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The following incidents are a big part of the reason why I carry sometimes depending on the places I go. Based on some of what I've observed and actually been through over the years, I think I'm well within my rights feeling the way I do regarding this topic. With that said I want to be clear on something here... I have never advocated for individuals to own an arsenal just in order to defend themselves, making such a decision is strictly a matter of personal choosing that is up to each individual, and I am fine with individuals making whatever choices that satisfy them. The sidearm I carry is a small caliber pistol that holds eight rounds, certainly nothing terribly formidable, but serves the purpose. Also, the following is primarily geared towards my fellow Americans, but may apply to other countries as well.

The first incident that got me thinking about carrying a gun for protection at certain places might not be a bad idea, was a bank robbery in broad daylight right up the street from where I live. Whilst I was not present at said bank during the time of that robbery, after the robbery the suspect allegedly was roaming around on the property where I live for awhile until he finally made his getaway by car. Now, some would maybe claim such a situation as that might not be enough immediate concern to warrant carrying a gun around for protection, to which I'd say okay maybe that isn't serious enough to justify my position, but the next incident surely is though...

A little over a year after the bank robbery incident mentioned above, I witnessed a shooting exchange between an alleged shoplifter and a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper at a local Walmart supercenter parking lot. Long story short... got home from work that day knowing I still needed to restock some groceries badly but was pretty tired, so ate and took a nap then went out to Walmart for groceries later in the evening. Was around 8:30 pm by the time I arrived at Walmart and a little after 9:00 pm by the time I was finished shopping. Got inside the car and checked my phone and before driving off was catching up on some of my text messages, didn't even start the ignition at that point. Was sitting there in my car for a few minutes, when I heard what sounded like a gunshot, and it sounded awful close. I look up immediately to see someone dressed in dark clothes (that be the police officer, but didn't realize that right away) with a gun drawn, and then I saw him discharge his weapon into a nearby white minivan. At that point first thing that came to mind was either a robbery or an assault was taking place, and got my sidearm ready preparing for the worst, then realized the individual I saw discharging his weapon was a police officer, and looked like he was still shouting towards the vehicle he just shot at. Whatever the situation was there, once I realized a police officer was on the scene already and had apparently responded to the incident, I got out of there as quickly as possible. That happened in late March 2018. It's not like in the movies, when you witness something like that in real life it sticks with you for a long time afterwards. When I got home and got my thoughts together, it dawned on me that had I departed from the store about three to four minutes later than I did, I would have found myself right in the middle of that shooting, not a pleasant thought and witnessing it from about seventy or so feet away was more than enough. I'm sure there are alot of folks out there who think the odds of finding themselves in such a situation are slim, that it's something that happens to other people, but if something like that could happen to me then it could happen to anyone else, and given the trying times we live in it would be foolish to think otherwise. Now, if that ordeal from back in March 2018 wasn't bad enough, get this one...

If you've been following the news recently (again, this mostly applies to fellow Americans), then I'm sure most of you have heard about these "smash and grab" crimes that have been occuring across the US, namely in big cities that are Democrat controlled and that of which have seen a recent reduction in the local police forces (due to either vaccine mandate refusal or defunding). A day ago I found out an Ulta beauty store in a shopping complex that I frequent often got robbed earlier in the week, the store was allegedly robbed of over $20,000 in merchandise. The band of thieves (there were five I think) got away with their loot in about a minute's time. Whilst that crime occured in a neighboring township and not the city where I live, I fear that given enough time gone by such crimes will eventually make their way to the city, and this time of year around the holidays and all there's usually an increase in both unarmed and armed robberies/muggings. Don't know if this matters or not here, but both suspects from the bank robbery and Walmart shooting were not caucasian males, and latest news on the Ulta store theft indicates at least two of the thieves were black.

