Two years ago, my parents were gone for a few days. Only my little brother (6 years old at the time) and sister (15 years old) were home. I was tasked with the responsibilty of keepeing after them for 5 days. Late one night (early one morning?) someone thought the whole house was empty (they noticed the car was not in the driveway), and broke into the house. Fortunately, I was still awake, upstairs. I heard someone walking about downstairs, and went to take a look. He had a gun. I demonstrated to him that my shotgun was bigger and more powerful than his gun. He quickly left.

I don't think you are seeing what I was getting at.

That is true, but to clarify: to get a concealed carry license for a pistol you must learn that basically, you only pull your gun if you are intending to kill someone, and you can only kill someone if your own life is in immediate danger. If you're being mugged by a man with a gun pointed at you, that's probably not a good time to pull it. If you're being mugged by a guy with a knife, it's probably not necessary. You are not really allowed to pull your gun and threaten to shoot him if he doesn't go away. However, if he charges at you with a knife, then you shoot him until he stops charging you.

The Parable of the Sheep is in large part what kirbs was referring to earlier. This parable, that is so short that you should be able to read it, is important for the same reason that the Tortoise and the Hare is important. It demonstrates a point which is fundamental, but not directly relevant.

There is not one parable, fable or metaphor that is completely parallel and accurate to what it is describing. The idea that most police officers, soldiers, agents, and other protectors think that all people can be divided into straight up wolves, and straight up sheep is stupid. It is dumber than someone who actually believes that people can be broken down that fundamentally. The only people who believe that **** are rookies in the academy and mall ninjas. The real professionals do not believe that. They have been around enough to know what people are like.

So let me tell you why people like me carry.

What if we are wrong?

I don't think that anyone is going to start blowing people away at the library, or Toys R Us, or Burger King, and I don't believe that the Russians are going to drop paratroopers on the lawn of the local high school. And I certainly do not believe that the United States government is going to starting rounding up Jews wholesale and feeding them to Armenians.

If I thought that, I would wear my flack jacket everywhere and walk around with 200 rounds for my carbine.

But what if I am wrong?

What if today is the day that the ex boyfriend of the cashier at Burger King decides if he can't have her no one can, and takes his steak knife to make sure nobody will? Or the kid who gets picked on decides to shoot up a volleyball game after school? Maybe a soccer mom has a vendetta against the organizers of her kid's soccer league and decides that it would be reasonable to run them all over with her SUV?

Or what if today is the day that terrorists decide that it's time for Beslan in my town.

The ex boyfriend may be a nice enough, productive member of society 100% of the time. That kid who gets picked on is probably a great guy with lots of potential, and that mom is a mother with children who is a wonderful person.

But, when they lose that part of their minds that keeps them from hurting the rest of the sheep, they turn into a wolf. They grow fangs and their coat turns wild. In that moment they are no different to me than a terrorist who is willing to kill hundreds of children to prove his point. I will kill these wolves, man, woman, or child if I am able. I have made peace with this idea and I am willing to accept the consequences that come with that. I will have to deal with killing another person for the rest of my life, and I may lose my life, but I am okay with that, because this is what I am here for.

After the fact they may shed their wolves clothing and their fangs might fall out. Justice still has to be served but I am not going to kill someone when they are no longer a threat. I will keep an eye on them, but they are once again a sheep, most of the time. If I am not there, or there is a way to resolve the situation without anyone dying I am certainly going to take it.

Thinking that this "sheep and wolves mentality" that "gun supporters" have is sickening, is stupid. It is a metaphor, a tool for understanding how and why 'sheepdogs' can do what we have to do. When people kill active shooters, they have to deal with finding out that the suspect had a family, had a life, had dreams, had ambitions, and had good inside them. People try to dehumanize the enemy but you can never ever get completely away from the fact that you just killed someone's child. But they can almost always find solace in the fact that people who had families, lives, dreams, ambitions, and good things in them are still alive. It's trading one for another but that is how our world works. It's gray, it's fuzzy, and it's hard to see sometimes. It's painful. It's questionable, but it's definitely an area that has to be ventured into from time to time.

The fear of guns and those who lawfully and responsibly carry them comes from misunderstanding and ignorance. Also, this polarized idea did not come from gun owners. It came from someone fairly well regarded in history.


By the way, lots of people get trapped in burning cars and killed by wearing their seatbelt.

But far more people are saved.

Spook, I think I love you. I....I think I am in love with you.

A common ailment. You will be cured when I don't call you after the third time we have sex.


I'm not a deadbeat I'm a desperado.

I guess not

The thread has suddenly taken a strange, strange turn...but then again, this is Massassi.

I carry concealed so that people don't get nervous around me with a piece strapped to my hip or shoulder. I typically wear a sportcoat or button down shirt over the shoulder holster, but with the latter it's pretty clear that I have a gun on my arm.

I'm not walking around like a rootin' tootin' cowboy. And I'm certainly not aiming to BROADCAST to the world any of the following messages:

I am armed and dangerous.
I am Clint Eastwood.
OMG I HAEV A GUN! LOLZ.
I might steal from you.
You don't know who I'm gonna shoot!

It's for the greater good that if I'm going to carry, you're not going to know about it.

And as for the ankle holster, like I said the damned thing is gimmicky. I bought it because the pistol is very small, and I thought it would work out better than it did. Hiding the motion of going for the gun isn't the thought there, because I'm not in the shootout at the OK Corral. I would assume you'd (calmly) go to the floor as if submitting to an attacker in a busy room and draw and fire. But again, I've never even used it outside my living room when I first got it in the mail.

Thank you Spook. That's all I was getting at. Like I said, I don't hate guns, and I completely support gun carrying citizens. I don't support the good and bad guys mentality, or the automatic assumption that owning a gun for good things makes you a good guy.

Glad I looked back at this thread one last time. I had given up on the hope that anyone would get my point.

But spook spent half that post calling Kirbs dumb.

Not really...

If you added JM's pseudo spiritual pretention to jedikirby's pseudo intellectualism you'd get exactly one Billy Corgan.

This scares me, because I actually like the Smashing Pumpkins.

Wait. How am I being pretentious?

On a related note, I'm going to take my states concealed carry class this Saturday. Should be interesting.