firearm, i will continue to carry and hope i have enough common sense to "do the right thing". carry on....pun intended.
 
WR Moore,

Point well taken on the challenges of teaching people when they can shoot, as well as the necessary corollary of teaching them when they cannot shoot.

When I taught shooting to AJ students, before we ever got out to the range we had had nine hours (3 sessions) in the classroom. The most extensive, and complex, part of this was the legal block because I not only had to teach applicable statutory and case law, but then apply all this law to real world situations.

One of the ways I prefaced this legal block was to tell my students that I was going to be the bearer of bad news. No one was going to come away happy. I also made it clear that if anyone actually wanted to use deadly force, they were in the wrong place.

Of necessity, I also discussed the nature of courage and fear, maturity, mental stability, and their relationship to the use of deadly force.

I had a large quantity of videos that exemplified the points I was making, including shoot/no shoot scenarios.

Everything I could do to prepare my students for an eventuality they should pray would never come, I did. Anything less would have been a disservice.

A couple of years ago I returned to where I had lived and worked to attend the retirement party for an old friend, who had been one of my rookies. When he retired he was the longest serving active duty peace officer in the state. At this function were a number of long term career peace officers who had been my AJ kids. I did not recognize them, but they remembered me. They came up to me, introduced themselves, then told me how well they remembered those deadly force sections of my AJ classes. One young lady, young relative to me anyway, told me that prior to learning to shoot in my class, she had never even held a firearm. But following my AJ classes, after she had turned 21, she applied to my old department, was accepted, and sent off to the basic academy. Her newly developed marksmanship skills earned her the top gun award in her academy class. She was now a veteran detective in my old department. She still used the nickname first given to her in the academy; Dead Eye Di.

After hearing all that I gave her big hug. I told her that for a teacher, it does not get any better.
 
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Most of the airheads in society, and even a few airheads who do carry concealed have about enough grasp of reality to envision criminal assaults going down the way they always to on TV. Ambushes are more realistic and people consider you paranoid if they know you're keeping a watch out for one. For what its worth, I've known some cops who were insane cyclists who took to peddling on rural two lane black tops and didn't carry either. Fortunately never heard of any of them experiencing anything worse than flat tires.
 
And than there are those who carry who shouldn't.
Was working an engineering project in an inner city hospital couple decades back, ended up walking through the mens housekeeping locker room during a shift change, startled to see so many semi's being either pulled from lockers and tucked into waist or being pulled from waist and being stuck in the lockers. Not a holster or revolver to be seen.
Mentioned what I saw to the engineering director who was my customer, and his reponse was "and not one of them has likely ever shot those handguns at a range or at all. Around here, when they start shooting, the safest person to be is whoever their shooting at."
 
LCC said:
And than there are those who carry who shouldn't.
Was working an engineering project in an inner city hospital couple decades back, ended up walking through the mens housekeeping locker room during a shift change, startled to see so many semi's being either pulled from lockers and tucked into waist or being pulled from waist and being stuck in the lockers. Not a holster or revolver to be seen.
Mentioned what I saw to the engineering director who was my customer, and his reponse was "and not one of them has likely ever shot those handguns at a range or at all. Around here, when they start shooting, the safest person to be is whoever their shooting at."
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The late Lloyd Rhodes of Deming, NM, was a prime example. He carried a 44 mag or a 1911 in his KMart security gig. One night after some whiskey, he decided his wife was unfaithful, so he made her dance with his 1911. She split when he had to pee and called the PD, all of whom knew him. He shot at Jerry Turner, then when it turned into a critical incident, he kept trying to get someone to shoot him. Well, even though there were full service police agencies on-scene, no one did him a solid. When he passed out, he got sacked up and would have died in prison, but he was costing Corrections too much money in healthcare, so they 'released' him to the VA in Big Springs, TX, where he died.

It could have been MUCH worse.
 
I am a "snowbird" live in a cold northern state and head south to avoid the majority of the cold. I made it a point to get "licensed" in 2 different states so that I am covered anywhere I travel.
Even while wearing "cargo" shorts in the warm south I find it easy to keep things covered up but available.
 
* We * here and similar places are largely of certain mindsets and thought processes . This thread has a lot of projecting upon the general population .

A large portion of the population doesn't feel the need . A large portion of CCW holders ( or gun owners in Con Carry jurisdictions ) don't feel the need to carry all the time . Not advocating this , just reporting the facts .

There is an old saying / joke - not joke about how to reduce your chances of being murdered by 90 % :

Don't buy or sell illegal drugs
Don't hang out in sleazy bars
Don't cheat at cards
Don't mess around with somebody else's woman

Of the remaining percentage , be aware that being gas station attendant , or cashier at convience store or liquor store are assumed risk occupations .

For people who avoid all the above , and live in rural area , or reasonably safe town or neighborhood , probably never have personally encountered potentially deadly force situiation , or had family members , or persons of their locality and background have such encounters .

Are such persons * right * in dismissing the wisdom of being reasonably prepared ? Nah . But from their viewpoint it's logical to them .
 
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