So when it comes to the self defense gun carry debate, I'd much rather be able to live my life in peace and not have to worry about potentially violent thugs seeking to make me their next victim and thus not have to worry about arming myself when out and about, but what I'd prefer on the matter is not the reality that we live in. Back in the late 1980s through the 1990s I was a kid in school, and for the most part back in those days we didn't have to worry about some deranged gunslinger with a chip on his shoulder coming into the school and turning the place into a shooting gallery, not so these days though. The many laws/restrictions in most states have done relatively little to nothing in deterring these violent offenders, which tells me more of the same in an effort to combat the problem would not be the answer. I have a theory as to why shortly after the turn of the new millennium there was a sharp increase in armed assaults, but that's a whole other story perhaps for a future post.

My point for this post is, that life is not meant to be fair and sometimes we all have to do things that we'd rather not do but pretty much have to, and that the world is filled with evil and self-centered human beings who seek to harm others. Knowing such is why I carry at times, even though I'm not thrilled to do so. As I see it, a gun is very much like a condom in concept... I'd rather have one on me and never need it, than needing one badly and not having it at the ready. We gun owners are not your enemy, we are just as concerned as you are over deranged gunslingers and are saddened when innocent life is needlessly wasted. I cannot stress enough how terrifying it can be to find yourself on the scene of a shooting, and it's even more terrifying if you're unarmed, as an unarmed target would be totally at the mercy of the armed thug. Where the Police and Government fail to deal with the criminal element (or for some reason are totally unable to), we the people need to look out for each other, and I'd be among one of the first to lay his life on the line if an armed aggressor should ever show up with the intent to harm others.

SpikeTalon 9 Dec 4
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I don’t care if people have guns for whatever reasons . I care for what people do w these guns , and how often there is a follow up on their mental health after they get one .
I don’t think anyone needs a military weapon to feel safe either .
I care for how these guns end up on the hands of asshole kids .
Both of my best friends in life , women , they have a pistol and licences . One lives in texas , the other in Florida . When I visit , they know that shit needs to be locked in a closet .
Once I met a man while taking my boys for pix w Santa ( charity for dog shelter ). He was there w his boy . We ended up taking r dogs home and meeting later at next door winery .. great laughs , an atheist ( thank u gods , my lucky day ??), and not ugly either ! No kids , no baggage , and he could tell in a map where Italy is , and what’s the capitol of Greece . Until . He tells me that he likes to hunt . Animals . For fun . And also , he likes guns in general and spends quiet many wknds at shooting range place . And I thought , fuck my life .
I introduced him that same evening to the girl that lived across my door in the aprtm building .
A Michigan transplant , also a gun lover , a masters in education and desperate looking for a man to protect her . She was pissed off , there was no warning , I just rang her bell and brought him in . I told them , u two should have a cup of coffee . They got married and moved to Pittsburg where he was from a year and half later . I think they have a kid . I have not kept in touch .

People are free to like what they like . Guns can not be excluded . Can we agree that carrying a gun without responsibility and carrying a gun if u are a moron or a psycho is a no no ?
How do we assess who is a moron and a psycho ? How do we keep evaluating beyond the time of buying one ?
I do not own a gun and I am a single woman living alone . I can’t kill shit . Spiders , my nemesis , they get the talk and the walk , in high hopes that broom can be avoided . I am thinking , mr spider might have baby spiders to feed . U can laugh . It’s ok . It’s comical . But it is what it is .
However , not enough guns in the world if anyone ever hurt my baby sister . The priest won’t find enough pieces of him to put in a grave . I could also shoot many pedophiles and child abusers in general , and if they were priests and pastors and other similar shit , bingo , one stone / two birds .
Understand ? I am psycho bitch like this , so no , guns are not for me .
Nothing wrong w the ways u carry yours .
Problem is that every day , plenty of dead people bcz citizens w guns .

