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Thread: There are people who don't carry a gun and live.

  1. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's View Post
    Ignorance is bliss. It's quite comfortable to not really accept that there is evil in the world, and it can touch you.

    I find some measure of peace in carrying a firearm because I am not ignorant. I am far too aware of the dangers and how rapidly they can fall upon you. Carrying a firearm gives me more options to deal with those dangers.
    Nailed it.
    #RESIST

  2. #22
    Site Supporter Hambo's Avatar
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    My father has never carried a gun. He lives in a small town, rarely goes to large cities, doesn't drink or hang out in stupid places with stupid people. He's also never seen a homicide scene where someone was beaten to death for less than twenty bucks. He has had no contact with the world I worked in, and in a way I'm envious of that. He's been smart enough to avoid what he could and lucky enough to avoid random encounters with violent people.
    "Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA

  3. #23
    Chasing the Horizon RJ's Avatar
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    There are people who don't carry a gun and live.

    I knew zip about guns until 2014. I just just decided one day I wasn’t going to be a victim, and bought one.

    Four years later, I’m still figuring out how much more there is to ‘carrying a gun’.

    Awareness of my surroundings, and the people, figures much more prominently in my life now. Carrying some life saving gear, on me, is another.

    I’m also more often than not pocketing a non lethal option, like my Sabre Red spray.

    I’ve also realized that ‘I’ need to be in better shape, so I have started a weight loss diet, and am going to look at Combative options this summer (this BJJ stuff y’all talk about) after our house renovation completes. I’m also going to try to schedule ECQC sometime in 2019.

    Lastly, in the event my life, or the life of my loved one is threatened, I spend time training to be proficient in using my pistol. Carrying daily has become part of my life now, that it feels kinda weird not having my holster on.
    Last edited by RJ; 03-06-2018 at 08:08 AM.

  4. #24
    Hammertime
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    I think gun forums in general don’t represent the “real world” as much as we would like.

    Many, many gentle people go through their lives unarmed and seldom if ever encounter violence.

    LE and retired LE have just seen a different side of life filled with rare, awful, high consequence events. I don’t think that represents most people’s experience.

    So, I wear a seatbelt, have a fire extinguisher, carry a gun, but don’t expect to ever use any of those.

  5. #25
    Hoplophilic doc SAWBONES's Avatar
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    For the past fifty years I've observed the obvious increase in our society of sociopathy, both violent and non-violent, occurring in tandem with the decline in simple courtesy.

    It hasn't yet reached the point that the "man on the street" is in imminent danger of physical assault everywhere or all the time, though in some cities (and in some parts of town, at certain times, in most large urban areas), the likelihood of encountering violence is significant.

    Those who recognize these facts and are realistic, and who prefer to be both circumspect and prepared, will take precautions, not only by way of "not doing dumb things, not going dumb places, and not associating with dumb people" (John Farnam's common-sense maxim), but also perhaps by going armed and getting appropriate training.

    Those who willfully ignore or who never even think of such things may still be lucky enough never to directly encounter violence nowadays in Yourtown, USA, but while in the 1950s street crime and personal physical assault were sufficiently uncommon as to be newsworthy in suburban America, the odds of being involved in personal violence have risen dramatically, and are definitely rising further.

    Most here recognize that being prepared for violence is merely sensible, but the majority of Americans still lack that particular aspect of "common sense".
    "Therefore, since the world has still... Much good, but much less good than ill,
    And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
    I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good." -- A.E. Housman

  6. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Clusterfrack View Post
    Most of the really dangerous violent encounters I've survived were in places I couldn't arm myself with a gun...shot at in China
    I was under the impression gun control is fairly strict in China. Were these guns acquired illegally?

  7. #27
    Member ubervic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Enel View Post
    I think gun forums in general don’t represent the “real world” as much as we would like.

    Many, many gentle people go through their lives unarmed and seldom if ever encounter violence.

    LE and retired LE have just seen a different side of life filled with rare, awful, high consequence events. I don’t think that represents most people’s experience.