Pralina1 Level 9 Dec 4, 2021

@Pralina1 I can agree no one really needs a Military weapon, but such weapons do exist and honestly there are some folks in the Armed Forces who shouldn't have access to such weapons, so what's good for some should be good for all then. While I could be wrong about this, from what I've observed it appears those on the side of gun control legislation are too visually oriented, meaning they focus too much on what the gun in question looks like and a good portion of the guns they refer to as Military-grade firearms are not actually such (that topic might be good for a future post). Hypothetically speaking here for a moment... say that somehow there comes a time when all private gun ownership is banned in the US and all the citizens turn in their guns so that now only Law Enforcement/Government agents/and Military personnel have access to guns... You do realize that people can (and already have) steal weapons off of Military/National Guard bases by means of inside help (inside contacts), right? I know for a fact such has already and continues to happen, some years back personally knew a guy who had black market connections and they had ways of stealing weapons off of a local State Guard barracks and selling the goods on the street. So while there may be concern over privately owned weapons falling into the wrong hands, the same can be said of Federal and State authority's weapons as well. Are we going to insist the Government/Armed Forces surrender all their weapons in order to combat that problem? That of course isn't going to happen anytime soon.

That sounds like a nice story, happy for them. If she was a gun owner though, wonder why she was looking for a man to protect her? On the flip side from a man's perspective here, I personally know other male gun owners who seem to have a natural instinct to desire to use their resources (and guns) to protect their wives and girlfriends. If a guy truly cares, he would not want to ever see harm come to his special lady.

I can agree on that with the irresponsibility and mentally unstable part, but the question there is how exactly do we go about labeling people such? Not to mention, if we unnecessarily subject certain individuals to testing of any sort and it is found out later they are mentally sound, there could be ensuing lawsuits over privacy infringement etc, which ultimately the taxpayers would foot the bill for that if the State Government gets sued and loses. No easy path there on that one, but I understand and agree with your concern on that.

I can certainly respect your decision/choice in not wanting to own a firearm, and you know yourself better than anyone else, and sounds like you made the best choice for yourself. On the last part of your comment... while it's true there are innocent people who get killed with firearms on a daily basis, to be fair there are also alot of lives that have been spared by armed and ready citizens, so the door swings both ways on that point.

One last thought... The current fight to preserve a woman's right to an abortion (namely in Texas now) is similar in concept to the gun rights debate, the supporters of both are fighting for individual rights. Thought you might find this article from Reason interesting - [reason.com]
The reason I bring up the issue of abortion here is because I can't help but think that if more of the women fighting to preserve their rights on that matter were armed (it is reasonable to conclude the far-left feminist types are not supporters of the Second Amendment or gun owners) that issue would be quite different. The cowardly politicians who are chipping away at a woman's right to an abortion might start to think and act differently if they knew more of the pro choice feminist types were also largely gun owners, but the politicians know that for the most part people protesting in the streets with signs that are mostly unarmed would pose no actual threat to them, so they see that as a potential weakness in which they could get their crooked agenda through. While the article I just linked to may be largely self-serving, the gun rights advocates are right and I was glad to see pro gun rights groups take a stand alongside the pro choice supporters. There is strength in numbers, and it's not wise to strip-away the rights of citizens who are upset and armed. If the pro choice movement could gain some more defenders of that type, that might give the anti-abortion zealots cause to rethink their ways, as cowards don't like being faced with potentially armed resistance. So for what it's worth in regards to the abortion debate, you do have allies on the other side of the political aisle, you aren't alone in that fight. I'm one of those gun owners who would not take too kindly to the limiting or banning of a woman's right to choose whether or not to get an abortion. As always, thank you for taking the time to respond honestly to my post, much appreciated friend.

By the way, can't say I blame you for being protective of your sister. To all the pedophile priests out there, better not do anything to harm Pralina's little sister, or you're gonna lose your nuts if you do, lol.

@SpikeTalon nobody touches a hair of my baby . Baby . Ok . She is 47 now . More smart that I will ever be , she entered med school when 13 . Yeah . That asshole 😂🦇. But to me , she is my baby . Guns will be my friends .prison is not a problem for me . I lived a good life . 3 meals and a book , yeah , I ll be ok if never get out again .

2

I frequently carry myself Spike and completely understand the need to do so. Nothing wrong with being prepared.

Trajan61 Level 8 Dec 4, 2021
1

By the way, forgot to add these in the post-

[6abc.com]

[6abc.com]

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