    So, I wear a seatbelt, have a fire extinguisher, carry a gun, but don’t expect to ever use any of those.
    Here (above) is the reality in which most people operate. And, I dare add, most people in our society seem to prefer to maintain an optimistic view on the world and how 'bad things' are generally not something that they are likely to encounter. Some even go to the extent of recognizing that real dangers exist, yet they refuse to live a life of constant preparation for violent encounters. After all, personal freedom includes freedom of the mind to focus on the good as well as the bad, and many of us choose one or the other....for better or for worse.

    Last thought: let all be careful not to allow or cultivate a mindset that carrying might be a panacea. If one's only tool is a hammer, all problems can become like a nail.

  8. #28
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by scw2 View Post
    I was under the impression gun control is fairly strict in China. Were these guns acquired illegally?
    Drunk PLA soldiers...

    And not all private guns were taken away in China when I was there. I shot a marmot and a rabbit in Tibet with a dude’s single shot .22 in 1988.
    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Enel View Post
    I think gun forums in general don’t represent the “real world” as much as we would like.

    Many, many gentle people go through their lives unarmed and seldom if ever encounter violence.

    LE and retired LE have just seen a different side of life filled with rare, awful, high consequence events. I don’t think that represents most people’s experience.

    So, I wear a seatbelt, have a fire extinguisher, carry a gun, but don’t expect to ever use any of those.
    Quote Originally Posted by ubervic View Post
    Last thought: let all be careful not to allow or cultivate a mindset that carrying might be a panacea. If one's only tool is a hammer, all problems can become like a nail.
    I agree. Especially with the first part of the first quote about gun forums. I find many forums are echo chambers that not only fail to represent the reality that the majority live, but also reinforce the cloistered view that develops. Regarding the last statement regarding not expecting to use the gun, I struggle with this myself. It's not hard to grab the j-frame and drop it into a pocket, but strapping on the G19 is a tougher sell to myself because I'm not LEO, former or otherwise and don't routinely put myself in situations that would make me a target of "bad people". Once you get outside of that realm, the need for a gun, statistically, drops steeply. Those incidents that still occur are, per recorded statistics, resolved without shots, or 1-2. So, does someone in my cultural, professional, and social Venn diagram gear up like an off-duty vice cop, or do I play the odds and stick with the j-frame? Most of the time I do the latter. Prior to joining this board, I had not heard of the "j-frame lifestyle", but that is what I've been living most of my adult life.

    The 2nd quote about the gun as panacea especially rings true with me. All too often, the gun is held up as the answer to any and all security issues, when there are multiple other options or tactics that should be exercised first. In my line of work, that mindset/tactic is called defense-in-depth. There's no reason it shouldn't be adopted for personal and/or physical security.

    All of this is why, when the subject of guns comes up "in real life", I steer away from the self defensive uses and focus on the fun(!) side of shooting. Get the person hooked as they would with any other sport, then let them make the connection to self-defense after the bug is in their system and fully internalized.

    Chris

  10. #30
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    It was only after I got my carry permit that I started to see/hear things around my white bread picket fence neighborhood that made me to question whether my neighborhood was really as crime free as I thought.

    Like the time I left a Jewel-Osco only 5 minutes before a dude shot his wife to death in the parking lot...or a co-worker whose husband was gunned down in front of her and her kids in a restaurant (he was a drug dealer), or that a dude was shot to death in a field behind the Meijer or a kid from my town who murdered his Mom and Dad when they picked him up from college. You never know what's swimming in the sea with you, even in a relatively white collar neighborhood.

    Before I got my permit, I was just getting started in BJJ. My academy has an upstairs room for my professors to get changed between Gi, No-gi and street clothes and when I was standing at the stairwell, talking to some other students, I could distinctly hear the racking of a slide after my professor went upstairs.

    If a 3rd degree black belt under Mestre Ricardo Murgel was carrying, I find it reasonable that I should too. My professors both carry and both suggest carrying a firearm if possible, because their master suggests the same. A lot of the BJJ guys whose history goes way back to the origins of the art remember that BJJ came up not only as a sport, but also for actual, full contact fighting. Brazil was, and still is a violent place, and unarmed combat is only a small frame of a big picture for a lot of these dudes when punks on the street carried knives and guns.

    Most people will go through life without being exposed to violence...and often they're the ones making laws saying that we only "need" a six shooter and a 12 gauge side by side. Anybody who has seen, experienced or trained to handle actual violence knows that's a bunch of bull.

    Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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